Getting Back to Good

Describe the last 10 days in one word: hmmmm . . . . that word would have to be "SonOfA - - - (pause, face turning red, hands up as if wringing an invisible neck)"

Every once in a while you have a day, or a week, or a month even, that just completely bowls you over and wipes you out. April was long. Long in a sense that it wasn't too terrible, just felt like it was never going to end. Chris made the brilliant observation that April was like Tennessee. When you look at it on paper it's not too bad, but when you're right, smack in the middle of it, all you can think is "When does it ever end?!" That was our April. It rained every single day. There was the whole government shutdown/possible pay freeze fiasco. Stuff kept coming up and we kept dealing with it until finally 30 of the longest days of my life had passed and May was upon us.

Hooray for May! Sunshine, money in the bank again, a very white calendar (usually it's all lit up with a million different colors for every one's different activities), Mother's Day, and the best part . . . Mission: Makeover was underway. I had a plan. A good plan. Chris had fixed our budget and we were well on our way to having real money in our savings account by the end of the summer. I set a fitness goal of being ready for the Warrior Dash on July 15th by joining the local roller derby squad, the Bombshell Betties, and coaching the kids through the whole Couch 2 5k program. I was going to weed out EVERYTHING and get my house in order. The whole house . . . kids and all. School was going well, I was staying on task and organized.

I can't tell you the exact date and time that it happened, but one day not too long ago somebody hit a line drive foul ball right over the first base line wall when I wasn't looking. The darn thing knocked me smack in the face and life hasn't been the same ever since.

The kids and I ventured up to Seattle the Thursday before Mother's Day to see Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination at the Pacific Science Center. The kids had a blast and the exhibit was, as Luke described it, "wicked cool and the best day EVER!" My own personal "World's Greatest Mom" party that was going on in my head was crashed by a not-so-fun-filled phone call from Chris. Work had sucked big time, as it has been increasingly so, and he wasn't feeling well. He was going to be late getting home which on Thursday's translates into a really cranky Scouts leader. All he wanted to do was come home, peel off his boots and call it a day. I managed to make his evening a little brighter by offering to take Luke to scouts myself and let the other leader know Chris was in poor health and doing them all a favor by staying home. Of course, once at the meeting, Luke's George Washington syndrome kicked in and he told the other leader that Chris had a lousy day and wasn't in the mood to deal with other people's obnoxious kids. . . but that's beside the point. Chris felt like he had been hit by a Mac truck and it only got worse. Friday he fought the pain and fatigue all day at work then came home and crashed . . . hard. Saturday arrived and he wasn't even able to get out of bed. Normally, this would have been ideal since our Saturday's usually consist of laundry, ordering pizza and movie night. But nooooo, not anymore! I had to go and get all organized and family-centered. I packed the day full of free events I found online, some girls time, some guys time, etc. . . etc . . . blah blah blah. Unfortunately, what wasn't on my big bad dry erase board of family fun was an alternative plan in case one adult was MIA. I couldn't be in three places at once, so I tried to let the kids down gently. I went into the conversation knowing that there was no way at all that they'd still love me as much as Thursday once I told them there'd be no free comic book day, no free Lego set after the Rick Riordan book release party at Border's, no free nail polish from Claire's, no story time and snack at Cabella's. I was right. They moped and pouted for a good hour and a half before I couldn't take it anymore and forced them to play outside with their friends. That was Saturday.

olds, eleven year olds and seventeen year olds. Dads, when you're kids are getting ready for bed the night before, you need to pull them aside and remind them that tomorrow is Mother's Day. Remind them that "Happy Mother's Day! I love you Mom!" needs to be the first things out of their mouths as they run and give their mom a hug in the morning. Then remind them that if they're not on their absolute best behavior all day, you will strike down upon them with a vengeance that they have never witnessed before in their young lives. It may sound harsh, but the last thing we want on our special day is fighting, arguing, talking back and whining because they have to spend time with Mom rather than playing at their friend's house. So there you have it, the sure-fire way to have an excellent Mother's Day.

Unless your day starts like mine did, of course. Bonnie didn't sleep well, so I brought her in our room hoping that would help. It didn't. Turns out she had caught the stomach bug and woke up wrenching in pain then threw up . . . all over me. We planned on having friends over for a cookout that afternoon, so we had to cancel that. She most certainly was not going to church, so Chris offered to stay home with her while Luke, Annabelle and I went. Luke is great. He has such a big heart and loves to do anything to make me happy. He popped out of bed and got ready for church with no complaints. Annabelle on the other hand, while equally great, is not a morning person. I'm pretty sure she completely forgot about Mother's Day, and once she found out Chris was staying home from church she decided she was going to stay home, too, even though I hadn't given her the option. Already stressed and not wanting to fight with her I said fine . . . whatever . . . which in turn made Luke decide he wanted to stay home, too. Chris eventually told them they didn't have a choice, Luke bounced back and was fine, but Annabelle pouted the whole way there. The rest of the day went off without a hitch, Bonnie was feeling better by lunch time and we spent the afternoon outside in the yard soaking up some sunshine. Not a bad day, just not a special day. No homemade cards, no big Mother's Day morning hugs, but also no yelling and no near death experiences. I call it a draw : )

