insane in the membrane (part 1)

So, these past 10 days have been fun and ridiculously busy! Even though we are officially members of the "uncool club" now that we drive a minivan (more on that later), we have proven that we aren't total losers with the amount of socializing we have done in the past week.

It all started with an impromptu frat party at my house last Friday night. Just as I was getting ready for bed, there was a knock at my door and there were 2 of M's friends, who he hadn't seen in almost 2 years. I was so happy I was informed they were coming over... If I had known, I would have at least put on some mascara and not had a tooth brush hanging out of my mouth when I answered the door. They were all supposed to go out together but the first big snow of the year made them think otherwise. Instead, my house became the party house, which I didn't mind, at least every one was safe, but by 4 in the morning, I was ready to go to bed and ready for them to fall asleep already! We had a huge day that next day. It was the day of our big ball and I needed my beauty rest.

After those 3 glorious hours of sleep, we woke up to the kids pulling the blackout shade up and down and admiring the snow. After a hearty breakfast and a lazy morning, the afternoon came too quickly and before I knew it, it was time to get ready for the ball. No big deal, right? Yeah. Except it was a bad hair day.

At first, the hair turned out fantastic. I got it teased so high it was talking to Jesus and I felt like a proud beauty queen. Then I climbed in the car and it fell down. No problem, I had bobby pins, a teasing comb and hair spray, I could handle anything. So I did my hair as we were driving through a whiteout snowstorm to get to this ball. I didn't even get to see what it looked like until about 30 minutes after we had arrived. It must have looked ok because I didn't catch anyone talking trash about it.

In reality, we probably should have stayed home because of the snow but there was NO way I was going to do that after we had already bought the tickets, the dress and shoes and gotten a babysitter. Besides, the dress had to be taken up which made it unable to be returned. And I didn't bust my butt at the gym for a month to look as good as I did in that darn dress. We were going to go and we were going to have fun, darn it!

It didn't start out very fun though. When we finally got to the hotel, we ended up parking in the wrong parking garage. Have you ever walked 2 blocks in 4 inch stilettos when it is 30 degrees and snowing outside? Yeah, it sucks as much as it sounds like it does and I'll admit it, I was angry. But let me tell you, after a glass of wine, the frozen toes were a distant memory. And I had a good time. Probably too good of a time, but really, that was the most fun I have had probably since my wedding. We (I) drank, laughed, danced... M just sat and laughed at me and all of the other buzzed (drunken) fools because he so graciously offered to be the DD that night. Good times, good times. We made it home safely, and by 11:30 too. I would have loved to have stayed and danced some more, but I figured I had already made enough of a fool out of myself doing the Electric Slide, sorry, TRYING to do the Electric Slide for the first time ever, while slightly intoxicated and wearing 4 inch stilettos... That could not have been pretty. But what I really want to know is WHY people were doing the electric slide in the first place...
Pictures from the ball:
Before the hair fell--

At dinner--


That next day, after I ate another hearty breakfast, we decided to go run some errands and get the kids snow boots. That day was going to be CB's first official introduction to the snow and we wanted her to be prepared. One thing that isn't very well known about CB is that she has some issues with textures, sand being the main offender. She HATES sand. Hates it. Will not touch it, will not have anything to do with it. If something even slightly grainy gets on her hands, she will move heaven and earth to get it off. When I take her to the beach, I know I can put her in the middle of a blanket and leave her there because there is NO way she is going to walk in the sand, even with shoes on. (Of course, I don't actually leave her people, give me a break)

Because of CB's sand issue, I figured she would have issues with the snow. Not only is it grainy, but it is also cold and she doesn't like the cold either. We waited till she had woken up from her nap and was in a good mood to bundle her up and take her out in her new pink boots. And just as expected, she hated it. Actually, she despised it. She was a trooper though and stayed out for about 20 minutes. But when she came in I could tell she was irritated and did not have a good time. She made that pretty obvious when she grabbed the dish towel off of the stove, plopped down on the kitchen floor and started wiping her shoes off while saying, "DIRTY!! DIRTY!!" I laughed so hard. She is a smart little one, and extremely determined.


While CB was cleaning her shoes, I was in the kitchen making a big pot of Split Pea with Bacon and Rosemary soup for M and his buddies. On Friday afternoon at 4:45, M had gotten a call from the passport office telling him that if he wanted to get an expidited passport, he needed to be in Frankfurt at 7:30 AM on Monday morning. Yeah. Things that would have been nice to know at least 4 hours before the close of business on a Friday. This posed some serious problems: 1. Snow Storm. 2. We only had one car. 3. It was too late to rent a car. 4. The only train he could take to make it there by 7:30 left at 4am and there was really no way I was going to drive him to the train station at 4am.

Thankfully, his buddies who had invaded my house 2 nights before were gracious enough to come out to our house to pick him up and let him crash at their place, which was conveniently located about 20 minutes closer to the train station. So they came over and hung out while I force fed them split pea soup and ice cream. I don't think they complained too much.

M made it to Frankfurt in time, got all of his paperwork done and submitted and kind of made it home ok. There was a slight mix up with the train, but it ended up working out better than our original plan. Right after M got home we left to go have an early Thanksgiving at our friends' house and got back late that night. W has a total crush on our friend J. He loves her so much and talks about her all the time. He remembers EVERYTHING from when she is at our house and we are at theirs. Just today, a week later, he was telling me all about how he was watching a movie on their computer and exactly what scene was playing when J got a phone call on her computer and answered it. Lovestruck, much?

I was so excited when Tuesday came, because that was the day we were going to get our van. But of course, in true, possibly karmatic fashion, things did not work out as they were supposed to...

(Part 2 coming soon)