Welcome Home

My damn plane was delayed by an hour last night and I didn't get home until 2am. Then Mr. Ashley had locked me out, so I had to wake him up to get in and we were both up and talked about my trip until 3am-ish.

7:30am came QUICK. In no time Big Kid was climbing into my bed telling me he missed me. "I missed you ebery single day and it's 7:37...I don't wanna miss da mornin' news at school." I felt like I was in a walking coma while getting him ready.

little kid was thrilled to see me and I knew he would just freak if I tried to drop him off at daycare, so I called in sick for "library mom" (which wasn't a stretch at all, I am still sick) and decided to drop him at my mom's while I went to my business lunch meeting.

Unexpectedly, it was cold today. Everything warm that I owned had been worn all soggy weekend and was a crumpled mess in my suitcase. I chose the first thing even reasonably suitable, but I was far from loving it.

I was running late and in a panic to get out the door, but I let Murphy out real quick to go to the bathroom before I left. I called him back, nothing. That's when I remembered that Mr. Ashley had told me Murph had acquired a new habit of running into the woods and hiding there silently so he could run off with Tangerine our cat, and that Mr. Ashley was pissed about having to walk through the woods to go find him several times throughout the weekend.

I called again, offering a treat. I called louder, threatening his life. I thought I heard something, so I headed in that direction, my hair snagging on branches and my clothes getting burrs and bristles all over them, tromping through the woods in my wedges and trousers and shivering in my short sleeve, burr covered shirt. I turned and saw Murph wiggling out towards me, happy to see me but knowing he was in trouble and I yoked him up and spanked his skinny, wiggly butt and threw him in the house, threw the car into gear, threw little kid out at my mom's, and raced across town to the restaurant.

I picked most of the burrs off and swung by Gap first (restaurant was in a shopping plaza and I made great time) and bought a jacket on clearance so I looked halfway appropriate, but later in the day I found a clump of burrs in my hair. This is particularly bad because it was probably the prettiest lunch date ever. The three others are 8s and above on a scale of 10 and I'm not even that without burrs in my hair.

Oh well, it was a productive meeting.

Then I raced across town to pick up Big Kid, but since I told his teacher I was too sick to be library mom, I questioned showing up dressed in business luncheon attire so I stopped at the house, ran in and grabbed my jeans out of the hamper and switched the wedges for flip flops and pulled my crazy hair into a crazy ponytail and was only slightly late picking Big Kid up and did look and sound appropriately unwell.

I went back to my mom's to get little kid and decided to be nice and swing by the hardware store to get the rest of the stuff to make Big Kid's Plex the robot costume and both kids acted like total jerks while we were there.

Big Kid got about 100x mouthier than since I've last seen him and little kid was just testing, testing, testing. At the hardware store I picked up one of those doggie yard stakes because Murphy Louis lost ALL RIGHTS to freedom this morning and by the time we got home, I was seriously considering chaining the kids to it too.

They could use the fresh air and exercise and I could use the nap.

Stay tuned for pictures and my experiences and opinions in Woodstock, NY and pictures and the fun I had at cousin Jules' wedding. Good times, good times.