Monday

There's that saying, about cleaning the house while children are growing up is like shoveling the snow before it stops snowing. Oh, how true is that. I have spent all day trying to turn the house right-side up while a small child runs along behind me and say, dumps all her blocks all over the bathroom floor while I get the laundry off the floor and sorted. So net result is that there is STILL junk all over the floor, only now it has sharp edges and is more of a slipping hazard. Possibly I should just remain sitting on the chair with the laptop for the rest of the afternoon.

I have my kid back, though, which is nice. Last week, my parents surprised us by showing up on Sunday morning. They never come down on Sundays and if they DO come down to see us, they don't usually show up unannounced. I was actually already gone to do some shopping. Anyway, when they left, Evelyn wanted to go with them. I said I'd come get her on Tuesday--it was so late on Sunday night when they left that I wanted her to have a full day at Granny's house. So anyway, I went to get her as planned, and there was much wailing when it was time to come home, but we came anyway. She was here on Wednesday, and then on Thursday, my mom called at 1:30 to tell me something, and then commented that it was too bad that Evie wasn't there because my niece was spending the night with them that night. One thing led to another and suddenly, I was getting out her (still unopened from Tuesday!) suitcase and replenishing it, and then driving up to drop her off. My mom and Whitley met us twenty miles from their house, which saved me forty minutes of driving, thankfully. I wouldn't have done it except for my niece. Evie thinks W is a rock star. She is the most fun person in the entire world to E, and thanks to circumstances beyond her control, she doesn't get to see her very often. So... I had Monday and Friday both free. I did some shopping (I lived at Kroger last week) and I did some relaxing and I did some productive stuff...though not as much as I thought I was going to do. It was really nice but I missed my baby. We went to get her on Saturday, and came home last night.

There was a mile of drama going on this weekend. First, there was the fake pregnancy thing, of which I have already written. (Friends only, if you missed it.) Then yesterday, one of my cousin's had two friends over, at my aunt's house while we were at my grandfather's house. (It's within walking distance.) They decided it would be a great idea to make homemade bombs out of cleaning materials. The morons were mixing them up in the house and then taking them outside to throw them and wait for them to explode. What could possibly go wrong? There was much yelling and much anger and much drama, but thankfully, no one was injured and no property was destroyed. They were apparently not very good bombs. So, hooray for small favors. Also, good that the two teenage girls who were there when this was going on (different cousin and her friend) had the presence of mind to come tell on them.

I am sitting here now with the laptop mouse and six puzzle pieces on my chest, while my left hand is serving as a balancing agent for the wooden puzzle on the arm of the chair. It's amazing that I don't have fewer typos. Clearly, this means that I am destined to end this post fairly quickly. My Caillou break is over. Stupid Dinosaur Train.

I had big plans for the week but it looks pretty much like I'll be sitting home watching it snow instead. I need to get something notarized, so I was going to have lunch with M tomorrow and get one of his co-workers to do it for me. Then I suggested a shopping trip with my mom, and then THAT ended up being Tuesday. Guess when it's supposed to snow? So now I don't know if or when there will be shopping, and I still don't have a notarization plan. M says they also do it at our bank, so I guess I can try to do that. If I were smart, I'd go this afternoon, but I have a headache and I really don't feel like it. We'll see. Evie loves to go to the bank, though. I could bring her piggy bank and let her empty it into the change counting machine. I figure she might as well keep her savings in an actual account that draws interest rather than a ceramic pig. I am unromantic that way, so she never has much change in her little piggy. If your bank has one of those free change counting machines, I can highly recommend it as a way to kill a few minutes with a kid. We usually put her money in first, note how much it was so I can add it to oher own account later, and then add all of our change too, while we're at it.

Maybe we won't get much of a snow storm this time. We've had a couple lately that don't turn into nearly the apocalypse that the weather people predict. I think that sometimes they get excited by all the attention that these big storms bring, so afterwards, every little blip on the radar becomes this gigantic THING.

I'm supposed to be eating more responsibly again this week after a bad weekend, but suddenly all i can think about is the four 3 Musketeers bars I bought at Walgreens on Saturday to make the cashier happier about checking me out in four transactions. I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten a candy bar in the last year so I don't even know why I'm daydreaming about them.