Tuesday, March 03, 2009

24 hours of crazy

Yesterday was a hard terrible day around here.
First of all, my dang washing machine decided to give up the ghost and die on me mid wash cycle. Let me tell you, hand-wringing out half washed clothes is F-U-N!
There were also TWO blankets in there, thank God they were small! The are hanging from the rafters of my back porch, making my house look oh so classy.
Can you imagine if I was washing a comforter or sheets at the time of the meltdown. Egad. Terrible.

After that I went online and found out that there had been a shooting at the local WalMart in the parking lot, which is so scary because I practically LIVE at that WalMart, sadly.
One person was killed, another gravely injured AND the shooter is unidentified and still on the loose.
Very, very scary.

I had a billion errands to run yesterday and drove by WalMart at least three times and each time it was scary. Yellow crime scene tape, emergency vehicles ALL over the place....a big crowd of police, fire, paramedics, witnesses...
So scary.
Even though I'm sure it would be like lightning striking twice for something to go down like that again there, I'm now totally hesitant to even GO to that WalMart! But it's not like I have a choice...eventually, I'm going to have to go back...

During all my errands, Dylan was TERRIBLE. And I was all shell-shocked and feeling weird to begin with. I sort of let him go off and be a bit crazy even though I totally wanted to put a leash on him.
He was so bad that by the time we finished everything and went to pick up Elizabeth from school I was completely fed up. As we left the school I told him that he was misbehaving so much that he was going to have to go on time out at home.

"You need to go to your room alone and have quiet time."

"No mom! Nooooo!"

"Yes, Dylan. Trust me, it's for your own protection."

"I can't like quiet time!"

Duh.
He ended up falling asleep in the car anyway, so it wasn't an issue when we eventually got home.

THIS morning we all had to wake up and scramble to get ready because the older kids had dentist appointments. This was Dylan's first time. I had previously told the doctor that he MIGHT be a problem patient as he is well, you know, himself.

Imagine my total surprise when he was a PERFECT patient for the gal cleaning his teeth. Maybe it was because she was cute. Dylan opened wide, he let the vacuum tube near his face (which is a BIG thing, he's terrified of vacuums) and he did so well during the x-rays that they got a whole series instead of just the two or three they were expecting out of him.

Yay! I was so proud. But Dylan's moment in the sun was short lived. After the dentist we went to the "Dinosaur Park" as Elizabeth calls it. We met up with some friends we haven't seen in awhile. Well, I've seen their mom but the kids haven't gotten together. Bunch of sickies and bad weather!

Dylan was great for about the first half hour. Then it was like someone flipped a switch in his brain and he was just "firsty! so firsty!" and wanted a "thoda!" and wanted to leave dinosaur park and go to the "grothery store"

He kept throwing himself face first into the sand and flailing around like a freak. And not a freak on a leash either, an unleashed freak.

It was only mildly annoying to me though since we were a) outdoors and the screams dissipated and b) noone else was really around. Christina (my friend) has two girls around the same age as my two olders, so she knew this was just a kid thing and not a reflection on my parenting skills as a whole, at least I THINK she did! ;)

Which is quite the opposite reaction I got from a old lady at Safeway just the day before. Dylan was hollering in the check out line. Not screaming, just being loud. And this lady waiting at the next checkstand WHIPPED around and glared at me as if to say with her beady old eyes "I can't believe you would take that THING into public!!"
And I hope she could read my mind because I was saying "Listen lady! Don't you think if I was ALLOWED to lock him in the trunk when I go shopping that I WOULD! But I can't it's totally not allowed at all!"

And THEN she would feel bad because her bitchy glare just made a nice regular mom think about possibly inprisoning her son in the trunk of a car just so SHE could have total silence at Safeway when she was picking up her Depends and Aqua Net. <=Total old lady cliches.

Anyway....getting back to the fits being thrown at the park...
We ended up leaving and driving back to Show Low to go to Safeway (remember, no WalMart for me) and get our groceries. With Dylan. I didn't lock him in the trunk at all. Though, man, did I regret it.

The kids MADE me get one of those STUPID carts with the car on the front. Of course, those carts don't hold as much groceries and impossible to manuever cleanly through the store. It doesn't help that they litter the aisles with all sorts of racks of products and hang things from every shelf and people apparently dead set to be jerkoffs leave their carts randomly in the canned vegetables aisle while they wander over to the in-store Starbucks and get a caramel macchiato and a biscotti for a few hours. At least that's what I ASSUME cart abandoners are doing.

Anyway...I'm pushing this big lumbering stupid looking, not enough grocery holding cart and the bread is getting all squished and the kids keep trying to jump in and out of the car and switch seats and kill each other and make me smack them in public.

Eventually I had to get down, stick my face into the car and very very quietly warn them against further misbehaving.
At which point I was already so over the shopping and so disoriented from having been wrangling kids instead of paying attention to what I was purchasing, I just went to the check out and paid for my stuff and we left.

Oh, no, wait. We couldn't leave without getting Scratchers!
"Mom! I neeeeeed scratchers"
Neither of their tickets were winners, by the way.
Then I had to go BACK to the check out to pay for the two donuts the kids ate that I forgot about and were PROBABLY the source of their insolence.

After I got the kids loaded into the car and all the groceries in I informed them that any further speaking to me or each other would be a very bad idea. A very bad idea.
And because my head spun around and steam came out of my ears and my voice was all distorted and Satanic they were quiet ALMOST until we got out of the parking lot.

6 comments:

Bern said...

I can barely maneuver that big clumsy car-like shopping cart alone with no kids and no groceries.
Whoever designed that cart must either think it's funny or just mean.

Kenna said...

Wow!!! You totally describe my usually grocery shopping experience. I am so glad I'm not the only one:)

SusieGoodness said...

I feel for ya! That doesn't sound like it was much fun at all. Too bad it is Lent.

Jessica said...

I should drive the considerable extra miles and do all my shopping at the Bashas in Taylor where they have child care INSIDE the store. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Jason said...

Gas is cheap and psychiatric care is expensive. Make the long drive. I'm just sayin'.

Jessica said...

I'm totally going into the nuthouse someday...just not TO-day! I'm way too busy!