The Juggler . . . .

And again, we see how much we can handle. Is this a test? I'm sure it is. Let's go over the events of the day. I wake up to a landscape of snow and sun, yes, sun, it's hard to believe in the middle of January but the sun was shining. I do my usual shower, spend some time tending to my ebay auctions and then start the daily ritual of dragging my kids out of bed. I start with my son, and move to my middle daughter and then my youngest. To speed things up, this was to be a pretty normal day. My husband is gone today and it is up to me to run the household. I'm used to it - no big deal. The only wrinkle is that my dear mommy is hear to visit and I'm to take her to the airport. We have school this morning, we homeschool, so it will be a little break in our day. Also, we have a contractor coming to start working on some projects as we get our house ready to sell (yes, sell - that's a whole other post). That's okay though because he will be here after we get back from dropping my mom off. No big deal. My mom and I conquer the school responsibilities this morning with ease. Ten minutes before we are to leave to bring her to the airport, I ask my son to put his new LEGO train set together to show his Gramama (this is not a typo - this is the name she has been given by the first grandchild) how it runs and all the work he has done on it. Basically, my son informs me that he has lost one of the main components that makes the train run electronically. "WHAT!", I protest. To be nice, I run up to his room to help to find this "missing part". Now, take into consideration that this set cost about $250 and was split between us parents and his Pop-Pop (another name given long ago by the first grandchild). So, I'm starting to get a little upset as I start to dig through the pile of unused toys in his dungeon of a room. I just had to lose it and promised him a thorough trash can clean up when we returned from dropping Gramama off. Well, that just never happened.

We dropped her off with our proper teary goodbye's and "I'm going to miss Gramama" cries and departed home. Once we arrived, we continued our lessons for about another 10 minutes when we received a frantic call from our beloved that the idiots at Cleveland Hopkins Airport wouldn't let her on the airplane. Again, another "WHAT!" came out of my mouth. "Why?", you ask. Oh, because HER OUTFIT WASN'T APPROPRIATE. Yeah, that makes sense. IF anyone knows my mom, or her daughters, they know that they are VERY fashion conscious and pay very close attention to what they should wear for what occasion. My mom was dressed in a velour pant suit with a striped shell and velour jacket - so classy. She was wearing athletic shoes as the weather was pretty crappy here today and she knew she would need the support to walk through the airport. DENIED BOARDING! WHAT IDIOT WOULD DENY HER BOARDING! So, we had to stall school, after we finished our Science lesson, and run back to the airport to get her. I was FUMING to say the least. In the midst of that phone call, I had to rearrange my basement so the contractor could patch up the cracks in the cinder block, write him a check, transfer money so that check wouldn't bounce blah, blah, blah . . . . To top it off, they never even gave her the opportunity to change her outfit -that particular individual at the airport - I will disclose his name because he can't hurt me - his name is Reggie - never even bothered to really get her bag. She did happen to receive it after the flight left. Hmmmm . . . that was not nice. This guy doesn't realize who he's dealing with!! Reggie threatened my mom with reporting my husband with a buddy pass violation - "Ummm, do you realize who this employee's wife is? You must not because if you did, you'd know NOT to mess with her." Well, this idiot must not have been warned. She did eventually make the flight, 6 hours later, while I sat in the airport parking lot, leaving every 26 minutes so I could still get the 30 minutes free parking bargain. I sat there for 1 1/2 hours - my youngest daughter was told to put her blanky over her head, and take a nap, my middle daughter worked on her reading and AWANA (bible) verses and my son finished up all the lessons we hadn't wrapped up while we were running to and fro from the airport. Yes, all done in the car. Ahhh . . . the joys of homeschooling - it can go anywhere.

I swear, if I had gotten one more ball to juggle today - I would have dropped my balls. And pardon any mishaps in spelling/grammar - that's what happens when you have 2 chocolate martini's at your hands (thanks Em for the recipe) and you feel your stress leaving your body through your fingers as you try and move the mouse.