Gingerbread Meltdown

The exhaustion finally caught up with me yesterday and it wasn't pretty. I felt like I was running a leg of the Amazing Race. The task was to get myself and 3 kids out of the house by 8:30 am and deliver the boys to their field trip at Gingerbread Village on time. Well...I woke up at 6 am and fed The Princess. But, I was so tired from having been up on and off all night that I fell back to sleep. I was woken up again at 7:15 by the boys. The race was on...

I fed and dressed the kids and took a quick shower. Ahead of schedule the Princess was up and demanding food. I still needed to get dressed, "pump" and pack bags. So I enlisted Luccio's help in giving his sister a bottle. He did great! Of course more milk was on her clothes than in her belly, but she went back to sleep and that was good!

At 8:35 I loaded everyone into the Mom Mobile, only 5 minutes behind schedule. Not bad!

I had the directions to the Gingerbread Village that the teacher had given us. It was located in the hall of a local church in an area of town that I have driven through A MILLION times.

With that said...

We drove in circles for 30 minutes. The street that the directions said I was to turn onto did not exist, I drove up and down the main road and could not find that road!! I kept getting to the area where I thought it was and there was a ROAD CLOSED sign so I kept turning around and starting over. My cell phone was not charged so I couldn't call the teacher whose number is on the directions. UGHHHHH!!


I was supposed to have them at the field trip by 9 am, they were only going to stay there until 9:30, finally at 9:05 I pulled over and asked a guy sitting in car for directions. He said I could follow him and he would drive me there. Thank you!!!

He drove us to the wrong church -there are 4 in the center of that town and none were Gingerbread Village!!! I was panicking. Now it's 9:10 am.

I pulled into a parking lot and see this older woman get out of her car. Mercy, that poor woman!! She wasn't expecting me to say the least. I got out of my Mom Mobile, I thought I was calm (and sane.) And then, all of sudden I am talking to the poor woman and crying like a loon!!! I tell her I haven't slept through the night in almost 2 months and I am exhausted and I can't find the Gingerbread Village and I have two 3 year olds who are now 15 minutes late for a 30 minute field trip. I can't disappoint them and I can't find the church... and on and on...

The woman looks at me and says, "Honey, it's ok. It's right across the street."

OMG!!! How embarrassing!! The driveway of the church is right at the sign where it says "Road Closed." I drove past there numerous times, so focused on the road being closed I never saw the GIANT sign that says the name of the church right there!

So I quickly dry my eyes, reapply lip gloss and race the kids out of their seats and into the building. We made it and it's only 9:20!!

We spend 10 minutes looking at Gingerbread Houses and then its time to load them back into the car to take them to school. Luckily other parents and even the teacher had gotten lost too, so I am not the only one. Although no one else looks like they have been crying on the shoulder of strange old ladies in the parking lot across the street.

On the way to school Luccio says, "You crying Mommy?" I tell him "No, not anymore."
And he keeps asking me, "You crying Mommy?" No, sweetie I have recovered thanks!
Then Cenzo says, "I cry when I wet my bed."

We arrive at school, I open the door and there is a fake fireplace the teachers have hung on the wall. It's covered with handmade paper stockings. Stockings that the kids have decorated. Stockings that the kids were supposed to have made for HOMEWORK!!! Yes, the first homework assignment of their school careers and I completely forgot to do it with them. I unpacked it from their bookbags last week and stuck in on top of the fridge. Real nice!

Luckily I walked in with a Mom Friend and she didn't remember either!! Thank God!!! I am not the only one!! We commiserate with another mom in the parking lot who forgot too!! We decide to hand the projects in the next day and act like that is when it was supposed to be due!!

So, now I am "That Mom." The mom with more kids than hands to hold them. The mom who shows up late to field trips and forgets homework assignments. The mom who is wearing mismatched socks and has puke on her shirt. The mom who so desperately needs a cup of coffee its like being in the desert without water.

In the words of Kate Gosselin, "It might be a crazy life, but it's MY life."

And I love it! I wouldn't change it for all the sleep in the world!! I just hope that if my kids end up in therapy someday recalling a "gingerbread incident," they will agree!!!