In Which I Bite Off More Than I Can Chew

I'm tempted to write this update as one run-on sentence, because that's how living it has felt.  I'll spare you, though, and try to use proper grammar and punctuation...

Holy snot I'm tired!  This is the first time I've sat down all day.  I got up this morning and got dressed and moved laundry and vacuumed and ...

Sorry, I said I wouldn't do that...

I finally got the kids out of the house at 9:40 am (impressive for a non-school day) in matching tutus for gymnastics, no less.  I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for MG's dry skin on the way, then we hit the gym...

...which was flooded.  Something very very bad happened with the plumbing, and all the drains in the bathrooms had reversed direction.  It was fine for a while...  Then Claire needed to go potty.

Anyone who has ever potty trained anyone knows that when someone Claire's age and size has to go, they mean RIGHT NOW.  Sara was occupied with three classes (one of the teachers had strep, another had a flat tire and was late...) so I went in search of the building's owner.  Instead I found a very nice young man who didn't speak much English.  I was proud of myself for remembering the word "banyo" or however that's spelled, but it didn't do us any good.  Finally I located the owner who explained that the problem was in all the bathrooms in the complex, and that there wasn't one to use anywhere.

Gulp.

I apologized that he was dealing with that, because if there's one thing I've learned about plumbing it's that those who are suffering from plumbing disorders deserve sympathy - there is nothing grosser than backed up sewer lines...  He warmed up quite a bit when he realized that I wasn't going to berate him, and sent the same young man I had tried to communicate with earlier to clean up the bathroom in the gym portion of the complex first so that the kids, who were getting a little desperate by this point, would have one to use.

The odd thing was that the kid understood his English...  Had he just pretended not to understand me?  I guess I'll never know.

After that I helped direct traffic for the last half of Sara's class, which Claire had joined by this point.  She had a lot of kids, and they were crowding each other at the far end of the circuit from where Sara was, so I helped remind them to wait their turn.  I know less than nothing about gymnastics, but I put on my teacher voice and order prevailed.

I spent the hour of open gym chatting with Sara and Casey, while the girlies played.  Then we went to Noodles for lunch with Casey and her kids.  We had planned to go to the library, too, but I was already running out of steam and I knew we needed to go to the grocery store.

I'd like to interject at this point that having two kids, one of whom is quite recently potty trained, dressed in leotards and tights with fleece pullovers and jackets while running all over town is a very bad idea.  I think we've spent at least 45 minutes in public bathrooms today.

We finally made it through the grocery store (only one trip to the bathroom there) and home.  Then I started cooking because we're having friends over for dinner.  I'm currently screwing up the Spanish rice.  The rice was refusing to cook on the stove, so I put it all in a casserole dish and stuck it in the oven where it can stay for the next hour and 15 minutes at 350 - I figure that's the best shot I have at it actually cooking.  I made "No Pudge" brownies and Buffalo Chicken Dip, and when BJ gets home with the taco seasoning that I forgot to get at the store (duh), I'll make the meat and cut up the veggies and warm up the tortillas and beans.

Cooking all afternoon would have been pleasant - I've been listening to Outlander on audiobook - if it weren't for the fact that my darling daughters have spent the entire afternoon fighting.  I swear to God I'm going to put every last one of their Barbie dolls down the garbage disposal.  Could someone please explain to me why we fight over the Sleeping Beauty dolls when there are TWO girls and TWO Sleeping Beauty Barbies?  I just do. not. get. it.

I just realized that I forgot to clean the bathroom.  And all the toys that I made the kids take into the toyroom earlier have migrated back out again.  And I hear someone crying...  Yep, it's been 20 seconds so someone must be mad at someone else.



I need to go back to work so I can rest.  Being a "stay at home" (ha, who stays at home?) mother is EXHAUSTING.