It could be worse...

It all started at about 10 minutes to 6 AM this morning when I was wanting to be fast asleep, well I was fast asleep until Lauren brought Amber in our room. You see, I have been staying up too late this whole week, at least until like 11:30pm, and I can do that for a few nights a week, but then I either need a nap at sometime or to get to bed earlier. Last night I was so tired and sore I thought maybe if I took a bath I would feel better. I fell asleep in the tub, which isn't ever good sleep in my opinion, and then finally crawled into bed about 1 AM.

Back to my story... Amber and Lauren come in at about 5:50 AM and I know we don't have to be up until 6:30 so I turn on the TV in hopes that they will be entertained by that and I can go back to sleep for another 30 minutes. I guess it could have been worse, they could have come in at 4:50 AM.

The girls are slow moving, Lindsey and Lauren have a program today and are looking for the right clothes and the right hair do's, meanwhile Emily is having a HUGE meltdown over finding socks and complaining..."You always help them, you never help me..." which on most days I would argue with her and remind her that I don't do that and it only seems like it right now because I am busy with them, but I would get to her in a minute... but this morning, I was out of energy, patience, and lacked anything else so instead I said nothing and kept trying to add braids and ponies to hair and change earrings for Lindsey. Of course then the kids missed the bus, and I took them to school. It could have been worse, they could have refused to go into school by themselves making me go in there with Amber and Samantha (carrying both of them).

I figured since I was already taking kids to school, I might as well go shop for Samantha's birthday. We go to Walmart, look for a few things and then I look around at random things. We checked out the plants and flowers, since I have forgotten what those are since our yard is just dirt and lots of rocks right now. We check out which somehow I always manage to find the SLOWEST check out, and we are there forever. I asked for help with one of those poly plastic wading pools. I normally would have tried to do it all by myself, but I asked for help today realizing that would probably be the best thing. The guy helping me tries to put it in the car, bending it all up. I told him if he bends it, it will crack and make a hole (I did that one time trying to get one in our little Honda Civic, not a good choice.) I moved car seats, and the 2 strollers in the back, fold down the seat, fits just fine now. Amber got some goldfish crackers, she is eating them in the car while I am trying to buckle everyone in. Samantha wants some too, and Amber is telling her no, and hitting her on the leg and laughing. Samantha is really tired, I give her a blanket that has a "tag" on it, which is her favorite thing now. I buckle Amber up, pinching her thigh in the buckle... OUCH! Now Amber keeps taking her blanket away from Samantha. I try to work something out, nothing seems to be working, both are crying... I decide to just get home. It could be worse, Amber could still be hitting Samantha all the way home and I wouldn't be able to do much about it.

We get home, I put Samantha to bed. I luckily baked Samantha's birthday cake last night. I start cleaning up the kitchen so I can frost the cake. I hear Amber is crunching on something on the floor. I look and see her fish crackers on the floor while she is stepping on them. I get Amber to stop and then try to ignore the crumbs on the floor until I can finish the cake. I start the frosting... and then I can't take it. I sweep the floor, and then I am able to go back to the frosting. As I am gathering all my frosting things, I realize the only shortening I have has crumbs of some sort in it... I normally like to use all butter for my frosting but when it is hot, the frosting doesn't stay firm. Think about how shortening it when you leave it out on the counter, and then how butter is when you leave it out... that is how my frosting is. I am not going back to get more shortening and decide to just use butter, which I like better anyway. I get a call from the school it is Lindsey, her boot broke and she needs new shoes. I search for some shoes. I remember the big slipper type socks that she had on with colorful stripes that wouldn't look so great with her pretty church dress and grab some socks too. I look at the clock, it is 11:25, Samantha has been sleeping for about 40 minutes. I go wake her up, put her in the car seat and put her and Amber in the car. I pull out of the garage, click my garage opener, and NOTHING. It won't shut, it starts to and then goes back up. I contemplate leaving it open, but I decide I can't with all the things in the garage, and not knowing so much about this area and what not, I get out of the car and try to the control on the wall. It does the same thing. I finally go and pull on the red handle which manually shuts the garage. I open the other garage door, then close it with the remote on the outside of the door, since I don't have a control for that side. It could be worse, I could have been stuck in the garage with the door not opening.

I get to the school. Give Lindsey her shoes, help her with the switch. I talk to her for a few minutes and we go back home to finish frosting. I think it could be worse, this could have also been the day that Lauren's teacher called telling me that Lauren needed some different shorts since hers were too short.I get home and realize the keys I grabbed for the car doesn't have my house key on it... as I am walking around hoping to find an open door, which I didn't think I left one open, I remember the little keypad that opens the garage. I try to remember what the code was... and I scored and got in the garage where I could then have access to the house. I put Samantha back to bed. Amber is trying to help me with the frosting. She is helping me put in the powder sugar. That is all good. I get that all mixed in good, and then start to add the milk, slowly pouring so I only get the small of milk I am needing to fill my little tablespoon. Amber tries to help me and lifts the milk higher to make more come out. Now my frosting is super runny. I decide I now need to double the butter and powder sugar. Nothing like a little more work. I get the frosting fixed. I separate it to make my colors I want. Amber is licking the frosting and trying to stir with her slobbery spoon. I finally get her to get down and wait for me to give her more. I get my colors all in bags and then look at the clock and see that it is now 12:43 PM and the girls have their program at 1 PM. I leave my frosting, make Samantha a quick sippy of milk to take along and grab the camera and video recorder. I then remember my video camera is full, so I find the SD card from my cell phone in hopes that it will work. SCORE, works great. I wake up Samantha again.... (what a birthday for her getting woke up all the time). The same drill, car seats, and we are at the school. I was thinking that we were a little early like 7 minutes so we would get a nice seat maybe... but then I remembered there are like 220 1st grade kids... which means that many parents and grandparents there to watch them. I struggle to find a parking spot, I finally take one a block away. I grab the girls, carrying Samantha in her car seat carrier still, and Amber on my other hip and we hoof it up the hill to the school. We get to the doors closest to the gym, and they are LOCKED! I should have known better. We start to back track to get to the main doors when someone must have seen us and opened the door. THANK YOU!! My arms are aching, I am sweating, my calves are burning (the long hot bath last night made my heals split again so it hurts to walk flat footed so I have been walking on my toes all day, which now are KILLING!) We find no seats, we are standing in the back, I try to get my camera out and realize there is no point. There are too many people standing in front of me that I can't get a good shot anyway. Robert shows up and we watch the program together, standing... Amber keeps wanting me to hold her and Robert tells her to go to him because I am tired. Amber tells him, "No, Mommy isn't tired, you are Daddy. I need to hold Mommy." That same conversation is said over and over as Amber keeps asking me to hold her as we are standing there for their 50 minute program. It could have been worse, Amber could have been crying or complaining more and Samantha could have wanted to get out of her car seat and be held as well. Instead Samantha sat there and drank her milk in her sippy cup and then sucked her thumb.

We get back home, I finish the cake, and make the ice cream cone cupcakes. The girls and a friend help decorate the cupcake cones, and all is good. I hope that my mishaps are over and that I can have a better day.