My crazy morning

What an ABSOLUTLY CRAZY morning!! Let me start from yesterday. My loving, wonderful, incredibly smart and handsome husband is in Dubai at the moment on a business trip. He normally handles any crisis that comes to be in this house. We lost power for about an hour in the early afternoon. I had to read the pull handle on how to manually open the garage door in case the power was not back by the time I had to pick up the boy and our carpool girl. Luckily, it came back on and I did not have to fumble with that! Because the power was off so long, the alarm clock reset. I reset the time AND the first alarm which comes on with the radio. The second I did not touch and that comes on with an alarm sound. This morning, I am woken by the sound of my phone ringing… I look at the clock and HOLY HELL it is 7:18 which means the lady I carpool with is calling because my son is not out there! I don’t even bother with getting my glasses on, throw on yesterdays clothes and RUN down the stairs to let Anne know what happened and to tell her to just go. I RUN back up the stairs to let the boy know we are late and Anne is leaving so I will have to take him to school. He JUMPS out of bed and throws back the blinds to see Anne leave. That kicked him into high gear! I go back to my room and call Kathy and tell her I will pick up her girl instead of Kathy having to drive her here since I will be dropping off my boy at school which is close to her house. She was happy because that would save her some time and energy! I toss a $5 and 2 snacks in the boys backpack and have my girl get on her flip flops since she couldn’t find her slippers. We get into the car and when I get to the end of the neighborhood I realize I forgot my cell phone!!! What is WORSE is I don’t know Kathy’s address since she moves last weekend! UGH I was hoping she would somehow psychically know I didn’t have my phone and didn’t know her address but real life doesn’t work like that. Traffic was horrendous! BUT, I got the boy to school just in time! He might have been marked late but if he was, it was by 3 minutes or less. I call that a WIN, all things considered. I make it to Kathy’s old house and knock on the door. Patrick was probably sleeping and I felt horrible about even thinking of waking him but I didn’t have her cell #... Who the hell knows phone numbers now-a-days?!?! So I left and made it to a strip mall… the same strip mall where we bought the kids’ bikes. I had a plan! I was going to call my husband… in Dubai… OF COURSE! He has Kathy’s #!!! YES!! PERFECT! There was no pay phone BUT there was an officer of the law! I rolled down my window and asked where the nearest pay phone was and he stared at me like I was an alien. Then I told him I left my cell at home and he offered me HIS! How sweet! Then he made a joke “You aren’t calling China or anything, right?” and I said “No, I am actually calling Dubai but it is a local call!” He probably thought I was joking HAHA! So I call the mup… voicemail, naturally. So I try again… voicemail. Third time was a charm and I said “Honey, Sorry this is PJ. I am calling from a police officers cell phone and I need your help. I left my cell at home. Everything is fine but I need you to call Kathy and tell her to meet me at the house. OUR house.” All the while the officer is talking to my girl about the flip flops she has on and how cold it is outside… 40 degrees. I am surprised he didn’t call DEFACS on me!! I had adrenaline in every part of my body at that point so I didn’t really think about what my husband must have been thinking. I thanked the officer and raced (at a snails pace due to the traffic) home to find 2 messages from Kathy. The first was shortly after I left he house to give me her address. Second was “You want me to meet you at YOUR house?” Needless to say, everything and everyone got where it was supposed to today. After talking to my husband a second time, apparently what happened with the alarm was I had it set on alarm A (the radio alarm) and since the power failed, I had to reset the digital radio station. So when the alarm went off, it wasn’t on a station so it made no noise. *sigh* I am glad there are no more trips planned for my husband in the near future. I thought I was a self-sufficient type of girl! Looks like I need my mup more than I realized. COME HOME ALREADY!

While the cat's (the cooooool cat, that is) away...

