This is a long entry, but I didn't know what details to leave out...
It was the most bizarre day I have had in a long time! It started right away in the morning, before I even jumped in the shower. I remembered that I forgot to put my jeans in the dryer last night, so I did that as I made a morning cup of coffee... knowing that I wanted to take Wes's dress pants out after about 15 minutes to air dry. Adam pointed out that the dryer was making a lot of noise... he thought Allison was in there banging away. I confidently informed him that it was just the dryer... that there were a bunch of jeans and sometimes it tumbles unevenly and clunks a bit... then pointed out to him that Allison was right there in Wes's arms. He chuckled and said, "Oh, right!" While in the shower I realized that I forgot to take Wes's dress pants out, so as soon as I was out, I yelled downstairs for Wes to do that... to which he was perfectly fine with. I hurried downstairs after getting dressed so Wes could get going to work. He took a second to let me know that he found the tv remote that was missing since last night! It was in the dryer... it had made its way through the washer, sat all night in wet jeans, tumbled and clunked through the dryer... and he was proud to say that it still works just fine! Great! Note to self... when the 6 year old points out an odd sound... pay closer attention... in hindsight... jeans have never sounded that way in the dryer! I looked at the clock and had about 20 minutes before starting school, so I decided to sit down and order a picture of Flat Stanley in Niagara Falls... my nephew Nate did a school project on the book character Flat Stanley, so he chose to send it to Aunt Julie for his picture to be taken in New York... or better yet... Canada! I must admit, I had to stay completely focused to follow through and get this done... it was no problem for me to take the picture of him by the landmark... but I knew if I was going to fail, it would be at getting it mailed back to the classroom. So, I was going to get it done today. I uploaded my picture to Shutterfly and printed it off at Target 1-hour photo, which meant it would be ready a little before 9:00. I also had a return to make at Target and needed some food for Allison and a few other items... so that was perfect. As I ordered the picture, I decided that I was going to switch school around and run errands in the morning and teach in the afternoon during Allison's nap... I had a bunch of things to get done! Most importantly, the girls' skating competition registration was due today, so I absolutely had to get that turned in. The skating office has limited hours...open 9:00-12:00 some days and 12:00-3:00 some days and closed some days... so I called earlier in the week to be sure they are open on Fridays. I also had some library checkouts to return to the public library, a deposit to make at the bank, a bunch of cans to turn in for deposit, get to the post office to mail Flat Stanley back to Missouri, and I needed to buy a new pencil sharpener for the classroom. It wasn't stuff that would take long, but it was stuff that just needed to get done, and I wanted Allison to be able to take her nap in her crib. Perfect. So when the kids sat down for school, I told them that we were switching the day around, and we were going to leave around 9:00 for errands, so they needed to get their chores done now and look for a library DVD that was due today. I had looked unsuccessfully myself, but I wasn't too worried because we use the library a ton and have never lost a book or DVD. The kids do very well at keeping track of the library items. Well... 9:15 rolled around and we were still without the DVD. I decided to move on and find it later today. We headed to the skating rink, and on my way out of the driveway I called the office to be sure they were open this morning, only to find out that it's 12:00-3:00 today, not 9:00-12:00! I was a little frustrated, but I figured I would go right at 12:00... right after lunch and before Allison's nap... we only live 5 minutes away and this registration needed to get in today or there was no competition! So I carried on with the next place on my list... the library. When we pulled up, the parking lot was empty! I immediately thought to myself... "Oh yeah, they have odd hours here, too!" I had Anna jump out of the car and read the library hours on the sign... sure enough... open at 1:00-9:00 Fridays! Of course! That makes perfect sense! So, onto the next place... the bank, which was right next to the library. I pulled up to the drive-though and the kids all shouted from the back of the car, "Can we please have a sucker, mom?" They know bank drive-throughs well! I said I would ask but I had to wait for teller to be ready... so we waited a few minutes... then the teller said, "Thanks!" and my container with receipt was at my window as she walked away from her window. I explained to the kids that she didn't greet me and left the window before I had a chance to ask for suckers... they were slightly disappointed. Our next stop was the grocery store, not for groceries, but for returning our beverage containers... we had 8 white trash bags at home full of cans and bottles that have been piling up for quite a while now. I was too embarrassed to bring all 8 so I brought 4... which was still embarrassing. The kids are great at pushing the cans and bottles into the machines, one at a time, watching the 5 cents add up and up and up. They try to put them in steadily enough that the receipt won't print out before they are done... which means they can't pause for more than 30 seconds or so. It's fun for them... they have a good system! After collecting all the receipts, we turned them in