An Unfortunate Event

Ever have one of those moments when you think about doing something and there are two ways to do it? You ponder which one to do and then on an impulse and without really thinking too hard, you make a choice. Five seconds after you make the choice, you realize you should have gone the other way. Well that happened to me last night.

My days seem to be long days once the kids come home. I find myself looking at the clock willing it to be 10:00 when they will all be in bed, not asleep because they are vampire children that never sleep, but in bed. Even Gia walks around saying, "No sleepies, Mommy. Not yet. Two minutes." I know I should be enjoying them and living in the moment and not wishing the moments away and someday I will do that but yesterday was not that day. Once the kids were all home, we piled in the car to go to Target and then to my mom's. Nico needed a report cover for a big Social Studies project (and apparently, I needed $98 of other stuff) and needed my parents' help. We tried to have him interview them over the phone but it was too hard and he needed pictures that were at their house. Target with all four of them was a little crazy. Gia now knows the meaning of "If you cry in Target, you don't get a sucker." She told my mom the whole story: how she threw a fit, cried and then Mommy said, "No sucker."

We had a delicious meal and then Nico interviewed my parents while my sister and I looked for pictures. I get accused of living in the past a lot but looking at all of those pictures, it's hard not to. The hair was bad, the clothes were bad and all of our teeth were in bad need of braces but all of the parties and family gatherings and holidays with so much love makes it hard not to transport yourself back there. It made me a little sad and wonder if I am doing a good enough job for my own kids. Will they look back at pictures and feel the same way? My heart ached a little bit for my Nana, Papa and Grams. Such good people taken too soon or in a terrible way.

Anyway, it was after 9:00 when Nico and I finally got home and I had Leo's car (Leo took the other three home earlier). It's a Yukon and I have one of those garages that is a two car with two doors. Sometimes I pull Leo's car in and sometimes I don't. There isn't really a thought as to why I do or don't. I thought about it for a minute and thought about just leaving it out but then decided to pull it in. The garbage cans were a little over so I was afraid I was going to hit them but I forged ahead. I looked to the other side to make sure I wouldn't hit the passenger mirror and heard a bump. I figured I hit the garbage can and backed up to hear crunching metal and breaking glass. Yep...I hit the driver's side mirror and it shattered. I heard it will cost us between $200-$500. So far anyone that I have told has said, "Oh, I have done that" so I know it's not that uncommon but I am sick to my stomach about it. We just put $2000 into his car. I totally had that moment right when it happened: Should have gone the other way and left it out.


Retraction from two days ago: I still stand by my opinion about splitting up the classes for math but Tommy and Belle came home yesterday and said one of the teachers made a mistake and some kids got put in the wrong class. The whole thing made a lot more sense to both of them so harmony regarding math was restored. J.L., you might be right and they might be doing a better job of not making it obvious who is struggling and who is sailing through than Tommy had thought. I wish, like yours, that mine would have all the teachers because that makes sense to me. So far he's had two of the teachers, one twice and Belle has had two of the teachers, one twice. I don't get it but then, I don't have to get everything all the time. As long as their confidence in math continues to rise, then I'm good because that is what killed math for Nico and I don't want to go through that again.