The time I cried in an elementary school gymnasium

Yesterday Kate had an assembly at school. I was under the impression she'd actually be singing in the concert part. I was wrong. She sat on the floor with the rest of the school and watched a handful of kiddos do the singing. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We show up a little early to get a seat. It was an assembly honoring Veterans and I saw a few men in uniform; both old and young. I smiled on the inside. Uniforms do that to me.

We go inside, the boys and I, find a seat (no bleachers... we found a bench) and sat down waiting for it to start. It takes a while for all the kiddos from the school to file in and find their seats (on the floor) so the music teacher has us all singing to pass the time. "God Bless America". Cue tears. Seriously, as soon as I opened my mouth to start singing, the tears sprang out of my eyes and ran down my face. And then we sang it again. And again. And again. It took longer than she thought for everyone to get seated. By the last rendition I was able to sing without blubbering, frantically wiping the waterfall of tears from my eyes.

Then, the Vets came in. Cue sobbing. They were announced, walked down the aisle with the child from school they were related to, and were just the cutest thing EVER. Several old men, many using canes and walkers, proudly marching down that aisle in their uniforms. I couldn't help myself. I was so proud of them, my heart was bursting. There was even a WWII vet there! There were also some younger men there, fathers and uncles of students.

And then, mayhem entered. In the form of my boys. Who were seriously acting like they had never been in a public place, let alone knew the value of remaining still and silent to honor these brave men. They were bouncing, whining, kicking, squirming. So I had to leave. Pack them up, throwing Owen over one hip and taking Christian's hand in a death grip. They screamed bloody murder all down the hall, and I'm sure everyone in the gym could hear them.

Good Lord, I about died. I thought for sure I'd have an aneurysm and die of embarrassment and frustration on the spot. I so wanted to stay and see the rest of the assembly but two little people totally prevented me from it. The kicker? They started screaming and yelling that they wanted to go back. After they'd just made it seem like I was forcing them to sit on sharp nails while shoving bamboo sticks under their fingernails. Um, no thanks. I'd rather not have a repeat performance.

So we came home and I took many deep breaths, contemplated a drink, decided against it and just made them lunch and put them to bed. I was so happy with myself! I hadn't maimed them in any way! :-P

So I'm sitting on the couch just settling in to watching Food Inc on Netflix when I hear someone knock on the door. Now, let me tell you another little story from a few days ago. I was sitting in the living room reading, and heard someone knock on the door. I wasn't expecting anyone and we have a very prominent No Soliciting sign, so I peeked out the window to see if there was a car in the driveway. There wasn't and I didn't see anyone at the door. (We don't have a peephole). So I went back to my reading. A few minutes later someone was rapping LOUDLY again. I looked out the window and NO ONE WAS THERE. I sat there, stumped, trying to figure out what was going on when the rapping started again. Um, yeah. It was a woodpecker. Pecking on the wood of the house right outside the window. :-P Totally fooled me!

Anyway, getting back to my original story... so I heard the knocking and thought to myself, "Self. Don't be fooled. It's just that dingdang bird again." So I ignored it and went on watching my show. But it continued. And got louder. So I peeked out the window and caught a glimpse of pink. My heart dropped.

My poor, sweet daughter was standing at the door, in the rain, waiting to be let in!!! Oh deary me! I forgot she had half day school, didn't meet her at the bus stop, she had to walk home, alone, in the rain and then her own mother wouldn't let her in! GAH! GUILT!!!!!!

I opened the door and scooped her into my arms, hugging and kissing her (and crying again) and told her I was sooooooo sorry. She didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. She just was like, "It's ok, mom. Just don't forget again." And then has proceeded to remind me 18 times that she has EARLY RELEASE all week, and she'd really appreciate it if I could meet her at the bus stop. Duly noted.

So yeah. That was yesterday. To top it off, my husband worked late (really late... like didn't get home til who knows when and was gone again at 5a.m. this morning) and we had a HUGE windstorm. HUGE. Branches were falling off trees, the power kept going out and I was terrified one of the many giant trees in our yard was going to come crashing down on the house and smash us all.

But we were lucky. Besides flickering lights and a couple blackouts and the thumping of tree branches hitting the house, we survived. Not very rested, but we're all alive and kicking. :-D