Wednesday I drove to Tallahassee to meet my sister for lunch and pick up my niece and nephew. I had an awesomely amazing drive by myself there and after enjoying lunch with Jenny and her friend, Jenn, the kids slept the whole way back to my house. Before Luke fell asleep we had a great conversation. He told me he was going to Eli's house to play with "Eli's toys". We also talked about trucks and tractors we saw and the "cave" (aka an overpass). He's such a little man now.
Before I left for Tallahassee I got a phone call from the lady in charge of the theatre classes I will be teaching. We had originally planned to meet on Friday, but by the time I got off the phone it had been changed to that day. So, I got home, left Josh with 7 kids (the neighborhood always shows up at our house on Wednesday) and headed off to my meeting. She gave me a schedule that made me feel simultaneously relieved to see it all already planned out and in total panic mode that the next few months are planned out, do you know what I mean? She also asked if I could write a budget proposal. By Friday. Sure. Because I totally write budget proposals all the time. And I had 5 kids at my house. Maybe they could illustrate it?
I got home just in time for Josh to leave to pick kids up on the bus for church. I rounded all of the kids and their shoes up and we went to church. It's usually about 8:30 when we get home from church so we immediately put everybody to bed. Lyla went right to sleep, but Josh and I kept waking her up going in and out of our room. Josh had to be up super early because he was going the next day to play golf with a friend in Pensacola the next day, so about 11:00 I just brought Lyla to the living room and we watched some Golden Girls and she played with Woody. It's kind of become our thing to do. :) Eventually we got some sleep and we needed it!!
Thursday became a day of colossal inconvenience and frustration. It was the absolute definition of "one of those days". So, Josh had planned to go play golf for his birthday months ago and I knew that. And my boss was leaving to go out of town this particular Thursday and I'd known that for a while. And I had talked to my sister about keeping her kids weeks before. But somehow, it never entered my brain that all of these things were happening on the same Thursday. And honestly, I really didn't think it would matter, but it kinda did. First, Thursday morning went much smoother than I expected. Since Josh was already gone I had to load up all 5 kids to go to the school. But, Sarah totally changed Lyla's diaper and dressed Luke for me while I took a bath. I would SO recommend having your kids 9 or so years apart. :) We had to take the church van because it was all we could fit in, but Josh had moved both car seats so that wasn't a big deal. Except the driver's side door which has never opened from the inside, now also doesn't open from the outside. So, I had to crawl through the passenger seat. Fun times. I ended up letting Eli and Kate stay home from school because I knew it would be more fun for Luke and Lyla. After dropping Sarah off (she had a test, had to go), I proceeded to take all 4 kids to the Pig because there was also a housewarming at the church that night and even though I wouldn't get to go, I was going to fix something to take over there. I was very proud of how well they did, but I won't lie, I got some looks. I've heard my friends who have 4 and 5 kids talk about the way people will look at them, but this was my first time experiencing it. Anyway, it almost got ugly when I bought a balloon to take to somebody and Luke and Lyla BOTH wanted to hold it (what was I thinking????), but I convinced them to hold it together, so all was well.
Back at the house I started my pumpkin muffins and the kids played. Until Kate did her usual thing and got into the fridge and so Lyla got in the fridge and before I knew it I was cleaning up tomato soup from the floor, the fridge, and Lyla's legs. Since the fridge was already open everybody decided they were hungry so I handed out some gogurts. Bad idea. I don't recommend those for children under the age of 13. Holy yogurt explosion batman!! Luckily I run a 24 hour laundry service in my house, so we got everybody cleaned up and about 4 hours later my muffins, (that are super easy and would probably normally take about 30 minutes) were done. Lyla was taking a nap by this point and Eli and Luke were jumping off the bed onto his punching bag, so I took that opportunity to load up their stuff. I also made a box of food for my kids. Thursdays are my long day at the dance studio and since Josh would still be gone they were going to have to hang out there. Lyla woke up, we got everybody redressed, I loaded up most of the stuff, and we headed out to pick up Sarah. I've never been so thankful for the pick-up line so we didn't have to get out. We ran back home to finish loading up the last of the kids stuff and made our way to the dance studio. My Mom was meeting me there when she got off work to pick up Luke and Lyla. As I pulled into my spot a thought dawned on me. A thought that I really wished had dawned on me, like, the night before. Josh had my Jeep. Josh had my keys. Josh had my studio key. My boss left to go out of town that day. We had just had a discussion about who had keys, and how it was not very many people, because we didn't want lots of people to have keys. I thought of the other person who did have a key and how I didn't have her phone number and I couldn't get her number because IT WAS INSIDE AND I COULDN'T GET INSIDE!
