Not everyday is like today....thank goodness. I've had very few minutes at home today. Elijah's class did a wax museum. It was SO COOL! The kids wrote a report on someone who has influenced America. Then they had to memorize several seconds in preparation for the wax museum. On the big day, the kids dressed up like their character. This caused some unusual havoc in our home at the early hour of 8am.
Last night we had set aside Sunday dress clothes for Elijah to wear. His character was Shia LeBouef. Sadly, I had no idea who this is and said to him a few days ago, "You're going to dress up like a girl?"
He quickly corrected me. I was informed that Shia is a boy who is an actor in several recent movies. Anyway, back to this morning's havoc. After family prayer Elijah says, "Mom, I need to draw spots on my face."
It took me a moment to get it. He wanted to have a Go-T! Okay. So I pulled out my eye brow pencil that never gets used. Why did I buy that thing anyway? For moments like this. Ha ha! I am prepared. Spots it is. He goes and looks in the mirror and exclaims, "What? That's not black!" And the spots were wiped off very quickly.
Umm, who said he needed a black Go-T? He surely didn't. Go-T take two. Pull out the black eye liner....that never gets used. Once again spots are rapidly added to the chin and upper lip. Once again he looks in the mirror and becomes very upset, then removes the spots yet again. "The spots were too big."
By this time his ride is ready to go and he disappears out the door upset with me. Shia LaBouef did not have a Go-T today. So sad.
I quickly showered and dressed. I even put on makeup which is pretty rare for me to do during the week. I grabbed my temple bag and hurried off to the elementary school to the wax museum! After signing in at the office, I find Elijah's classroom. The school is set up in a circular fashion and I feel like I already passed it before I ever get to his classroom. Besides, who puts 4th & 5th grade after 1st grade? No wonder why I always feel like I missed it.
First person I see when I enter the classroom is Elijah's girlfriend, Jane. She's so cute. (She's also a twin and her brother is Elijah's best friend. Interesting, huh?) All the kids have a red sticker on their hand that is their button. So I pushed her button and she came to life and gave her speech and then froze back into a statue again. So cute! After pushing several more buttons, I finally look around and find my son and cross the room skipping half the class. I push his button and he did a magnificent job on his memorized speech about Shia LaBouef. I thought I had taken video of him but for some reason it didn't record. Matt would tell me it's PEBKAC. He's probably right, as usual.
I left the school at 9:50 and realized I was going to miss the 10am session at the temple. I had planned on attending the 11am anyway, thinking I'd spend more time in the classroom. Weighing my options, I decided to just enjoy the extra time reading scriptures while I waited.
Once the session ended I headed straight to a neighbor's house for an appointment to plan the elementary school t-shirts for next school year. How I got roped into being in charge of that, I'm not sure. The new PTA president (No names mentioned) somehow caught me on a good day and sweet talked me into it. Actually she nearly scared me out of it, but somehow I still said yes. I'm still not sure what I was thinking. I haven't served on the PTA in years. I'm a rebel that way. Anyway, my appointment was at 1pm and I got there a few minutes later. I had a granola bar that was practically melted on my way so that my stomach wouldn't do all the talking and forced myself to drink some hot water out of the collection of partially drunk water bottles floating around the car. Today would not be a good day for me to end up in the hospital due to dehydration.
After telling the t-shirt guy everything I don't want, I picked a couple colors, told him he had to be the creative one because my creative juices are fresh out and I left...much earlier than I'd expected, which bodes well for my to do list!!!
After rushing home I tell Sara to hurry and put on her shoes so we can make a quick trip to Walmart. She's got to pick out paint colors for her room. That's a great way to use my extra 50 minutes before my next appointment! Again I have to remind myself, I signed up for this. I'm the one that scheduled everything so far on this crazy day. What was I thinking? So I peel an orange and inhale it on the way to Walmart and send Sara off to look at paint swatches. I scurry through the gargantuan store that is big enough to be an alternative gym as I zigzag back and forth grabbing things that I need as well as things that should have been on my list...or at least I tell myself that to feel better about a couple small spontaneous purchases. Sara is still looking at colors. I decide to join her, but her tastes are much different than my own, so I'm not much help to her at all. But of course the super woman inside me says I could paint this room this color and all the halls this color and that room this color....and suddenly have at least a dozen color swatches of my own to pour through later!
I'm done looking and collecting paint swatches and Sara is still looking. It's time to go or I'll be late for my next appointment. Cash registers here I come. Sara will have to catch up. I text her which register I'm at and she joins me a couple minutes later.
My next appointment is for my haircut. I've been wanting to chop off the bulk so I'm not so hot during the day...or at night when I have the extra heat of the pillow. Gratefully, my hair dresser was not rushed and did a magnificent job and got me out the door to go back to the school to pick up kids. I'm end of the school day taxi driver and if I'm not there when the kids are on their way, they freak out thinking they've been forgotten. Heaven forbid I be just around the corner actually on my way!
