This morning I woke up at 5:45, texted Sara to make sure she was awake, chatted by text for a few moments, then went back to sleep. At 6:45 my alarm went off again. I sluggishly rolled out of bed, threw some clothes and shoes on, and went down stairs to wake up the kids.
To my surprise, I found Angel up and dressed, blaring his MP3 player (I didn't know they did that) and banging on the kids' doors to wake them up. Apparently he was in a hurry to get to school. So I dragged all of the sleepy kids out of bed (sometimes literally) and took Angel to school.
After coming home, I fell back into bed for a 2 hour nap (hey, I went to bed at 2 AM! I needed it!). I woke up at 9:45, showered, dressed, and left to go to American Fork (a 15 minute drive) to pick up two Kindergartners.
I grabbed them, dropped off one at his house, and came home. Had a nice chat with Peter for a few moments and then it was time to get the rest of them ready. Lisa is a late riser and loves spending the morning in her crib. Thank goodness for that one. I got her up, then went to go get the preschooler ready. Problem was, I couldn't find her.
I searched the house, and eventually found her based on the giggles coming from the girls' bathroom downstairs. She had decided to take a bath with Mandy, and the two of them were in the bathtub. I then spent the next 15 minutes hunting all over the house for an outfit that fit Stephanie.
The laundry has been all mixed up lately. All of the kids used to have a laundry day, their clothes were kept separate, and things were organized. At least it was that way when I had a nanny. Now it's kind of a free for all. At dinner we'll find out who doesn't have clothes for the next day, gather up a load of laundry, and have it done that night. There is a bonus: to avoid the chaos, Sara, Megan, and Angel do all of their own laundry!
So I was eventually able to throw a pair of pants and undies to Stephanie. Fortunately she had a shirt, because I couldn't find one. Then we did the "shoe hunt" whereby we go through the house looking for two of the same shoe that are also the same size, fit the kid reasonably well, and has one left foot and one right foot. I know that sounds odd, but my girls like the same shoes, so you're more than likely to find two pink sparkle shoes, but they're two sizes apart and both the left foot. It's never one of each foot. Never.
So we eventually found two white tennis shoes with red yard for laces that fit her well enough that she didn't walk out of them. Most days lately it's been dress up shoes. I swear I bought her tennis shoes for the winter, (pink, sparkles, and princesses--you can't go wrong with that!) but alas, they too are missing. We then also found her backpack (in the coat closet--who knew!) and her coat (in the white van). Then daddy took her to preschool while I hurried and ate lunch.
If you're thinking that I'm being pretty thorough and forgot to mention feeding the kids lunch, you're very observant. But I actually did forget to feed the kids lunch. Fortunately they have a daddy who remembers such things and fed them.
After that it was time to run to the school for a "brief" parent/teacher/counselor/social worker meeting. Apparently Jeffrey's failing the fifth grade. He passes all the tests, he's brilliant, but he just doesn't care. He'd rather learn about science or art, make sculptures or talk to friends. But not turn in homework. The teacher can't figure it out either. He'll do an assignment in class, and then "lose it" while walking across the room. It's a mystery as to where these assignments go. I also found out that my kids aren't bringing lunch to school. So now they have to show me their lunch before they can get in the car. No more "It's in my backpack" or "I already put it in the car, I promise!".
The meeting went later than I had anticipated, and by the time I got downstairs they were already announcing that a "big white van is blocking the carpool lane". I had thought I would make it out in time to move it, but no. (Just for your information, I was in line, but I wasn't the first in line. So I was blocking two spaces in front of me. That's all I swear!).
I dropped my friends kids off at her house, then stopped by Gabe's new project house around the corner from ours to check it out. They were jack hammering the concrete basement floor today. I just had to stop by and see how they're doing! I'm actually the designer on that house. It's been a fun project to work on. In the mean time, Jeffrey and Julia ran all through the house, around the house, and into the mud puddle out back. Needless to say, they weren't getting back in my van. They walked home. While I was talking to Gabe outside with the jackhammer going inside, Kimberly called to "remind" me that I was picking up the High Schoolers today because she was getting her stitches out (she got bit in the face by a dog). I had no idea. She claims she told me and I forgot, but I don't remember. Anyway, Gabe was laughing at me. He thinks I'm a complete ditz.
So I drove Megan home, then ran inside and switched car keys. Jeffrey and Julia then came with me and we went and picked up Stephanie. She had a difficult time at preschool because the teacher "forgot to remind her to go potty" (her words) and she wet her pants. So she got to sit on a plastic bag on the way home.
When I got home, Peter kindly put a few gallons of gas in the Honda for me while I ran inside for a potty break. (We're always running out of gas, so we keep 5 gallon gas cans in the garage for emergencies. Somehow, we're always having emergencies.) Then I got to fight pre-rush hour traffic to drive down to Springville to pick up three teenagers. The fun part was dropping one of them off in Provo. We had to take the Provo Center Street exit and turn left. If any of you have ever tried that, you'll know the mess I'm talking about. Some cycles of lights, no one gets to turn. Others, maybe one or two cars can go. Don't get me started on UDOT and their road construction. That's a subject for a different blog. The important point is that all of the teens got to the proper home safely.
While driving home, Sara reminded me that she has roadshow practice tonight and has to be in full costume and makeup. Fortunately she's playing a teacher and has the clothes for that thanks to her school uniform (professional dress). Makeup was a problem though. So we took 8 minutes to drop stuff off at home, grab what we needed, change, and leave. We went to the bank, then the gas station to fill up, grabbed some food at Wendy's, and ran over to Target to get her some makeup and grab dinner for the family. Then we came home, started dinner in the oven while she changed, then tried to do her makeup. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to do makeup and didn't do it dark enough based on the texts coming from her at the rehearsal.
After she was ready, I dropped the two oldest off at the church while Peter ran to a board meeting at our kids' school. While driving home, I remembered I had food in the oven. So I rushed home and pulled it out. The fish sticks were fine, the fries a little brown, and the shrimp a little black. Sorry kids.
After that I just crashed. I sat on my sofa in my room and finished the book I was reading. Then I answered emails, and now I'm writing this.
Oh, quiet moment is over. Gotta go put the kids in bed!
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