Oh my goodness! Three weeks since I've been here -- that will not do. We have been even busier than normal in these parts, but it's also been the weird end-of-summer wind-down with bizarre schedules. Even my best efforts to say on top of things have been trumped by things that had to get done before school started, in between meetings at school and a mini vacation to my parents' -- a vacation whose pictures I hope to share here soon. In any case, I am back and hoping to get into a better routine now that we're officially in our second week of school.
But before I do any of that, let me tell you about my day today. Normally, this would be a Facebook post, but this is just too much for a status update.
Mick was up and out early, which meant I had the morning by myself. If you don't already know, WHM now goes to the pre-k at CAM's school, which means I bring them both together in the mornings.
Also, if you don't already know, WHM likes sleep even more much than I do!
Anyway.
Let's start with last night. Naturally, WHM had not slept through the night last night, so he was in our bed. I slept on approximately 6 inches of bed and at one point almost fell off. I separately saw 11:30, 1:28, 2:40, and 3:48 and then 4:45 and then Mick got up at 5.
Mick left at 5:30 and I got up and in the shower. Got out and started ironing the kids' outfits and my own dress, all of which I had set out last night in an effort to be especially organized this morning.
My dress was stained. Picked out and ironed a new one and figured out what shoes to wear. I mean, it's after Labor Day, but our school has no central air and is typically a sweltering oppressive sweatbox. It's awful this time of year, so I picked out some high heel sandals.
I got the kids up and despite getting nearly 11 hours of sleep, all WHM wanted to do was sleep on the couch. NO breakfast. NO brushing teeth. NO getting dressed.
So I got CAM dressed. Perfectly pressed and ready to go was her uniform jumper for mass.
Despite the fact that it 100% fit when I had her try it on two months ago (I had purchased it big last Fall, so it was just right this Spring), the jumper was a micro-mini this morning. Not that it mattered; her black school shoes were also too small, and I couldn't send her in the jumper with tennis shoes. So ... off with the getup, and I went to find and iron a new outfit.
In the meantime, both kids are finally eating and I set out to make the only parts of their lunches that I couldn't pre-make last night: their sandwiches and their drinks.
(Proofing note: I realized here that I am changing tenses in this post. I'm sorry. Bear with me.)
Bread's moldy.
Obviously.
Fortunately, we had a bag of hot dog buns on the counter. Guess what, kids?! Fun sandwiches today!
We get to school, finally, and I make it through the day. It was miserably humid in the building, but the day was pretty decent... except for not being able to log in to the network to use my document camera in the classrooms I float into. Yet another joy of pushing a cart: technology has to reliably work in five different classrooms, not just one.
I pick up the kids, and what are the first words out of CAM's mouth as she is exiting the building with her class and sees me waiting? She yells, "I LOST MY CUP!"
It's okay. It was only a $15 thermos and with a custom name band that I can only buy in batches of four for $20, plus shipping. And oh, right, today's the first day you've used it.
This is karma -- or some sort of limit on possessions CAM can have at one time -- because the headband my parents gave her for Christmas, the houndstooth one my mom paid more than anyone should ever pay for a headband, and which CAM lost promptly in January? Yeah, we found that last night.
Also missing from CAM's person: her hair clip.
The kid looks like a disaster.
Naturally, we head to run some errands. Because I mean, if you're going, go big.
First, we stopped at the Post Office. We were greeted by a scribbed sign on the locked door: "Be right back." Have you ever watched My Cousin Vinny, where the "whole store gets the flu?" Well, the whole staff of the post office would be right back. Thing was, I needed to send something Priority Mail, and there were no Priority Mail envelopes in the lobby. So, seeing only me in the lobby and finishing with the one customer, the clerk let me in. At first, the kids wanted to stay in the lobby, but I insisted they come in with me. I started to address the envelope and the clerk disappeared into the back to "load the truck." As you can imagine, the lobby started to fill. The "be right back" sign was still there, the door was still locked, but there we were -- three sweaty redheads, behind glass doors, clearly IN the post office. The lobby crowd grew, and grew, and eventually the entirety of GrumpyTown was out there shooting me death stares. Sheesh, people! As if I locked MYSELF in the post office?! (I'd at least have left the two hyper kids in the lobby!)
So we left, and off we went to Shaw's. We were the loudest family there by far. And by far, I mean they probably heard us at the next closest Shaw's. Also, CAM was walking around with messy disaster hair, chocolate pudding on her face, and both shoes untied.
Lovely mess we were.
On our way home, CAM's dance studio called to say they have had to close the Monday class that we need to be able to juggle my own meetings and CAM's baton twirling. The only other appropriate sessions are ones we absolutely cannot make work with my schedule. CAM loves dance more than anything, so I've now got to find a new studio, which I think is probably a blessing and a curse.
But finally, we got home. I had promised the kids we'd make tacos for Taco Tuesday. Despite taking the meat from the freezer and putting it in the fridge yesterday MORNING, it's still frozen solid.
At least we have groceries.
Tonight's delightful, healthy, you-can-totally-tell-we-just-bought-all-sorts-of-real-food-at-Shaw's meal?
Microwaved hot dogs and Kraft mac and cheese with a side of bbq potato chips. At least they will eat dinner!
I was going to make some waffles tonight so that we could throw them in the toaster and take them with us in the car tomorrow, but you know what? I'm putting on jammies and cracking a cold one.
And I'd say we have our health, but both WHM and I are sounding ... well, somewhat less than healthy.
Tomorrow will be better!
--Jen
p.s. if you think I'm complaining, I'm really not ... if I couldn't laugh at this comedy of errors, I'd be in a world of hurt!
