The Domino Effect

Ever have one of those days? You know the kind I'm talking about, where you realize early on that you either, (A) should have stayed in bed, (B) not left the house or (C) tied yourself up to a chair and not move from it for at least 24 hours. Yep, it's been one of those days and just when you think to your self, OK...it's over, something else happens.

It started innocently enough. Meredith dropped off the boys at the farm this morning so I could watch them while she went to the Chiropractor. Raquel had to be there in the morning so I thought, hmmm, why not drop em' off there, they could get a little lesson in Animal Husbandry and actually help out....WRONG! So now I'm chasing little squirrels around along with chickens that somehow got out and a rogue rooster that someone dropped off and he's chasing the chickens who are being chased by the boys who are being chased by me...kinda like the Keystone Cops.


Alrighty now, that ordeal is over and every animal is contained and fed. I drop Raquel off at home so she can do some homework and I take the boys to the park. What could go wrong right? They start to build sand castles and all three are building individual ones because it's a competition. Everything with them is a competition. They need sticks, rocks, pine cones and that broken discarded kite that someone left on the grass that we stumbled upon. This competition is getting serious. So I wind up the very long string because you all know that would come into some good use as far as castles go. Picture this...Ethan (age 6) is venturing over to the bush area and collecting large skinny limbs that have broken off the many trees surrounding the play area and arranging them around his castle because they are now "castle monsters" and they look scary. DJ (age 3) is running back and forth between his castle which is a hole with a large rock in it and Ethan who is still traipsing into the limb forest in the bushes. Franklin (age 7) is in his own little world trailing the kite string up and around the playground equipment...."I'm making a trap for the castle monsters of course", when I ask him what he's doing. The whole play area looks like mouse trap the game with string going up slides, down ladders, under bridges (i told you it was a lot of string) and every which way possible. We are the only people at this park right now so I basically let them do whatever their imagination tells them to do but of course this peaceful serene scene can only be disrupted like 3 squirrely boys can . Ethan falls up on the side of the hill into a pile of limbs and starts to yell, DJ and Franklin hearing this begin to run to see what all the commotion is about and get caught up in the "monster trap". Both boys are jolted back by the string and fall...DJ into the actual castle monster and Franklin...yep, smack dab into that one rock in the middle of DJ's castle. I got 3 boys whining and crying, so I choose DJ because he's the youngest and just making sure he didn't impale himself. Ethan comes whining down the hill and Franklin is standing over the rock rubbing his head. Time to go.

Lunch time now and I take them to Burger King. It's safe, enclosed and around the corner.
Everything is fine except when it's time to go, DJ doesn't want too and I have to climb, again, into the equipment to fetch him all the time he's laughing his sinister laugh and me fuming.

Time to take them home. While driving, I spilled my Diet Pepsi by which this time I announce "the first boy who yells in this car is being left on the side of the road"...of course they all laugh at the absurdity of it and start discussing how cool that would be. Dropped them off at home, pushed them to their mother and said, this one has a scratch and bump on the side of his face, this one has several scratched on both arms and this one has several scratches on his arms and legs and I'm never taking this one to a fast food playground again. Bye!

Get home and Raquel gives me an attitude regarding how she wanted to be at the farm at 1:00 because she wanted to dye Rogues fur black ( future blog post) and it's past 2:00 and she doesn't have any time to do anything on her spring break and she's hungry, can we go to burger king?
Ahhh, NO, and as far as your attitude missy..nip it!

Change my soda stained clothes, hop in the car, take her to the farm and instruct her to stay at least 2 hours and call me only when she's ready to be picked up...not one minute sooner. I then head over to Michaels with a 40% off coupon buring a hole in my purse and I'm taking a very deserved leisurely stroll when my phone rings....MAN...no what? Raquel forgot the hair dye and the mouse traps in the back seat of the car..could I please bring them? I tell her "sure, but you better be out front and I'm gonna throw this stuff at you, so you better be ready to catch it" and of course, she's not....Uggghhhh!

I better go home now and I do, only to find a message from Eric to call him and he NEVER calls me during the day unless it's important. By this time I'm tired, agitated and hungry but...I call him. Seems someone duplicated his bosses checks and is writing bogus checks and Eric's payroll check might bounce meaning we might have several bounced checks so could I be a sweetheart and go to the bank and see what's going on if anything? Of course I have to go, first of all, you can't get through to a bank by phone and actually talk to someone and if you did, they wouldn't tell you jack. Off to the bank and surprisingly, everyone there was very helpful. OK...on my way home finally and guess what...Raquel calls me to pick her up..."you better be done Raquel or I'm gonna have a breakdown"....she is.

Finally I'm home and made dinner, went for a walk and read a little. I announce I'm gonna take a shower thinking FINALLY a little peace and quiet all for myself in the shower, just me and my thoughts. And as I chuckle to myself about the days events and the perils of watching 3 squirrely boys and a intelligent absent minded teen I didn't notice that instead of hair conditioner, I applied "Aveeno skin cleanser with micro beads" to my head. Yep, it was one of those day....WHEW!!!