This morning it is raining. I love the rain. It lulls me... However, my beloved is out of town and I am a notoriously horrible at sleeping a decent amount of time when he is away. I have had 4-5 hours of sleep the last 4 nights although last night I actually fell asleep at a decent time, 10:30. But I woke startled at 3:30 and wasn’t able to get back to sleep. Today it was my responsibility to get my son and the girl we carpool with to school. It is also my responsibility to pick them up and today is only a half day. Her mother was recently in a strange accident and has a concussion. One good thing about the next few days is I do not have to cook. Tonight we are going to Jenny’s house for dinner and I am bringing a salad. Tomorrow we are going to a break fast at Dana’s and I am bringing a cheese ball, Bubby’s recipe ;). Finally, Friday we are going to Shabbat at Laura’s and I am bringing a salad and challah. Saturday, I will clean the house for Ed who will be home that evening. Through all of this, I am working on the Shabbat Picnic for my son’s school (should be about 150-200 people). There is a co-host that is helping and should be passing out little candies today as a marketing thing, in the rain…. I am not sure that will happen. It was supposed to happen yesterday but the woman was ill over the weekend and was unable to complete it. I just called the person who was supposedly going to have the vitamin water from Coca-Cola donated and she says she didn’t think we were going to ask for that this year. I was told by the VP over this event that this person was asked over a month ago and I called today to figure out the logistics of how we were going to get the things there. Lo and behold I get told “you cannot expect this 1 week before the event”. Are you serious? There is a saying, “If you want something done right, do it yourself”. The reason I give credit to others is because I don’t want to seem like an alpha, responsibility horde. But the more responsibility I give to others, the more I see people drop the ball and kill communication. It doesn’t take a genius to do an event like this. I mean, it isn’t like I am going to run for VP because I can actually pull this off (har har). But if more than one person is involved, it DOES take coordination and communication and I find, to often I might add, that there is a major lack of that in PTAs.

I am tired…. I have 90 minutes before I have to leave to pick up the boy. I need to clean my car, the house, go to the grocery store, do some laundry… forget it… I will do it tomorrow. :P

Festival Funnies

I have been a little busy but I thought I would share something with you all that I thought was hysterical. Saturday, the kids and I went to a local festival. The parking was blocked off and I slowed down to ask the person directing traffic where I should park. He signaled to the parking lot just ahead. I said "Thank you" and drove forward to find a lot that could hold 8 vehicles, naturally full. I circled back and voiced my frustration at the man and my son chimes in from the back seat, "Mommy, why were you yelling at that man?" I replied "Because he frustrated me." He then said so calmly and with such innocence "Well, you don't have to add him to your friends list, mom." Welcome to my web 2.0 family!!!

What will YOUR obituary say?

When people die, others reflect on what their life was and meant. I suppose it is a natural thing. Or maybe it is not. Perhaps it is more likely that because during a wake or memorial service people are eulogized and maybe people try to think about what will be said? The brain works in odd ways, or at least mine does. So, I can see a brain going down that path. To make a long story even longer, my father in law sent an email out to his immediate family (including me, of course) about an obituary. You can read the obituary by clicking here. Since then I have been thinking about this woman and the impact she made on her children. I then (naturally?) thought about my relationship with my children. As parents, my husband and I tend to be very strict with our children. Sure we are loving, but we have rules and expectations that may be a little more rigid than other families. In fact, yes, I can say with certainty that is the case. While other children are running around restaurants, ours sit perfectly well and are well behaved in a social setting. While other children will tug on the leg of their parent and loudly interrupt them while they are in a conversation, ours (for the most part) will quietly say “excuse me” and wait for a response. Are our children perfect? Of course not, though they are perfect for us! My point is, reading the obituary really made me think about my role in the lives of the people I love and also in society as a whole. I enjoy making others feel happy and perhaps filling needs of theirs. I love to volunteer and donate my time to those causes and I try to teach my children the same. For example, I am the PTA president for the second year in a row for my J's school, I was room mom last year for D's class, I always volunteer to make food for new parents in the neighborhood or people who are very ill, 3 years ago I made goodie baskets for the fire dept., police dept. and all 14 departments (including the janitors) of the hospital that were open for Christmas. I spent a full week with my kitchen looking like a mini version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. I baked cookies, candies, made Hershey kiss roses and the whole family piled into the mini van and delivered them on Christmas day. J was too little to understand but D helped! I don’t think he would remember. We should do it again this year… All this and I still worry what my children will think when I go… I hope I never lose that fear and I hope it encourages me to hug my kids a little more, snuggle with them more at night and be more patient with them when my day had been long.

