Remembering to Remember by forgeting how to forget.

Well, Today was Matts Baseball party. BR decided to go with me. I am glad he went. He does work alot and we dont get to see him very much.

I have spent the last few days fighting fireants still. Everytime I get them all cleaned up and killed I find a new place where they are coming in. Its a never ending battle.

Yesterday at 9am I told the kids to get their rooms picked up. I couldnt even walk in them. I told them to clean one today and then we would do the other later.

At 9:30 last night I finally sent them to bed. The rooms are SEMI cleaned. There is a clean path. Thats about it. They just kept playing. OR they would get something done and then end up mad at the other one and trash what they had already gotten done.

I swear, sometimes they astound me. an hour tops would have gotten done what they actually got done and they could have played the rest of the day. Instead they made all our lives miserable. BR says I should just let them go outside and play. He never had to clean his room as a kid and neither should they. (not cleaning your room as a kid carries over into adulthood. I promise). He says that its their stuff, I shouldnt care. And its just a waste of my time. Well, even if I could go with this therory, I cant get to Bows dresser when their room is like that. Not with out something causing me bodily harm.

And my mother in law called, she wanted the kids to go to daycare today, they were going to the park to play and wanted them to get to go. Nice of her. Except I had to get them all up and dressed by 6:30 to go to work with her.

I woke up at 6:33. she has been showing up around 6:40 the last week of school, so I ran in and tried to wake them up. Rayley bounced up and got dressed. No fighting, no whining, no arguing about wearing shorts and tennis shoes and not a dress and flip flops. The boys were a little harder, I had begged them last night to go to bed. They never would listen. They did get up, but wanted to drag. I told them they didnt have time for that. They got dressed pretty quickly, then Matt couldnt find his other shoe. They havent worn shoes since school was out, (they go outside barefoot) and when they cleaned their room they lost it.

I went in there and destroyed their room trying to find the damn shoe. guess they will have to reclean it. It wasnt like they did a good job to start with.

I had to be in town before 4 for a mystery shop. But first I had to go to my grandfathers to help him put up squash. Come to find out we wernt doing it on halves this time. It was all for me and my mom, BUT he thinks I dont do it right, so he wanted to be in charge. LOL

He insists on cooking them 12 minutes, then you keep them IN the basket you boiled them in, put them in cool water, then in ice water, then you have to lay them out on the towell side by side, not touching. Then you get another towell and you pat them dry.

Then you fill up a 2 quart bowl and dump it in a bag.

it takes forever. When I do it here at home I just boil them 3 minutes, dump them in a sink full of water, put more squash in my basket and throw it back in the pot to start more cooking. Then when those in the water are 'shocked' I throw them out on the towell, try to make sure they are not in one huge pile and let them cool till they are cold. (you cant bag and freeze warm squash, they will sour in the freezer.)

I end up with all my squash done, and cooling pretty quickly, then go back a little while later and bag them up. Just putting in handfuls till I reckon I got it right.

Where as honey ( thats what I call him) only has ONE basketful on the towell at a time and it is bagged before any more is dumped. I never could convince him that we end up putting all of that one batch in a bag. he kept saying "but one time it might be more than 2 quarts". It never was. Apparently, the full basket of raw squash equals 2 quarts of cooked squash.

Once BR and I got to town and I did the mystery shop we had to go and get the kids from daycare.
We had to go to Lowes and get a 4 x 4 and when we got back out to the truck both boys piled in before I could even get the back doors open for the little ones.

I explained to them again that I needed help sometimes getting everyone in and they were going to have to start helping me. I had to get Rayley in, Bow in, both buckled and the stroller in the back.

I told them that anytime we leave a store they are to each pick a kid, make sure the door is open for Rayley, make sure she gets in and if I am dealing with Bow to buckle her up. If I am dealing with groceries, to buckle up Bow and I would check the seatbelts before we left, but they were NOT to just load up and leave all the grocery packing to me. They had to start helping. Its starting to get hot and getting everyone and everything into the truck (that I start the second we get out there) before we have a heat stroke or the meat goes bad is paramount. Not them fighting over who sits up front. It wont hurt them to help a little and will keep them out of trouble. Plus it keeps Rayley out of the parking lot standing by her door.

