Top Five

I haven't written too much these past few months, because I really feel like just managing the day to day has been more than enough for me.  But I've had a good handful of missed bloopers that I feel I'd be remiss to not write them down.

Below are the top five out-of-the-norm-for-Sara things that have happened lately:

1.  I shrunk Mike's new sweater I gave him for Christmas.  After all of the pinterest attempts to stretch it, I'm seriously considering throwing it back into the dryer for another round in hopes it'll come out fitting Max.

2.  Max had the day off of school.  Except that he really didn't.  And I realized this when the school called about 9:15 to see where my son was.  But, he had a nice pancake breakfast, and as he put it, "well, good thing I'm all ready for the day so we can just get there quick!"

3.  I'm trying to keep up with Tayler, but she is curiously quick.  At the store, as I was unloading our items onto the belt, she and Alexis were standing by me (Tayler pretty much boycotts any type of cart or restraint.  And does so with a lot of emotion.  Complete screaming and body throwing.  For now, it's best to just let her walk along with.  That alone is adventure enough, and probably why I avoid the store experience a lot right now!).  Anyway, they were standing by me, and as I turned around, I found those big brown eyes with one hand holding an open candy bar, and the other hand chowing down on it!  I couldn't help but laugh at how quick she'd pulled one, opened it and was munching down!  Of course, I just stuck it on to buy, put her in the cart (where she was content eating the rest of it - momentarily), and chuckled that she'd helped herself so quickly.

What was the candy of choice?  A mounds bar of all things.  And she gobbled it up!

Alexis stood there the whole time with her mouth hanging open. I think she was in disbelief.  Then coming to her senses, she turned and said, "mom, do I get to pick out some candy too?"

Funny enough, on the next trip to the store, Tayler grabbed a box of vanilla wafers from the store shelf, sat down and had ripped them open to eat faster than I could catch her.  Hmmm.

4.  I've realized that I am probably done running.  But only after walking through the store to pick up some milk after going to the gym did I make this realization.  As Alexis took me on the store "tour" as she calls it (a few months ago her preschool did a field trip at the grocery store.  She loves to relive it.), to her favorite part, the lobster, I knew my stomach wasn't feeling too great.  Of course, as I kept my distance Tayler wanted to join in the fun.  Clearly unable to distance myself from the fish section, I thought I could hold my breath long enough.  Dead wrong.  Thankfully, we made a quick cross cut through the store, ditched the cart (as Alexis kept saying, "mom! we never just leave our cart in the middle of the store!  I should stay by it!").  The whole time, I'm trying to persuade her to hurry up so I can just make-it-to-the-bathroom-in-time.  She decides she should stay with the cart while I go, I then decide she still needs to come with me.  As she's dragging behind me and Tayler, I'm thinking "I can't throw up in the middle of my favorite grocery store!"  Gladly, we made it.  Of course Tayler sees what is happening and says "uh oh mommy."  Alexis, completely oblivious to the whole thing, is running constant commentary about how beautiful the bathroom is, and how she actually hasn't been in it before.  Great, a new thing to add to the tour.

5.  I've misplaced more things than I could even count.  The biggest one, was my wallet.  Of course, I didn't realize that I'd misplaced it until the next morning as I'm headed off to take Alexis to kindergarten round up (a program they do here to give kids a little glimpse of their classroom, hang out with the other soon to be kindergartners, and meet the teachers).  After looking for a few minutes, I remember exactly where I put it.  On top of Mike's car as I was getting out of my own car the night before and had too much stuff in my hands.  On top of Mike's car which he then drove to work, and has been at work for a couple of hours already.  Sheer panic hit me, but I had to completely disregard it, for Alexis was pounding out all the questions she had about her new morning.  I couldn't let her feel anxious about something that had nothing to do with her.  So, I buried it, dropped her off, and then called Mike.  And totally lost it.  Between tears our conversation went like this:
me: "Uh, did you drive the usual way to work today?" (calculating in my head I had just enough time to probably make it there and back before I had to teach my class)
Mike:  "That's a weird question, but yep."
me:  "Did you happen to hear anything moving around, or fall off of your roof?"
Mike: "Nope."
me:  "Well, I put my wallet on top of your car last night and you drove to work with it!  It could be anywhere!!"
Mike:  "Let me just walk outside and check my car."
(pause in the conversation as I'm internally panicking and thinking of all the places I'll have to call that day to cancel everything).
Mike:  "You'll never believe this. Your wallet is on the ground in my parking lot."
NO WAY!!!
He drove 20 minutes (freeway speed, turns, you name it), and the wallet stayed on the ROOF of his car until he made it to the parking lot.

This was a clear moment where I (again) realized that we really aren't alone in this journey.  Sure, we all go through tough things, but sometimes, tender mercies are thrown our way - even before we realize it.  All the prayers I said in my head that I would find my wallet had already been answered, and I know it had nothing to do with sheer coincidence.
As I hung up, I said a prayer of gratitude, and had an overwhelming feeling that I really wasn't alone in this whole process.  And that things were going to be okay.