The Dude, the Tooth Fairy, and a Redneck Santa

Sounds like a bad sitcom, doesn't it?

Just to make it interesting, let's throw in a Vomit Rocket and a ride on the Poop Train.

Yeah, it's been one of those days.

It started out well enough. The Dude came over and we went on our major grocery shopping trip to prepare for our Christmas Eve feast. Now, let me remind you, I *hate* to shop. Seriously - I hate it. It doesn't matter if I have a pocketful of cash and no time limit - I still hate it. Add the whole pre-holiday attitude of the other customers and idiotic cashiers, and I was about at my wit's end.

Like my hat?

I think he was trying to strike a pose...

Daniel got sick at school today - I'm beginning to think that he might have some kind of allergy issue because he's been doing this a little too often. But yeah, the kid was hit by both the Vomit Rocket and the Poop Train today - and then was fine for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

He likes my hat too.

Alex has been having an issue with his teeth. For some reason, he likes to keep his baby teeth until his permanent ones are in completely - then his baby teeth slowly start to wiggle loose. We've been working on getting this tooth out for a couple of days now, and I was finally able to yank it tonight.

My skin is still crawling. I hate doing that.

Pre-yanking

Success!!!

Getting it into the Tooth Fairy Pillow

Ready for bed...

Alex is in kindergarten. He's 5...almost 6. I still can't get used to the idea of him reading. He's growing up too fast, and he likes to remind me on a regular basis.

He got a little notebook from his teacher today for Christmas, and he was "writing" notes in it. At first, he was just scribbling so then I told him to go ahead and write something - just to see what he could do. He surprised me and did these totally on his own, with no help at all.

So now the boys are in bed, the house is quiet, and I'm looking forward to being able to sleep in tomorrow. The older 3 kids have one more day of school before Christmas break but they're with Ex1 tonight so I don't have to get up in the morning - which I tried to drill into Alex's head, but I'm sure he'll have me up at the buttcrack of dawn like he always does. Hopefully no one is sick tomorrow so that we can go to the girls' choir concert in the afternoon - we missed their band concert tonight since Daniel wasn't feeling well.

The next few days will be a little crazy, between having the kids home from school and getting things done around the house before Christmas and finishing my shopping and trying to get things wrapped - I need a few more days, but I usually work better under pressure. It'll all get done one way or another.

I might go insane in the meantime, but at least it'll be fun!

How my Wednesday *actually* went...

This is the comparison of how I had planned for my day to go....and how it actually went.

7:00 - Get up. Get Alex, Daniel, and myself dressed.
Well, I was still wearing the same clothes from last night, so technically I was dressed.
7:30 - Take Alex to school.
     *Do laundry and general cleaning.
     *Feed Daniel breakfast. Oh, and I have to eat too.
Oops. I forgot to eat.
9:00 - Take Daniel to playschool.
     *Go walking. Must. do. this.
This, I did. Close to 5 miles too. So there. Ha. pleasepasstheibuprofen
11:00 - Pick Daniel up from playschool.
Went to the post office to mail a package to my parents and went and picked up pizzas for supper before going home.
     *Shower...because I did go walking.
     *More laundry, cleaning, etc.
Managed to do that...
12:30 - Take Daniel to preschool.
     *More laundry, cleaning, start supper.
OK, didn't start supper, but I at least had it in my possession.
3:00 - Pick Alex up from school.
3:30 - Pick Daniel up from preschool. Of course, he came home with his clothes covered in poop in a plastic bag, as the poop train apparently made an unscheduled stop today. However, I have determined that the wreckage left by said poop train is directly proportional to how much popcorn he has eaten the night before. Don't ask me how I figured that out.
4:00 - Jared and Emily get home from school (Sarah stays after for
     weight training and Ex1 takes her to her practice).
     *Help Emily, Jared, and Alex with homework.
     *Supper, supper cleanup, etc.
Check, check, check, checkity-check check check. I'm on a roll now...
6:35 - Drop Jared off at Ex1's church. Even got gas first...
7:00 - Get Emily to basketball practice.
     *Attempt to amuse Alex and Daniel for 90 minutes while Emily practices.
Kept Alex amused by making him read books to fill out his reading log.
8:30 - Basketball practice done.
8:45 - Meet Ex1 to retrieve Sarah and Jared.
9:00 - Home. Emily into shower. Everyone into bed.
Ok so the girls didn't get showers (forgot that they would both need one) but they'll get them in the morning.
     *Clean up the rubble from the day.
     *Pack lunches, make sure backpacks and stuff are ready.
Not yet, but getting there.
9:30 - Curl up in a corner in the fetal position and attempt to regain some
     sanity.
Haven't had time to do that yet either.

A few pictures from the day, starting with the walk.....

I realized a few minutes after I had to stop and take off my gloves to get to an itch on the back of my leg that I had lost my CF bracelet that I've been wearing for a year and a half? 2 years? so I did a second lap and found it right where I thought that it would be.

Success! Can't lose this one!

Yep. He chucked a hedgeapple at me. Jerk.

For some reason, "Hakuna Matata" started playing in my head when I saw this tree.

Awwwwwww........

Emily, doing her best Christopher Robin impression.

Daniel wasn't impressed.

Alex kept himself amused for most of practice.

This is my IDGARA look. Who can figure that one out?

Go Emily, go!

Poop train

After Daniel got sick the other day, he seemed to be fine all weekend. He didn't eat much, but he never really does (unless it's peanut butter & jelly) and he acted fine. This morning we got up and took Alex to school, and when we got back, he still seemed to be fine. We laid around for a while and enjoyed the peace and quiet after the chaotic weekend, and then when it was just about time for him to go to school, he raced to the bathroom where the diarrhea hit him once again.

*sigh*

I called the school and let them know that he wouldn't be there again today, and we took off for Wichita, as I had already made plans that really needed to be done today.

On the way there, we saw something interesting....I saw a jet cruising across the sky - it only caught my eye because the sky was perfectly clear and the contrail was so incredibly white against it. But then I saw it start to turn, and as I watched, it made a complete u-turn! I actually pulled over when I saw that Daniel was staring at it too, and we took a few pictures of it.

Anyway, we got to Wichita and picked up my carpet shampooer from a friend who was borrowing it (and returned her roasting pan that I've had for 8+ months - oops) and then ran to the other side of the city to deliver a custom costume that I made for someone and then we headed back to pick Alex up from school and then home, where we just hung out all evening. Daniel had a few more run-ins with the poop train, but he still seems to be feeling ok - so maybe it's just the remnants of the bug he had the other day or something.

On a humorous note, I have a really bad habit of leaving my camera out within reach of little fingers. So sometimes, when I transfer the pictures to the computer, I get surprise photography from the kids. Apparently Daniel was playing around this morning at some point. These are some of his shots:

Go figure.

A toy apple on my desk

The same toy apple and the hedgeapple from the other day

Daniel's eye view of the bulletin board

I really need to start putting my camera away.

On a side note: can anyone see the Aurora Borealis tonight? Wichita news stations are saying that it's visible if you look to the north - but I have too many trees and streetlights interfering, so I can't see it. Boo. :(