What a Day!!!

I had two main objectives for this day today, the twelfth day of February 2008. #1 I wanted to make these valentines for Joshua to take to his Valentine exchange party at pre-school on Thursday, and #2 I wanted to make a certain dinner for a certain someone who requests it from me occasionally, and when I don't bring it very often he sings, "You don't bring me lasagna anymore. . ." Sooooooo, since his wife is feeling really crumby and sick and is presently two states away from him, my husband thought that making his buddy lasagna might be a nice idea, and I agreed.



So, I got Joshua out the door with his Daddy, and then turned around and hurried my other two little men through eating breakfast, getting dressed, and the in general getting ready. to. go. Most likely if a little birdie had been spying on me, he would have heard me say my two most commonly used hurried expressions, "Come on let's GO, GO, GO!" and "Chop Chop!" 50+ times in thirty minutes. I finally got everything together, sippy cups, cheerios, grocery list, Wal-Mart list, and a miniscule amount of sanity that I still had at this point in the day. So, we headed out the door.



I opened Elijah's side van door, and all seemed to be working fine, so I put the cute little mister in his carseat. But, when I went to shut the door it wouldn't shut on its own. I had to manually shut it. Oh, yes. I atttempted JCT's side van door, and it wouldn't open for me. I tried cranking the van. Dead. Silence. Nothing. I sat there for a minute my brain reeling. I had way too much to do today for this to happen. So, I did what I always do when I am in a bind.



I called my calm, reassuring, always has an answer for everything, and never gets his feather's ruffled husband, and I did what I do best - gave him an earful. The poor man has an office full of patients, office staff standing in line with questions regarding the health and well being of real people with real life and death situations, and his wife is on the other end of his cell phone nagging him about a dead battery and how am I going to pick up Joshua, and Deana B isn't here, and I need help, and I gotta get to Wal-Mart, and Sean's lasagna is going to have to wait, and this is too much I can't handle it, help me, pray for my nerves today, this is over the top, and now my cell phone battery is dying too, and I've already called AAA like 3 times in the past 6 months for tire related problems, and do they handle batteries in cars, and I can't put 3 carseats in your Expedition, and how in the world will I get this battery replaced with all the other bazillion things that I have to do, and with three children hanging all over me, tell me, Erik how, how, how. . .



If you know my husband, he very calmly reassured me that all would be fine, and he sent one of the girls from his office with his Expedition. She helped me get the little boy's carseats in his truck, and off I went to Wal-Mart and the grocery. Our Wal-Mart shopping trip was rather uneventful, reminiscent of the days when Joshua was 2 and JCT was a baby. My main objective at Wal-Mart was finding a heart-shaped muffin tin for making the heart-shaped multi-colored crayons that go along with the valentine I wanted to make for Joshua's classmates. Found it! Got it! After a bit more shopping, I made my way to the check out counter only to find that JCT had added an additional item to my shopping cart, white decorator icing. Not a problem. In fact, I had been planning to make cookies for valentines day, so I let the cashier ring up JCT's bonus item. But, I neglected to notice that the heart-shaped muffin tin, mysteriously, was not among the items being rung up. Several hours later when the rain was pouring, Joshua was home, Elijah was ready for a nap, and the boys needed to eat lunch, I noticed that the heart-shaped muffin tin was not only not in any of my bags from Wal-Mart, but also it was not on my reciept. And, that meant one thing and one thing only. . . JCT had disposed of it somewhere in that large store we like to refer to as the place of eternal destruction. So, what did I do?



Why, I called Erik, of course.



And, I assure you that he was very glad to hear from me because I was a regular ray of sunshine on this rainy day. And, it was one something, and he still was seeing his morning patients because it is "sick" season, and knowing that he was busy and had much better things to do, still I called and still he listened, calmly.



And, that ladies and gentlemen is why I married him.



He sat very quietly, peacefully actually, once again while I explained how I really wanted to get these valentines made with Joshua during JCT's naptime today, and I have to have the heart-shaped muffin tin in order to make the valentines, and it's raining cats and dogs, and tomorrow is our out of town day so I can't make the valentines tomorrow, so I have to do it today, and it is already one o' clock, and if I don't make these valentines then I will have to search the internet for another kind to make and that could take hours, and I don't have time for that, and yeah, I guess I could have just used store bought valentines, but really I love crafts and I want Joshua to be part of this, besides I looked at Wal-Mart and all they had were silly cartoon characters, and I love paper crafts, and so does Joshua, but what do I do because I don't want to take Joshua to Wal-Mart without a carseat, but there is no other way to get there, and I really need to get there, and it is raining, and I'll have to get everyone out, and we'll all get soaked, and I know Wal-Mart is super close to our house, but what if we got in an accident, and what if the seatbelt wasn't enough to save Joshua, and I could never, ever forgive myself, even though we do live in a state that says it is okay for Joshua to be out of a carseat, still, I can't do it, Erik, but I really want that heart shaped muffin tin right now so I can make the valentines during naptime, and it is naptime now, so what do I do, what, what, what???



What did he say? He offered to borrow Sean's car, get the muffin tin, and bring it to me during his lunch break - which was already almost over. And, of course, I wouldn't let him do that. So, I loaded the kids up and drove the Expedition no faster than 25 mph all the way to Wal-Mart. We got the muffin tin, the only one left, and were home all in less than 20 minutes - one of the few perks of living in a small town!

I got the little boys down for naps, let the dog tinkle, and then tackled the valentine craft with Joshua! I highly recommend this craft! Watching the crayons melt was very fun, and you really cannot mess this craft up! Very fun and pretty!



I have no idea why I am writing all of this. Maybe it is therapy for me now that the stress of the day is over. What happened this evening is another post for another time, another day. I am too tired to tackle it tonight. At present, Vannie still sits stone cold in the garage. But, after Erik finishes coaching his Upwards Basketball team, he is hopefully going to bring home a new battery for our sweet Van that I love and miss. One day without her, reminded me of how thankful I am for her. I will never again take for granted wide opening, automatic doors, and DVD players.

And, here is a picture of what success looks like, resilience, not giving up nor backing down in the face of adversity. . .

I know that the day would have been a lot easier had I just made a simple paper valentine. But, hey, Joshua's classmates will get a cool multi-colored heart-shaped crayon with their valentine, and that makes the whole day worth it. . .

Not really.

Oh, well, so I blew today out of proportion. That happens occasionally in my world. Tomorrow is a new day, and His mercies are new each morning! I am claiming that as I put an end to this whirlwind of a day!