for cash! $10.20! They get to split the money from deposits... as a payment of their everyday chores... not the best system, but it works. Now it was time for Target to get the picture of Flat Stanley. I realized as I parked the car that I forgot the coat rack that I had to return... oh well... I could do that anytime... I'm there enough! When I asked for my pictures, they casually informed me that Photo doesn't open until noon. Seriously? Well that makes perfect sense... why would it be open on a Friday morning? I was so mad! We just walked back to the car, and I told the kids that we would go home, eat lunch, and try this day again after Allison's nap. The rest of the day went much better. We went home, ate lunch, got back in the car and drove back to the rink, turned in the registration forms for the competition, got back in the car and drove home. We started school at 12:30 and had a great session. No problems there. We then searched high and low for the library DVD, but no luck! I was getting a little bit irritated because inside my head I was blaming Ashley since she has been such a successful shover when she cleans... even though I've been riding her each time... she doesn't give up and tries to sneak in a shove whenever I turn my back. But, I didn't want to accuse her, either. Eventually it came out... I knew she shoved it... and it was her ballet DVD anyway... the other kids wouldn't have touched it... so I informed her that if she wouldn't shove when she cleans, the DVD would be where it belongs... so she was going to have to pay the late fee ($1/day) at the library until the DVD was found. She was sad because she was just given $2 from the Toothfairy this morning and she proclaimed that Toothfairy money is magic and if anyone else gets it it loses it magic so she can't pay me for the DVD fees or her money won't be magic anymore. I explained to her she could pay me with her can deposit money because that money is not magic. When Allison woke up from her nap, we were ready to try again at getting the errands done! We started by going back to the library, to return some books... no DVD. Then back to the grocery store... I decided since we were going out again, I would pack up the remaining 4 bags of cans for deposit! This time we got $9.70... for a grand total of $19.90! The kids were so excited! We normally bring in about 3 bags at a time, so this was fun for them to see how much 8 bags came to! Next on our list was Wal-Mart. I got my last pencil sharpener there so I decided to get the new one there... as I had already checked and Target didn't carry it, and I had a Wal-Mart return to make as well. We stood in the return line for about 20 minutes... making small talk with the people behind us and infront of us.... classic Wal-Mart clientele. Anna kept trying to whisper to me all the things she was observing... I just kept telling her to stop whispering and and try not to stare, but to remember what she was going to tell me so we could talk about it later... but she was so enlightened she kept trying again and again to whisper in my ear... and I kept shushing her again and again. When we finally got done returning the toddler fashion boots that somehow I let a Wal-Mart cashier talk me into at the time of purchase when I asked her to put them aside because I didn't want them but she oohed and ahhed at how cute they were and questioned me, "Are you sure you don't want these?" so I bought them anyway but now found myself returning... Anna couldn't hold in her thoughts any longer. She rattled on and on about all the different things she observed while standing in the Wal-Mart return line for 20 minutes... things that one can only take in at Wal-Mart. I think that experience alone should be counted as a field trip! Social Studies 101: People in our Community, They're out There! She didn't miss a beat... from the manager talking to some ladies in their mid 50s who were being asked by the manager to stop using the power-wheeled cart unnecessarily as they freely admitted they just didn't feel like walking, but they had the right to use it because there was no sign stating they couldn't.... to the kids who were having melt downs in the check out lane while their parents just stood there doing nothing, watching their kids roll around the floor screaming... to the man infront of us who hung up his phone and felt it necessary to inform us that it was his "girl" and she's having one of "those" days... and as soon as he was done at Wal-Mart he was on his way to fix all her problems, as he unzipped his coat for us to see his pretend "S" for "Superman" on his shirt... except he realized a long time ago that he was not God and there was only so much he was capable of doing. Anna expressed confusion during her rambling to me... she was curious if the "girl" was his daughter or his girlfriend/wife. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure either! We finally got to the office supplies section... and no electric pencil sharpener... so we left Wal-Mart and headed to Office Max, got the electric pencil sharpener... then off Target to get Flat Stanley's picture (which was ready and waiting this time), return the coat rack that I remembered this time, and buy a few household items. Then we went home for dinner and a movie. Ashley put the pencil sharpener to use while I cracked a cold one and made frozen pizza. Wes was on call overnight, so it was just me and the kids. It was the craziest day I've had in a long time... but I got everything done except mailing Flat Stanley back to my nephew's classroom... which I will do tomorrow! Right before going to bed I decided to look in the book shelf for the DVD... and there it was! Of course! Shoved in with the books.
