Oops, I did it again!

There are those days in my life when I think the day is going well enough to take my children out in public, but then I do it and I remember why I don't do it very often!!  I had absolutely nothing going on today and I even slept in until 8:30 a.m.!!  The first indicator of what was to come was the fact that Grace was up before me...bad sign!  Since I had nothing to do today and Greg was going out of town, I decided it would be a very good day to take my kids to the store to buy the boys new winter boots...and to go to the hardware store to pick out paint colours for their bedrooms.  Since I am one of those mothers who believe it is very important for children to have input and choices in their world (not huge life changing choices, but choices like paint colour), I decided to leave it completely up to them as to what colour their bedrooms become!  We are having a friend of mine sew some curtains for Mark's bedroom, so I have to see what colour they are going to be (because I let my friend pick out the material) before we pick out paint, but the colour Mark really, really wants is called Wasabi and it is VERY, VERY bright green!!  Grace picked out a very lovely shade of purple and Will had a very hard time deciding on the perfect colour...blue, red, orange, brown, red with orange and blue polka dots, orange with red and brown polka dots...oh, to be three again!  In the end he decided he really, really wanted brown and picked out a nice shade (Mark calls it "Chocolate Bar") and once we get it on the walls I plan to buy some red and blue and maybe orange polka dots to add to the room!  I also bought a nice blue for our main bathroom.  I am not even close to being ready to paint any room and after the day you are about to hear about, it is going to be a few weeks until these rooms look any different!

I really should have listened to my gut and left Grace at home with Natalie, because we hadn't even left the driveway when she started screaming!  I think the first time was about the fact that Mark was touching her.  I told her that I would leave her at home if she didn't smarten up...I should have followed through!  We stopped at the hardware store first and ended up staying there far longer than planned because as soon as we started looking at the paint chips it seemed like all of Vermilion had the same idea!  We had one can tinted when natured called and we all had to go and find the bathrooms!  By the time we got back to the paint area there was a slew of people having paint mixed and since we still had three cans to mix, we had to wait in line!  Apparently hardware stores aren't very exciting for kids!  Mark bugged Grace, Grace whined; Grace wanted to play with Will, Mark all of a sudden wanted to play with Will; I gave Mark my phone just to shut him up, they all wanted my phone!!  I tried to trick them into searching the store for garbage cans but they wouldn't fall for it!  I tried everything!  I guess the lady mixing my paint has seen far worse because she gave my kids balloons because they were "so good"!!  It seemed like forever we were in there and I was ready to go!  By the time we left, my kids were starving!  We went over to Subway to get some lunch and when we walked into that building it felt like we just crossed the border to Mexico!  Here is a little tidbit of info you may not know about me - I HATE the heat, no matter if it is natural heat of forced heat!!!  Apparently, the air conditioning is not working, and it was HOT in there!!  My kids all stripped their jackets off and Grace just kept saying to me: "I'm sooooo thirsty"!  We got out of there as fast as humanly possible and found some benches down the street to eat on.  Will took his sweet time eating his sub and chips and after about 20 minutes of sitting on a bench outside I had to tell him to wrap it up so we could keep going on this adventure of ours!  I guess I should have given him a few more minutes because as soon as we got back to the vehicle to wash Doritos and mustard off my children's faces, a guy walks up to me and says: "Excuse me Ma'am, but one of your kids hit my truck with your door"....are you freakin' kidding me???  I went with him as my Dorito faced children stood on the sidewalk and I rubbed and rubbed his truck with the sleeve of my jacket!  I think he could tell that I was about to the boiling point and I might just snap at any moment so he said it didn't look too bad and not to worry about it!  Once I rubbed it, there really wasn't much of a mark on it.  Our next stop was the department store where we had to buy the boys some boots.  I let them pick out their boots, and as Mark was trying his on, Will decided to play a game of hide-and-seek in a small town department store!  After finding him and threatening him with a spanking if he didn't stop hiding, I sent them downstairs to the toy department...and told them very firmly NOT to ask for a single thing down there!  Once I had paid for the boots and got the kids back upstairs, we headed next door to the drug store.  Will was making an old lady laugh as he was dancing and giggling in front of the securtiy camera, because he could see himself on the monitor!  The kids all tried on Halloween masks, I picked out some Halloween candy for the big day and took the kids to the front of the store to pick out their treats; Mark found his quickly and so did Will, but my sweet, sweet Grace just couldn't find what she was looking for!  I finally had to give her a five second warning to pick something fast because there were other customers waiting, so she picked out some chocolate covered raisins.  We all headed out of the store after one more jig in front of the security camera and walked down the street to our vehicle.  All three of the kids had to sit in the same row today because I had the third row put down and of course there was a whole lot of fighting and screaming as Grace tried to get her seatbelt done up with her big brother just inches away from her!  I think she managed to reach a new note today with her high pitched scream!  As we were driving home, just a few seconds after she had buckled in, she let out a blood curdling scream and didn't let up until we pulled into the driveway...she spilled her chocolate raisins!!  It was one of those moments in life that I actually envisioned what it would be like to just pull over and either drop her off on the side of the road or for me to just simply walk away!  Of course I am not insane, just a little touched, but I would never actually do it...just fantasize about it!  When we finally got home I gave her four little Halloween chocolate bars to make up for her spilled raisins, because even though I have no problem with my children eating food off of the floor, I draw the line at my vehicle floor, and Wal-Mart's floors!  The minute we walked into the house I made her climb into my bed with her blanket and chocolate bars and turn the t.v. on, cause mama could take no more of her today!!

Now that my children have boots and paint, there is no reason to take them out in public anytime soon...except to trick-or-treat, but at least then they are disguised and me acting like a crazy lunatic is acceptable on Halloween night!!

SJ