The Puddles

Email from me to my sister that Ainsley’s soccer game is only a practice.  They had planned on coming to Ainsley’s first game:

I called the Y and tonight is practice eventhough the schedule says that there is a game!!! Sorry.

Email from Deb:    David is going to be sooooooooooooooooooooo disappointed.  He was so excited about seeing Ainsley play tonight.  BUMMER!

Kath:    You can still come and watch her play but there is just no game.  I am so sorry. I didn’t know.  I called the Y to find out what color she was so that I could buy a bow for her hair and I found out.  Sorry!

Deb:     Only you would go and buy a BOW for Ainsley for her soccer game. She has you wrapped.  I’m laughing you do know that right?  A bow?

Kath:   My baby has to look adorable!!!!!!

Deb: Dork.

David:  I’m heart broken. I can’t go on. I had my camera packed and ready to go.I’m crying at work. My co-workers are asking what’s wrong. I had to tell them my dog died so they wouldn’t laugh at me for the real reason I am crying.

Debra:  See, I told you Kath.  David is sad.  Real sad.  and to think you were worried about a bow. :o(  Now I have to worry about a crying husband.

Kath:  You all are pathetic!!!!!!!!!!!

Deb:  I’m not the one who wanted to buy a BOW for a SOCCER game!! ;o)

Kath:  Won’t she look cute??!!!  Do you know how hard I had to look for cute little cleats for her?  Why do I work so hard if I can’t buy cleats and adorable bows?!!!  At this age, it is all about the look and not about the game.  This will not be a nail biter for sure.

Deb:  She is your little princess that’s for sure.  No doubt about it.  And little princess soccer players should have matching cleats and bows.  Don’t forget the little string for their sleeves.  You must tie them up with ribbon so her little arms don’t get too hot.

Kath:  I forgot the sleeve ribbons!!!! Thank you.  Now my baby will be perfect.

For the first time ever, all three of my children will be fully engulfed in the world of sports.  The girls are playing soccer and Ben is in baseball.  It has been so much fun to see them get out there and play.  The best moment so far was today when I finally found a pair of soccer cleats for Ainsley (she needed a size 9 toddlers.  Very hard to find.)  She put them on and proceeded to run up and down the halls of church.  “Look, Mommy!  I can run like the wind now!”  And zoom . . . she’s off.  Cute as a button.

So I’ve got my checklist (mentally) of all the things I wanted to accomplish when I grew up . . .

1. own a minivan  √
2. enroll my children in enriching activities  √
3. raise three wonderful children √

I never knew that my list would really look like this . . .

1. own a minivan full of junk (most of which is disgusting but the stuff on the floor alone could feed us for a full week if we were ever stranded in the desert)       √
2. sign my children up for so many activities that I wind up driving insanely from one event to the other hoping that I have remembered everything that they are suppose to bring to the event      √
3. be a mother to three funny (even when they don’t mean to be) mismatched (at least the clothes are clean) sometimes well-behaved (other people assure me that my kids do behave when I am not around.  Geez, I hope those people are not being sarcastic. I don’t always recognize sarcasm.)  children who bring great joy to my life and fill my soul with overflowing love √√√√√√√√√√√√√

The sugar high from the weekend has finally started to come down.  The children are definitely in withdrawals right now.  Wow.  Even I am shocked by the ferocity of the “moments” that they are having.  Madie told me that all they EVER do is clean.  Her life is terrible.  Ben chose the best path and stayed quiet after lamenting about how he was STARVING.  Poor guy.  I told him that I would fix whatever he wanted when we got home, but then he cried because he couldn’t decide what to make.  Sweet Ainsley got in the car quickly after her teacher told me that Ainsley keeps writing her name backwards for the last three weeks.  When we asked her why, she said that she just liked to write it that way.  It was pretty.  Good grief!  Quite the threesome I got.  I fixed a snack and quickly ran into the office and shut the door.  Soon I must go out and tell them to get to work and finish their homework, clean their rooms, and eat their dinner.  The illusion of my current peace and quiet soon must end.

But wait. . . there are a small pair of eyes peering at me from behind the office door.  She is sweetly calling out to me for some milk.  It is good that she is reminding me about the joys of motherhood too!  Her timing is perfect along with her sweet smile.  I do truly love my bunch of hooligans!

