A Long Story about My Day...aka This Might be Boring for You

This morning began fine.  It wasn't a June Cleaver morning or anything, but it was fine.

We ran into a sort of quandary in terms of how to work the mornings.  I feel like one of the places I'm most helpful to my sister who constantly has a newborn-induced sleep deficit is in the morning, when the other kids wake up.  Since I'm all the way downstairs and can't hear Judah and Ariel, Suz or OJ calls my cell phone to wake me up.  Personal alarm clocks, they are!

So, this morning I came up to them and felt immediately that we HAD to find something to do.  HAD to...or else I might go crazy.  It was just one of those mornings.  I believe I felt that way because I was coming off of a productivity-high from yesterday.  Yesterday was a beautiful day.  I walked with Judah over to Glorie's house, then watched them both (including playing outside), and while they were napping, cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, and then after they were up, they stayed happy while I came after than to re-organize every toy and book they touched and I straightened up more.  Then we had a lovely rest of the day and I went shopping late at night (which you've already heard about).  Do you remember that show Supermarket Sweep?  That was me...I grabbed the cart and raced around...grab a bag of grapes here, a jar of molasses there.  It was intense.

Back to my original point.  I was looking for an activity to do with the kids, and I thought of an aquarium.  Well, Kansas City only has an aquarium in their zoo.  The good news is that the zoo is free in October and November to KC, MO residents!  Yay for ruthless publicity stunts that actually benefit us!

**Side note...I come from Chicago which has the only permanently free zoo in the country.  Props to them for that.**

But, it was raining outside, so..the zoo wouldn't work.  Plus, when I told my sister about it, I found out that she has already planned an outing with my parents while they are here next weekend.

I kept thinking.  I remembered!  Tuesday morning prayer meeting!  It was 8:50...We needed to leave at 9:50.  The kids were sticky from waffles.  I dunked them in the bath, then got them both dressed.  Stuck them in front of Little Einsteins then went downstairs and jumped in the shower myself and went for the casual-but-I-hope-I-still-look-cute look.  9:50 passed as I raced around putting on their shoes and getting a makeshift diaper bag put together.  We ran out the door, got to the car, opened the door, and Ariel's seat was gone.

Then we stood there for a minute while I looked back and forth trying to figure out what to do.

Her booster was in OJ's work van from picking her up from pre-school the day before, and he had that van at work with him right then.  I hung my shoulder for a second and came back inside.  That meant we couldn't go anywhere (I had been secretly planning to take them to the pet store to blow off some more can't-sit-around-the-house steam).  

Then, I lifted my shoulders up and declared "WE WILL WALK!"  We had to go...had to get out of the house.  (Mind you, it's only 10 o'clock in the morning.  Why was I so determined to get out?)

So, I prepared for that.  Should we just walk or should we walk to Lizzie's?  I called Lizzie...Glorie, because of waking up unnaturally early, had to be in bed at 11, no questions asked.  Then I remembered.  The double jogger is sitting in the garage taken apart, and I don't know how to put it back together again.

Then we stood there for a minute looking around while I figured out what to do.

Meanwhile, Suz was having a less then serene morning of sleep, since the kids and I kept barging in to ask questions or give updates on our plans...she graciously tried to explain to me what she could remember of putting the stroller back together.  I tried, but it didn't happen.

For a second, I was tempted to give up and spend the morning at home. [Cue Shoulder Droop]  But NO!  WE WILL WALK! [Cue Shoulder Ascension]

So we used the umbrella stroller, each kid taking turns in it.  We did indeed walk to Glorie's house to play with her for about twenty minutes before Liz stuck little cookies in each of our hands and sent us off.  

ADVENTURE TIME!  On our way home, we spotted a beagle running around.  We spent half a block trying to lure him to us, but he just ran around excitedly.  Eventually, we got him near and I grabbed him and called the owner.  We waited on the corner and pet him until his owner came with her five year old son.

Don't worry, I explained to the kids to never, ever go after a stray dog without Mom or Dad or Annie with them.  The lesson moved on to not going after big, large, mean dogs and how I would only go after nice dogs, like beagles.  Then we passed a very angry Doberman that really helped the message get across.

Then we came home and had a party with smoothies, a new VeggieTales, and chicken nuggets.  Judah took a nap, I ran to get the booster seat from OJ, Suz took Samuel to the doctor, Ariel went to Wendy's house to make cookies and learn ballet.

THEN...everybody came home and we all dashed out to....GET A CAR!  We have a van!  A 2003, white, Toyota Sienna, and it is FABULOUS.  We fit comfortably.  It's immaculate.  It's warm and cushy, and the seat belts work.  

After the deal was done, we left the older silver van in the HyVee parking lot and all went off to Fuddruckers to have a celebratory dinner.  Let me tell you that the particular restaurant we went to was...ahem...less than hopping.  Everyone looked sad, and it made me kinda sad to watch all the other people.  Eventually we finished, pushed the kids back into the car, picked up the old van and headed home.  There is a comfy, safe van sitting in our garage.

And we are doing wonderfully, thank you.  :)