No such thing as a perfect day.

I am going to have to compartmentalize today into:

• the incredible 6 hours I had to myself to do whatever.I.wanted.whenever.I.wanted.
  and
• the rest of it.

Let's take the bad first, so that I can end on a good note. I was feeling all refreshed and amazing and thinking how lovely waiting in the car line is when I don't have the "baby crybaby" conversation going on in the back seat. I read my book, uninterrupted, for 20 whole minutes until the car line started to move. Then the boys get into the car and Eric is crying right off the bat because he saw the van in front of us and it was identical in color & model to ours, so despite the teachers trying to lead him to me he got right in. Then realized his mistake and broke down crying because we were all laughing (in our defense, it was kind of funny.) So, I talked him down, told him it could have happened to anyone and it was OKAY. So, crisis over, we headed toward Orlando. I thought about dropping by the house to get the boys DS's but thought it was a SHORT ride and they would be FINE. Yea, not fine. They pretty much whined the entire way. I was annoyed to say the least.

At least, I thought, the little guys would be worn out from their day of fun and sleep on the way home. Um, no. Ben, whether overtired or just really, really mad that he had to leave Granny cried the whole way home. He screamed because he couldn't get his shoe off. He yelled at me that I needed to STOP.DRIVING.SO.FAST!!! Which is ridiculous because traffic was a nightmare and not moving very quickly at all. Finally, 20 minutes from home he fell asleep and then Zack started talking. Which is usually quite cute and charming, but maybe not when I've been trying to get his brother to calm down for almost an hour.

Words do not do the stress of a child inconsolably crying for that amount of time. But you all know, cause you've all been there.

Anyway, made it home, had some time to unwind... and it's all good.

The part of the day I will choose to remember is I went to the neighborhood clubhouse to work out. About 10 minutes in, I decided to bag the workout, because I had made lunch plans with a friend and if I wanted to get my massage or pedicure and still have time to do a few chores I would need to go shower & get ready quickly. Shower, hair, makeup... and left the house. The massage place couldn't take a walk in so I went a few doors down and got a pedicure while watching Tiger Woods' apology (no comment on that.)

I went home until time to go to lunch which was kind of surreal because I am so unaccustomed to being alone in my house. Lunch was great, and then I went home and straightened up the house in record time.

Then I still had over an hour before I needed to be at the school so I went to Target and just wandered. I still made it back in time to clean the van a little and vacuum it. And yes, I'm excited about this.

So, as of right now I am going to block out the memory of the ride to and from Orlando, and keep this gift my mom gave me of a day to myself in my brain forever.