It's the Best Day Ever

I seriously have a happy little tune running through my head. Unfortunately, it's being sung by a very happy little yellow talking sponge that seems to live in my house. Normally, he doesn't serenade me. On Saturday, though, he started singing his happy little tune and I haven't been able to shake him yet. I think I need help.

But seriously, my little squishy-spongy-square-pants friends started singing on Saturday for a very good reason. Because I truly had a "Best Day Ever" day. It was wonderful. Magical. Glorious.

It started out with Will waking up at 8 am. If you know anything about my son, you know it's a good day when he can sleep in until 8! Then, we got up and I got a shower. Doesn't sound odd, I know. But for a Saturday morning, it usually doesn't happen. I'm a single mommy on Saturdays so I rarely get a chance to head for the shower. But this Saturday I did, which was miraculous in and of itself because I had no daughter in the house to watch my son. Granted, it was a QUICK shower because I didn't trust my son to not decide to suddenly go exploring outside. But it was a lovely shower nonetheless because he quietly and calmly sat and watched his little square-pants friend while munching on his poptart.

Now, I probably need to pause to explain that I was not missing my daughter. I knew where she was. For the second straight weekend in row, she was at a sleepover at a friend's house. She did this last weekend too. And then she has a party this Friday that was actually supposed to be a sleepover but we're skipping the Harry Potter movie showing (seriously, don't think Sarah's mom wants to be up all night with my freaked-out daughter) so she'll get home in time to go to bed. And then she's already begging me for another sleepover next Friday. Am I a bad mother if I say no? I kind of miss my daughter! I'd kind of like her home for once. Then again, given the surly, whiny attitude we dealt with all day yesterday, maybe this is good timing to send her off packing to other mothers' houses.

But I digress. Sorry. ANYWAY, back to my story. I got dressed, took out the dog and settled down with my breakfast. I had plans at 12:30 so I knew I had plenty of time to pick up AC at 11:30. But then the phone rang. And it was Pappy. And he asked if his little grandson was dressed yet. Ummm...yeah, my son dressed at 9:30 on a Saturday morning? Not happening. He could LIVE in his PJs on a Saturday. In fact, he often does. But that's not important right now. Right now, we focus on the call from Pappy. He wanted to know if he could come over and pick him up because the weather was beautiful and he wanted to pull out his tricycle and let him ride around his driveway. I asked Will if he wanted to do that and the kid started ripping off the PJs. Seriously! He told me he'd take off his pants and undies and I could take off his shirt. I think the kid was dressed in 3 seconds flat. And he stood at the door, ready for his Pappy who showed up for him 10 minutes later.

So wait, do you know what this means? The hubby is at work, the boy is with his Pappy, and the girl is off fighting off bees in someone else's backyard! And me? Well, I settled down with my bowl of cereal and enjoyed some SILENCE. It was beautiful. It was heavenly. And I already felt a little pampered.

But wait, the Best Day Ever isn't over yet! You see, at 11:30, I went to pick up Ann Catherine. Of course, that was a little harder then you might think considering I had never been to this girl's house and Brian took AC over there the night before while I was cooking dinner and had managed to run off to work with the address in the car. But thanks to a dear friend, crisis was averted and I located my child. She didn't look too happy to see me. Then again, she may have still been a little annoyed at the fact that bees came out to play with them in the backyard.

ANYWAY, so I took this lovely little child over to her Nanny and Pappy's house for a little play time. Because, you see, as I mentioned before, I had an appointment at 12:30. With a masseuse.

Oh yes, I was being very spoilt and loved-on by my mother-in-law. She's my new favorite person in the world! She and I headed to a local massage therapy place and I got to meet Stacy B. Stacy B is my new best friend. Seriously! I get to have a playdate with her once a month!

This was my first massage. I've always wanted to do this, but have never gotten up the nerve...or the money. But when someone else offers to pay for you to give it a try, ummm...yeah. I'll get over my nerves REAL quick!

I settled down and got ready and met my new best friend. Ever since I hit 13 and the age where REAL stress enters your life, I've had headaches...and knots. Headaches in my head (obviously) and knots in my shoulders. Huge knots. The kind where my guy friends would massage my shoulders and shake their heads and be amazed at the fact that their strong hands could do nothing to penetrate these knots. These knots pop up as soon as I get stressed. It's not fun. But I've dealt with it for about 10 years now. Seriously! Cause I'm still only 23 and that would be how long it would have been to have dealt with them.

ANYWAY. My new best friend, Stacy, asked me about my headaches. And then she started massaging my neck. And then she said, "Oh look, this is where your headaches come from." And then she hit a spot on the back of my neck and I about cleared the table. Seriously, she could CAUSE a headache to pop up just by putting pressure on that spot. And bless her heart, she started working on that knot on my neck.

