I was really sleepy when I wrote this in pen earlier. I'm pretty worthless when I'm overtired and this time it's all my fault. There's no trio of toddlers; Mike is in New York; and I'm coming back to hormonal bliss. ;)
Miranda and I left early this morning to be in Mooresville, "Race City USA", a bunch of Lake Norman tooty bsnooties. It's at the south end of the county and we're at the North (yes, cap of "N" is noted). We were at one of the, if not the only, Orthodontic Medicaid offices in NC. Miranda had gotten "medically needed" braces there and has had them off a while, but we had to have new retainers and I thought it'd be the best place to start. The guy runnin' the show, aka the dentist, is supposed to have been a missionary. I was impressed by the John Wesley quote above his desk. He's headin' up a new state of the art facility. I knew from before he didn't like to be questioned, but, hey, I had some to ask. He took on his familiar "high helper to all" air and since we were negotiating money, I didn't tell him exactly how I felt about his demeanor. I had thrown on my jeans, hoody, cowboy boots, and had my hair twisted up. I guarantee you when I go in there looking more sophisticated next week, he'll approach me differently. I hate that. I'm sure he gets his fill of ignorant, obnoxious people who don't deserve the tax payers' help, BUT, as I reminded him, there are ones for whom the system is designed who climb back up from destruction to be become productive again. Too, he must be forgetting that he is rich from charging the gov't the highest rates around. He best be on his good behaviour next week, so I don't have anything to light into him about, his having "respect" for persons, holding some in higher esteem, while a banner of Christ is hanging in his office.
I had a return to make at Target, which BTW does have better grocery bags and that's why their prices are higher, I guess. I had picked up the wrong Tide. Whatever you do, don't put regular detergent in an HE machine. The same thing happens as when you put liquid detergent in a dish washer. It drives me crazy that the packaging is identical except for a 1 inch HE symbol. Shampoo, drinks, I'm always grabbing the wrong ones.
"Rosemary" was our customer service lady. She was a riot, a 67 year old Italian from New York who couldn't get over the "hold up" in the Statesville Wal-Mart. Statesville is right in between us and Mooresville. It's a melting pot, sitting at the intersection of I-77 and I-40; truckers' paradise being that close to the open road in all directions. I hadn't heard the details of the incident 'til right then, so she went into story mode and told us with great animation that an 83 year old GREETER at the store went out to his car, put on a disguise, went back in with a gun, put it to a cashier's head, and even shot off a round as he left. Yeah, it happened; look it up. Rosemary was beside herself as she performed different scenarios. We just stood and laughed. I love friendly people.
We had a few minutes to burn before Miranda had to be at work; so I decided since we hadn't eaten, we'd have a little girl talk time, albeit at the Pizza Hut in Target. I like to have one or two of the children at a time to do something spontaneous and/or special. It could be called a "date"; just seems odd to me. I wrote down "kid" and "date" and came up with "kidate", short i sound. Miranda's a teen so it stands to reason that we were on a "tedate", short e sound. If you've got something better, hit me up.
This week a "friend" posted a blog that said Facebook is just a place for parents to showcase their kids, posting only the greatest achievements and best pictures. I don't mind letting the truth loose, as long as I'm not "trampling" (figuratively speaking) on them to get a laugh or sympathy. It really is my desire that everybody understand the things that do go well here are not by some magic formula nor fairytale beginning.
Miranda (16) lost her retainers, so that necessitated the drive to Mooresville. In the last months, she has: gotten a concussion from riding/falling without a helmet, wrecked our brand new car (twice technically; yes, Youth Group, I know about the reattachment of my mirror, thanks anyway), broken a window in the house, and fallen hard at work after she left her skidproof shoes here. I remember finding them and complaining that she had left them, but I stopped and wondered later what might've happened if I'd prayed for her safety instead of fussing.
McKala (14) isn't accident prone but has her own things to address. Wait, wait,....wait, I just had a flashback of Miranda falling straight into the droppings of chickens, someone had up and given us 4 or 5 years ago. She had on cargo pants with untied strings and ran out so fast that the door caught them. She fell right smack in all of it and was stuck in the door! She won't ever live that down. I'm such a pathetic mother sometimes that I just stand and laugh 'til I cry and am of no use whatsoever, just like the time Megan fell off the board she was balancing on to repair something in the pig pen. She fell back in slow motion. I laughed so hard it hurt, while she tried not to put her hands in it to get up.
Michael (13) has to have a fire lit under his butt all the time. He "forgets" practically everything. Academically, I hope this is his year to understand the importance of it to his future; we'll leave it at that. (Since he says he doesn't read my blog, I think I'm safe to say that I took a few minutes to watch TV in the middle of them all not long ago and I felt his head on my shoulder. His 5'10 self has outgrown that stuff, so I'm gonna hold onto that feeling as long as I can. Sometimes, the rush is worth the wait.)
Melody (10) is emotional, simply put. She'll be playing out with the little guys or cuttin' up with the big ones, and all of sudden, have a loud outburst at some offense and startle the living daylights out of me. She "lost her mind" last week and said something to her sister she will surely regret if I ever hear it again.
Macklynn (6) is persistent beyond my patience. He pokes my belly, the one place I can't stand to be bothered, until I answer or pop him for interrupting. You'd think he'dve learned by now. And Madalynn (3) has a shrill scream when she's pleading a case of injustice and a habit of sneaking to use every "big"person thing she can get her little hands on.
Oh, oh, and Megan (20)...before she moved out, ignored most any small rule we had, sticking by the big ones but always denying us those ones she deemed insignificant. "I" (39) daily fight: perfectionism yielding to procrastination, pride, pleasure, and others I'll not bury myself in tonight. I haven't gained or lost 1 pound since I set my goals 3 weeks ago. (If I'd understood that Mike would be home for 2 weeks, I'd have postponed because I've never lost weight when he's here, for several reasons.) Today, my Personal Pan Pizza, the chocolate caramel mocha milkshake Miranda created for me at work and gifted me with, NOR the enchiladas which McKala started and I finished with handrolled tortillas are Mike's fault! So, Michelle, "Rest well tonight. Tomorrow wait for hunger, take small portions, workout....hunger, portions, work....hunger, portions, play....quit just saying the right things and DO THEM!"
Bravo!
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