Running Around Like A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off

The fieldtrip to the zoo for Joel’s class was last week. It ended up being a little bit of an adventure—nothing too big, but a little stressful in the morning. Joel’s teacher sent home a note saying that it was very important to be on time that day since there was some last minute business to take care of before the children loaded the buses at 8:00 a.m. I thought we could take Dave to work first and then take Joel to school and then Nate and I would follow the buses to the zoo in the van. Well as you probably know things don’t always go as planned. My children decided that they wanted to get up and start playing and arguing at 4:00 a.m. so by the time we were able to get everyone to sleep again we were exhausted and slept in until about 7:15 on the one day that it was important to be on time. The rushing around and trying to get everyone and everything ready in the morning was not a pretty sight. We decided that it would be better if Dave dropped me and Joel off and I’d walk him in and make sure everything was ok and then we’d take Dave to school. He said he’d wait across the road for us since the parking lot was jammed full of people who were also planning to follow the bus. I went in with Joel, talked to his teacher and she gave me her cell number and said if the buses had already gone when I got back from taking Dave to call her and she’d give me directions since I had no idea how to get to the zoo. I ran back outside looking for the van and spotted it across the street so I dashed across the street and toward the van. I ran right up to it and started to open the door and the doors locked. I looked up to see why Dave had locked the doors on me and realized that it was not our van but another teal mini-van with another mom waiting to follow the buses. I then noticed Dave flagging me down from the parking lot (where he was not going to park originally and ran over and got in) I was a little abashed and embarrassed and felt bad for scaring the poor woman, but it was kind of funny at the same time. We got Dave to school and then hurried back just in time to follow the buses. It was a long drive (the closest zoo is in Montgomery) and it was rainy and a little cold but the boys seemed to enjoy themselves. Too bad Nate is sick now—I’m not sure if it was the cold and rain or the kid in our group who kept acting like he was going to cough up a lung and not bothering to cover his mouth, maybe it was a combination of the two. . . Anyway I had Joel ride home in the van with us instead of on the bus and we got home with plenty of time for a much needed nap before going to pick up Seth from school. Sometimes having kids is just exhausting!