One of those mornings...

This morning was one of those mornings where it was tough to get to work. It is mornings like these where I would love to say either I am just going to work from home today, or I think I need a day off because by the time I get to work the day will be half over (not really).

After getting Lauren dressed, I put her in her high chair and gave her a cereal bar while I got mine and Jordan's lunches packed. When she was done, I think she was wearing half of that sticky cereal bar as crumbs on her belly, hands and face. I picked all those crumbs off. Then I soon found out, that I think she was actually sitting on the other half because after carrying her on my hip and putting her down, I found enough cereal bar crumbs on my shirt to eat as a snack for later. I picked them off the best I could and thought, "I hope I don't have contact with too many people at work today, because it looks like I am wearing a dirty shirt." I didn't even consider changing because I need to do laundry and didn't have a clean shirt to change into anyway.

Next we go out to the car and the boys remind me that they need sunblock before they go to school. So I first put Lauren down and slather her with sunblock and plop her in her carseat. Then the boys stand side by side and I spray them down. They get in the car and I go in and wash my hands. When I get out to the car, I realize I don't know what happened to my keys. So I spend the next several minutes searching inside and out for those keys. In the meantime, I ask all the kids if they have seen them. Lauren is the only one who shakes her head 'yes', but I decide to ignore that because how would she know where my keys were? Well, when I finally found them, I found them under Lauren, who was buckled in her carseat. I guess when I asked her and she shook her head 'yes', I should have paid attention. I'll blame it on the sun, since I misplaced them while applying the sunblock on the 6 legs, 6 arms, 6 ears, and 3 faces of my wonderful children.

Then we got to daycare and Jordan goes in ahead me and by the time I walk in the room with Colin and Lauren, Jordan is crying and explaining to me that it is career day. Of course, trying to be a good mother (even though we are already running late and I still need to stop and get gas before getting on the freeway to get to work), I try to get him to calm down and explain to me what he needed and try to figure out how I could help. He needed to dress up or bring a prop for something he wanted to be when he grew up. I first asked him what he wanted to be. He cried even harder because he didn't know. My first thought was that he was dressed exactly how people I work with dress...he could be a software engineer (or computer guy). Unfortunately, this didn't make him stop crying. Then I suggested a firefighter because I knew I could run home quickly and get a fireman's hat from the dress up box. Then I suggested a detective because that is what he told me he wanted to be last week. The daycare teacher said, she thought they had a magnifying glass he could borrow. That is not what he wanted to be either. I suggested a teacher because he already had a bunch of books in his backpack that he has been reading, then a clown since that is what he wanted to be a couple of weeks ago when we asked him. Then he said he wanted to be an army man. Okay, so he wants to be in the military. How does he dress that part? Also, he can't bring weapons to school. Maybe if I had a little more time we could have come up with something, but not this last minute. Then I said I could go get his computer and he could be just like me...a software tester. After a little more convincing, he finally agreed and stopped crying. I ran home, got his laptop and brought it back to put in his backpack....whew, disaster averted! I hope his day gets better.

The clock keeps ticking... As I was leaving the daycare, the second time, I didn't make it through the first green light and had to wait for the next one before I finally made it through the intersection. I was finally able to get the van filled with gas and get on the freeway. Thank goodness, the traffic was Friday light. I was only about 20 minutes later then usual...even with all the distractions.