Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope that you all have fond memories of the day....I for one want to remember it for always.

I don't think that the pleasure of opening a gift or smelling the pretty flowers are going to be my most memorable events of the day. No, what I will be remembering most about this year will be my husband gearing the kids up to go shopping today.

Around 9 AM, he came up with this brilliant idea that he wanted to give each girl a dollar and take them to the dollar store and let them pick out something for me. He told his plan to the kids....they decided that no, they had to spend the dollar on what they wanted for THEMSELVES. *sigh* I thought for sure I had taught them about giving by now.

By 10 AM, he finally had them fed breakfast. I would have helped some, but I was getting just too much satisfaction watching my husband attempt to do what I do every single day. First, he served the cereal...accept he didn't know that my second born does not eat raisins. So he ended up eating her bowl and making her a bagel.

Then it was time to get dressed. After sending them into their room 3 or 4 times, the girls finally emerged wearing clothes that almost matched, and an exhausted Daddy. I just giggled. Especially with the first born wearing her orange socks with the pink crocs. You see, I don't give them choices on what to wear, I just hand them what they will be wearing and tell them the family motto. "You get what you get, and you don't pitch a fit!" My husband must have forgotten that motto. Then they had to brush hair and teeth. Ever seen a grown man try to do hair clips in a little girl's hair? It is a beautiful sight to behold :) The hairdos were, um......rather interesting. But hey, he tried.

It's almost noon now and they are finally about ready to go. Now since we live 40 minutes from anything that even remotely looks like shopping, he needs to pack water bottles (don't ever be caught anywhere in NC in the summer without a water bottle!), snacks, toys for the car ride, fill the coffee thermos, etc. He's lucky he doesn't have to take the baby, he'd have a diaper bag to fill too. So while he is preparing, the girls have stripped off their clothes and put on bathing suits. Just for fun. Then they start complaining that they are hungry for lunch.

He struggled. I chuckled. He finally managed to get them redressed, reshoed, and out the door.

I put my feet up and enjoyed a nice leisurely afternoon. Thank you, darling.

On your mark....get set...... GO!!!!!!!! I'm sorry, but it's a RANT!

Yesterday was my husband's last day of work, for this particular unit anyway. Usually for the last day at one's unit you should expect some sort of send off, or at least some sort of recognition for the time that you served there for a job well done. My husband had no knowledge if anything had been planned for him, so I asked for him to give me a call when he knew when whatever festivities were planned were going to occur.

At 8:45 my phone rings. It's my darling husband, who says "How fast can you get here? There is a ceremony thing at 9:30." I look down at my unshowered self, still in pajamas, the kids with their snarled hair, and at the baby unfed, but napping on my bed.

"Um...." I wimpered, "It will be a miracle, but I will see what I can do." And hung up.

20 minutes later, I had 2 beautiful girls dressed in their Sunday best with their hair in pigtails, myself showered (is it considered a shower if you only get to stand under the water for 2 minutes?), dressed, with make-up applied, and the baby, who was content with a dry diaper and secured in her carseat......we peeled out of the driveway.

I squealed into the parking lot exactly 0928, and herded the brood into the building at precisely 0:930, feeling very proud of my accomplishment. I was feeling even more proud of my husband, who was expected to receive some sort of medal of achievement that day.

We stood and watched as several men were commended for their work that day. When the ceremony was over, I realized that my husband was NOT one of them and was very very confused. My husband was as well. As a matter of fact, several people looked confused and asked why I was there....if my husband was supposed to be getting something too.

Come to find out, that my husband's medal had been LOST. Lost??!?!? Are you joking me??!!?!? My husband puts in four years of his time, shedding his blood, sweat, and tears for this unit, and they were going to do nothing for him? NOTHING! I really wanted to just cry. His XO came over and apologized for the mistake and promised to get to the bottom of it.

They put together an impromptu "Paddle Passing" in which whomever is holding the paddle got to say some nice things about my husband. That was all fine and dandy, but it wasn't my husband being publicly recognized for his achievements. He really deserves that. I was literally biting my tongue to keep from chewing some people's heads off.

What I would like to know is how it is possible for an office full of people who have months of advance notice of my husband's last day of work and can't seem to get prepared for one little ceremony? I had exactly 20 minutes to prepare the rest of my family, manage to look good myself, AND not get a speeding ticket getting there. I know it's comparing apples to oranges, but it is still really frustrating.

I did want to mention, however, that the girls grabbed hold of the paddle during the "Paddle Passing" so they had to say a few things about their Daddy. The middle child beamed, "I have the best Daddy ever!", and the oldest proclaimed proudly that "My Daddy rocks!" Well, even though my husband's co-workers don't seem to know it, we do. And I guess that that is what is important.

Can All My Shirts Say This Inside?

I found this on the inside of my daughter's shirt, and was slightly jealous. If you can't read it, it says Gorgeous and Talented. I wish all of my shirts had a compliment stamped right inside of it! There has to be some little tags of some sort that you can order that you can customize with little phrases on them. I mean if you can custom order your M&M's now, why not the tags on your shirt?

Thought for the day....

"There's no better place to be than living in the palm of God's hand.
That way life comes at you filtered through the fingers of God."
~Pastor Jane Allen;
New River Community Church of God