One of those days...

So yesterday was most definitely a Monday, from start to finish. Nothing seemed to go the way I wanted it to or thought it would.

It started with me being way too tired from our road trip. (Yes, we survived - and all things considered, it went better than expected.) I wanted to get up early and work out, which I was disappointed about since I was really looking forward to getting back on my exercise horse. Oh well, I figured that I could squeeze in a long walk or a short video during Georgia's naptime, so I wasn't that worried about it.

I decided to make all of the beds and straighten up the house while the kids were doing their morning TV thing. (They like to chill out with some cheerios and juice while they lay on our bed or the couch and wake up.) I would end up being very glad that I had done this.

I wanted to thank my friend (who is also my neighbor) for coming over and turning on the lights, opening the blinds, etc.) for us this weekend when we had a showing, so I told her I'd meet her at preschool with a Starbuck's as a thank you. I was prepared to leave 10 minutes early (8:35) to make that happen and everything was going well until the phone rang.

The realtor.

A showing?

At 10:00?

Ummmm, sure.

This meant that I had to quickly run the vaccuum, sweep and swiffer the floors, find a spot for the two bags I'd not yet unpacked for our trip, and wipe down all of the kitchen counters before we left since I had plans to take some things to a friend and have a playdate with our youngest girls after I dropped Mitchell off.

No problem, but that also meant no Starbuck's. Bummer!

Of course, about 3 minutes before we were ready to leave, Georgia decided to stink the place up. Good thing I'd already lit my Christmas Cookie and Caramel Pecan Pie candles. I decided to change her in the van so that the stink would stay mostly outside of the house. (And stink it did, whoooo-eeeee!! That was a serious stink.) I think that non-parents are the only people who would ever not buy someone else's "they pooped just as we were leaving" reason for being late somewhere. Being on time seems to be some sort of laxative for my kids or something.

Okay - so poopy diaper taken care of. Blinds open. Lights on. Jazz station playing softly. Two kids fed, dressed and in the car. Lunch packed and in the car. Jackets for everyone. Check - for all of it.

I back out of the driveway and - DOH! - the box of clothes I'm supposed to take to my friend is still in the basement. I pull back into the garage, turn the car off and put the door down. This makes Mitchell very loudly question what I am doing and Georgia cry. I dash down to the basement and grab the box, toss it in the car, and try the whole leaving thing again.

My cell phone rings as I'm driving Mitchell to school and it's my friend telling me that her baby has a cold, so she's not sure a playdate will be the best thing today. I tell her that I'll still drop off the clothes because I can't go home due to the showing. I think that it will also give me the chance to exchange some shirts for Chris since I'll be way south at the mall I purchased them at. Score!

We pull into the parking lot about 3 minutes late (which was the inspiration for this week's poll, by the way) and hustle Mitchell in the door. As I'm waiting in line to sign him in, I look at the dry erase board for messages about this school week and see that the fall fundraiser starts on Wednesday.

Fall fundraiser? Wednesday? This Wednesday? Uhhh, yeahhhhh. Guess who's in charge of that and completely clueless? Mmm-hmm.

I get up to the sign-in book and tell the director that my friend, Joan would be picking up Mitchell (oooh - hope Chris remembered to put the 3rd carseat in the back of the van for me!) and um, by the way could she please give me a bit of info about the fundraiser?

So, ten minutes later in the parking lot, I'm hoisting a big cardboard box full of Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough order forms (uh-oh!!) into my van and pulling out the 3rd carseat (thank you, wonderful hubby!!) so I can put it into Joan's van. I'm in the 3rd row of her van, her baby is screaming (I'm sure because some big, strange rear end is crowding her personal space - can't blame her there), I have what I can feel to be a huge case of plumber's crack, and my hair is hanging down in my face so that I can't see anything. I'm also slightly out of breath due to fighting with the latch system to get the carseat nice and tight and hear someone else say "Hi, Tara." I had finally gotten the seat in securely, so I parted my "Cousin It" hair to see another friend of mine standing next to us in the parking lot. We move out of the way to let Joan leave and she asks if I'd like to go get some coffee.

Coffee? Me? Today? That would be a very passionate YES. I managed to keep myself from tearing up and hugging her and casually said "Sure. That sounds great!"

We meet at Starbuck's, both of us with little girls in tow. Grande, decaf, nonfat, sugar-free caramel latte for me and soy milk for Miss G. (By the way, the baristas tease me every time I order it because it takes forever to say and they can never remember everything when they're repeating it back. Kind of embarrasing, but I like what I like, ya know?) This turns out to be where rubbing elbows with me spreads the glory of my Monday morning -- they forgot to make my friend's latte. We had a nice visit and she got me caught up on what I missed from our MOPS steering meeting on Friday. She is one of those people that I am really glad I have the chance to get to know better...what a sweet, sweet woman. Starbuck's or no Starbuck's -- getting to chat with her was one of the highlights of my day for sure.


So, we leave the parking lot and head to my friend's house. Our arrival has the dog barking, which wakes up the sleeping baby. (Nice to see that I am continuing to spread the Monday Joy around to my friends.) Drop off the clothes and chat just long enough for Georgia to rearrange her living room toys in time for the cleaning woman's arrival. (Seriously, Miss G is a one-woman-wrecking-crew.) Georgia throws a huge fit because she doesn't want to get off of the pink riding toy and leave, so we exit with a bang.


The sight of her milk is enough to settle her down so I can get her strapped back into her carseat, and we are off to the mall. We pull into the parking lot, I get the stroller all set and ready to roll, only to discover that -- ACK!! I had taken the bag with the shirts I needed to exchange out of the van before we left on our trip.

Awesome.

I won't torture you with the details of the rest of the day -- just know that the afternoon went much like the morning. Oh -- and the realtor who scheduled the showing never came to the house after all, which really made me grumpy for a few minutes. Then I decided that it just wasn't worth it, and that kind of stuff is all part of the process -- it's just annoying and, in my opinion, rude.

So, now I'm off to do laundry -- which means that I need to take the newspapers and junk mail out of the dryer.

What? Doesn't everyone have that kind of stuff in their dryer?