Have you hugged your kid today?

To weed, or not to weed? That is the question!

This year on the 4th of July we had great fun! We invited over another family, the Solomon-Altwargs, for our little neighborhood parade, lunch, dinner and fireworks. At first we all thought it would be way too long a day to spend with one family. It turned out to be a TERRIFIC day! We had so much fun with them. They have a little boy that is D’s age and a little girl about a year younger than J. To prepare for the day I had to set up a few activities. The Parade was first. I believe the pool was shortly after. Then we had the kids make fireworks t-shirt (and yes that is my comment on the link from LAST year) that were ready for them all to wear in time for fireworks. Then for dessert, we had a watermelon seed spitting contest. It took me a few stores to actually get a seeded watermelon but I finally found one at Harry’s, of course! We all joked with the kids to not swallow them because a watermelon will grow in their belly. And they joked with us that we will have a family of melons under our deck. Then there were fireworks and then they went home. GREAT DAY!

If you have read my last post you will know I have started to nanny for two children. Yesterday, I let them play in the back yard. E is 5. He said, “PJ, did you know you have a watermelon?” I let him know it was just a weed that had been neglected. He said, “ No, it is a watermelon.” I went to look and SURE ENOUGH, it was a watermelon between the size of a softball and a football! It just goes to show you, don’t pick your weeds! You never know what you will get. I cannot WAIT to eat it!

PJ 911

This is my first "trial week" as a "nanny" (hence the title of the post... sorry if it scared anyone :P) for my good friends 2 children. So far all is good! It is a lot more running around and life seems a little busier despite the fact the extra children keep mine entertained for the most part LOL. I am also the president of J's parent association again for lack of volunteers, and I am co-chair of a big event at D's school. Needless to say, life is a little hectic right now. But, we will have 2 kids in private school next year and we have to try to make that work. Right now it is looking impossible. So, though I am doing the nanny thing to help out my friend, it doesn't hurt to make the few extra dollars doing it.

As if I am not busy enough, you guys that know me know I like to give gifts that are personal. Well... I am planning on giving a birthday gift to J's best friend at her party this weekend. I have the materials but forgot to get sandpaper. IF I actually finish and get to take pictures I will post them. I have made this item before and NOW am doing 2 this time because D went to a birthday party a few weeks ago and the present was inadvertently not brought. So, I figured I would do something a little more special instead of send in the Hannah Montana DVD game for the little girl. I so much prefer handmade items. It is so much more personal. AND I am still knitting the baby blanket and matching hat for my soon-to-be nephew Jordan who is overdue!

Nah... I am not busy... ;)

Gouging on Shabbat! :-o

Last night we had Shabbat dinner at Kathy’s. We had a BLAST! She made matzo ball soup and hot dogs for the kids. I brought a rotisserie chicken, a sun-dried tomato and green olive garnish for the chicken, organic challah and sautéed fresh corn with Vidalia onions as a side dish. It was all delicious! Then the kids were able to play while the adults sat and talked. Kathy bought Bud Light Lime too! That stuff was really good! I didn’t expect light beer to be good LOL. So after a while of talking, a neighbor came to talk to Kath on her back porch. Apparently there was no gas left in the city of Roswell because people went CRAZY over the thought of a hurricane hitting Texas. The gas stations started to panic at the amount of panicked customers and started to raise prices… also known as GOUGING which is illegal. On our way home (which my wonderful husband drove because I had 4 of those yummy beers :P) we saw our regular station was up to almost $4.50 a gallon! That was more than a .75 increase from that morning. My hubby went out to find reasonable gas after he dropped off me and the children at home. He said that the station he pulled in to was JUST taking down the price to put up a new one. The previous one said $3.68ish and that is what he ended up paying. “People were pulling into the gas station at 40 miles an hour”, he said. Later that night, “Governor Perdue signed executive order activating a state statute against price gouging that allows prosecution of stations that raise prices excessively”. I remember when the gas prices here were the lowest in the country at .90 a gallon! Can anyone say “alternative energy sources”?