The Bounce House of Death

Because Samuel's family was coming to my house for vacation, and because there was a great deal on it, I rented a bounce house for an afternoon. We had a big family party and everyone in the extended family came except for one nephew and one niece. Here's Samuel helping the bounce house guy set it up.

Everything was going well until I decided to get in there and bounce a bit. 

Once I did that, all the kids joined me. 

Evidently the fun thing to do was try to "take Nana down." 

And then it happened. The blower disconnected from its tube and the house collapsed. I was trying to get all the kids out, and some were trapped between the net wall and the side of the house. I was freaking out. All I could imagine was that the house was going to swallow us all up and that would be the end of the story, although I have never seen a newspaper headline reading "Bounce house eats grandmother and small children." But there is a first time for everything, right? The parents of the children came over and extracted their babies one by one while I was trying, but failing, to hold the roof up so they could get out. In the meantime, my claustrophobia kicked into high gear and I turned into a puddle of panic. 

Since no one grabbed a camera to document the disaster, I'll refer you back to this photo of the house as it was just filling with air at the start of this post. Now imagine me still inside. No, don't. Just the thought of it makes me crazy again.
I finally got out after the last kid was accounted for, and melted into the grass, trying to breathe. Instead of breathing, I hyperventilated instead. My sister brought me a cup of water, thinking I was over-heated. My other sister thought I was collapsed on the ground looking for something. Both were wrong. Long story short, we all survived and there are still no headlines reading grandmother and small children eaten by carnivorous bounce house. But you'll never ever EV-ER catch me in one again! It took me hours to recover. Now that I've relived the story again to post it here, I think I'll go lie down for awhile.