The weather was fabulous yesterday, as it is today. We bounded out of bed, ready for a day at the park with friends. As I wrangled my three year old into her outfit for the day, trying on two pair of shoes before realizing that she had out grown them, hence the reluctance at my cramming her foot into them, I realized that we were two minutes away from our arranged meeting time at the park and we weren't even in the car yet. Then I remembered that the lone pair of sneakers that still fit her (aptly dubbed "my fast running tennis shoes" by my dear toddler) were left behind at my mother-in-laws house after our last visit. So I grabbed our lunches, which I had previously packed on the fly, and whisked my kiddos out the door. As I strongly encouraged my toddler to hurry and I loaded the baby, something orange and fluffly caught my eye at the end of the driveway. I got "Oh, no..." out before I could stop myself, as I realized what it was. You see, we have 3 or 4 ferrell cats that wander around our neighborhood catching small prey and vermin. At least two of them have taken up partial residence in our backyard, due to the rampant chipmunk population I would surmise. Well, this orange furball at the end of our driveway was one of them. As Rylie repeatedly said "Oh, no, what? Mommy?" I strapped her in her carseat and said "Oh, nothing!" as nonchalantly as possible, shoving barbies that were stockpiled in the floorboard in her lap as a distraction. I cautiously approached the kitty, who appeared to be sunbathing as I tried to convince myself, knowing the worst was really the truth. I sheepishly called out "Kitty!" as if it would miracoulously perk up and run away. Alas, it appeared to have recently met its demise on our busy road, so I promptly called my husband and backed out of the driveway, careful to avoid our friend who had passed on. (Hey, don't judge me! How was I to get the cat in the trash without the curious stares of my 3 year old?) I quickly drove the 2 blocks to my in-laws house and grabbed the tennis shoes en route to the park, placing a call to my friend who by now had been waiting oh so patienly at the park for us to arrive. We arrived at the park and I sat down to enjoy a sip of my ice cold water I had filled my rubbermaid water bottle with. With saddened thoughts of the cat on my mind I somehow slammed the end of the water bottle into my lip, tus busting my lip in the process. Really?! I went to the rear view mirror to check it out and sure enough, blood was covering my upper teeth and for a moment, I thought I had chipped my front eye tooth as well! Upon further inspection, this was fortunately not the case. In the meantime one of the boys in our playgroup had run to the top of the hill and all you could see was his siloutte, releaving himself on the backside of the bathroom building! Soon after, my 5 month old blew his diaper up his back, requiring a full strip down and mini-bath on the grass at the playground! I regrouped and gathered up my troops because we were all in the beggining stages of our children having melt-downs. We loaded up and I thought, I will just swing by Wally-world and print out some pictures of Cohen for his scrapbook, now that I am officially 3 1/2 months behind on that project! I got the kids out of the car, making the snap decision to put my 3 year old into the car sans-shoes, because she had removed them en route and I was tired myself by this point. I told her she couldn't get down and off we went. In the oh-so-inconvenient floorplan of Walmart, the photo center is located in the rear of the store, so I hoofed it back there only to discover that the instant photo kiosk was broken down and wouldn't be up until the next day! Gotta love Walmart! About halfway back throught the store my dear toddler began to chant that she needed to potty, with some urgency I might add. As you will recall, she has no shoes (uggghhh!) so I disregarded the no unpaid merchandise sign at the restroom door and took my kids, cart and all, into the ladies restroom. (I dared someone to challenge me after the morning I had had:) I hoisted Rylie onto my shoes (we are not about to Britney Spears it barefoot in the public restroom) and precariously dangled her over the toilet so she could go. After situating her back into the cart, I realized that she could not reach the sink to wash her hands (really, really tired at this point) I ran by the service desk and grabbed the hand santitizer to ward off whatever strains of germ she had aquired in the stall in question. On the way home there was a thump-thump-thumping coming from one of my front tires. I kept driving, thinking to myself if I ignore it it might go away. When my dear hunbby got home I had him inspect the car and he found a huge screw and bolt wedged in the tire and he fixed it for me:) Oh, what a beautiful morning!
