Once upon a time, there was a crazy lady who decided to marry a firefighter and have four kids.  She was so crazy, she also decided, even though her husband had to work days in a row, that she could enroll their kids in dance, soccer, piano, etc. and still get all the kids to their respective extracurricular activities, on time, all by herself while said husband was off saving lives.

Today, this crazy lady, needed to take the three older kids to a piano recital by herself.  To make it work with all the other activities the kids had going on, she fed the dogs early, put the puppy in his crate, packed recital clothes, piano books and dinner into the van.  Off she went, with her two boys, stopping briefly to pick up her two daughters at two different places, handed each their dinners and headed to the freeway to get to the recital hall, ON TIME.

Halfway there, the youngest daughter, Emily said, "Mommy, my tummy doesn't feel so good..."

"Oh, no, you poor thing!  Lay your head back and close your eyes," the crazy lady suggested, hoping her daughter was just carsick.  Soon, the crazy lady in her big red van pulled up to the recital hall 15 minutes early so the girls could change into their dressy clothes.  After one final inspection, with everyone looking presentable, they marched into the hall.

They found a seat halfway to the stage and plunked down.  The crazy lady was so happy that she had arrived on time and everyone looked nice.  This was going to be grand.  "Mommy, you will record our songs so Daddy can view our performance later, right?"

"Of course, love, I've got my handy dandy iPhone all ready to go!"

"Hey, Mom!  Guess what?  My teacher put my performance last because she thought my song was so good!  She told me so at my last lessons.  Isn't that awesome?"  the crazy lady's eldest song, Caleb, whispered as the first performer began.  Four more performers played their pieces, and the crazy lady's oldest daughter was seventh in line.  In the middle of the sixth performance, Emily crawled over to the crazy lady and whispered loudly, "Mommy, I think I need to throw up!"

The crazy lady quickly stood up, breaking concert etiquette, doing this mid-performance, and rushed her daughter out of the recital hall and into the nearest bathroom.  False alarm, no emesis.  They slipped quietly back into the performing area to hear the oldest daughter, Michaela, plunk out, "Tomorrow" from Annie, and Jake, the second son's performance of "Spanish Caballaro."  All the while, the crazy lady kept watching Emily to see if she was okay.  The crazy lady, looked over the program, only five more performances to go, would her daughter make it the end so the crazy lady could listen to her oldest son's AMAZING performance???

One song, two songs, three, four and five.  Caleb slowly sauntered on stage, took a deep breath and sat down, back straight and began his piece.  Tears welled up in the crazy lady's eyes as she watched this young man perform a fairly difficult piece well.  How was it that he was so tall?  When did he grow so much?  Oops, only one slight mistake, still doing wonderfully.  Then, Emily gently grabbed the crazy lady's hand and said, "Mommy, I really gottsta throw up now!"  and the heaving started.  The crazy lady ran her daughter toward the nearest garbage can but the vomiting came before they reached it.  Fortunately, the crazy lady
was able to catch some of it in her hand and shield the other onlookers.  Both hunched over the garbage can, the crazy lady held her left hand over it to let the vomit slide off her arm and into the receptacle, while Emily held both sides of the can as she heaved over and over again.  When the heaving stopped, Emily whispered loudly, "Okay, Mommy, I'm done.  We can go sit back down now."  However, they couldn't because the crazy lady's arm was covered in throw up and there was vomit on Emily's dress.  So they both stayed hunched over the garbage can to hear the last few minutes of Caleb's song.  He performed beautifully, and finished strong.  The crazy lady, wishing she could clap louder than anyone else, quickly picked up the garbage can, pushed the door open with one foot and got her daughter to the bathroom across the hall.  When all vomit was cleaned up with soap and water, mom and daughter waited outside in the hall.  "Mommy, my tummy feels so much better now!"  Emily smiled to her mother. The crazy lady managed a weak smile back.

The three older children burst through the door, Caleb was the first to look in panic at his crazy mother and exclaim, "You missed my performance?!  I've been working on that song for five months!"  The crazy lady quickly interrupted his tirade, "Oh, but I didn't!  I heard every note to the final big chord!  You did amazing! I stayed with Emily by the door while she threw up and then quickly exited so the 50 other people in the recital hall didn't have to smell it."

"But you left your phone to record with Michaela and your phone ran out of storage space so you didn't even get my performance recorded for Dad!" the eldest son said in despair.

Sighing, the crazy lady helped her pale youngest daughter up the stairs and out into the van.  After buckling her seat belt, she turned to her eldest son, "I am really sorry about your video recording.  I stayed through the entire thing, though, even though my left arm was covered in throw up.  That means something, right?"

"I guess so," the tweenager son mumbled as he slouched in his seat and looked out the window into the dark night as they pulled out of the parking lot.

As the crazy lady drove home, she kept shaking her head at the hilarity of the day.  One day her son would understand her sacrifices and know that during his stupendous performance, she was performing pretty stupendously as well.