What A Day

I don't even know where to begin about this day. . .it has been normal and crazy and surreal and funny all at the same time.

Today started typical. I got up to find Maggie already dressed and ready for school with her lunch made and her backpack on (at 6:15. . .more than one hour BEFORE we walk out the door for school). I made lunches and got "life" sort of put together before I woke up the other kids. I was startled by a large thump and when I ran into the twins room, I found Tiki jumping off of Dax's bed trying to reach the chain deal to turn his fan light on. I'm surprised the fan didn't come out of the ceiling on his head. (And still, my day is normal at this point.) I walked down to Hays's room and turned on the light in his fish tank and switched his iPod from relaxing Billy McLaughlin guitar music to "Batu" by the Putumayo African kids choir. Then I headed to my bed (where Dax sleeps when Andy is gone) to coax him up for the morning; and, like a typical morning, it took a while for him to whale roll himself to a standing position. While we were all eating breakfast, Dax finally stumbled out of my room complaining of a cough and a sore throat. . .anything to keep him out of school so he can stay home with me. So very typical!

Andy Skyped us from the Turks where the sky was gray and the wind was starting to pick up. We could still see the amazing blue of the Caribbean behind him, but the white caps were getting bigger. He was getting ready for his day of hunkering down in anticipation of Irene hitting the island later that afternoon. That is all he knew and that is all we were left with. The kids got to say hi to him and they each got to tell him about their first day of school. Tiki was hysterical! We were Skyping on my laptop and I had it on the floor of my room with only my closet light on, so it was pretty dark. Tiki was in every "scene" with every kid. Whenever I would move the computer for someone else to talk to Andy, Tiki would move to get in the shot. At one point he realized that he could see facial features on all of the other kids' faces, but not on his (too dark in the room). First he tried taking off his hood (from his hoodie sweatshirt) and when that didn't work, he tried getting into the right lighting. He never once said anything about it, but I could see his mind racing. It was cute.

After our morning "routine," we all hopped in the car and headed to school. Normal morning. Normal school drop off: three to Riverview and one to Miller.

Then Gabby and Lesley and I headed to town to run some errands. . .some normal and one not so normal. Good morning overall, though.

While Gabby was taking FOB (nap), I headed to Kivu to pick up my dogs. We put in an electric fence for them at our new house and the time has come to start training. . . .

Meanwhile, I lost communication with Andy. We were chatting about the impending storm about to bear down on the Turks and I guess he lost power. That was a little odd. I was pretty fine about the whole hurricane deal, but when we got cut off while chatting, it just made it a tad weird. I got an email from the wife of the guy Andy is with and she wrote, "wunderground.com has me pretty concerned for them. It looks like they will go right through the eye. . . ." Mind you, she lives in the Turks. Reassuring. (So, still no word from Andy since he got cut off about six hours ago.)

Irene from space as of right now. . .way past the Turks, but I guess they still don't have power.

Everyone made it off the bus just fine from school and they were so excited to see Jake and Chaco back home! The twins played in a huge sand pile all afternoon while some of the others played the Wii inside. Normal afternoon.

Then dinner rolled around (have you stopped reading yet?). We have been eating out too much because I don't have a kitchen in my house yet. . .one more week. So, I grabbed Maggie and headed to get Chinese take out for the family. Well, my mind must have been with Irene (the hurricane) because I got to town and realized that my purse was in the house. So, back up the mountain I went. On the second trip to town, I picked up our food and headed back home. When I got home and opened the bag, I realized that I only had half of my order (I was missing three orders of chicken fried rice minus the veggies). So, I grabbed Hays and back down the mountain I went.

. . . .I must interrupt the story at this point to tell you that Weird Al Yankovic has a new CD out and it is HYSTERICAL!!! Maggie and I and then Hays and I listened to it on all three trips to the Chinese restaurant and laughed so hard. Seriously, go buy it on iTunes. I know, I love Weird Al. You may have just lost all respect for me, but I don't care. He makes me laugh and I love to laugh at his songs every single time. And this new album is no exception! There is a song called "Stop Forwarding that Crap to Me" about all of the dumb forwards people email all of the time and it is hysterical. Then there is a parody of "Party in the USA" called "Party in the CIA" that is also absolutely hysterical! The polka is one of his best (for those of you who know about Weird Al and his polkas)! And there is a parody of "You Belong With Me" called "TMZ" that is super funny. Take a reading break and go start downloading!!!

. . . .So, where was I? May Palace take three. When I got back to May Palace, they explained that they thought I said pork chicken friend rice (???) instead of FOUR chicken fried rice. . .lost in translation. Oh well.

While we were eating dinner, the highlight of my day happened (in bold and underlined in case you got tired of reading and decided to just skim). Five junior high kids stopped by to visit Hays. You cannot possibly understand how happy this made me. NO ONE ever stopped by to see me in 7th grade. It was TERRIBLE and on the second day of school and the fourth day in the neighborhood, Hays had a posse stop by. Highlight of my day. . .maybe of my week. . .maybe of my seventh grade year that I am reliving vicariously through my more-popular-than-me son! They were out walking around and I sent him off! Who cares that is was almost bed time? Who cares that it was nearly dark and we have a bear problem in our neighborhood. Who cares?!?!? My boy had friends (co-ed friends, I might ad) stop by the house! WHOOO HOOOO!! I love this neighborhood!

Meanwhile, I decided to take the dogs on their first training outing. I bought the electric fence for stubborn dogs because my old man, Jake, is very stubborn. So what did Jake do? Walk right through the level five beeping and shocking. . .didn't miss a beat of the tail wag or anything. . .he crossed the boundary with the beeping and the vibrating and the shocking, lifted his leg on a bush and casually sauntered back. WHAT IN THE WORLD? So much for stubborn dog. What to do?

Now the kids are all in bed and I am sitting here telling you about my day. Andy still hasn't called or texted or emailed or anything. The weather channel said that the winds were 100 miles per hour as it went over the Turks. I realize that is a very minor hurricane and I truly am not worried about him. I'm just a little concerned by the unknown. I know he will have a great story to tell and hopefully some amazing video footage of the 25 foot waves crashing into their resort (he is on the 5th floor, so the 25 foot waves won't be coming over his balcony). I'm excited for those stories and that footage. I am also excited to hear from him. . .but maybe not excited enough to wait up too much longer? (Does that make me a bad wife or just a tired mother of five?)

Thanks to those of you who actually read to here. I have no idea why I rambled on and on. . .the day was so weird for me, but doesn't seem so weird now that I type it. I think I get chatty when my mind is two time zones away somewhere south of Florida.  Oh well. (Did I mention that there was a 5.3 earthquake in Colorado last night before the 5.9 hit Virginia. . .weird.)

Good night!