MARK MY WORD: PARENTS COPE WITH DETOURS IN LIFE'S JOURNEY WITH KIDS

Life isn't an open book. That's good news for parents.

We'd just as soon not read ahead. If we did, we'd never plan all those family outings.

Life was simpler when Joni and I just had to get ourselves some place.

With two kids, you have to plan ahead more. But it's best not to read the fine print.

Last Sunday we were set to go with our Sunday school class to the Cardinal ballgame.

We were set, that is, before we woke up.

Once awake, we discovered that our daughter, Becca, had a swollen face.

Joni initially was more worried than I was. But soon I was on the worry wagon too.

You can't help but be concerned when your 6-year-old daughter's face starts resembling that of Jackie Gleason.

While the rest of the Sunday school class headed to St. Louis, we stayed behind.

Joni took Becca to the hospital emergency room to see if anyone had a clue as to what had caused the swelling.

I stayed behind with 2-year-old Bailey. We would have had to stay behind anyway because we couldn't find Bailey's shoes.

Actually, we found one of her tennis shoes in the dining room. The other was apparently in hiding.

For some reason, the invisible shoe monster is always at our house.

No matter how hard we try, our kids' shoes always seem to be in hiding.

Our border collie is good at herding things, just not shoes. Maybe we need a bloodhound. That way we could track the shoes through the house in hopes of finding them sooner.

After rummaging through the kids' room, the living room, the basement and everywhere else I could think of, I finally found the other tennis shoe in no-man's land under the dining room table.

By the time, Joni and Becca returned from the emergency room, we had the shoes in hand. They just weren't on Bailey's feet.

As it turned out, the medical experts concluded that Becca had had an allergic reaction. They weren't sure exactly what caused it, but they didn't think it would get worse.

They gave her some allergy medicine. It helped reduce the swelling.

Having already packed our picnic lunch and put on our ball caps, we decided we might as well make the trip to Busch Stadium.

Besides, I figured that it would be more difficult to lose Bailey's shoes in the confines of the Taurus than in our home.

After getting shoes on Bailey, we were ready to go. We hauled the picnic lunch out of the cooler in the trunk so we could grab a bite as we drove to St. Louis.

We had plenty of drinks, too, of the non-alcoholic kind. Still, we knew it was risky to drive and drink with kids in the car. You never know when there might be a soft-drink spill.

Fortunately, we managed to reach the ballpark without a major spill.

We got to our seats by the second inning. The Cards won the game. We only missed three of the 17 runs scored.

All in all, it was a good outing. We didn't lose our kids or any shoes at the ballpark.

We weren't fit to be tied, but thankfully our shoes were.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.