UPDATE: I realize now that having a picture of the evidence (ie. the chewed shoe), would be perfect for this post. However, when the even occurred, I hadn’t started this blog. In fact, in a round-about-way this event is what pushed me to start this blog. I had told the “shoe” story to a friend of mine and she said, “You should write a book. Seriously, you should write a book because funny things are ALWAYS happening to you.”
Thank you for taking the time to read my posts. Yesterday, was pretty much uneventful as far as my kiddos were concerned. I watched my 5th grader as she and her 39 classmates (read 1.5 hours sitting on a hard metal folding chair) gave biographical speeches for Colonial Days; I have to admit it was entertaining & educational. I think next time (since I get to experience Colonial Days 4 x, I’ll opt for a padded seat & refreshments.) My daughter was Betsy Ross & then after school, she played in a basketball game. (My son’s baseball practice was canceled due to rain) & my oldest was home sick from school again, which included a trip to the doctor’s office so the doctor could tell us it’s a virus. Most days are filled with many activities, it’s the extra stuff that sometimes makes me #$%@% crazy (not cuss, well – blushing, sometimes an inappropriate word does happen to slip out, Catholic guilt lol) …as I was saying, makes me want to run away and never come back kinda crazy /flustered/beside myself. These are the times I need to pray. Usually, I say “really, God??” or I have also been know to say, “God, help me!” – I suppose I should add please to that request. My youngest tells me that I’m using God’s name in vain and I tell him, no -I’m really praying for God to help me (after all, God was the One who blessed me with my 4 life re-arrangers in the first place, well, that & a little help from my bff…. also known as my husband and/or my boyfriend when we are on a date or vacation or feeling extra “mushy”)
Actually, I feel blessed that I was blessed with 4 children to care for, it’s the lack of how-to-directions that throws me for a loop at times like these. The little stuff, that is frustrating & yet I feel kinda silly praying about because I know others with greater needs are the ones who really need God’s help. Anyway, not too long ago, I had one of those days. It had been 1 week since mm (Missy-Miss) had knee surgery; she had a torn meniscus & the doctor was able to repair it, as in stitch it back together, as opposed to trimming it & removing the damaged piece (which is the more common meniscus surgery, since there are only a small percentage of meniscus tears that can be repaired due to the lack of blood flow in the meniscus). The GREAT news is – it was repaired, the not so great news – more painful & she cannot bear any weight, at all, whatsoever on that leg. She has to use crutches (which means she can’t carry anything), has to to sit to shower etc.. which means getting ready for school is a longer process and involves someone helping her. (HUGE change for our family since #1 she’s the oldest, #2 she’s my helper/right-hand gal #3 my go-to babysitter — and now she needs assistance with almost everything)
So the story goes like this… it’s the morning of mm’s first day back to school. I got up extra early to help her & the 4 kiddos got up extra early to get ready for school. For some reason my 5th grader wanted her hair curled & so I stayed upstairs with her for a few minutes (I think she was feeling that she needed a little extra love- meanwhile team “double-trouble” was directed to go downstairs for breakfast & hopefully take care of the dog. Well, when I came downstairs, the boys were outside. I called them in and was told that one school shoe was in the v-ditch (we live at the base of a hill, our back-yard backs to open-space & the v-ditch is a drain which prevents rain water from running down the hill, diverting to the street drains.) What would possess one of my kids to run out into the yard with the other’s shoe & throw it over 2 fences? (Did I mention it was already a very busy morning & that I needed to be inside helping mm? as opposed to some shoe retrieval mission – you caught the part about “uniform” shoe, so I HAD to get the shoe) I ran to the back of the yard, went through the gate, ran back up the hill to where the shoe was, climbed over the cattle fence AND in my ultimate, we-are-running-late so let’s-make-up-time mom mode, I threw the shoe back over both fences, it landed in the perfect spot ready to be retrieved by the rightful owner & placed onto the foot where it belonged – meanwhile I was climbing back over the fence & repeating my cross-country morning run to get back into the house. By the time I reached my back yard and was half-way back to the house… I was in dis-belief when I saw that my recently “rescued” shoe was not only on the opposite side of the yard, but floating in the middle of the pool. UGH! I got the net & fished it out. There stood my 3rd grader explaining how he had so kindly retrieved the shoe for his brother (because he was trying to make up for throwing it over the fences in the first place) and that he had absolutely no idea how the shoe ended up in the pool. Really? Seriously? Ya, right! Whatever – ugh…
Since, the shoe owner was not the cause of the shoe in the pool, I was not justified in making the owner wear a wet shoe. I carefully placed the shoe out of the dogs reach so that while it dried it would not potentially be used as a $35 chew toy. QUICK TIP: to dry shoes quickly without using the dryer, place them at the base of the fridge, most shoes will dry over-night. So after all that, X (we call our 4th child, our eXtreme child) ended up wearing non-uniform shoes and somehow, we made it to school on time. I stayed at school all day for moral support & upon arriving home, as if the morning shoe double-feature was not enough, I discovered that a “trilogy” had been in the making that day as I was stopped in my tracks at the sight of the dry, less than 1 month old, $35 (I usually spend 1/2 that on school shoes – because my boys can wear out a $60 shoe just as quickly as a $15 shoe) uniform shoe had been chewed just to the point of being unwearable since the toe-area had been altered just enough to provide a bit more air-flow-
Anyone else have a funny – trying to get out the door in the morning story that you are willing to share??
Mother 2 Four ~ 