Then we headed to the park to wait on the time for Matts party to start. It wasnt bad. I got a coffee out of it. A friend of mine runs a coffee shop in town. she got me hooked on latte's or some such. I dont really know what they are called. I just know its called a 'speCHELLE" or somesuch. She says that even the most hardcore coffee drinkers cringe when she tells them whats in it.. There are 5 or 6 expressos, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of steamed milk. in a med sized cup. its pretty good, but I have found that you cant order it at other places. They tend to look at you like you are crazy and make somthing with more milk, and less sugar and coffee.. Stupid people.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the coffee. :) They got their trophies and got to play at the park for a while. And got to eat Pizza and have fun. Of course Rayley fell asleep while we were waiting for everyone to show up. It took 15 minutes to get her to wake up. I kid you not. She had played her little heart out today. I almost didnt get her OUT of daycare. She hates to leave.

When it came time to leave I was talking to a friend and got Bow and Rayley all buckled in. I asked the boys to put the stroller in the back and to load up. BR had to go to work. The boys started fighting over who got to ride up front. THey do this all the time. One of them HAS to ride up front. we dont have a choice. I drive a truck. its a 4 door. I have 4 kids. thats 3 in the back and one in the front and BR and I are of course in front. Rayley BEGS to get to sit up front. But she is just too young. and the boys fight over it.

BR came to get in and both boys were sitting up front. I was in the back buckiling up Bow and Rayley and he asked them what the hell they were doing. I told him they were arguing over who got to sit where again. He finally said "isnt it first one then the other?" I said "yes" so he pointed out that BRett had been up there since we left daycare.

This resulted in Brett smarting off. He mumbled something, I dont know what, I was still trying to buckle in that contortionist that I gave birth to. He will NOT sit still. and DeSPISES having to ride turned around. I cant blame him. I know he wants to face foward. poor thing.

I am not sure what saved Bretts life. I really dont think BR heard him mumble. Either that or it was the full parking lot. I gave him a look and he shut up. I would just have to deal with it later. I wanted to go home.

We came home and went out to the backyard looking around at what BR had bushhogged today. He couldnt sleep even after working all week and so he had played on the tractor while I was at Huney's. (we really dont have a yard, just land. but its behind the house, so its the backyard... )

We came inside and he started getting ready to go to work. BR asked where Rayley was. Brett said "in her room asleep". For some reason this didnt ring true to me, so I asked him to go and make sure. He said "I know she is" and then started back to the kitchen.

BR decided to go look and was about 2 steps ahead of me. He went to her bed (after wading through toys and clothes and chairs and pillows, and toys, and buckets, and toyboxes, and toys that are about a foot deep (during which he asked "dont you ever make them clean their rooms?", I didnt say a word. NOT a freaking word. )

He threw back the blanket on her bed. No Rayley. So we started outside. I had seen her get out of the truck. I know I did. He told me to head out behind the house, the dogs were still back there, and he started in the other direction. We wernt worried about her being hurt or anything, just about her getting a little lost in the underbrush and sulling up and not answering when we hollered. She tends to sull up when she gets mad. She goes outside and plays by herself sometimes, just staying in the front of the house where the sand is. I dont worry about her wondering off.

Well, We both started in opposite directions and she walked out from behind the truck. She was back there playing in the sand and didnt even know we had went inside. She thought we were still behind the house looking at the stump that BR had worked out of the ground today.

Brett was schooled in the mistakes he made. and told to ALWAYS go and check when he is told to.

BR finally was able to get dressed and go to work, and I came in here and settled in. I told Matt to go and get his unifrom shirt ( I had taken it today for him to wear at his party, cause he had forgotten, and instead of listening to me and taking off the shirt he wore all day he put this one on over it. So when he got hot he took off the uniform shirt and threw it down. I had made him to go get it while we were there.)

