Seriously, where is everyone. This is a 2 woman board today

Aww, I am so sad that you are having a hard time with the puppy sitting. It really is just a horrible situation

Seven years ago, I was supposed to babysit my youngest nephew's children, Lauren (who was five), Brady (who was nine days away from his second birthday), and Grace (who was ten months old).

Drew, Lisa and the kids were temporarily living with Lisa's parents. Lisa and Drew were, of course, both working, and Lisa's mom had signed up to take a quilting class. She'd wanted to learn quilting for years, and September 11, 2001 was supposed to be the very first class. I was supposed to be there by about 10:30 a.m., and because they lived a good thirty minutes away, I was getting ready. Jim had left for the office, my oldest daughter, and my son were both away at boarding school (although my son's school was only ten minutes from here), and A-D was in the 8th grade, and already at school.

I was ironing a skirt when I heard rumblings on GMA about some airplane, and the World Trade Center, and how it was suspicious. I thought to myself, "Why do these reporters always try to create something huge out of something that's probably nothing?" A few minutes later, the onscreen conversation caused me to look, and that's when I saw the second plane. OMG!!

I called Jim, and we were both horrified by what had happened with these two planes. I asked him how in the world he thought someone could get their hands on a full-sized airplane, and he told me that they could be rented. At some point during the conversation, I asked, "You don't think that they were hijacked, do you? I mean, you don't think that there were other people on there..." Jim said, "Oh, no... That's just too horrible to even contemplate." I told him that he was right, they were probably empty but for the pilots and the fuel, and we hung up.

I called Lisa's mother to tell her that I was running a bit late, and we discussed what was going on very briefly.

At that point, I was scurrying around, and had ducked into the powder room for a moment to smear on some lipstick before leaving the house, when I FELT the BOOM. That's when the plane hit the Pentagon, and I felt the concussion here at home, and heard the sound. I absolutely froze. In that split second, although I didn't know what was hit, I realized that it was another airplane, and was horrified to know that the United States was clearly under attack, and that Washington, DC had now been hit. I said outloud to myself, "How many planes are OUT there!??!" I have to tell you that I was really scared...

I ran back to the TV, and Charlie and Diane were reporting that the Pentagon had been hit, and I swear that my insides just turned to jelly. They were also reporting that there was a rumor of an explosion in downtown Washington, DC, not far from where Jim works.

By now, from all reports, it was becoming pretty clear that the planes were hijacked.

I grabbed the phone, and called Jim's office, but there was no answer. I called, and called, and called, and finally there was just no getting through at all. At this point, I was close to panic, but I still had to drive across town to babysit.

So, I jumped in the car, and turned on the radio. I also continued my efforts to reach Jim on my cell phone, but we all know now that the effort was almost laughable. Halfway to Lisa's parents' house, I heard that the towers had collapsed, and everything just began to feel surreal. I still had no idea where Jim was, or if he was okay.

The very first thing that Lisa's mom said to me when she opened the door was, "Jim just called, and wants you to know that he's okay." I felt like passing out from relief. She told me that he was going to be walking out of downtown, with some other coworkers, and would probably cross Key Bridge into Rosslyn (Virginia) where he'd parked his car earlier that morning, near a Metro station. No one wanted to take the Metro itself, though, because no one knew if there was some coordinated attack that would involve the tunnels.

Lisa's mom and I talked, and tried to calm each other, but she told me she wasn't going to go to that quilting class which was probably cancelled anyway. We'd try it again the following week! So, I gave her hugs, hugged the babies, and got back into my car again for the drive back home. By now, traffic was beginning to back up because everyone was trying to get home from wherever they were.

The FIRST thing I did was to check my phone messages; there was one from our son who was absolutely frantic. He said that he'd tried calling his Dad, over and over again, and couldn't reach him. He'd tried calling here, and couldn't reach me, and he was a wreck. He, too, had felt the concussion from the explosion at the Pentagon, on his way from one class to another.

