a long, drawn out, rambly post about my day.....and at the end, a request for a slacker-mommy support group

So today was a very nice day. I feel like I was not as grumpy as I have been lately. That probably sounds bad. I haven't been THAT bad, but maybe some of you could relate.....I've just been grumpy. Not today though. Today was nice. And not just because we were all dressed in green.

It started out with green pancakes :) One of the dorky little traditions I try to do every year. My kids are really forgetful when it comes to the lame stuff I call tradtions though, they never remembered me doing this before :) They were somewhat thrilled this time though (for some odd reason). I distinctly remember them being really grossed out one of the years.

Anyway.

It was such a nice and sunny day today I decided the boys and I were going to walk to the school to pick up Kelly. Actually, now that I think about it, it was Brad's idea. On the way home from taking them, he announced that he wanted to go for a walk. a long one. So we loaded up the double stroller. I was feeling really confident about this walk because I had remembered EVERYTHING!! Diaper bag, extra pants and underwear, food, water, tire pump, etc- just in case. Sometimes I don't take everything because I hate overpacking, but today was different, and I was happy about that. So off we went. Bradley and Luke were both walking and Noah was in the stroller. Luke is a slow-walker, so I nagged him a lot to hurry up because I really wasn't sure how long it would take us to get there, not sure what hang ups we might have. Bradley complained about his stomach hurting a little too, which I assume was a cramp. But they really did well. Especially for how steep 400 North is. If you've never been on it- it's like a straight down DROP when you're walking. I felt like I was going to fall over backward I was leaning back so far to keep the stroller and I from falling forward. I really don't think I've ever taken a walk down that road. I remember walking down to Nate's work when we lived here before, but we went down 500 South then. This was just a whole new experience for me. The boys really loved throwing "ticks" (why can brad say the "s" at the end of the word, but not the beginning?? so strange!) in the "river". Reminded me of our walks in Alaska.

So anyway.

We got to the school, took a potty break, picked up Kelly, and headed back on up the hill for our picnic in the park. About a block away from the park I realized Kelly was doing the potty dance, so we had to go back to the school and she ran in to relieve herself. A few minutes later she came out with a really embarrassed look on her face....she had not made it to the bathroom in time. Poor Kelly....I can't remember the last time she had an accident, and extra pants for HER were not on my list of extras to bring with us. RATS! She didn't want to walk (and who can blame her) so I let her sit in the stroller. We figured her pants would be dry by the time we got to the park and she could play (even though she PROMISED Dr. Woiczik she wouldn't play on playgrounds for the next month!). Well, I don't know if it's just because I was panting so hard or what, but every breath of air that came through my nose had the distinct odor of pee soaked pants and socks. So gross. That is not my favorite smell. The hill going up to the park was pretty much the same steepness of 400 North, and I was having THE HARDEST time pushing Kelly and Noah up the hill, so I made Kelly get out of the stroller (mean mom) at least till we got to the top. I am in REALLY bad shape, I seriously don't know how I made it up that hill at all, much less with the stroller and kids in tow.

So anyway.

We got to the park. I flopped down on the bench and didn't move a muscle for at least a half hour. The kids ate their weird lunch (we just brought whatever we could find out of the pantry because we were all out of all the stuff to complete most lunch foods.....time to go grocery shopping) and I talked to this girl from Kansas the whole time. She was pretty nice. She didn't have a lot of nice things to say about Bountiful (she had grown up here and moved a few years ago). But she kept telling me how "normal" and "down to earth" I was. I'm not exactly sure what that meant, but I took it as a compliment. "Normal" is not the word I would use to discribe myself, but it seems like something desirable.

So anyway.

After about an hour of sitting there wondering how I would get out of my seat, get my kids together, and haul our fannies the rest of the way home.....my dad showed up!!! Talk about saving the day! He had been driving by and saw us there! What a coincidence!!! (even though I don't believe in coincidences) So he played for a minute and then offered to take some kids home with him. SO NICE!!! Luke wasn't really paying attention when I offered him the ride home, so he missed out, but Kelly and Bradley rode home with grandpa. This made my walk home a little lighter. We ran into my new Visiting Teacher who came running across the street apologizing for missing me. I immediately assumed I had planned a visit with her and forgotten, so I played along and said it was fine. Later on in the conversation we realized that I hadn't gotten the message where she told me she was going to go on a walk at 11:00 and end up at the park at 12:00 and I was invited to come. She thought she had missed me there and essentially stood me up. I explained to her that I never did get the message, but that I have chronic forgetfulness, so even if I had and she had stood me up I probably wouldn't have remembered it :) Funny stuff. Anyway. It made me happy to know that she had even invited me. She's my new friend. We met at the RS Birthday dinner, and that's when we found out she was my VT. We keep running into each other now. She totally reminds me of my VT in AK. Yes, you, Charity. She kind of looks like you and acts like you....just a real sweetheart. She seems like good friend material basically :) So we talked for a minute and then I made the trek with my little chatterbox Luke up the hill. I'm really glad that there is nothing wrong with my heart because this would have definitely pushed me over the edge I think. Luke kept trying to figure out where we were going- our house, or grandpa's house. When we were going to be there. If that car was Grandpa's. or that one. or that one. or that one. And where "the kids" were. Referring to Brad and Kelly I assumed. Then he started getting mad at me because I wasn't answering the question, "what are you talking about?" When I could hardly breathe much less talk. Nutty little kid, that's for sure.

So anyway.

