Well, it's snowing (again).  Over the weekend most of the snow we had melted, so of course it had to be replaced!

 

But, lack of snow apparently was no reason to not go sledding on Sunday.  Shannon and Emma were playing with some friends and came home to grab their snow pants, gloves, etc.  Then on the way out they grabbed a couple of sleds.  I asked if there was enough snow left on the hill for sledding and they just smiled and said yes.  I told them to be home in an hour.  Well, the hour came and went and they hadn't come home.  After another half hour, I went looking for them.  Were they at the sledding hill?  No.  They were at the playground.  Going down the tube slide.  On the sleds.  They would lay down, come rocketing out the sled, hit the pea gravel, shoot across the playground, slide under the merry go round, and slam into the concrete perimeter.  Now, I could see this from about a half a block away, and I just rolled my eyes because this is EXACTLY the kind of thing my dad would have done.

 

Made it very hard to be mad at them for being late.

 

 

Today I went to pick up the girls from their after school program.  Emma came up to me right away to hug me as I was talking to the head of the program.  I told her we had to hurry, to please get Shannon so we could be on our way.  And the woman I was talking to looks at me and says, “Shannon’s not here.  She never showed up.”

 

What?

 

Taking a deep breath, I mentally go through her schedule, trying to figure out if she had student council or something.  But even then, I had made arrangements for a teacher to bring her over.  I decide the teacher must just be running late and we head over to the school to intercept them.  We get to the school and new tighter security keeps us out.  They now have all the doors locked, a camera on the front door and a door bell to get buzzed in.  All of which is a good idea.  Except that the office is closed.  Then I spot the principal inside and start ringing the bell and trying to flag her down.  She opens the door, and I have to explain that I’m looking for my daughter, that I think she might have had student council.  But there wasn’t student council.  Brownies? There were brownies running around.  So we run over to the classroom they meet in and it’s locked and all the lights are off.  Now I’m starting to freak out.

 

At this point I’m praying maybe we passed them on the road and head back through the school.  And my phone rings.  It’s the head of the after school program, telling me she has Shannon in her office.

 

Whew.

 

I go back over and get her, while Emma follows me saying, “Ooooh, Shannon’s in trouble!” over and over.  I tell her no, that I have a feeling it’s my mistake.  And it was.  In talking to Shannon, not only did I forget she had brownies, I forgot she had a “field trip” to a local theatre.  And I was supposed to pick her up there.  Thankfully another mom took her over to the after school program.  I went home and called her, thanking her profusely.  And she of course said it was no big deal, they figured I needed someone to take her and they had apparently they thought I had  made arrangements with one of them and they had forgotten.

 

I feel like an idiot.

 

 

Friday nights are popcorn and movie night at our house.  Each Friday one of us gets to pick out a movie to watch.

 

This past weekend it was my turn.  Which really excited me cause I KNEW it wouldn’t be High School Musical!!!!  So I picked Flicka.  My kids love animals, I love animals, what’s not to love?

 

Well, it was all going along just fine, right up to the part where the mountain lion attacks Flicka.  I saw it coming, thought “Uh oh”, and sure enough, the loin jumps on the horse, Emma starts screaming and runs into her room and slams the door.  Shannon starts wailing and curls up in a little ball. 

 

Now, you would think I would have learned from the Herbie episode.  We were watching Herbie Fully Loaded, and Herbie gets hurt in a demolition derby, and my kids started crying hysterically.  He’s A CAR!!!!!

 

Anyway, I looked at Shannon and said, “You have to believe me, it’s going to be OK”.  Then I ran after Emma.  She was hiding under her covers sobbing.  I went over to the bed and said, “Honey, I swear Flicka will be OK”, while praying secretly that I’m not lying.  It really makes no difference anyway.  She screams, “No, she isn’t!  She gonna die!”  I said, “no, she’s not.  Besides, you know that is just a mountain lion actor and a horse actor, right?  They are just pretending.”  Rationalizing with a hysterical 6 year old is kind of like banging your head against the wall.  Not very effective and just gives you a headache.

