a day in the life

after a long, boring, unstructured, campless, activity-free summer, the school year is finally upon us. and on day two of this new school year, i excitedly got up at 5:40am to prepare lunches and breakfasts and deliver the kids to their respective schools. after drop-off, i went home, tended to the dogs, paid some bills, checked facebook and looked at the clock - 2pm, time to collect them. after a 25 minute wait in carline, i picked up my son mac from elementary school. then we proceeded to the next carline to pick up my daughter amelia from middle school - another 25 minute wait. however, on the way to the second carline, we stopped by mcdonalds and picked up two oreo mcflurries because i knew we would be late getting home. when i had both kids in the car, we headed to the stables for horse riding lessons.

when we arrived, amelia hopped out and headed in the barn to ready her horse. mac tore through the barn making neighing sounds. really loud neighing sounds. i rounded him up and told him that he had to be quiet and stop running - he knows the rules. i made him bring his drawing that he had been working on so that he would keep quiet during her lesson, then we headed out to the lesson ring. mac sat at the picnic table and started to work on his drawing and i walked a few feet away and rehashed the day's lack of events with a friend on my cell phone. after a while, i went over to check the progress of the lesson and the drawing and i saw that mac had, with a pen, drawn pokemon and "diary of a wimpy kid" figures all over the picnic table - deep, carved figures, accurate and detailed. embarrassed and apologetic, i said to the teacher, "mac has drawn all over this table," her response to which was complete and awkward silence.

i gathered mac up and we had enough time to drive 10 or so miles to the next town and buy a sponge and some cleaner (along with some antacids for the heartburn i felt creeping into my left shoulderblade). we came back, cleaned the table - to the best of our ability - and then headed back to the barn to get amelia and go home. only amelia wasn't finished cleaning the horse and putting him away, which meant more time for mac to get into trouble. but before i had even processed this thought, i saw everyone looking down the hall of the barn towards the screeching noise. i couldn't see mac, but i knew it was him. i turned the corner, following the noise, and he was nowhere to be found. i searched each stall and outside the barn. as i began checking stalls for a second time, mac came barreling through the barn and ran right through the horse accupuncture station, where wires attached to the horse's back run from the horse to a small device of some sort. the accupuncturist, along with the stable manager shot me looks that could have killed, which at this point would have been a pleasant escape for me. i yelled at mac and sent him to the car. i checked amelia's progress then went back to the car to hide out for the remainder of the lesson and maybe yell at mac a little more, but then i saw that he was walking around in the front seat. i opened the passenger door to find that he had spilled the melted oreo mcflurry all over the front seat, covering my sunglasses, two books, some papers, and my ipod shuffle and ear phones.

i was barely holding it together at this point, but managed to get amelia in the car, mac back in his carseat and we drove home. in silence. when we got home, mac climbed over amelia's seat to get out of the car and amazingly managed to both knock over amelia's cup of water and spill the contents of his backpack, which was unzipped. when we finally all made it inside the house and started the homework process, i checked my phone and had a text from a friend saying "hope you are having an awesome day! how great is it having the kids back in school?!!"