I called him right away to let him know that we were fine, and discussed having him come home for the night. I really wanted my babies under our own roof, but knew that my oldest daughter would have to stay where she was, an hour away...

My SECOND act was to go to my neighbor's house next door to make sure that George was okay. He has always worked at the Pentagon (now retired), and I was scared to death that he might have been in harm's way. Jackie (his wife) told me that his office had JUST been moved to an entirely different building the week before, and that he was fine.

My THIRD act was to pick up A-D from her school, and get her back home.

Many hours later, Jim finally arrived home. He and several friends had walked out of Washington, DC, very warily. They'd all been told to watch for snipers, and for car bombs! Once he'd crossed the bridge, and had gotten to his car, he'd also agreed to give one friend a ride home, and that friend lived way the heck out, in a very different direction from where we live. With all of the traffic, it had taken him a long time to deliver the friend, and get back here.

Once he was home, I jumped back into the car, and headed over to Episcopal High School to retrieve our son for the night...

Finally, Jim received a call from one of his poker buddies. One of Jim's best friends (another poker buddy) was missing, and his wife was frantic. Terry Lynch had been scheduled to be at an early morning meeting with some general, and the man's office inside the Pentagon was exactly where the plane struck. Terry was one of those who died that day.

Jim told me later that before his office was evacuated (it's across the street from The White House), he and some coworkers had stared out the window in horror at the burning Pentagon. (They're on an upper floor.) At the time, he had no idea that he was looking at the place where one of his best friends had just died.

OMG that's so sad Moore.

7 years ago ... doesn't seem possible that it was that long ago. I was in school to be a teacher at the time. Cody had his first day of preschool, and my mother and I had planned on taking the boys to school together. Later in the day I was going to sit in on a few classes to observe my high school English teacher, then I had to work a mid shift, and go to class that evening.

When my mom came to the door she mentioned something about planes hitting the world trade center and that I might want to call my friend Vinessa who works at the Sears Tower in Chicago. She figured they'd evacuated the building and was worried about her. I told my mom she was crazy, it was probably just some one shooting something for a movie or whatever. My mom has a history of only watching blips of the new or things on tv and then getting things way mixed up.

So We took to boys to school but the whole way it was still kinda in the back of my mind .. what if she's actually right this time? So she dropped me off at my place and I started cleaning breakfast up and sat down just as the 2nd tower collapsed. I was stunned. I freaked because I knew if they were targeting big buildings my friend was in the worst place to be. OF course there was no getting ahold of cell phones in Chicago. So I went to the high school to do my observation.

It was so amazing to see these kids. Junior high students and freshmen they dropped everything .. weren't being catty and bratty with each other. These kids really took it hard too.

At work one of the other managers was upset because she couldnt' get ahold of her cousin who was at the pentagon. Of course we figured it'd be a while before she would hear anything. I think it was the next day that she found out he didn't make it out. ONe of our co-op students was working that day too. His family is a military family from generations back. His brother was stationed at Pearl Harbor and he was really worried. I think everyone at work cried at one point or another. It seemed like it happened right in our back yard even though it was so far away.

Taco Bell was absolutely dead so they let me go home early and be with the family. Classes taht evening were cancelled. I made a conscious effort to keep Cody preoccupied. He was obsessed with firefighters, and I knew he was such a sensitive little guy it would upset him to think of what happened. I didn't really turn the tv on much until after he was in bed. Go figure he'd get up out of bed to get a glass of water just in time to hear a reporter talking about "numbers of firefighters are presumed dead" .. little guy burst into tears.

Spent the next few days with my family. Just recently I learned that one of the children on the plane that hit I think the south tower .. ohh I can never remember. Well one of the planes had a group of children who had won contests and were heading to I believe Africa with National Geographic. I learned just a year or two ago, that I had gone to school in Downer's Grove with one child's sister.

Well crud now I've got this huge lump in my throat. and kids are throwing htings at me

Oh, BLEEP!!!

Jim just called, and some ice cream truck just hit his pride-and-joy little car! He's virtually around the corner from home...

He's okay, but very much bummed out!