Bad things come in twenty-threes

I was thinking the other day about a friend who has had a run of bad luck. None of the truly awful things that happened to her were her fault. Really. And you know, her bad things didn't just come in threes; it was more like twenty-threes.

And yesterday, I had so much stuff happen that I thought of her.

First, a little back-story. Rose started kindergarten this week and it has been difficult figuring out how to get her to school, drop off Simone at daycare and get to my office in time. And then turn around in the afternoon and do it in a timely manner (so they don't kick us out of aftercare), and still get my work done at my, you know, job. The thing that pays the bills.

But we figured it out. My husband takes Rose to school, I leave early for work and daycare, and my grandmother and sister-in-law will alternate the afternoon pickups. Although my grandmother means well, her involvment can be....sort of tricky. She is often ill and she just....needs a lot. So, anyway, yesterday was the first day my grandmother was to pick up Rose.

Here's what happened: my grandmother called at 3:30 and said she was sick and couldn't pick up Rose. I called Angie, my sister-in-law, who graciously said she could do it. I was on my way to get Simone when Scott called and said his car wouldn't start, could I come jump him off since it was probably the battery. Then he called me back and said never mind, he found someone to help. After I got Simone, he called back and said the car worked for a minute then died. Help. I called Angie and said I would be much later than I planned.
Picked up Scott on the way, arrived at Angie's around 7. Picked up a very tired and hungry Rose and we went to Sonic (yuck). On the way home, a pickup truck came THIS close to running into us head-on. We rounded the curve on our street (which crosses over a creek so there's only creek on either side of the road, no shoulder), this pickup truck was drifting over on to my side of the road at about 30 mph. I slammed on my brakes and a chill went up and down my body. We all kinda went ÄAAAAAHHHH! The truck kept coming and was completely on my side of the road when the driver finally looked up and slammed on his brakes. But we were ok. We went home. I got Simone to bed and looked over the stuff Rose brought home from school. It turns out that she received another warning, the second day in a row.

(It's because my bossy daughter yelled at some other kid to be quiet. They were sitting down for reading time and the teacher told everyone to be quiet. One kid wasn't and Rose decided that she'd be the enforcer. Oops! Looks like the tables turned on her!! I told her that she doesn't have to watch out for everybody--teachers and parents are there to take care of other kids. She needs to mind her own beeswax [or something to that effect).]

Also, I got a "warning" because I forgot to pack a snack for Rose! I've been packing her lunch and included a snack with that but yesterday she wanted to buy her lunch and I forgot to send anything else. Her teacher had to scrounge up some pretzels. To make up for it, I sent in a couple of extra dollars for the kids-of-forgetful-moms snack fund.

In the meantime, Scott drove back to Brentwood, got a new battery, put it in his car in the Brentwood Kroger parking lot, and it didn't work.

And then my period started, so bleah. (Too much information, sorry. It just seemed like the perfect nightcap!)

But you know, we took the kids to school this morning, went to Walmart for another part and then went back to his car. The funny thing was there was a big praying mantis sitting on his car. Some old guy walked by and said, I see you have someone praying for you. I guess it worked because Scott got the car running.

Meanwhile, my grandmother swears it was some bacon she ate that made her sick. She purchased it about 6 weeks ago. She often has stomach upsets and then decides it was something she ate that went bad. This morning, I (half) jokingly said that she could only give Rose non-perishables to eat. Ugh. we've had three conversations about food already today.

Yesterday, throughout all of this, Simone happily burbled along "q r s p tv hkl and z. Hooray!"

I love the baby alphabet.