My Day Off?

The full-time staff at The Job had CPR training today. While it's certainly been awhile since I was certified, I saw it as a good opportunity for some quality time at home. (The last time I took that class, it was at an R.S. sister's home in Tucson. Only Anne and I showed up for the class and she was reluctant to demonstrate choking manuevers on me because I was barely pregnant with Natalie.) The problem is, I never WAS home today.

First, I took the kids to school and spent half and hour collecting candy money in the office. Then, I dropped by the spring kids' consignment sale and made myself all sad by looking at all the cute baby stuff and realizing that I will never again have a use for any of that in my home. (Not that I really want to...endings are just sad.) To cheer myself up, I went to Wal-Mart for the new People magazine and to buy bottled waters because we re-opened the school store today. So, I raced back from Wal-Mart to the school because if you don't fire up the popcorn machine by 10:45, it isn't ready in time for the kids at 11:10. I'm proud to say I worked all three hours without burning a single batch of popcorn OR eating a lot of junk. I bought some hummus dip and carrot sticks at Wal-Mart and stuck to those. Once the store was closed down and cleaned up, I had to make my afternoon plea for kids to turn in candy money. By then, all I could do was wait 20 minutes in the car for the kids to get done with school. I took my two little car-poolers home and no sooner did we leave their driveway than the gas light beeped on my dashboard. One trip to 7/11 and $50 some-odd dollars later, I decided just to take the kids to grandma's without bothering to go home.

Tonight was Cousin J's birthday and I wanted to get him a present. Once my mom and grandmother were there to help him with my kids, I left to do just that. I also picked up some pizza while I was out, just like I told my mom I would. I got back to grandma's only to find that they had ordered some and had it delivered already. Nice.(Mom is like that) Fortunately, there was lots of company tonight and it got eaten anyway. I had to live in the middle of the party to help set up for a geneology conference tomorrow ("Land Run" themed, of course), but made it back in plenty of time for cake. (I wish I could say I skipped it, but I didn't. At least the rest of my day was spent eating well.) Both of my sister's brought their computers and we had a little LAN party going on in an obscure corner of grandma's house. From there, I listened to Aunt M raving to Natalie about all the healthy benefits of drinking coffee-she was trying hard to push my buttons, but I didn't let it happen. (Much to the disappointment of my mom.) I was having too much fun with my sisters. Besides, you aren't going to convince a 9 year-old to like coffee no matter where she goes to church.

The gift-opening provided the usual entertainment of mom only getting half of what she meant to give him into the package. (An all-time low of ONE sock and an empty envelope where the card should have been, plus a super-fancy shaving kit missing some of it's accessories. Quintessential Mom...) On Caroline's recommendation, I picked out some "freaky and evil" things because "that's what Cousin J loves." However, since I don't share his love of all things gory, I improvised. I got him a Blockbuster gift card so he can pick out his own scary movies, then went to the Dollar store for some tacky fun. I grabbed a package of gummy rat-shaped candy (I'd call that freaky and evil) then as I considered a very ugly piggy bank with the words "kiss me" on the side, I was nearly accosted by an elderly lady who saw it and liked it and was very agitated that I had it when it was the LAST ONE! Oh yeah, I got it for him. Knowing he had deprived a grumpy old lady of her tacky knick-knack was the icing on his birthday cake.

Finally, I realized at about 10 p.m. that I was starting to feel dead on my feet. I gathered up the kids, but not without a party balloon popping and much fighting over goodies in their treat bags. (Cousin J spoils them rotten...but you've gotta love him for loving them that much.) The good news is that all the whining and fighting must have exhasted them, because they were all asleep within 30 minutes of returning home. And since I've got to put in guest appearances at the aforementioned conference, a late lunch with my friends, and a youth dance tomorrow-I had best be sleeping myself. Not much of a day off, I guess, but does a mom ever really get one?