And then she moved on to my shoulders. And I melted onto the table. Seriously, I became liquid. Well, until she hit those knots on my shoulders. And then she said, "Does this hurt?" Ummm..yeah! I told her those were my stress spots and, bless her heart once again, she told me to take deep breaths and worked those spots right out of my shoulders. Seriously! She could even trace a knot up and down my back. It was weird. I'm going to see her again.

And then I left, and I went to Nanny & Pappy's house to collect my children, took them home, and I laid on the couch because I couldn't do more than that. Actually, I probably could have but I totally didn't want the totally relaxed feel to go away. So I laid on the couch and let the kids destroy the house.

And then my hubby came home. And he listened to my story about my new best friend. And he gave me permission to set up a playdate with her once a month. Because he loves me. And I seriously love him. And he may have been slightly motivated by the fact that he could see his own massaging time trying to need out knots slowly disappearing.

And then he helped peel me off the couch and we took the kids to the playground. Because, seriously, it has been like 10 degrees for the past eight months. At least it feels like that. And we're tired of the house. So we all went to the playground. Of course, everybody in our little town joined us. We played on the playground and we walked on the park trail. And we soaked up the sun until it started getting a little chilly.

And then my sweet, sweet husband declared that I wasn't allowed to cook dinner. So he was taking me out. And I sat and enjoyed a very quiet and peaceful meal that had been lovingly (and quickly) prepared for us at a local seafood fast-food restaurant. The littlest munchkin in the family can't wait for more extended, better prepared foods. But we enjoyed it completely.

And then we went home and Brian put the kids in bed. And I melted back on the couch.

And that squishy, spongy, square-pants dude started singing in my head his merry little tune of "It's the Best Day Ever." End of story. Seriously.

Notice!

It is with heavy hearts that we post this notice of a death in the family.

Sometime during the night Ann Catherine's fish "Mickey/Goldie" (we were calling "it" Mickey till "it" had babies) went onto that great fish tank in the sky.

As I went to wake Ann Catherine this morning, I turned on the light in the fish tank and noticed that Goldie was laying on the bottom. Right away, I knew that it was dead, since fish are not supposed to lay on the bottom of the tank.

As I woke Ann Catherine and proceeded to break the news to her, I prepared myself to console my tender hearted child. To my surprise, she stated "I want to flush it". I at that moment had a flash back to my childhood watching the fish funeral on "The Cosby Show".

As I removed the fish from the tank, I thought now we are going have a funeral in the bathroom. What was I going to say at the funeral. I thought maybe "Goldie was a kind fish friend and mother", or "she brought such joy to the tank." As I placed her in the toilet and prepared to speak, Ann Catherine said "Bye" Then FLUSH.

Kids never cease to amaze me. So, in honor of the deceased:

A Little Family Update

1. Well, the number of our grandfishes is starting to waver. There were eight at the beginning. But for the past week or so, we've only been able to find one or two. We know for a fact that two were sucked up to Fishy Heaven. Yeah, they're currently drying out in the filter at the top of the tank. So, even though we were sad to see a few meet their early demise, I have to admit, we were breathing a little sigh of relief. We knew from all our fishy research that we could only have two fish in the size tank we chose for Ann Catherine. So to suddenly have 10 fish in that tiny tank, we knew we were in trouble. But really, for the past week or so, I've only been able to find two fish so I breathed a sigh of relief and figured that the other four had become lunch for Mickey and Minnie Fish.

And then last night rolled around. And Brian started counting. And that mean old man managed to find five fish last night. So we're back to square one with being over our fish quota for that tiny tank.

2. Our little Will's arm is now breathing a sigh of relief. Actually, his skin is finally breathing a sigh of relief. I took him to the orthopedic doctor yesterday and, after a good review of his newest xrays, she pronounced him healed. No more cast!!! Of course, when she tried to send me home with nothing on his arm, I was a little hesitant. Both times Ann Catherine broke her arm, they had her wear a soft brace on it for a couple days. So not having this doctor offer a brace made me a little concerned. So I gently asked about a brace. Nope - she didn't think he needed one. He still has a small open spot on the bone and the muscles in his arm need to move to push that back into place. Ummm...OK. So I told Will, "OK, let's go to daycare!" She stopped, she paused, she stared at Will. And then she asked me THE question, "Will he start running around and becoming wild at daycare?" Ummmm...YEAH!!! She then and there decided that having him wear a soft brace on his arm for the next ten days would probably be a good idea - but only at daycare. Yeah, I think that's a good idea.