Sunday, March 18, 2007

And the bad mother award goes to....

....um, that would be me today!

When we arrived at school this morning, the back door that Dallin usually goes in was locked. We've had this happen before a couple of times so I really didn't think anything of it. I dropped him off at the front of the school and watched him race through the front doors just before the bell rang. I drove away to meet Gracie's friend for a play date. When we couldn't find Sophie and her mom, I decided to go home and call to see if we missed them somehow. And that's how I found out that there was NO SCHOOL TODAY!

Yep, it was a teacher work day. I had no idea. It's not like I just forgot about it. I honestly never knew! I guess Dallin didn't know either or I'm sure he would have let me know. The poor kid is only in Kindergarten. He went to his classroom to find all the lights out. He told me he went outside and sat on a bench for a while before he figured out that he could probably call me on the phone in the office. That's where I found him...in the office, waiting in line to call me. Yes, that's right there was a line. Apparently I wasn't the only idiot who didn't know it was a teacher work day.

I was feeling so guilty as we drove back home that I promised to take the kids to the park for a picnic lunch. Lucky for me, a few other friends had the same idea. (Not that they were doing it out of guilt. They were just being good moms.) We ended up meeting 3 of my friends and all their kids at the Wasatch mountain state park. It's a pretty park at the base of the mountains.


It has a playground, a duck pond, and a little animal museum. We had lunch first, then just let the kids play and play. I had to laugh when we all sat down on our blankets for lunch. There were 4 moms in our group and 14 kids, including 3 babies. There were kids all over the place. LOL! It turned out to be a fun afternoon. The weather was perfect and the company was good. We ended up staying about 3 hours and the kids were still begging to stay longer. It turned out to be a much needed break for the over-stressed mom too.

Things have been super crazy around here lately. Church stuff just seems to be overtaking our lives. One lady at church's son passed away last week. I made arrangements for a little luncheon for her family to have after the funeral on Monday. Then on Tuesday, we had a luncheon for some of the ladies at church who don't like to go out at night. Wednesday I went visiting with the Stake RS Pres. since it was our ward conference this week. Thursday was crazy with phone calls and other stuff. I had extra kids here to play that day, so not much else got done. Friday we fed the missionaries. DH decided a BBQ would be fun. Too bad he undercooked the meat and served it to them practically still mooing. Hopefully nobody ended up with food poisoning. He may have turned one of them into a vegetarian though. LOL! See I KNEW there was a reason why I don't like meat.

Then Saturday was St. Patrick's Day. Dallin really got into the spirit of the day. He woke up around 6:00 and started examining all the sleeping bodies in the house checking to see who was wearing green. I got an early morning kiss instead of a pinch. What a sweetie. He requested green German pancakes for breakfast. (A St. Patty's Day tradition around here.) For lunch it was sandwiches with pickles and green grapes on the side. Green dinner this year was green fettuccine alfredo, salad, peas, and mint brownies for dessert.

I know it doesn't look too appetizing, but both kids scarfed down everything I put on the table. I guess I need to start having color themed dinners more often. Maybe I'll try red next, or orange. Just don't make me do blue or purple.

In between making green food all day Saturday, we also found some time to work in the basement. For a few weekends now, we've been trying to sort through and get rid of all our JUNK in the basement. It is absolutely mind-boggling how much stuff we have accumulated. We're trying to get rid of anything that we don't absolutely NEED. At one point I thought I'd throw it all out, but then I realized there are pictures buried in some of those boxes. That was reason enough for me to sort through every last one of them. It's a good thing too - so far I've found my college diploma and the stamp of Dallin's newborn baby feet they do in the hospital. It's worth all the work just to have saved those. It's getting close, but I just want to be DONE!

Well this bad mother is going to go put her Kindergartner to bed now. I just hope we have a better morning tomorrow.

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