 

I finally convince her to come downstairs and watch the rest of the movie, and as soon as we get to the couch, the father heads off with a shotgun to put the horse out of her misery.  Then you hear a gunshot.  And Emma starts screaming again.  This time I am able to grab her as she goes by, and tell her he didn’t really shoot the horse, he probably shot the mountain lion (again, praying I’m right).

 

Of course, the movie has a happy ending and all was well with the world, but by then I was so emotionally exhausted I really didn’t care.

 

And my mom wonders why my kids haven’t seen Bambi.

Yesterday was so beautiful.  The sun was actually shining, which is a rare thing indeed!  And it was fairly warm with no wind.  The girls and I went for a walk in the snow and they proceeded to climb every snow mound they could find.  But it helped our moods immensely.  I woke up about 4:00 am to the sound of rain on the roof.  Which, given the fact that we had nearly a foot of snow on the ground, is not good.  There are now icy rivers running all over the property.  And of course, it's supposed to change over to snow tonight.  Driving to work tomorrow ought to be fun. 

 

Ahh, gotta love living in Illinois

I sit on the edge of her bed, watching her breathe, tears streaming down my face.  I give her a kiss, and walk in to tuck in her sister.  I smile at the position she’s in, kiss and cry all the harder.  I have answered their questions the best I know how and try to reassure them of their safety.  But really, how can I? 

 

I turn on the TV and watch the interviews, look at the familiar landmarks, wonder if I will see anyone I know.  Or if I know any of the dead.  More specifically, do I know their parents? Because the school is in a neighboring town, a lot of the local kids attend there.  I thank God the boy that works at my company didn’t have class that day.  Although I turns out his brother was in that class.  But he was fast, and lucky.  He got out.  I pray for the families who have lost the children, or are sitting in the hospital waiting.

 

I finally turn the TV off, but I don’t really sleep. In the morning, I get the girls up,  take them to school, hug them even harder and longer then usual, daring the teacher to come tell me to hurry.  But today he doesn’t.

 

It seems even he understands.

Sorry, haven't been around much.  Crazy busy lately. We survived the slumber party, although I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep.  But the girls were really good.  I don’t think I ever want to hear or see Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana again (at least not for awhile).

 

So the other day I got this phone call from a woman at my church.  She asked me if I had purchased her daughter’s dresser at the rummage sale last summer (I had).  Then she told me they were getting rid of the matching bed!  Yea!  When Shannon was with her dad last Saturday they brought it over and assembled it (double yea) and I surprised her with it when she got home.  Now she has a beautiful sleigh bed.  The only problem is I have the matching dresser, which I am going to give her.  I think right now she needs a nice room to escape to more than I need a nice dresser.  Now I just have to find someone to help me move it……as Margherite can attest to, it’s realllllly heavy.

 

OK, I have three stories which reinforce the big “L” on my forehead.  First, Shannon was in a show at the same theater Rick Springfield was at, and she got to change in the same dressing room he used (a point which was totally lost on her).

 

The same day at work I had to change the toner cartridge.  I pulled it out of the packaging and poof! Toner everywhere!  All over me, the carpet, printer, desk, chair, even the ceiling.  Apparently the cartridge had a huge crack in it.  A guy I work with walked in, saw me and burst out laughing.  And I just looked at him and said, “And this is why I wear so much black”.

 

Lastly, the people who brought over the bed also brought those blocks you put under a bed to raise it up.  The sleight bed was already so tall I decided to put them under my bed which I very low.  That night I woke up to go to the bathroom, forgot the bed was higher, and you guessed it, fell out of the bed flat on my face!  Kind of made me glad I was sleeping alone!

 

And BTW, we had a heat wave today.  We got up to 8! Woo hoo!