He went out and came back in a few mintes later. He couldnt find the stroller and he had put it in the basket of the stroller. I was on the phone, so I got up, disengaged Bow, and put on my shoes and walked outside to show him that if it was a snake it would have bit him. He kept insisting that he had looked in 'both backs' the seat and truck bed.

I went and looked. there was NO stroller. NONE. NOTHING but my plastic box (for keeping baseball stuff in) and a couple of tool boxes. that was IT.

Then it dawned on me. I made all the kids get in the truck and we had to drive ALL the way back to town.

BR will kill me when he finds out. talk about a waste of deisel. But sawdust for brains has put his shirt in there, his trophy and it was my ONLY stroller.
I could have gladly pinched a little head off.

20 miles into town. 20 freakin miles. and the first 3 of them were spent following a guy that used to come in the store when I worked down there. I hated him then and I can tell you that had I not been in a hurry I would have followed him home and let him know just how I felt about him to this day.

I got RIGHT in front of the store, and he pulled out in front of me. Then proceeded to drive 2 of the 3 miles to his cutoff at 50 miles and hour. and there was NO going around him. then when we were less than a mile from his house he slowed down. I didnt know a vehicle could go that slow. He had to have been doing it on purpose. I was SOO glad to get around him. and I waved that special wave to let him KNOW how glad I was.

I just knew that by the time we got back to the library the stroller would be gone. (the park is behind the libary and beside the volunteer fire station, we dont have a real firestation, its not a paid posistion. you just have a radio, if there is a fire you try to leave work, or home nad get to the station, get the truck and get it put out. )

I finally got to the parking lot and sure enough there was no stroller.

So I drove back out onto the street and went to the fire dept. next door. There were a few guys sitting there shooting the bull.

I asked them if they had seen a stroller. This guy walked over and looked at me funny. I told him that my stroller had gotten left behind when we were paking up and wondered if they had seen it.

He said yes, and told me they had put it in the alcove behind the library. OH thank GOD!

He then proceeded to tell me that they had looked all over the park for the baby. They thought some one had abandoned it.

Yep. I abandoned my child, his stroller, and the baseball trophy that has my baseball age sons team name, full name and year on it. OH and plus his uniform shirt.

I do understand. Really I do. But I assured him that no, I had NOT left the baby. and I pointed to the backseat. He looked and nodded his head. I told him that I had asked one of the boys to put the stroller in the back and they had forgotten. He started back on how they had searched all over and this was not the best neighborhood at night and that he had hidden it behind the library.

I assured him again that no, I didnt leave the baby, and wouldnt. The 8 and 9 year olds though were debateable.

I appologized and thanked him for taking the time to hide it. I drove back over there and got it. Both the shirt and trophy were in there.

And I got back in the truck to start home. all 4 kids were asleep. ALL of them. I was pissed, wasting deisel and they were sleeping like babies.

I got them home and told them to go strait to bed. Nope, all 4 were wide awake and wanting to play and talk.

I did convince them that for their own safety they might want to go on to bed. and they were promptly asleep.

I know that I should have double checked to make sure the stroller was in the truck. But thinkin back I remember that I got Bow in his seat, Rayley in hers, she needed a drink so I found her one, and then as I was asking the boys to quit arguing over the front seat and to put up the stroller (BR was talking to another dad by the truck) one of the moms walked up and needed some stuff I had brought for her. When I leaned in to get it I went ahead and got in so I could give Bow something to keep him occupied. I sat there and talked to her for a few minutes, BR was on his side and in the meantime the kids settled in their seats.

I just got sidetracked. But I will say when BR got in and shut his door I went down my list.
Brett-check
Matt- check
Rayley- Check
Bow- check
looked behind me to see all were in seatbelts.. Check
Coffee- check
Purse- check
Diaper bag- check
Bow's toys-check
Keys-still cant find (nto the one in the ignition, the one with my fob)
gave Kristie the dress-check
Got the sizes for the shirts to make-check
did everything for the mystery shop-check
cell phone-check.

we were ready to go.

I just didnt think of the stroller.
But now its on my mental checklist.
I am sure this means something else will drop off...