I can tell ...

I can tell that I am now looking forward to school beginning and getting a bit of a break. Now, I have to admit that I have adjusted to a certain amount of noise and chaos and the house will undoubtedly feel very empty a mere few days after school begins but today was simply not a good day.

It was one of those days where you can't point to one MAJOR thing that went wrong that made it a bad day, it was lots, and lots, and lots of little things that went wrong. When you name them individually they sound so minor, but when you add them up, well, it just wasn't a good day. Strangely, very few of the things that went wrong were actually child-related.

The beginning of the day started with me looking for the team checkbook (I am the team manager for DS#2's soccer team). Let's just say that I found it underneath the coloring book on DS#3's work table in the office. I am not going to say how much cleaning went on before that. I am not even going to TRY to figure out how the team checkbook got out of the folder in my file-drawer onto his table. I am just going to thank my lucky stars that he didn't color it. I FOUND the checkbook at 7 AM. I went back to bed for 30 minutes afterward--trying desperately not to ponder the question, "How did the @#$-!@## checkbook end up under the coloring book?" and more on the question, "Why did I even THINK to look under the coloring book in the first place????" Okay, there weren't many other places to start looking by then, but, still ...

In any case, I was able to deposit money into the team account and write a check for the tournament that is less than 2 weeks away.

The day ended with DS#1 finishing soccer practice early, as in, throwing up on the field with a shoe and a sock off. A blister formed beneath a callous on the ball of his foot, and, well, let's just say that when he got his sock off to see why his foot was hurting, he threw up. Yes, the day actually (sort-of) ended with me taking care of cleaning and wrapping it tonight. I know my lovely wife is a doctor, but injuries to her own children need to be taken care of by her husband, or, at the very least, someone else. DS#1 really wanted to perform well for his new coach so, needless to say, he is horribly embarrassed by the entire incident. Honestly, it was pretty bad so I guess I will have to make him sit around reading books and playing video games for the next day and a half or so. I am sure he will hate that.

In between? Well, hmmm, honestly I think it is better to mention one of the high points (as, let's face it, there were very few...). My dear wife opened the package of Gymboree clothes she ordered recently. She ordered online as she had coupons ready to expire, there was a sale, and some of the items she wanted weren't in the stores yet. Really, she is very thrifty and loves to save money. I often tease her about how I don't really want to know how much she SAVED but rather how much she spent (sometimes more than once in a single paragraph of the blog ...). Really though, she got some very good deals and those deals included some costumes for Halloween (yes, it is a bit early, yes, we do plan ahead, yes, this parenthetical probably could have started a paragraph of its own, why do you ask?).

She asked DD before ordering what she wanted to be for Halloween, well DD said "a Doctor." Now, DS#3 doesn't really make choices like that yet, but an Engineer was an obvious choice based on his love for all things, well, train. My wife asked me about this outfit before ordering, with her discounts, etc. I said yes, "but don't be disappointed if he refuses to wear it." Well, let's just say that refusing to wear it was NOT a concern today. In fact, it sort-of relates to some of the things that happened "in between" but I really want to just enjoy these pictures-and my drink- and avoid that topic. The fact is, DS#3 LOVES the costume and we felt lucky to get him out of the heavy overalls for the 100 degree San Antonio heat.

Yes, my kids are pretty stinkin' cute. Thank God I fooled such a beautiful woman into marrying me.

Yes, I bought a lottery ticket today. I mean, c'mon, the worst that could happen is I win and the government taxes it at 110% --oh, crap ...