What a Friday!

Do you ever have those days where you have it planned out and you’re certain you will accomplish your  complete “to do list?” Well, that was my intention for Friday. The kids were home because it was Good Friday and my nephew Mitchell was staying with us, too.  So, my plan was to go to the grocery store, get the ingredients for weekend menus, come home, fix lunch, let the kids play and tackle my “to do list.”  On the way to the store Shealyn asked if we could show Mitchell the park.  I decided we would stop and the kids could have 15 minutes to burn up some energy and I also secretly hoped it would make the trip to the grocery store with 4 kids easier.  We stopped, we played and then………….an alarm going off…………my alarm going off…………….I have no keys!!  My keys have fallen out of my pocket.  Shealyn and Carter retraced our steps in the play area while Mitchell, Payton and I retraced our walk to the pond and back.  No luck.  No keys.  The kids keep playing, I keep looking and asking everyone on  the playground  if they have seen a single black key.  Still, no luck.  I decided to retrace my steps to the pond and back one more time (because that’s wehre I was coming from when I first heard the alarm.)   As I’m coming back up from the pond this time I notice my alarm has stopped so I’m a bit excited thinking  one of the kids has found the key.  Well, that wasn’t to be the case.  Instead, my alarm has stopped and my hatch is open and all of the doors to the van are unlocked.  Nothing missing, just a wide open van. I grabbed my purse and locked all the doors except the driver’s door and went back to the playground to start asking if anyone had found my key.  Still no key.  Now I’ve come to the conclusion that some small child picked up my key and started pushing buttons and is probably long gone and mom and dad will discover the valuable treasure their child has hidden deep in their pockets either at bath time or laundry day.

My next dilemma, I have no phone.  Once I was ready to head out the door to the store with 4 kids I went and didn’t grab my phone.  Anyway, some nice lady let me use her phone and my first call was to my insurance agent because I have roadside service. My luck did not turn around……………the number I had did not work. Hmmmm……what to do………..Clark is 40 miles away and the one friend’s number I know by heart is gone all day?  I had no choice, I called Clark, explained the situation, told him he had no way to call me back, and trusted he was going to get to me or find someone to get to me and the 4 kids.  Did I mention it’s now lunch time and I have nothing?  Oh yeah, and Mitchell is allergic to bees and I didn’t grab his EPI pen because it was a quick trip to the grocery store.  So, we sat and waited and waited.  The kids are still playing and enjoying the extended play time, but that soon turns into cries of “I’m hungry, what are we going to do for lunch?”  I’m still thinking I hope Clark can get here soon or found someone to come and get us.  I decided to make one more trip to the pond and as I was down there I hear, “are you Kim?” Clark had called back the number that I had called him on and the lady happened to be getting ready to leave the park, but found me.  He had gotten a hold of his mom and she was on her way.  Great!  At least I know a time frame now. Then I start thinking ….. where are my keys?  Remember I was in a hurry, so it was my spare key I grabbed this morning because I wasn’t sure or didn’t want to take the time to find my regular set of keys.  Judy got there, brought us home and it took all of us coming in to look.  Shealyn found them for me….whew!  We went back to the park, got the van, came home and ate lunch and I started mentally preparing to make the non stop trip to the grocery store while I was finishing up my lunch when Clark walked in.  Yes!!!!!  The kids got to play and I got to go to the store by MYSELF!  It wasn’t at all how I planned for my day to go, but in the end it all turned out okay.

Shealyn’s Battle of the Books

Shealyn had her competition yesterday.  Since I had been through one a couple of days before she had the butterflies for both of us.  My co coach and I had to take a whole different approach with the older girls.  Yes, we were an all girl team!!!  Number one, their books are much more involved and you’re just kind of hoping that you managed to touch on any possible detail that might be asked.  We also made it a point to really talk about the concepts, settings, and characters with the girls so they would be better able to decipher a question by reasoning if they were confused by a question.  Again, we (my co coach Michele and I) had no clue what to expect.  We were new to this as were our girls.  There were only 4 teams at this age level and many of them with experience since they had been in Kindergarten.  At the half the girls had missed 3 and if Shealyn had had the confidence to challenge a question she would have been right.  It was cute, she came up to me at intermission and told me about the question.  It was too late to challenge it then, but I told her to go tell Mrs. Warren (the question reader) and SHE WOULD  HAVE CHALLENGED CORRECTLY!!!!  Chalk it up to a learning experience!  Shealyn and another little girl were pretty frustrated that they had already missed 3.  We encouraged them, pepped them up and told them to keep working together as a team and to HAVE FUN!!!

I believe they missed another 3 during the 2nd half (I was judging again).  Needless to say they didn’t win, but at least 3 of the girls had fun and the coaches daughters…..ahem….I won’t mention names are still a little frosty with each other.  Michele and I spent the afternoon together yesterday, have burned the phone lines and talked at their softball practice again last night and have decided these are growing pains and with encouragement from mom’s will have to work through this.

Each girl thought the other was shooting dirty looks at them trying to get the team captain to pick their answer.  Both of our girls are bright and paid more attention to detail and were right more than the captain was in instances when the team was divided on an answer.  In my mind I believe they were both truly more frustrated at the captain and just are uncertain of how to voice that to each other.  And, I’ve been trying to tell Shealyn that we all perceive things differently i.e. facial expressions.  I keep reminding Shealyn this is not a big deal and nothing to lose a friend over…..they’ll work through it and I’m sure all things will be fine when they play their game tomorrow.

Side note:  I’m so glad I have found a friend down here that we can talk candidly about our daughters and their imperfections and still maintain a friendship.

Regardless, all the drama aside,  I think they had fun and have definitely learned a lot and know how to better prepare themselves if they choose to do this again.   I know Michele and I learned how to better prepare them!  We had a great group of girls and until competition day all got along…..sigh!

Good Job Gert…I love you and am proud of you!!!!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I really need to get more consistent with these because I know they will be priceless 20 years down the road! 

The other day I was brushing Payton’s hair getting ready to put it up.  She gets that little fountain looking ponytail on top of her head everyday because she is growing out her bangs.  I’m fine with that, but my rule is I have to be able to see those baby blues :0  Anyway, Im getting ready to pull it up after all the tangles are out and I can only see one of her eyes at the moment.  And she pipes in with:

Hey mom, look!  Only one of my eyes is growed in.

Me–really, only one is growed in?

P–yep

I keep brushing and now we’re getting a glimpse of that 2nd eye.

P–Hey, now they’re both growed in!

Trust me, I correct my kids on their grammar because …………..just because, but this one was too cute and I had to go with it.

Someday, I’ll have to do a reflection post on all the cute words that are now part of our household and many other’s vocabulary thanks to our 3 munchkins!!