one of those days

It happened due to a combination of circumstances... the primary one being that apparently we are a more attractive destination now that we are in California instead of Florida. Well, not so much that, but we had Andy's immediate family visiting for Christmas (since for the first time in forever two members of said family live within half an hour of each other, even accounting for LA traffic) and, as I mentioned before, my uncle is coming out for a New Year's visit. Both of which are fantastic things!

Andy left with his family (more or less) and the kids and I were left with about 36 hours to transition from one visit to the next. Things went south about an hour after he walked out the door. Yes, one hour. We made it through bath time and Bible story time; as I was finishing up our prayer, I heard a sniff, another sniff, followed by a wail, from Michael. "I miss Daddy!" One hour. Caroline and Elanor happily launched right in. One hour. Wailing. Everyone. One hour!

We made it through the first crisis and everyone went to bed more or less peacefully. I thought we were doing well yesterday morning when we got up and had a leisurely breakfast of cereal with a minimal amount of milk (hey, we needed to go run some errands and replenish the depleted stores from visit #1!). My goal was to run quickly through Target and then head to Vons in order to be back in time to feed everyone a real lunch. Target went fine until we hit the toy department. Yes, three days after Christmas, we are in the toy department. This is thanks to a kind grandparent who thought the kids would enjoy some Christmas cash--true, but it was burning a hole in their pockets. This is actually not a great time to shop for toys. The shelves were actually bare--almost completely bare. Apparently they are taking advantage of a lull to revamp the department. I couldn't talk anyone out of spending their Christmas bonus, so we embarked on a truly tedious search of every shelf to examine every toy in order to spend every last cent. I do not even know how long we spent there but it was one of those experiences where every minute drags out to a seeming eternity.

We picked up a loaf of bread and had PB&J at home. Groceries later.

When Michael and Caroline came out from their quiet time, we had a peaceful interlude of Mousetrap, which I picked up during one of those eternal moments. Fond memories of playing that game as a child. They had a blast; me, not so much. The game seemed to need a little too much help going through its paces--the "helping hand" never actually bumped the ball into the bathtub for reasons unknown, but always needed an extra boost. They want to play again with Uncle John. Good sign.

Elanor woke up and we headed for the grocery store. Ouch. We used one of the family carts, which is nice for stowing children, but drives like a semi. Michael took a book into the store (Famous Men of Rome) and therefore needed to sit in the cart itself, making me pile the groceries around him. That was actually the nicest part of the trip. The girls were all over the map and there were just a lot of people there. It really made me reconsider trying their home delivery. There is a reason I shop in the morning. Plus I forgot a bunch of stuff, mainly meatball ingredients for children who specifically requested spaghetti and meatballs.

Thankfully we had leftover Indonesian Ginger Chicken for dinner (thanks, honey!). I know the day doesn't sound all that crazy, but I haven't yet mentioned that I was also cleaning two bathrooms, mopping up a serious bathroom accident, tidying up the apartment (which somehow looked like a tornado hit), and processing five loads of laundry (how can three kids go through so many clothes in six days?). Oh, and I needed to head over to our friend Matt's place to put clean sheets back on his bed since he had graciously loaned us his apartment so Andy's sister and her husband wouldn't have to sleep on our floor! The bright spot was that I did get to use the new vacuum (actually I get to use it every day), but I am starting to have my suspicions about the dirt sensor. However, it is still sucking up an incredible amount of dust, source still unknown.

Thankfully everyone went to bed peacefully and let me collapse with a couple of episodes of Firefly, which I am really enjoying quite a lot. I was actually laughing out loud last night at the Hero of Canton. I also took the time to try some spot remover on the carpet and trim raggedy ends off of the upstairs bath mats. The things I do only because someone is visiting--I just should have done the trimming before my mother in law visited, since she bought them for me. Better luck next time, Mom.