My husband has left me for the iPad that has shown up at our door.  He had Ainsley sitting at the front door watching for the “brown truck.”  We went to a birthday party this afternoon while Chris waited for his “toy” to show up.  He promised to also help with chores while he waited for the ipad to come.  Nothing was done!  I am home now and he is still playing with it.  Ughhhhh!  My husband has truly left me for his new wife . . . the Apple iPad.

No it is not Christmas!  It’s Holy Week.  By the end of the week, we will drop dead from exhaustion, especially Chris.  This is not only Holy Week but the last weekend of Girl Scout cookies (which includes a final booth sale today which I said that I would never do) and the first week of practice for Ben (baseball) and Madie (soccer).  It is not like we didn’t have a busy week already.  Sunday is the bake sale for the campers.  I didn’t bake yet (didn’t need to pass on my tummy germs) because I need to disinfect the kitchen first.  That is today along with a booth sale for four hours.  Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, bake sale, round up the last stragglers for their cookie money, and setting up for the Prayer Path.  Busy. Busy. Busy.

The only person totally excited about the booth sale is Madie.   She was dressed and ready this morning in her uniform.  She is ready!  We have only 100 boxes to sell!!!!!  I am determined.  We will do it.  (Positive thinking.  Got to keep it positive!)

The stomach bug that two of the kids have been suffering from finally visited me yesterday.  Too many irons in the fire, not enough sleep, and unhealthy amount of stress has created havoc on my immunity system.  I will be glad when this is over.

Well.  The weak minded men and women who voted for the health care bill have forever changed the course of history to one of less freedom and more burden on our children.  That makes me very sad.

Madie asks me at dinner last night. “Mommy, did they pass the bill yet?”

“Not yet, but it looks like it is going to.”

“Oh noooo.  Do I have to start paying for it today?  Or do I have to wait until I get a job?”  (I told her that this decision would forever  burden her and her children.  They would have to pay the debt that their forefathers created. Nothing but honesty in this house.  I have taught her well.  This makes me happy.)

I am glad that we have a month to deliver all of Madie’s Girl Scout cookies, but I have one week left and still have several people to deliver cookies to.  I HATE delivering cookies.  I try not to use that word, but must do so in this instance.  I love Girl Scout cookies.  I love to sell them.  I love to eat them.  I HATE to deliver them.  Truthfully, I don’t mind delivering most of the cookies.  I just really really dislike the tail end cookie deliveries.  The ones where you have already been to the house twice and they are still not home.  I am this close to putting all of the left over cookies in the back of my car and selling them door to door from the trunk of the car. At least they would be gone and I would have all of the bajillion dollars  that I owe turned in.

Madie actually told me today that she wanted to sell 1000 boxes next year.  I told her, “NO WAY!”  I am still delivering cookies from this sale and she wants to talk about the next year’s sale.  Next year I will have two Girl Scouts in the family.  I am already stressed out thinking about it.

Today I made all three kids go with me to deliver.  At least today was an adventure.  It was really chilly.  But we loaded up the wagon and put on several layers of clothes and set off.  By the time we got to the last house Ainsley was freezing. Her nose of cherry red and she just wanted to go inside and stay at that person’s home.  She had no desire to go any further.  She cried going down the street that she needed another blanket and if we couldn’t just stay at the last house could we at least borrow a blanket for her to cover up with???!!!  You should have looked at her puppy eyes.  Boy, I feel sorry for her husband one day.  I had a hard time saying no.  But that’s my job! So I told her, “No.  Tough it out.  We will be home soon.”  I know.  Mean mommy. But at least I said it with a kiss and smile. So we went as fast as we could to get back home to a nice warm house.  Luckily Dad came in the driveway about that time and we sent him out with Madie to deliver the rest of the cookies.  Thank you Daddy!!  I was not looking forward to dragging Ainsley back out into the cold.  If she would ride her scooter like Ben or walk like Madie she wouldn’t be so cold.  But Ainsley is Ainsley and once she gets something in her head . . .

But the cookies will soon be finished and we can work on the next project. Or as I like to call it.  “The albatross around my neck!”  You know those projects that you really don’t have any desire to do so you keep putting them off but they keep following you around cursing all of the projects that maybe you would prefer to do.  Something like that.