My day

Decided to write about just an "ordinary" day around here so that someday, when I'm reminiscing with my kids they won't say, "It wasn't that crazy," and I can remember to laugh about times that don't seem that funny.

The day began pretty well, getting the kids off to school and trying to spend a few minutes giving Tucker my undivided attention- when Tyler announces that he forgot his dental appointment and needs to leave right now in my van because Jon has his car. No problem, except I was due to leave to visit an older lady in our neighborhood in 15 minutes. I decide to leave right then since it would take me about 20 minutes to walk to her house. We made it there and sat and visited for a bit until I couldn't handle the struggle to keep Tucker out of her millions of knick-knacks any longer. I had forgotten to buy some pasta at the grocery store for dinner, so we stopped there on the way home. Tucker had fallen asleep in the stroller, so I transferred him to his bed and began making dinner. I still do a version of "Once a Month Cooking" so I was actually cooking 4 dinners, but anyway.

Tucker wakes up from his nap and it is time to go and get Oliver from a playdate. This kid lives in a really weird area and I had only been there once, so it took me a while to find it. I was 10 minutes late when I arrived. As I stood at the door, talking to the mom about an easier way to get there, a flower pot fell over on their front porch. In the ensuing chaos, her kids and dogs run out and the front door slams behind them... locking everyone out of the house. I am the only one with shoes on at this point, but I know I've got to have Oliver's help to catch these dogs. I quickly put on his shoes (with no socks- he had stepped in dog poop at some point during the play date) and we chase after the dogs. One has run almost into a busy street and the other is in a large hole dug by a construction crew. Of course, Oliver thought the whole thing was hilarious, but eventually we make our sweaty way back to the house, both dogs in tow. The mom has called her husband, and encourages me to go ahead and get my girls so at least one of us won't be late (she has two older girls as well).

I pick up the girls at school and since Oliver and I are still feeling a bit winded, we decide to stop by 7-eleven to buy Slurpees. We didn't buy one for Tucker, so the kids take turns giving him a sip from theirs. This works well until Emmaline decides she's had enough and claims hers is almost gone anyway- so she gives the whole cup to him. This lasts for a whole 30 seconds until he dumps the entire contents of the cup on himself, and it was NOT almost empty. He starts screaming so loud that, even though I'm only about 5 minutes from home, I have to pull over and take off his clothes (you really can't blame the poor guy). The only spare item we have in the car is Emmaline's pink sweatshirt, so we roll up the sleeves and bundle him up and we're off again.

At home, I begin the final touches on my dinners and have the girls do a few things around the house (piano practice, let the chickens out, etc.). Then I look at the clock and realize that Tyler's not home and he is supposed to go Home Teaching in about 20 minutes. I call him and confirm that he won't be home in time. Even though I am technically his companion, I hadn't planned on going tonight because: a. Thursday is my busiest day and I already told him I couldn't go, and b. I already had to go Home Teaching by myself the night before and didn't want to do it again. Since I don't know these people's phone number and I really don't want to cancel at the last minute, I decide to go. I quickly get the girls ready for soccer, change Tucker into presentable clothes, get Oliver some socks on and head out the door.

With the girls at soccer, the boys and I commence our visit. We leave from their house to go to Savannah's game (Emmaline just had practice). The game goes over a little and I realize that Emmaline will get home before I do. Wouldn't have been a problem except she forgot her house key and cell phone. About the time I realize this, Savannah gets hit in the head really hard with a ball. I see her rubbing her eye and looking at her hand... a sign that she thought it was hard enough to bleed. She gets back in the game (my girls are TOUGH) but I can tell she's hurt and I don't want to leave. The team they are playing had not lost a game this season and they were getting pretty rough in the final minutes of the impending loss to Savannah's team. I decide to hope that Emmaline gets done late too. The game ends and as I try to get everyone into the van I hear, "Special delivery." Emmaline's coach, upon seeing that we weren't at home figured we were at Savannah's home field and brought her there. What a relief!

So we head home to our dinner (don't you love an oven with delayed bake?). The rest of the night was full of the pretty mundane at our house... getting everyone ready for bed, arguing about whether Kumon must be done and eventually ending with me carrying a very grouchy 10 year old to bed (always calms her down- I'm so glad she still only weighs like 50 lbs.) and Tyler and I watching Wednesday's "Lost" on the computer.