Running Errands

I was cleaning up my blog a bit and came across this unpublished draft.  It is dated 2010 so the kids were 1, 4, and 6.
I remembered the otherwise forgettable day as I was reading it...this is why I blog (and why I am bummed I don't make time to write more); one day these memories will be here for my kids to read and feel immense guilt for what they have put their dear momma through.

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My computer has been sick lately so I decided to take advantage of the warranty and send it in for repair or replacement. Before sending it in I wanted to get my precious photographs from the hard drive since I am stupid and never bothered to back them up before now. I am too busy with kids to do it myself so I paid someone else to do it for me. The peace of mind knowing it is finally done is worth every penny. :)

Earlier in the week I decided to bring the laptop in. I dropped it off, treated myself to a rare breakfast out with my darlings, and ran my errands while we were already dressed and out of the house. Then we came home and enjoyed the hot afternoon in the pool together. My helpful hubby happily picked up the laptop on his way home from work and we all relaxed around the supper table eating and sharing anecdotes from our day.

That's how the day was planned in my head. This is how it went down in reality:

We woke up and the children immediately started arguing and yelling amongst themselves. We did a school project in a vain attempt to distract their attention from bickering. It took me 10 minutes to set up the supplies for the craft and about 3 minutes for them to complete the craft and move onto something else. Then another 15 minutes of clean up. After we finished school (Sarah actually did rather well and sat for 45 minutes straight practicing handwriting and flashcards), we got dressed. By "dressed" I mean "found the least offensive ensembles that we could off of the floor". It felt much, much later than it was. The clock my room claimed it was just after 10 am so I loaded the kids in the carseats and headed into town. It was only then I realized someone had pushed the hour button on my clock and it was really only 9 am. An hour before the stores open. Too much time to sit there and wait, not enough to just go back home. WOOHOO-Hardee's breakfast!! I decided against eating inside the restaurant on account of all the errands I still needed to do, and the kids needed to stay somewhat presentable. So after getting food from the drive thru we sat in the car in the parking lot to eat and wait for the store to open. The kids were very excited to be treated to fast food for breakfast...so excited that they wolfed down their food in just a few minutes. I quickly grew clausterphobic as the minutes ticked by. So we went down the street to a nearby playground. Finally! The hour was up and we were loading up again when I realized the little one needed a diaper change. To my horror, and despite my begging him not to, Rick cleaned my truck. This includes taking everything not bolted down-such as diapers and wipes and spare clothing-out of the truck and putting it somewhere useless to me, like the utility room. So we were stranded at the playground with stinky baby and no way to un-stinky him. Since I needed to go to Wal-Mart anyways I figured I'd just buy diapers and wipes once I was there. So we booked it back to the mall (this was an emergency and could not wait till Wal-Mart) and went into the first department store we came upon to use their facilities. Their facilities had no baby changing table so poor Luke had to stand there in the middle of the bathroom stall while I stripped him and cleaned him up with wet paper towels. The carseat didn't do me any favors and neither did my daughter, who refused to get near Luke in order to hold his shirt up out of the way of danger. This was a messy situation. I pulled up his shorts over his naked butt, but his shirt was not salvagable. So I tied it up to cover up the "yucky" part and decided to just get my computer to the shop and count my losses and go home before any other disasters occured. While I was telling the computer guy what I needed I was silently praying Luke wouldn't pee all over the store. Fortunately, he didn't. Sarah and Patrick were occupying themselves quite nicely and I gathered them up and practically ran to the car so we could retreat to the solace of our home. Once we were all in the car Sarah sadly announced her tooth fairy money that she had in her pocket (the tooth fairy splurged on tooth #2 and gave a whole dollar!) was gone. Sigh. Back into the mall. We trapsed along and searched, but to no avail. I comforted Sarah by explaining she had made someone else's day by giving him or her the chance to find a dollar on the ground. Sarah had to learn the hard way to be more careful with special things like money...she wasn't able to buy the gum she had her heart set on.

I was so happy when we pulled up into the safety of our driveway. I got the half naked boy out of the car and we went inside for a nice bath (yes, it was so bad that he needed one). By that time four hours had gone by and all I had managed to do was drop off the laptop and spend/lose a dozen dollars.

THIS is exactly why we hardly ever leave the house. ;)