Who is record holder for Mother of the Year...This girl!

One weekend in June, my daughter, son, my 'other' daughter and myself were meeting the rest of the 4H horse club in Marshall at the extension office to head south.  The plan was to meet at the office by 4:45 and be ready to depart by 5:00.  Yikes.  I had been somewhere the night before and remember telling my mom and some others about how early I was going to have to get up to be in Marshall by 5.  And I had told myself that I absolutely was NOT being late.  They would not be waiting on me come Saturday morning at 5am.  No way.

I had made up my mind that I would need to leave the house no later than 4:20 because I had to have some sort of drink to get me through to breakfast later on and that would give me just enough time to run to McDonalds and get a sweet tea...yum.  But no matter what, we absolutely had to leave the house at 4:30...which meant I would absolutely have to be up and in the shower by 3:45 because we had to be there by 4:45.  The night before we had almost everything packed up and ready to go.  I was hoping the kids would just crawl out of bed and into the car and would fall asleep for a while.

Jay was working nights at the time...I had texted him back and forth the night before about my plan to be up and out of the house and on the road to Marshall by 4:20, absolutely not later than 4:30.  No way, could it be later than 4:30...that was the ultimate last minute I could leave to be there by 4:45...and I was fixated on that number, 4:45.  And  about how I felt so good because the car was packed and that, oddly enough, I felt so prepared.  Yee-haw.

So Saturday morning when my alarm went off, I was pleased that I felt so good.  Wow, this is great, I don't feel like a zombie, I'm not secretly begging to stay in my warm bed, I'm up and going to start the shower...and I walk straight into my bathroom, turn on the shower to warm up, sit down on the toilet to tinkle and think about the time, 4:45...4:45....4:45...FOUR-FORTY-FIVE!!!!  That was past the absolute, ultimate last minute I could leave to make it to the extension office in time and even past time to make it over there to pull out of the parking lot at 5:00.    OH MY GOODNESS...I run into the kids' room and get them all up, screaming that we have NO time to waste, get the rest of your stuff, get in the car and go. 

I made a quick phone call and went into psycho mode, changing my clothes, grabbing my pillow (can't leave home without it), shoes, purse, rest of stuff, in the car we go...I start down the road and the lady calls me back and says, you know what, why don't you just meet up in the little town south, would that make it easier?  Uhhh, YES!  We were in the car and on the road before 5:00, a Christmas-in-June Miracle of sorts.  As I'm pulling into the new meeting place, they pull in...perfect.  We head on down the road.  All is well...

We drive for a couple hours and decide to stop for breakfast and take a short break.  "Everyone out of the car, tell me what you want for breakfast and go to the restroom while you are waiting, please."  "MOM, I don't have any shoes!"  I think my response was something close to this:  "Wait, what's that you say, my sweet son?"  "I didn't bring any shoes."  This is the downfall of having an attached garage.  "No shoes?!  None at all?"  "Nope."   Good times.

I only knew about half of the people in the other cars that were on this trip with us and I can only imagine what the other half was thinking of me for oversleeping...and now my son with no shoes, None at all.  The half I knew...well, let's just say they probably weren't a wee bit surprised by the events of the morning as they unfolded. 

We manage through breakfast and at the next pitstop, we find a strip mall with a shoe store and go buy a pair of tennis shoes and flip-flops, because we were going to be at Holiday World the following day...and I also found a cute pair of flip-flops so I got myself a pair :)

Later that night as we were relaxing at the hotel, the kids decided it was pool time.  "MOM, where are my swim trunks?"  (Uh-uh, no way this is happening.)  "Remember how last night I had you go through the swimsuit tote and try on a bunch of trunks until you found some that fit?"  "Yeah."  "WHERE ARE THE ONES THAT FIT?"  "Oh, I think I put them on that pile in the living room."  "You mean the THESE-DO-NOT-FIT-PILE?"  Well, joy, we are away from home for the weekend and we have come without shoes and swim trunks (and we are going to a water park).  Awesome.  Fortunately, the hotel desk clerk came up with a pair (size 10, tag still on them) I cinched him up tight and we made them work.  Again, all was well.

Sometimes I amaze myself that God trusted me to have two children....especially when he has seen how it goes with animals around our place.  Somehow we make it through each day, with or without our shoes.