Craziness at Our House

So I am taking a break in my catching up to write about my crazy day last Wednesday.  I know that everyone has crazy days and I know that there are a lot that are much worse than mine was, but I'm going to document it for the future anyway.  Ben is in India for work right now.  He left on April 21st and his return date was set for May 20th.  This is very important information because not having him around definitely made it a more challenging day.


Wednesday morning I woke up at 1:30 to go get the papers ready for the route.  After preparing them Nate and I delivered them.  I brought Nate home and I changed and went running with my good friend Jamie Pieper.  I love running with friends it gives me some sense of sanity at the beginning of any day.  Anyhow, after showering and getting the kids to school I ran to Sprouts, our local health food store, to pick up some produce.  After unloading a lot of produce onto the register conveyor belt, with the cashier ringing them up, I realized I had forgotten my wallet.  I had my purse, but no cards.  Thankfully, and oddly, I had my checkbook which they very kindly accepted even without I.D.  My next stop was supposed to be Lowes to pick up a couple of items.  Lowes, however, is not as accepting of checks without I.D. so I decided I would have to come back later.

I proceeded home to start cooking a ham, which I had agreed to cook for a funeral that was being held at our church later that day.  I also mixed up a big batch of granola.  I had needed to do this for a while and decided that the craziest day of the week was the best time?!  Before cooking the granola I decided to run back to Lowes to get the items I needed.  I then proceeded to Costco to get some rolls, also for the funeral.  I then returned home, baked some of the granola, cut up a ham, got dressed in church clothes and headed to the church for the funeral luncheon I had agreed to help with.  I stopped by another friends house to pick up things she had cooked for the luncheon and took them with me.

I was at the church from 12:15 until 2:30 at which time I left to pick up my kids from school at 3.  Nate plays the trombone, he loves it and he is pretty good at it.  He had decided on Monday that he wanted to try out for the district Jr. High Jazz band.  Of course Wednesday was the day for tryouts.  So we took the other kids home for a quick snack and got him ready to go.  He needed to be there by 4:30.  Now on this particular Wednesday Bonnie and I were supposed to have activity days at 5:30.  I wasn't sure how long his tryouts would be so I took Bonnie to the activity day leader's house in case I was late getting there, and Jamie very graciously agreed to watch Jared and Gwen for as long as I needed that evening.  Nate did pretty well in his tryout, I think, and we got home a little after 5:15.  Nate went to change for scouts and I took a moment to call Ben since I wouldn't get a chance to talk to him the rest of the day.  After telling him about my crazy morning and about scouts and activity days that I still had to go to, Nate had a court of honor so parents "get" to come, Ben said, "Well, this is probably not the best time to tell you this, but I have to stay an extra week."

WHAT?!?

What day will you be returning?  You know I have to leave to California for Becca's wedding on the morning of the 28th right?  Why do you have to stay?  That is so LAME!  I miss you.  This all spewed forth out of my mouth accompanied by multiple tears running down my cheeks.

After calming down a little bit I sent Nate to his friends to play and then get a ride to scouts since I would already be at the church.  Then I went to the church for Activity Days, which went pretty well despite a few unwanted tears creeping into my eyes, and Bonnie and I stayed for Nate's court of honor.

I got back to the Pieper's to pick up my kids at about 7:45 and Jamie had gotten us a pizza from Papa Murphy's (Thank you Jamie, I owe you big time).  At this point I would love to tell you that we all went home to bed and had a good night's rest, but I can't.  Instead I left Nate to watch the Pieper's boys and Ben and Jamie came over and helped me take all of our old carpet, carpet pad, linoleum, and baseboards out to the front of my house so they could be picked up the next day, which was the one day a year that Peoria does loose trash pickup so I did not want to miss it.  I really don't know what I would be doing without Ben and Jamie while my Ben is gone. They have been amazing!  I am so grateful to have good friends. We did all get to bed at about 10:30 that night.

Since then we have had a really fun book club at my house, a bridal shower, also at my house, Monday night band practice, Tuesday night orchestra concert, Wednesday night band concert (along with one sick boy who puked in the school bathroom, unfortunately for the janitors, not quite making it to the toilet) and lots and lots of Spring Cleaning that we are trying to get done before Daddy gets home from India. 

I will post some pictures of these activities (except the vomiting thing), along with an upcoming piano recital, at another date.  In the meantime, life is going on.  We have survived two weeks of Ben being gone and only have three more to go.  Although Nate did tell me, "Don't take this the wrong way, but when Dad is gone you're a little more uptight."  I'm not sure what the right way is to take that, but he is very right.  I am very ready for Ben to be home, then maybe sanity will return to our home.