We got home and vegged for the next hour until it was time to get Charity. Yes, that HUGE walk only killed about 3 hours. I was surprised. Now you're really thinking I'm a wuss huh! I actually really enjoyed the walk. I don't think I'll do it again anytime soon, but it was nice to get outside.

I let the boys sleep, and Kelly played computer (thanks to Grandpa) when I went to pick up Charity and Nate. Just Noah and I. Charity was absolutely ADORABLE when she got to the car. She just had the HUGEST smile on her face (which was REALLY exciting considering the last couple of weeks of frowns and tears). I was so happy and had to ask her why the huge smile. This is probably one of my favorite moments of the day, she said, "I got your note!" We had forgotten to make her lunch the night before, so I had had to make it and take it to her after school started. I had left her a little note on a paper towel in her lunch, and apparently it had made her day!!!! I couldn't believe it!! She was so cute about it, "I didn't even wipe my face on it!" And actually at dinner tonight she asked if she could hang it up in her room :) Am I flattered??....you bet! What a sweetie. She was really talkative on her way home. She said she shared her cookies with two friends. She was really excited to have a shamrock painted on her face. And oh! the funniest part was, "When I was opening up my lunch box, I said to my friends, 'my mom had better have packed a dessert or SHE'S DEAD!!!'" She was totally laughing about it and so I couldn't help but smile. She's so funny. She made sure to tell me that she didn't really mean it.

We went and got Nate and then stopped at the store for a few things (you know, all the stuff to make our lunches more complete). Charity soaked up all the attention from Nate and I. And we headed home. Nate and Charity got right on planning our little St. Patrick's Day "Pot of Gold/Leprechaun hunt". Last year we did this where we hid a pot of gold "from a leprachaun" and Charity was completely devastated to find that it was merely a pot of gold wrappered candy. She stopped believing in Leprachauns as well. So this year, we let her be in on the planning. Come to find out later she hated it and wants to spend next year's pot of gold hunt "in her room". Bummer. But the other kids had a blast! Nate made a little treasure hunt for them where they searched for green things. They walked all through the neighborhood and ended up in the back yard where the pot (it was a bucket this year) of gold (again, just candy) was waiting. They like the candy :) Charity was annoyed that we wouldn't let her "find" it and made her kind of hang back and let the little ones see it first. She was the one that hid it. Are we bad parents?? Anyway. That was my fun day :) I liked it. This is one of the posts I would normally put on my journal blog, but for some reason I felt like putting it on here. Maybe it's just because I was sick of seeing that ugly picture of me from the post about Charity's birthday. Sorry to bore you all.


I did have a few thoughts today that I want to get out there.....hopefully I'm not the only one. After all the blogs I read, I start to feel like I'm "not the only one" in MOST situations, so here I go.....

Does anyone else ever feel like they're lost as to which school things to make a big deal about and go overboard for, and which ones to just take it easy on????? I feel like I NEVER KNOW!!! Last week Charity did a report (and by report I mean 5 lines about Airplanes), but she had to do it orally in front of the whole class. I had thought about sending a little toy airplane with her or something, ya know, a visual aide, but because of how casual the whole thing seemed (based on how the teacher hardly even told us about it) I thought maybe that was overdoing it. So I didn't. But then today she and Grandpa Hatch were doing her next report together. This one is on Rhinos, and she came downstairs with this huge picture of a Rhino they had printed off his commputer. I said, "WOW! That's cool, is that for your report??"
"uh huh!"
"wow! Can you use a picture for your report?"
"YEAH! Totally! You can use anything for reports!"
"Well, why didn't you tell me that?? (she probably didn't know, duh) We could have sent a toy plane or something to hold up for your last one!"
"Yeah, that would have been really cool! That's what lots of other people did."

Well that would have been nice to know!!!!!!!!! So then I feel like the slacker mom that didn't send anything before.

Then along those same lines, Kelly's friend stopped by tonight (not sure how they know where we live), and brought her a small piece of paper telling her that "in lieu of Katrina's birthday tomorrow....." basically she's supposed to bring a toy that she doesn't want anymore to trade with the kids in her class, tomorrow!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO CUPCAKES???????

Sometimes I'm so blown away by the things parents do. Sometimes I will go overboard or the extra mile, but seems like everytime I do- it's when you don't need to, or it's silly to. Does anyone get this??? Please tell me you feel the same!!!!

Couldn't teachers just color code their assignments or something?

RED =GO OVERBOARD and spend more money, time and energy than you could possibly imagine for something that will last 5 minutes and then be thrown away.
YELLOW =THIS IS ASSIGNED TO THE CHILD, BUT IT'S REALLY THE PARENT THAT WILL COMPLETE THE ASSIGNMENT (you wouldn't want your child to show up with something that looks like a Kindergartener did it would you??)
GREEN= this isn't all that big of a deal....relax, don't spend any money, in fact, don't even bother doing it if you don't have the time.

I can't count the times we stayed up all night doing projects when I was a kid only to have them be a GREEN assignment! Something that didn't absolutely need to be done. I really hate it when that happens with my kids. WHen you're asked to send something so you wake up at 4:00 in the morning to rush to the store to get it, using the last little bit of cash left till payday, not wanting your kid to show up empty-handed, only to find out that "I was the only one who brought something!" UGH. What do you do???

Okay, sorry, done complaining about that.

What else was I going to complain about??? hmmmm......can't remember. I am a complainer, I should have something...... oh well.

Guess I'll have to remember it later. Anyway. Sorry for the long post (that is if anyone even got this far :)---I'm thinking you should get at least 10 points for this one)