Cold Ankles

As I have gotten older I have tried to be a lot more positive than I used to be. There are, however, some days that literally just stink. Today is one of them. Today reminds me of that children's book called Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst (if you aren't familiar with it you should read it!).

Today Dalen was supposed to be to school by 8:30. Our alarm didn't buzz until 8 am. Oh, and let me rewind and tell you about our horrible night where we literally didn't sleep, at all. Dalen has reverted to HATING, LOATHING, DESPISING his crib and night night time. He cried on and off all night. I refused, absolutely refused to go get him. All I can think of is having two kids in a few months, who don't sleep at night.

So 8 am comes around and my husband jumps out of bed and informs me he is late for an 8:15 get together with our youth pastor. As he rushes around getting ready, I go to the dryer to get my freshly washed work pants out of the dryer and realize that my husband forgot to dry them like he said he would and there they sat-still in the washer. Normally, this would be no biggie but considering I am now size MASSIVE whale I have all of 4 pairs of pants that fit me for work. I had no choice but to call my boss and let her know I would be late because "I have no clean or dry clothes to wear today!" Yea, professional I know. Luckily she thought it was kind of humorous and let me off the hook.

My husband rushes out the door to meet our youth pastor and I am left to dress Dalen and myself. I go to Dalen's room only to find a funky smell in the air and notice he had thrown up in his bed during the night. Oh yeah, I am seeing it now-Mother Of The Year. I felt horrible, like a failure and began sobbing, wondering how will I ever know if he is sick and crying or if he is just being difficult. Recently, Dalen has begun trying to make himself throw up in his crib so he can get out and won't have to go to bed. Well, SUCCESS!

I began cleaning his sheet and blankie, rip his clothes off him, bathe him quickly and put fresh clothes on him. It's 9 am and I haven't even showered! My clothes are drying away and I am hormonal, angry and so ready to wake up from this awful dream. Mario swings back by the house and rushes Dalen off to school. I shower, do my make-up, halfway dry my hair and began to feel shaky all over. It was about 9:40 and I then realized I hadn't eaten or drank anything. I quickly pop my prenatals in my mouth, gag a few times and feverishly look everywhere for my keys which are no where to be found. Finally I score my keys and head out...INTO THE POURING DOWN RAIN. Why did shower again? Why didn't I just wear something from the dirty clothes pile, considering I now smell like wet dog?

I walk into work, give my boss a brief synopsis of my morning, get set up on my computer, scarf breakfast down and notice my ankles have been cold all morning but I kept ignoring it because I was in such a rush. I looked down only to find my BRAND NEW maternity pants had shrunk about 6 inches in the dryer. Great. Perfect. Awesome. I look amazing today in my highwaters accented by my buldging belly and dripping wet hair and running mascara! Hey, at least I had on highwaters during one of Cleveland's all too familiar monsoons.

Luckily I have been able to run my space heater from my office under my desk to keep my ankles warm. I didn't get my lunch until 2 pm and ran into Walgreens where the cashier feels the need to talk about a customer who is just a few feet away. At this point I was ready to strangle her. All I could think was I HAVE COLD ANKLES LADY! BACK OFF AND KEEP YOUR AWFUL DAY TO YOURSELF!!! or maybe I should have scared her out of her mind and offered to trade days with her. I am sure she would have chosen a difficult customer over my day.

Maybe one day-ONE DAY-when I get the whole clinging to God's peace down pat really good I may write a book about how to do that no matter what comes your way called Cold Ankles. I think it would sell, what about you??