Monday goes downhill...

Today was the first Monday of this new adventure and I had a plan! I was feeling pretty much like a "fish out of water" not having my regular Monday routine. There were no schedules to review, no production goals to review with my staff, no emails to return, not even a text message from a family member to respond too. I decided that today would be an experiment in running errands with 3 kids in tow.

I spent a few minutes over a bowl of frosted mini wheat's looking over yesterday's paper and deciding if there were any coupons that might suit the shopping list. Please let me tell you I have NEVER clipped a coupon before in my life! Not because there is anything wrong with using a coupon, it is just that I never made the time for using these little savings devices. My son had fun spreading all the pages of the Sunday paper from one end of the den to the other.

The manager in me then opened the iCal app on my new iPhone and started the "to do list" for the day:
1) Clip coupons
2) Clean up kids
3) Enroll kids in school
4) Go school shopping
5) Drop off transfer paperwork for Sean
6) Eat Lunch
7) See a new Vegas Site for kids
8) Put Sean down for nap
9) Pay Bills
10) Make Dinner
I am not sure what made me think that I could accomplish everything on my Monday list, but I was determined to try! I already had the coupons cut, and the kids cleaned up and we set off. This is where it all goes down hill! I try to be a calm person and when dealing with adults they know that when the boss starts to get red in the face, back off! When dealing with kids, when the adult gets red in the face, they say lets get ice cream! This does not fit into the "to do list" and has not been scheduled, and therefore makes me crazy.

I had all the destinations in the navigation in the van and had a plan, or so I thought! By the time we were done going from school to school, the kids were so hungry you would have thought I had not fed them in days. So we had to re-arrange the locations on the navigation to move up the lunch stop. Because my oldest daughter Sarah is now in Junior High, she felt that she had to buy one of everything cute and stylish in the "Back to School" isle despite the fact that she was told by the school twice that all she needed was a planner, a pencil, a notebook, and a backpack. I managed to get food into the kids, the school supplies taken care of and set off to try and get back on track.

My next stop was to the DES office to drop off the transfer application for my son's SSI payments (we were informed that he was autistic less than a year ago and have been wading through the joys of special needs and moving to a new state, we are starting all over again) to get him enrolled in all the programs here in Nevada. I am not very familiar with state assistance programs. I have been blessed to be the one paying into the system more than using the system over the course of my adult life. I drove all over East Las Vegas trying to find this office, and finally pulled into the correct parking lot. I unpacked the kids for the 6th time this morning. Please do not take this the wrong way but I felt like I was walking onto a movie set, the building was an old grocery store that had been converted into a DES building. On the front door was a sign that said "avoid the line, apply online" I was not prepared for what came next. We walked inside and there were over 150 people in chairs, standing in lines, and all with paperwork in their hands. There was a voice overhead calling another person to door #2 and stating final call please come to door #2. I decided to heed the instructions on the door, we went back to the car and decided to apply online.

Since my entire day had been taken off track it was time to go find something that the kids would like to do. I followed Flamingo Rd toward my house and ran into "The Strip" hoping that there would be something close and free for the kids to enjoy. I remember reading that the fountains at the Bellagio run every 30 min in the afternoon and decided that would be today's outing. I navigated my way to a parking lot (thank you to the hotels for not charging for parking) and unpacked the kids again. We felt like salmon swimming upstream as we crossed all the streets and by ways to get a spot in the shade to watch the fountains dance to the music. The girls were not as impressed as I had hoped, however the intense concentration from Sean was worth all the heat and crowds we had to endure.

It was time to try and head home to get something on the table for dinner before Thom came home from work. I was 3 blocks from the house when I get a text:
"I will be a few more hours with this install, a trailer got flipped and today has been downhill from there." Wow! That was exactly how my day had felt! I told the kids to warm up the left over pizza from last night and I decided it was time to just zone out. The best part of the night was that Sean calmly and quietly climbed into bed by himself.

When Thom finally got home, he was so tired all he could do was make a cup of coffee. I knew that he had a rough day. I did not go into depth about my trials of the day, I did not feel like playing the who's day was worse game. However when he looked at me at 9:00 pm and said, I am out of coffee, I almost lost it! I guess we will do it all over again tomorrow, where are those damn coupons...