On the way home Elijah reminds me I've approved for him to go to his best friend's house to play. Chores come first! But of course his chores are done in a jiffy and he wants me to take him NOW! UGH. Ten minutes from now I have to head out to run errands (Wait a minute, exactly what have I been doing all day if I'm just getting around to running errands?) and sit with Zack through his drum lessons. Elijah is frustrated he has to wait. But this taxi driver wants to avoid one zigzag back to the house in the process of the crazy day. Elijah will survive.
After sending Zack's friend home, Elijah, Zack and I pile into the taxi, I mean van and deliver Elijah to his best friend's house. So glad Josh is okay to hang out with Sara for awhile! But, one of the errands is for Sara. Before drum lessons, we head to Walgreen's to develop some pictures from an old 35mm disposable camera. YIKES! *heavy sigh*
Side story: Yesterday Sara had two guy friends over to make "blood cookies" (Red Velvet Cookies) for another guy friend who is on a mission. Anybody else see the irony? Pictures were taken and must be developed, thus the errand to Walgreen's, as they are the only ones left who develop 35mm one hour photo.
Off to drum lessons. Luckily Zack's drum teacher has two pairs of heavy duty headphones to help muffle the loudness of the drumming and music played on the huge sound system. I try to ignore it all while I sit and read my kindle for half an hour, pretending it's quality reading time. What was the Borg's theory? Oh, right. Resistance is futile. Most of the time I have to reread the page to process the words on the virtual page. But at least I can look cool sitting there with an entire library in my hands!
Drum lessons complete, back to running errands. The Water Mart is not far from drum lessons and we're fresh out, which is not good considering our tap water is SO very disgusting. Since I'm tired of running out of water so quickly now that summer is upon us, I decided to buy two more bottles to add to the collection. Hurray for yummy water!
Our hour is up and back to Walgreen's we go to pick up the film. Of course there's someone else at the film counter taking her sweet time while her children shop the rest of the store and bring her items to be approved for purchase, so while I waited, I shopped for a pair of sunglasses as mine have become scratched from constant use. After all, the taxi driver must be able to see the road through the rays of summer sunshine, right?
Home again, home again, jiggity, jig. Finally at home I collapse into my big chair beside my bed. Two minutes later Matt arrives home from work and we discuss how thoroughly worn out we are. Who needs dinner, right? Because neither of us have the energy to pursue anything in the kitchen. Popcorn sounded good to me! But we decided to go with fried chicken. After sitting for 15 minutes and realizing the chicken still wasn't cooking itself, I look at the clock and realize Sara needs to go to play practice. Don't shut the meter off on the taxi cab. Off we go...again.
Back at home, I look at the wall to see who has clear and set table tonight so that I can have some help getting dinner on. Matt has decided to cut up some potatoes to go with our fried chicken. YUM! I'm an Idaho girl and I love potatoes. Joshua offers to help chop the potatoes and I start hollering for Elijah. Again and again...wait a minute. If you've been following me closely, I never picked him up from his friend's house. HOLY COW! Seriously. Back to the van. If I had realized that you know, five minutes earlier, I could have picked him up on my way home from dropping Sara off. But NO! And yet this won't be my last trip out of the house today.
I collected Elijah and brought him home to get ready for dinner. I thought his chores were supposedly done! Oh well. Too late now. That's what I get for not checking on him. Mental note for next time. We finally sit down to dinner at 7:45 and my brain feels like mush. I'm in a bit of a haze. Dinner didn't sit so well. Too much fried food, I guess. The kids didn't mind, they still have rock hard stomachs that can handle anything.
Moments later the text arrives, "Mom, we're done."
If only I had the attitude of the old song, "Life is a highway, I'm gonna drive it all night long." But at least my sweet daughter didn't start walking home tonight. Someday she will have her license so that a percentage of my taxi driving will decrease. I often ask myself, "Self, is it worth it to have a third vehicle to have to put gas into and maintain just so the teenagers don't crash the family vehicles while driving themselves around so that I can have a break?"
The answer is yet to be seen. But apparently the answer is supposedly yes since I have a fixed up clunker in my driveway waiting to be registered, then driven by a girl who is not supposed to be old enough to be hanging out with boys and talking about her first date. Where did the time go? Not just today, but years. Where have the years gone?
Sitting in a daze I wonder if I have enough umph left to make it to the gym for a workout. I guess I should have dragged my butt out of bed at 6am to do that. The gym closes in less than half an hour. Then again, maybe I should skip getting into the van again, and just go for a walk. My big dog, Nanna would sure like that. Will I? I don't know if there's anything left in me tonight.
If only I had a clone. It would be so nice to have one of me home to do the dishes and the laundry and get the house clean, as well as work on the major projects like tearing carpet out and painting rooms while I'm off in my taxi van, zigzagging through time. Oh well. The house gets to be a mess. It's okay I guess. We live here.
