Lux et umbra vicissum…

The following dialog is not really one you want to use to start your day…

Joel: (in a frustrated voice) The dog’s a mess!  He peed and pooped in his crate, and he’s an absolute mess!  What do I do?

Andi: (in a sleepy voice) Well, it won’t kill him to be in it for another couple minutes.  Start with Alexis and I’ll be down soon.

So our day started with cleaning a stinky dog and his stinky crate while trying to get Alexis to school on time.  In the midst of this, I managed to lose the dog’s collar for several minutes (it was found on the dining room table though how it got there is still a mystery), all of the other children decided to wake up and want breakfast, and since I hadn’t eaten yet and tend toward low blood sugar issues I started feeling sick and extra cranky.  Really… not a fun morning.

It didn’t really end after the kids were (finally) fed and the dog and crate were clean, either.  Alexis had made it to school on time, but I needed to pick her up at lunch time (which is 11:20 for her) to take her and Branwen to the dentist.  I realized after feeding myself and the children that I hadn’t yet filled out the new patient forms that I was supposed to, so I started on them as quickly as I could.  The forms were only one page, two-sided… but you practically had to get our your magnifying glass to read them.  Filling in the blanks legibly should have been an Olympic event. 😛  And filling out the two forms took me until about 11:00.   I needed to leave at 11:15 to get Alexis, and I still hadn’t showered.

So off I rushed.  I think that may have been my fastest shower since college when I was late for an early morning class.  I was glad I had sent a note in saying when I’d be picking Alexis up so that at least I could walk in, get her and walk back out again.  That should help, right?

Nooooo… it couldn’t be that simple.  She was in “lunch bunch” with one of the teachers, and she hadn’t even begun to pack up her things to go home.  And she’s not terribly speedy about things in general.  So we didn’t get out of the school until almost quarter to 12.

Thank goodness that’s about where the difficulties ended.  We were able to get her and her sister ready fast enough to make it to their appointments on time, and they both did remarkably well at the dentist’s office.  I was very pleasantly surprised that Branwen didn’t kick, scream, or even shed a tear during the entire process.  Maybe it’s been long enough between visits that she didn’t remember it too well.  Anyway, this was the first time she didn’t give them any problems when they wanted to brush her teeth. 🙂  The only problem I had there was that they didn’t want to stop playing in the playhouse that was set up in the waiting area.  Grrr.

So now we’re home, the oldest three are down watching a video, the younger two are napping, Joel is working on his laptop in the kitchen so the puppy can be out for a bit, and I’m flat on my back (ok, propped slightly) on the couch because my back is hurting again.  The chair at the dentist’s office didn’t really help.  Anyway, the rest of the afternoon should be fairly uneventful.  Just as long as we don’t have to give the dog another bath.