The week after was just a big mess. Chris was on-call and his work situation is getting ridiculous. Every day is a crummy and gets longer and longer and longer. If he makes it home before 6 o'clock, it's a good day. The long hours standing with lead aprons on combined with the extra stress is not helping his back any, either. He comes home completely spent. We tried to start a new workout program, but he was just too tired and in too much pain to keep it up. But that's ok, because I discovered a new way to get in shape . . . ROLLER DERBY! I was beyond excited about starting practice and they even had a junior team for Annabelle, too! So we went. And we got our butts kicked hard core. Annabelle isn't the most experienced skater, but I have to give her credit because she stayed out there the whole time, falling all over the place while the other girls did circles around her. She had to use rental skates and didn't have any safety gear, but she hung in there like a champ. I too was unprepared. I had to use rental skates and take gear from the "loaner bag". I had no idea just how out of shape I really was until I had to skate in circles full out for two hours straight. Rental skates are horribly uncomfortable and my feet hurt for days. Practice was Wednesday and took three hours out of our evening. There was another practice Thursday, but it conflicted with Boy Scouts (meaning Chris wasn't home to watch Bonnie for me). This was ok though because Thursday I decided to work out my soreness my starting the kids on their Couch 2 5k training. I loaded up Bonnie in the backpack and we set off on a three mile jaunt. I felt great! That is until Thursday night rolled around.

I don't know why, but military moves can never go smoothly. Everything always seems rushed and last minute. All the scheduling is out of your hands. The movers come when transportation says. You clear your house when housing says. It always costs more money than you expected, and for some strange reason the military is ok with families being homeless for a short time. A friend of ours has been trying to join her husband in Germany for a few months now. The higher ups messed up his original orders and sent him over by himself, leaving his wife and two kids behind. Anyways, long story short, she finally got her permission to join him and everything for the move set up, leaving her with less than a week to find a home for her giant dog, get her truck shipped, deal with movers, prep her house for inspection and clear, then get to Seattle and board a plane with two toddlers, two giant car seats, a double stroller, three carry-ons and two giant suitcases that they would have to live out of until their household goods reach Germany. She's been our friend since she and Chris served together at Fort Bragg, so of course we offered to help. Poor girl was totally overwhelmed and didn't want to burden us, so she tried to do it on her own. The movers came and packed everything up on Wednesday, so she had all day Thursday to get her house ready for inspection. This is a monumental task when toddlers and a 100lb great dane are involved, especially when all their toys and and tv have been put on a freighter to Europe. By Thursday evening she hadn't accomplished much and was completely exhausted. I convinced her to bring the kids over and let them eat hot dogs and crash at our place while I went back home with her to help finish up. Chris was a trooper and camped out on the living room floor with the munchkins, while she and I spent all night painting, cleaning carpets and scrubbing bathrooms. When I left at 6:30 Friday morning, she still had a load of trash to take to the dump, one more bathroom to clean, inspection at 9am, and a truck that had to be scrubbed inside and out then dropped off at the ship yard in Tacoma. I relieved Chris of his childcare duties so he could head off to work and just as I sat down on the couch and closed my eyes, the dogs started going nuts and woke up the little ones. I'm really not sure how any of us made it through Friday, but we did. Chris was able to get off work early and help our friend finish hauling stuff off and got the truck taken care of. The kids and dogs did remarkably well considering, and the day ended late with pizzas ordered, a Disney movie entertaining the kids, and all three adults fighting our eyelids on the couch. At about 10pm, I realized I had no food left in the refrigerator, so I put Bonnie in our bed with Annabelle and Chris and I went on a nice quiet shopping trip. We came home and unloaded groceries then cleaned out our car so the other car seats and all the luggage could be loaded. We got to bed around midnight and woke up at 6 so Chris could take our friend to the airport and so I could get ready for derby practice at 8. I was banking on Chris making it home in time to pass Bonnie off as I headed out the door. I was so exhausted I fell asleep sitting on the couch, full cup of coffee in hand. How I didn't spill it, I will never know. Apparently the kids were tired too, because when I woke up at 9, they were still out cold. I was already an hour late and Chris wasn't home due to a flat tire, so I gave up on yet another derby practice. The rest of the day was spent trying to nap whenever we could while not completely ignoring our kids. Sunday came and we slept in, missing church. The few groceries we had picked up Friday night were gone, so I called the lady who was supposed to pick up the great dane to schedule a time before we left for the store. That plan backfired. She couldn't pick the dog up until Monday . . . maybe. Never the less, we still had to go to the store. The dogs had been good up to this point, so we assumed they'd be fine for a few hours while we shopped. Apparently not. First Bonnie's toy bin was raided and all her dolls mutilated. Next came Bonnie's princess shoes and boots that were in her dress up basket. This alone would have been frustrating, but would not have sent Chris flying off the handle quite like finding his brand new Puma's had been mutilated. This then escalated into kids crying, doors slamming, me blaming myself because I should have known . . . (why I thought I should have known is still beyond me) . . . and fighting the urge to be a total B-word by reminding him that if his shoes had been in the closet where they belonged, they wouldn't have been chewed up. I was a champ though and kept my mouth shut, things calmed down and Chris spent a good chunk of the afternoon shopping for new shoes online.

So now the dog is gone, my fridge is fully stocked, my house is clean and we are on our way back to good. Our friend made it safely to Germany and Chris will be ordering his shoes soon. After three tanks of gas in one week, eating out because we were all too tired to cook, and an unexpected shoe purchase, my budget is tapped out so I'm putting derby on the back burner. I'll let Annabelle continue since her gear is cheap and she's ok with rental skates, but my starter gear is $200 plus $15 a month for fees and six hours of practice a week. Right now it's all just too much, so I'll stick to yoga and the 5k plan for now and hope for better luck in June : )