Kelly and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

The day started off pretty well; I had all three kids dressed and ready for the walk to the bus stop early. Chloe was dressed especially for "Black" Day at school (they've had a color theme day each day for two weeks now). I managed to find a black t-shirt at Target the night before and I had even found a black ribbon in a drawer to tie in her perfectly coiffed hair. We stood there at the bus stop, playing "I Spy" and exchanging nursery rhymes for a good twenty minutes before I began to suspect something was wrong. And then it hit me: It was Friday. That means early dismissal, and for afternoon kindergarteners, early start. We were an hour LATE for the bus instead of 10 minutes early. I explained my mistake to Chloe and she promptly began to bawl. Between the choking sobs, she explained that her color book would be incomplete if she missed drawing the black sheep she had planned. She'd miss seeing what the black snack was. And nobody would get to see her black ribbon.

I debated for a couple of minutes over our next move. By the time I loaded everyone in the car, unloaded them, and then signed Chloe in, she'd have a whole 45 minutes left at school. Skipping the day was extremely tempting, but I suspected that if we did this, the loud crying would continue through the afternoon and potentially through the weekend. So I hustled everyone into the van and made it to school in record time. The crying stopped.

We checked in at the office where both secretaries were busy helping a boy with blood gushing out of his head. I had forgotten how dangerous elementary school could be (side note: I didn't even bat an eye! No fainting for me! Hooray! I'm cured!). One secretary eagerly handed off the tourniquet (or whatever she had in her hand) so she could fill out and hand me a blue card. She said, "Guess you forgot about early start day!" Yup. I could be projecting here, but she seemed a bit smug. I could hardly blame her since she was the one that took the brunt of my harassment when I was calling and visiting the school on a regular basis to try to get Chloe into the afternoon kindergarten class. And here I was, goofing up the special scheduling issues that come along with the privilege of attending that class the first chance I got. But I had no time to be embarrassed! I had to get Chloe to class and drawing that black sheep. Hell hath no fury like Chloe missing out on art time.

I bustled the kids over to Chloe's classroom (the kindergarten room that is the absolute farthest from the office). When we finally made it, the lights were off, there were no kids or teachers, and crickets were chirping (not really, but the place was pretty abandoned). The other teacher informed me they were taking a walk around the school. She pointed me in the direction they took off. I wish I had photos that I could post to illustrate this, but I don't. Instead you'll have to picture in your mind a woman with damp hair and arms full of kids running around the school searching for the lost kindergarten class, students and teachers along the way pointing the direction they were last seen walking. I FINALLY caught them in the library, where Chloe's teacher shot her an "I'm Sorry Your Mommy is a Ninny and Can't Keep the Days of the Week Straight" look as she took the tardy card from my hand. I gave my best "I'm A Harried Mommy with Kids Coming Out of My Ears, Cut Me Some Slack, At Least She Has A Black Shirt On!" look and got out of there as quickly as possible.

After all that running and searching, I had less than 45 minutes before I had to retrieve Chloe. So I ran in the house to try to accomplish SOME of what I had planned for the afternoon. I was scrambling around, picking up toys and scooping up laundry, while Sadie and Piper wandered into the kitchen and began to play. A few minutes later I heard the alarmed shrieks that are all too familiar to parents with recently toilet trained children: Piper was having an accident. Before this day, Piper had not only toilet trained herself (while still wearing diapers! She started taking them off herself and using the potty all on her own), but had had just one oopsie in three weeks (and that one was my fault for taking her out without letting her use the restroom first). So I felt this accident was long overdue. And I felt thankful she was one of the few non-carpeted rooms of the house. Except when I went into the kitchen to size up exactly what was happening, I was horrified to find a MUCH bigger mess than I expected. See, Piper was standing on the rungs of a stool when the accident began. And Sadie was in the absolute worst place at the absolute worst time--right under her sister. Needless to say, they both required a bath PRONTO. I'm actually really glad I don't have a picture of this to post because I know if it existed Sadie would be taking it to show her therapist in a few years.

By the time I got everyone and everything cleaned up, we had to run for the bus. And by the time we got home again I was exhausted, stressed and about ready to go hide under the bed.

BUT

The day got better. First of all, Chloe's kind kindergarten teacher let her make up drawing time while the rest of the class did centers. The color book WILL have a black sheep in it. Thank goodness. That puppy could have been used against me in a therapist's office as well.

THEN we got to go to a super fun 3 Bears Picnic that my fabulous mother-in-law made for the girls and cousin Jack, complete with a bear cake, a funny puppet show where Piper was the most hilarious snoring Goldilocks ever, and cute teddy bear necklaces. Oh, and Michael Phelps BARELY eeking out that gold medal on Tom's new HD TV. I DO have pictures from that:


I also found out that my sister purchased us floor seats for the New Kids on the Block concert in Salt Lake on November 15th (the night of my mmphth birthday!).

This will most obviously merit its own post, but boy, did that cheer me up!

Still, I don't see how Friday can go down as anything but a bad day.