Not our best week

The last week has been completely crazy. A week ago this past Thursday, we got a call that the roofing contractor was going to start the job on Monday. P was already scheduled to start science camp at the Morton Arboretum that day - meaning we had to be out of the house by 8:15 or so to get to the Arboretum by 9. If you know my kids, you know that 9 is about breakfast time and sometimes it's wake-up time so expecting me to be 40 minutes *away* from my house at 9 is quite a feat.

The spousal unit was already planning to stay home with N on Monday morning so I could take P by myself without the craziness of the 2yo who wants Big Bro around all the time. It worked out well because he also wanted to be there when the roofers started. So he worked from home on Monday. But the noise level was unbelievable - I wouldn't have thought that removing a roof would be louder than installing a new one but it was! Ridiculously loud - Monday nap, shot by the noise.

Tuesday, the noise level was better and N was just wiped. Spousal unit was already working from home again because the roofers were almost done and he figured they would want to be paid; plus he wanted to make sure everything was finished up correctly. So we actually put N down for a nap on Tuesday and P and I spent an hour or so at the Children's Garden after I picked him up. We also discovered the hedge garden, something we've never wandered over to before - wow, it's beautiful. I imagine I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I was wearing bug spray. Even standing next to P who had redoused himself with spray at least once and therefore REEKED of the stuff wasn't quite enough.

By Wednesday, I'm sort of getting used to the 9AM drop-off. Wednesday then turned into the day where everything that I have to do is just a *little* bit harder or more frustrating; hence, the whole day was a train wreck. For starters, we left right on time but it was raining. Folks here forget how to drive in the rain so any rainy day starts with idiots blundering around and traffic being stinky. I try to bypass the regular route and choose other roads that might be faster - except every time I turn onto a new road, a very large slow truck pulls out in front of me. Not joking - every single turn, a brand new large very slow semi-of-some-sort pulls in front of me. D*mn. And yes, by this time, I'm pretty much saying it out loud and apologizing to my kids.

We're getting close to the Arboretum and I'm watching the clock and thinking, hey, we might actually make it when traffic STOPPED. Completely. It took me ten minutse to go about 1/4 of a mile because a very small construction crew (two guys and a bobcat) had blocked one lane of a major four-lane road and of course, that was one of the two lanes going the direction I needed to go. 9AM came and went while we sat there. I HATE being late and I'm really annoyed by this point.

Alas, we made it, only about 12 minutes late, but still *totally* the last kid to be dropped off. And my attitude apparently rubbed off because when I picked him up that afternoon, the camp leader gave me that dreaded-by-a-parent "Um, could I talk to you for a minute?" OMG. This all came on top of the most frustrating annoying day and I was so not in the mood.

By Wednesday night, I'm thinking, well, it's got to get better, right? Ha, famous last words.

Thursday morning, on my way to drop P off (and we left early enough to make it by 8:45!), the spousal unit calls to tell me that his mom's sister has died. Zia lived in Italy, in the same town they're all from, and was close to my mil. So instead of continuing with my plans after drop-off (which included going to buy new supposedly rabbit-resistant plants for my yard), N and I just changed direction and went to spend the day with Grandma. At this point, the discussion is whether or not Grandma will go to Italy. My sister-in-law is planning to go. I tell my husband it's OK if he goes but he doesn't have a passport. This particular saga is really another story but the bottom-line is that after much convincing and cajoling of Grandma, and a phone call to a Congressman's office to ask about passports, by Thursday at about 2:30, all three of them are going and they're going to be gone for a week. Yes, Thursday was officially worse than Wednesday.

Friday, I rolled out of bed at 5:45 so I can say good-bye to my husband who is leaving for a week. He's not actually leaving until 5PM but he has to go get an emergency passport in downtown Chicago and has been told to get there at least an hour-and-a-half before the office opens at 9. So he's planning to get there at 7. And we're assuming this could be an all-day event so he probably won't be able to come home. So we said good-bye, which was weird, and then I got the kids up and out the door and arrived at science camp at 8:50. I finally got the hang of it.

Both Thursday and Friday, P was ready to come straight home; he was done, cooked, wiped, finito. Of course, being the good mom that I am, on Thursday, I dragged them both to see the big bugs display by the Arboretum Visitor's Center. And on Friday, I insisted we stop and get some movies for all of us at Blockbuster and then buy the plants that I had intended to buy on Thursday but couldn't because we went to Grandma's. Both of them were exhausted (N didn't nap on Wednesday or Thursday and had a one-hour nap on Friday - this for a child who can sleep 3 hours a day - he was JOYFUL) and short-tempered and missing Daddy and I freely admit I did nothing to help that. So Friday evening was full of lots of screaming and fit-throwing (mostly not me).

But I did get to watch Juno last night and I loved it. So it didn't end on the worst possible note. And P really did enjoy science camp (just not one particular game on Wednesday) - and actually learned a lot, too, so I'd sign him up again. And I would say that I'm glad this week is over but the next one doesn't promise to be *that* much better.