Monday, April 28, 2008

Better to laugh than to cry!!

It has taken me a few days to find the humor in last week Wednesday. I think my life might be out of control - what do you think?
Joe took Chloe to school. Quinn and I were supposed to take Mitzie to the groomer. My friend, Laurel was relying on me to watch her two boys for the day. Sometimes things don't go the way we plan...
I was about to leave for the groomer when the phone rang. It was the credit card company with whom we have a 0% interest rate to pay for the vending machine business we bought (part of our "get rich slow & painfully scheme"). We owe about $10,000 and we have to pay $159 per month. At any rate, somehow I shorted them $31 on my last payment. My payments would now go from $159 to $440 due to the jump in interest rate to 29%!!! The lady on the phone was so kind as to waive the $39 finance charge. She also told me to call the next day after my $31 payment posted to see if maybe they would bring my payments back down since this was my first incident.
We raced out of the door to the groomer where we arrived 20 minutes late. The groomer said, "Mitzie is very late and you will have to reschedule." With Mitz in tow, we headed in to buy her some dog food only to find they didn't have her kind in the size we needed. As we were about to leave Petco, my phone rang. It was Chloe's teacher. Chloe didn't seem to be feeling well and I needed to come & get her.
I called Laurel & she found someone else to watch her little guy (Alex) and we would meet at McDonald's so I could pick up Joey since Laurel was now going to be late for work because of me.
I started toward the preschool, missed my exit and took the long way. We finally arrived and Chloe was on her way to recess. She was SO SAD that she had to come with Quinn and I vs. going "si" (outside) with her friends.
The afternoon went pretty well except that Chloe wouldn't take a nap - a time that I rely heavily upon for my own sanity. I used to feel guilty about this but I decided that I was a better mom when I had those 1.5 hours to myself.
That evening, I picked up the phone to call my mom only to find that our long distance had been cut off due to lack of payment! OMG (that Oh My Gosh in blog language). I added a fax line a few months ago but I failed to change my automatic bill pay. Since I have automatic bill pay, I don't open the phone bills, I just shred them (doesn't this sound like an attempt to simplify my life?). Well, each month I owed the company about $40 more than I was paying. I had received a notice about this the Saturday before we left for TX. The phone company isn't open on weekends so I assured myself I would call from TX on Monday morning. Does that sound as funny to you as it does to me at this point?
My formal dining room table is covered in Hotwheels Tracks. My formal living room is a playroom & Chloe is now in the "let's pull all of the books off the shelves" phase of her life. Why do these have to be the first two rooms when you walk into the front door of my house? We have an awesome, really big playroom in the basement. I don't think the kids would even miss it if we walled it off...it is much more fun to be in the thick of things upstairs.
One final note. I was so excited to have bought a book about getting organized. It was written by the guy from HGTV who goes into homes & organizes them (we don't get HGTV but this info. was on the cover of the book). I read the first two chapters and I was feeling very empowered & enthusiastic about getting organized. I lost the book.

2 comments:

Nancy said...

It reminds me a bit of that children's book Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. If you haven't read it, the long and the short of of the story is that Alexander is having one of those days where everything is going wrong. He thinks he will moves to Austrailia obviously everything will be better. In the end mom tells Alexander, "Some days are like that, even in Austrailia."

harvsfam said...

Do you recall after giving birth to Quinn followed shortly thereafter to Chloe, when the doctors came into the room... did they happen to bring you a parenting manual...??? Just curious, as I didn't get one either. Maybe it is still on it's way through the mail? None the less a while ago I asked Cailin why it was so hard to raise she and Austin. She looked at me and said it's OK Mommy I'll help you figure it out. Now I hold those words deep inside and whenever I feel the frustration build I remember that day and all I can do is smile. Use Cailin's words of advise if you'd like as I'm sure Quinn and Chloe will help you figure it out. Hang in there sunshine, as every day will continue to get a little bit brighter... PROMISE! Love you Tania