Shouldn't I Feel Refreshed?!?!

For a weekend that was supposed to be all that was relaxing and restful, it sorta seemed anything but.

Friday night was spent at Bug's football practice, and operating Mom's Taxi Service for Jock. (Another thing they don't tell you when you have a baby? You'll spend a LOT of time getting them Here. Taking them There. Locating them Where?!?) By the time we got home (ok... there really wasn't a WE in there... Coach went straight home after dinner and left me to go play Taxi. Although, to give him credit, he DID indulge my relentless craving for Chinese food finally!) it was somewhere around 10 or so. And in my house, on a Friday, that means that everyone will fall asleep before we get a chance to even watch the opening credits of a movie, let alone the whole thing!

Saturday started at the butt-crack of dawn, and that's just wrong. Especially when I'm not the one who gets to enjoy the reason for getting up that stinking early. Jock had been invited to go to the lake with a friend's family for the weekend. We said ok, on the condition he get up early on Saturday and get his chores done. He actually agreed, which was such a shock to my system that it didn't quite register that that meant he was getting up as early as he does for school, so that he could get done and once again call the Taxi Service for transport. So I had already completed the round trip and was happily (well, ok.... maybe not so much "happily" as "resigned to being up already") munching a bagel slathered with strawberry bagel spread at the time when I would normally be turning over to Coach and telling him to get up and let the dogs out so that I could go back to sleep. However, never having been one to enjoy my misery silently or alone, I made sure that Coach and Bug were up with me! Which opened me up to this barrage from Bug:

B: Can I go play with ___?
Me: No. Its too early.

(5 minutes later)

B: Can I go now?
Me: No, still too early.

(maybe 5 more minutes)

B: Mo-om.... can I go now?
Me: NO! Its still to stinking early! Really!

(Honestly people.... am I wrong for thinking that other parents are at least somewhat of the same mindset as I am, and don't want the neighborhood children knocking on their doors at 7:30 in the morning??? Because if some kid came to my door that early on a Saturday morning looking for Bug, I'd let my big ole dog answer the door. But I digress.....)

Finally, I let him go. (Really, it was out of desperation, and I apologize to all other parents out there who may have inadvertently been the recipient of an early morning door knocking. In my defense, I held him off until almost 9!) I decided that since I was up, I might as well work on some of that lazy laundry, and possibly attempt to clean my house. I know, I know.... for those of you that know me, I confess I'm a bit worried about my sanity, too. We all know that those household chores are not done so much by choice as by necessity in my household. (That's not to say that my house is a total sludge pit, or that we all walk around in last week's dirty clothes. No. Just that I never voluntarily CHOOSE to do those things when I have other things to do, and more time to do them later.) However, choose them I did. And things were actually going along rather smoothly for some time, until Coach stumbled in the door from the garage looking shell-shocked. See, he'd been out working on that stupid truck of his again (what? I wasn't hiding this time!! I even kept going out to check on him!) for a few hours. In this desert. In temperatures over 105. In direct sunlight. Not having eaten. Nothing to drink (unless you count the beer the neighbor brought over... which you really can't count as it does nothing to alleviate heat exhaustion or dehydration, despite Coach's best arguments). So I stopped what I was doing and basically threw him into water as cold as I could get it. Which really isn't any better than lukewarm out here, so there really wasn't much risk of him going into shock. :) Finally got him taken care of, and it was time to locate Bug so we could all head off to Grandma's house!

Which is where the fun really began! Coach's brother was there with his four children. Yes, I said four. Two sets of twins, actually. All under the age of 6. So, to put it mildly, it was a pretty hoppin' household. And we spent most of the weekend there. Luckily, there's a pool. So when the kids got to be too much, we just threw them all in. The problem then became getting them all out, but that's a whole 'nother story. And after all the kidlets were in bed for the night, and the multitude of dogs had settled down (four in all) us grown-ups proceeded to play Trivial Pursuit. On Saturday night, it was the 90's version. On Sunday night it was the Totally 80's game.

*sigh* Here is where it gets embarrassing. At least for me. Everyone assumed that I would totally rock at the 80's game. I mean, I'm a complete product of that time period. I had leg warmers. Wore leggings. I had big hair. I even said things like "Totally!", "Rad!" and "Awesome!". ( I know.... it mortifies Jock to be confronted with this. Which really, is half the fun of admitting it!) Sadly, I did not rock at this game. In fact, it was the total opposite "rock". I'd have to say that I sucked eggs. Bad. We were paired up, which should have made it more fair. I was paired with Bug (again, everyone thought I'd have the edge here!), Coach was paired with his little sister (who wasn't even born until 1986!) and Coach's brother was paired with their mom. They all did better than me. Every last one of them. Well, except maybe for Bug.

But I think he still wants me to believe I'm smart.