Highs and Lows: Awk-warrrrrrd! Edition

Hey, are we still doing highs and lows, Jen?  Well, I am...

I'll list the lows first - usually I say it's because I like to end on a positive note, which is usually true.  But today, honestly, it's because the lows are all that I can think of!  It's not that I'm a negative person, even though DH says I'm a pessimist.  (I say I'm REALISTIC!)  I'm not even in a bad mood right now!  It's just been a rough week.  Thank goodness for the weekend.

LOWS:

1. Ugh.  I still feel kind of sick about this one.  Without going into too much detail (because a startling number of "real life friends" actually read this thing), here's the situation:  I was giving a friend's child a ride somewhere.  When we got there, the child WHIPPED the car door open with all their might, putting a dent (with the paint chipped off) in the $40,000 car next to us.  And yes, I yelled at the child with the same force that they smashed the door into the car, if you're wondering.  Then I felt like a humongous jerk.  Anyway, I left a note, the guy called (and turns out to be a state trooper!), and I had to deliver the news to my friend that the damage is somewhere around $500.  Talk about uncomfortable.  If you're wondering, yes, insurance would have taken care of it, but since it was my car, it would have had to go through my insurance.  We would have had to open up a claim and burn our "first accident forgiveness" on this incident.  Situations like this just suck the life out of me.

What would you have done?

2. We have a tee-baller and a softball-er.  And lately it seems that all of their games are scheduled simultaneously.  So I stand in between the two fields and try to watch both games.  When you try to watch two games, you go home feeling like you didn't see anything at all.  That is a bummer.  I know it's not my fault, but it makes me feel like a "bad mom" when I miss seeing my daughter pitch or my son up at bat.  I just hate that.  It's just the way the schedule is this year, it seems.

3. And speaking of "bad mom" moments, my kindergartener had a field trip this week that I didn't remember until that morning.  It's not that I had to do anything last-minute...it's just that I realized how out of touch I have been lately.  I always imagined that I'd be a "cookie-baking, homeroom mom" kind of mom...not a mom who forgets when her kids' field trips are.

HIGHS:

1. As is our custom, DH & I had a nice morning of yard sale-ing on Friday before I started work.  I found a few things; a really nice set of curtain rods with ceramic finials for $5...I guarantee these cost a fortune when they were originally bought.  They are going in Abby's room.  I also found a couple of books, no big whoop.  But we just had fun...DH did pretty well.  It always cracks me up how some people are...you can tell the ones who do the yard sale thing regularly and the ones who don't.  You can tell the sellers who are just trying to get rid of junk, and the ones who are looking to get rich by selling their junk.  They do not bargain at all, which just irritates me!  What's up with that?  I could have gotten a pair of strawberry pots for $10 yesterday.  I asked if she would take $7, and she said no.  I'm thinking, "you live in a $400,000 house.  Do you need the $3 that badly?"  So I walked away from the pots.  Now I'm kicking myself a little...$10 is still a great deal.  Oh well.  Anyway, the point is, Friday mornings have become a major high point in my week. 

2. This could really go either way, but when I think about it, all I have are good feelings mixed with a little sadness.  So I'm putting it in my list of "highs" - this week I went to my very last MOPS meeting ever.  When your youngest child goes into 1st grade, you become a MOPS graduate, and they basically give you a nice potted flower and kick you out.  ;)  But it's OK.  By the time your youngest is 6-7 years old, you really don't need MOPS anymore...it's a different stage of life now.  Anyway, being a graduate, I got to get up and say something about my experience with MOPS over the last few years.  I hope I was coherent...I love speaking to big groups of people, but I have a tendency to babble and lose track of what I'm talking about.  If you can imagine that.  I did cry a little.  But not because I'm worried about losing touch with my friends; just because the closing of chapters of life can be so hard.  For me, closing the chapter of having babies/toddlers/preschoolers has been really difficult.  Every once in a while it hits me that my kids are SCHOOL AGE kids and not sweet little 2 year olds anymore. 

3. If all goes well, today I am FINALLY going to get all my plants & veggies.  Whether they get into the ground or not today, I don't know, but if I can at least get them to my house, I will feel a little less behind than I am right now. Yesterday we had a softball game right exactly in the middle of the day, which boogered things up.  Today I have a baby shower at 2, which is also threatening to interfere with my outside plans...but I think I can pull it off.  Cross your fingers for me!

Can you tell I'm totally overwhelmed and have no time for anything???  I am thankful for my job, I really am.  But I'm counting the HOURS until my summer begins.