The Monday Mess

I left Annie working on this: while I went to the laundry room to switch a load of laundry, and start the next. I returned to this:

and this:

Budding artist or street graffiti gang member? You decide.

Carrots of Embarrassment

I remembered to stop by the mirror before leaving the house, and changed my shirt. I left the tank top on, but changed the one over it. I was clean and presentable when I arrived at Achievement Days. (This is a group of 8-11 year old girls from church that meets a couple times a month.)

About halfway through the activity, I had my arms folded when I noticed there was some kind of suspicious lump in my shirt. No one was really looking my way, so I shook out my shirt. Into my hand fell a half eaten baby carrot.

Rewind to snack time earlier that day: I picked up Maddie who was holding a carrot. I held her in one arm as she was eating it, all the while I was doing something else. I guess she never finished the carrot.

Sad But True

A couple of weeks ago I was out doing some shopping and the lady who checked me out of Penneys told me, after looking at my ID (since they check when you use your jcpenny card) that I didn't look older than about 16. I came home a little sad about that. My 10 year high school reunion was last summer, and I still get mistaken for a teenager. Pathetic.

Fast forward to today. I paid babysitters to feed my children dinner while I read at the library. Emma stayed home from school sick today, and frankly, I just needed a little break. While I was reading, a group of 3 teenage boys came in and sat down at the table next to mine. After a while, they were being kind of loud, so I just looked over at them to figure out what was going on. They were playing with a cell phone. And then I went back to my book. A little while later, they left and I gave it no more thought.

As it was nearing time to go home, I put my book in my purse and left the library. On my way to my minivan, I passed those same 3 boys sitting outside.

I heard from their direction, "Hey!"

I looked around, and it appeared they were talking to me. I kept walking.

"Hey!" These boys are nothing if not articulate. They noticed the keys in my hand. "Can we get a ride?"

This asked for a response. "Um, no. Sorry."

"What, your mom won't let you give people rides?"

I choked out, "Nope, she won't."

I had to call Ryan and relate this story to him. It is likely at least one of these kids has/had him for their teacher.

People tell me that when I am old, I will appreciate my youthful appearance. Right now I am just hoping that someday soon, I will stop looking like a teenager. I'm telling you, it's annoying to be stopped in Walmart with two children in tow and pregnant for the 3rd time by a grandma-aged lady asking how old I was. I am old enough that my teacher husband is not going to get in trouble. Promise.

Signs Your Day Isn't Going Well

In no particular order:
1. 45 minutes into nap time, you get a call from the school nurse saying your daughter has a temp of 102 degrees, and could you please come pick her up? Now?
2. You find a hole in another one of your shirts.
3. Saying goodbye to your husband for 3 days.
4. Finding out that if you forget to set a timer when you cook asparagus, you can really overcook it.
5. Overcooked asparagus does not feel nice when stepped on with bare feet.
6. Having had to wake up your twins from their nap, they spend the rest of the day crying off and on. Between the two of them, someone is almost always "on."
7. Even though you rented a kid-friendly movie to watch as a family (and it wasn't even animated!), you can't watch it with your kids. The ones who want to watch it can't hear it over the crying, so you move out of the room with the criers.
8. Did I mention your husband isn't coming home tonight?
9. You pick up your iPod for music to rock out to while you finally clean the kitchen (after you put the kids in bed), only to realize one of the children found it and played games on it, and left it on. Now the battery is dead.
10. It's after bedtime, and you still haven't unloaded the dishwasher of yesterday's dishes.