Panic. Stress. Little girls in tutus showing up. I so did not want to call Barbie. She had just left for vacation. I didn't know what else to do. I called Josh but, even if he left that minute he still wouldn't get back until the last class of the night was starting anyway. So, I called Barbie. She calmed me down. She told me where the landlord's office was and I drove the church van with 5 kids to go get it. We drove back. All the kids unloaded. I couldn't get any of his keys to work. More little girls in tutus showed up. Their Moms must have been having the kind of day I was because despite the fact I couldn't get in and everybody was standing outside, they all left. I was thinking we might literally be dancing in the street. At that point my assistant showed up so I left her with all the youngins and ran (for real, I ran. It was a desperate situation y'all) back across the street to get the landlord. He walked back with me, leisurely making conversation. By this point my Mom had shown up so while he tried to get a key to work I unloaded the church van and reloaded all of the kids stuff and car seats into my Mom's car. The landlord finally got the back door to open. Mom left with Luke and Lyla, my kids settled in the back with homework and Barbies, my assistant started leading stretches and I was ready for a nap. Oh well. No time for that. We danced. Josh called and told me something that broke my heart and made me want to cry, but at that point it wouldn't have taken much. I pressed on. I usually don't have time to eat on Thursday nights, but I was absolutely starving by the time my last class started. I had brought a box of microwavable mac and cheese for the kids, string cheese, gogurts and about a dozen of those muffins we had left over. I was so wanting one of those muffins. I brought a dozen. Guess how many were left by the time I had time to stop and eat one. NONE. Not one. How dare my children share? I can't believe I raised them that way!!!!
I finished classes at 8:00 and we got home close to 8:30. The kids asked what was for supper. I reminded them it was everything they had eaten all night. My last class of the night is Sarah's tap class and I've been teaching them a dance to the song, "Mama Said". You know the one? Mama said there'll be days like this.....yeah. It was one of those days.
Friday I worked on the budget proposal with Josh, who thankfully does have a clue how to do one. Then, I went and taught Barbie's classes. Saturday morning I got a text from my Mom asking if I had one of Luke's flip flops and I did. And a sippy cup. I can't imagine I didn't get all of his stuff together. :) I used that as an excuse to pack up the kids and head to Panama City to see Jenny who was picking the kids up that day. Then, we drove back, went to an ice cream social in the park, then drove back to Panama City for a dinner with Josh's family. They were celebrating mine and Mammy's birthday. I love dragging my birthday out for a month. :) Yesterday we had church, then the kids had a birthday party. It was for one of the girls who chases Eli at school. When we got there Eli refused to get out. I ended up dropping the girls off and taking him back home. When I went back to get the girls another girl from his class asked me, "Are you Eli's Mom? I like tickling him. He's ticklish." My poor baby. He has social anxiety cuz the girls won't leave him alone. After the party we went back to church. After church I attempted to get my house in some kind of order. And I also just sat and started at the wall for a while. I just knew this week would be better.
Sarah woke up sick this morning. Eli was in hysterics crying (now I know it's probably because he's dreading being tickled) and Kate was so asleep while I tried to dress her that she peed on me. Lessons learned: 1. One crazy week does not automatically insure a peaceful one. 2. It's better just to surrender up front. I've already looked at my calendar and come to an understanding that every single thing on it may change this week. A few times. 3. It can be funny. Eventually. On Thursday (now known as "THE DAY") Josh was trying to laugh with me about it on the phone. I told him it wasn't really funny to me at that point. But..... it's getting there.
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