Today I had great intentions to make everything go smoothly. Of course, things don’t always go as planned.
For the first time in a few days, I woke up with a good attitude and I was ready to tackle the day. I had Maddie’s conferences today and had everyone ready on time and started heading out the door. When we got down the hall to the elevator, the day starts going down hill.
* The elevator was broken. Therefore requiring us to walk down three flights of stairs to the parking garage. Of course, Dannie needs her hand held while I am manhandling Alex in his car seat down the stairs. Got down the stairs. Things were good.
* Got the kids into the car and strapped 2/3 of them in. Then I realize Dannie has an “issue” in her pants that needs tending to. So we deal with said issue and move on.
* Dannie kicks and screams and flails like a crazy person because she doesn’t want to be in her car seat (or I put her in wrong, or she didn’t have all of her toys, or I gave her the toys in the wrong order….who knows). So I forcefully get her situated in the car and head out of the parking ramp to school, look at the clock and hope that I can get there on time.
* The road we turn onto from the apartment is a busy road (they are all a bit busy here), but I hit the right time and didn’t have to wait too long to get out. Phew! Go to the next road and they have it down to one lane (alternating traffic) which slows us down greatly. Clock is ticking….
* Arrive at school, and after screaming most of the way to school, Dannie will not get out of the car. Anger….riiiiiising!
* Get into the conference, exhausted, and the teacher tells me Maddie is doing great! And then we just chit chat because there’s not much else to say. 
* Head to our next destination (checking out a preschool closer to our new house) and Alex spends the drive there screaming because he’s hungry. So I get to the school and park in a spot so I can feed him in the car before we go inside. Get him out and ready to eat and…
*Maddie says, ”mom, I have gum in my hair”. Lovely. So I fix that (by ripping out some hair to get it out. And I also make a mental note that she isn’t getting anymore gum. Ever.
* Feed Alex, meeting at new school goes really well. Head to lunch to meet Chuck’s cousin and Chuck. Lunch actually went well. No complaints. (Thank goodness.)
* Get back home and to my utter dismay, the elevator still doesn’t work. So it’s time to huff it back up the stairs carrying Alex, holding on to Dannie and trying to get everyone down for rest time. Mom is exhausted and winded from walking up the stairs carrying 20 extra pounds.
* Nap time. Dannie loses her mind and doesn’t want to go to bed. I have no idea what went wrong. Maddie gets upset with me because I won’t let her play the iPad (because she already plays it too much) and cries “But I just love the iPad” and goes to her room to sob. Alex eats then will not go to sleep so I can work. This wouldn’t be a problem if he weren’t whining at me the whole time. (Not eating again right now, kid!) (And I do eventually get a little work done.)
* Time to head out to do a final walk-through of our new house. Elevator still doesn’t work. Down the stairs we go.
* We get there close to on time. When we get there Chuck takes me to a spot in the driveway and has me look at something. I see trees. I see houses, then I see it….MOUNTAINS! I can freaking see mountains from a certain spot in the driveway! This means a permanent chair will be set up in this location and I’ll spend my days looking at the huge, white-capped mountain. (I also may have done a happy dance!)
* Head home, while Alex cries the whole way. Get home and need to walk up those dang stairs again. I may cry.
* Put kids to bed and work a bit more, then eat a huge bowl of ice cream (mint chocolate chip) and start some tea. And I’m immediately thankful I made it through the day.
I can’t make this stuff up. Thankfully, tomorrow is a new day.
