My Day Out!

I had a great day by myself today. It took a little while to get it going, but that is alright. The boys were having a very fun time trying to prevent us from getting out the door this morning. I had put my shoes by the front door to make things easier, but by the time I tried to put them on, one was missing. While looking for the missing shoe, the boys got into the bag that I had packed all their naptime stuff in and had spread it all over the house. I gathered all of it up, but forgot to find binks and ended up leaving without them. Ben got into the little box with all the notepaper twice, so I picked it all up both times, and finally just went out the door. I figured that if I had forgotten anything, I would end up missing five things in the time it would take me to find the one thing I was forgetting, so we were just fine with what we had.

Grant started down the front steps and suddenly was enthralled with the pumpkins on them, but did not stop his whole body, so he tumbled to the bottom and landed on his face. Meanwhile, I am still on the top step, arms loaded with the diaper bag, a bag with four blankets and two teddy bears, a cooler, two booster seats with trays, and my purse. If I just ran to Grant, I would definitely knock Ben down the stairs, since he was next to me and I was about fifteen feet wide with everything I was carrying. I managed to make my way down the steps and dropped my load to pick up the poor, crying boy off the concrete. I hate the crying that sounds so pathetic and is mixed in with "Owie! Owie! Owieeeeeeeeee!" All he seemed to need was a good hug and some kisses and was fine, but during the consoling process Ben had decided to go for a fun ride and had sat on the wet push-tractor seat. Any responsible mom would have taken him back inside and changed him, right? Well, then I fail the responsibility test. I put him in the car wet. I don't think it was too bad, though, by the time we got there, he had dried off most of the way. Anywhoo, we were very late getting to Dan's, but since nothing was actually scheduled, it was fine.

After dropping the boys off, my first order of business was going to the hospital to have blood drawn for my lovely glucose tolerance test. I started drinking the nasty stuff right after I left Dan's, and headed into town. I needed to have my blood drawn exactly one hour after finishing the drink. If any of you have never had the beverage they give you, picture orange pop. But not real orange pop, think of it as the syrup that they make orange pop out of before they dilute it with the soda stuff. Yup, it's reeeeeealy nasty. I headed into town and got stuck in construction on the way to the hospital, which was fine since I had plenty of time. I debated stopping to vacuum my van on the way, but thought I'd better just go there in case I had to wait in line. I got to the hospital with 25 minutes to spare, but there was not a parking place to be seen. I drove around for a while, then finally found a spot to realize that I had made my way to the complete opposite side of the hospital. I am pretty lazy lately and did not feel like walking seven miles to the lab, so I decided to drive around some more, since I still had time to spare. Fifteen minutes later, I found someone leaving, and got their spot right up front. Sweetness and sunshine! Life is great! I had ten minutes till I had to be stabbed in the arm, so I went in and went to the lab. Well, I went to where I thought the lab was, and couldn't find it. No lab? Back to the front desk to be told that they moved the lab out of the hospital and it was down the street. Crapola! I drove through the parking lot for fifteen minutes to find a parking spot and I was in the wrong place?!? I suddenly went from having plenty of time to being at risk of screwing the whole thing up by missing the one hour mark. Luckily, my car was close, so I booked it out of there as fast as I could waddle and drove to the lab. Ran in just in time and was stabbed, I mean, had my blood drawn from a fabulous gal who got it right away and it barely hurt. Finally, something good!

I left the lab and called Marty and he met me for lunch. I ate good food while it was still hot, and did not have to stop eating because someone was screaming. It was awesome. A conversation with my hubby, uninterrupted, and while we were still coherent and not completely exhausted from it being after 9 pm when the kids are in bed. I discovered I still kinda like him. Pretty cool!

The next stop was a local consignment store where I got great deals and just wandered for a while, without having to say "Don't touch!" Fifty bajillion times. Mmmmmm.... serenity!

I picked up Emma from school and we went to the craft store to get some things for Halloween and spend a little one-on-one time. I really enjoyed the conversation with my daughter, and got some more good deals. Back to get the boys, and then met Marty at McDonalds to get dinner. I cannot normally stand McDonalds, so we do not go there very often, but today was a special day, so we went in and let the kids play after dinner. Emma had a run in with a little nasty boy who was not playing very nice, and he called her a baby. She responded with, "I am not a baby. My name is Emma. Now you can call my Emma and not baby, since you know my name." Impressive for a four year old! Grant decided to be a bully and pinched a little boy who was probably 11 months old, so after apologizing to the boy's grandpa, we packed up and left.

Overall, it was a great day. Everything worked out just fine, I got good deals on things I needed, and we all enjoyed time together. Dan, you are truly my hero for giving me this opportunity. Thank you! If you want payment for your services, I have a lawnmower I can give you... :) HeeHee! Just kidding, unless you actually want one. Anyway, I owe you!