Baby, You're a Firework!!

     This weekend was filled with errands, celebrations, and the occasional WTF-did-I-get-myself-into moment. I'll save the celebrations for last, as a finale to all of my gloom and doom. To say that we have a lot going on would be an understatement. This week, we will be putting our apartment up for sale. We have three realtors coming to give us feedback, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evening. I am not sure if "interviewing" realtors is standard procedure, but this is the route that my husband has chosen to take. I have been cleaning and boxing things up like a maniac for two weeks, and still do not feel prepared for these visits. All of this packing has been overwhelming in and of itself, and yet, in less than two weeks, we will be traveling to Greece to visit family. I am going to let all you mamas guess whose shoulders the responsibility of planning and packing has fallen on.

     But, it doesn't stop here. I have been stressing about my passport, as it did not yet arrive and we travel in precisely eleven days! I did, however, receive an email that it has been processed and mailed, so I will wait until Wednesday to have meltdown number 834,093 if it doesn't arrive. Inconvenience number two came in the form of an "urgent recall" on my car, for which I received notice last Tuesday, June 28th. The notification stated that I need to bring my car in immediately to be assessed for its safety. So, I called to make my urgent appointment, only to be told that they have nothing available until Friday, July 8th. Okay. Great.

     At the time of my appointment, the service department will check my car to see if it is in fact affected by the recall. If not, then I can be on my merry way. If so, one of two things can happen, depending on whether or not they have the part in stock. If it is not in stock, they will need to order the part, I will have to put my daughter back into the unsafe car, drive home (20 miles, and across a bridge), and come back when the part comes in. If they do have it in stock, the entire job will take three hours to complete (which in reality will be the better part of the entire day). But, they will give me a loaner. Not a bad deal, right? Wrong! Legally, they are unable to install a car seat into the loaner for me, even if I provide the seat. This would be a good time to mention that all of our car seats to date have been installed by either trained firemen or police officers. Please, everyone say a prayer that they check the car, and it is not affected by the recall. I need to be dealing with this like I need a hole in the head.

     Clearly, at this point, I have not taken on enough yet. This past week, I received a text message from the parent of a former student requesting tutoring for the summer. I was so ecstatic to a) feel needed, and b) be able to reconnect with this family (who has always held a special place in my heart), that I jumped at the opportunity to begin this week! Guess what? It's this week. Where does the time go? 

     Now on to the celebrations! Our Sunday, daytime events were postponed until Monday due to rain, which was good because the husband and I were having a pretty feel-lazy kind of day. In retrospect, we should have spent more of the day being productive, because Monday ended up being a cluster-cuss of events. In the evening on Sunday, we went to a barbecue at the house of a friend of hub's, along with little Miss Vivi. I will be honest in saying that I felt a little bit left out because everyone there was talking about a birthday party that they attended the night before. A party to which I wasn't invited. I probably wouldn't have gone anyway, because someone had to stay home with Vivi, but it still felt very awkward to hear everyone talking about an event to which I didn't receive an invite. The night before, my mother visited, and we sat, drank some wine, and played some video games. It was nice to have girl time.  
    
     Whoa, Monday. Once we got home from the barbecue on Sunday, Supermom took it upon herself to make smores cupcakes for Monday's barbecue (and totally forgot to take pictures for the blog. Doh!) I made 48 cupcakes in total, and was glad that I had time on Monday to frost them, or so I thought. On Monday, once we got moving, we didn't stop. We had to start preparing for our trip to Greece, which included running some errands to pick up last minute things such as sunblocks and baby food that can travel with us on the plane, as well as gifts for the family. We left the house at around 12:30 p.m. We got back at 6:09 p.m. precisely.

     The plan was to be at the barbecue by 6:30. My cupcakes were still not frosted. I do have to make a bit of a side note and mention that I am a bit of a snob when it comes to bringing food to events. I refuse, REFUSE, to bring store-made or bakery-baked goods. It is not that I don't approve of them. It's not that I don't like them. I just feel that baking is one of my strong suits, and it's just a much nicer gesture to bring something homemade. So, we got home and I started whipping up my marshmallow frosting. Only, it didn't whip. It didn't set. It flopped, and turned into a nasty, soup-like consistency. Luckily, I had a container of marshmallow fluff left, to take the place of the failed frosting (6:23 p.m.). I started frosting like a bat out of hell, got halfway through the cupcakes and ran out of fluff. Whomp, whomp. Hubs had to run out to the grocery store and buy another container. I used my time effectively while he was out and placed a single Hershey rectangle on each cupcake. They were looking good (by the time we got to the barbecue they completely melted). We were out the door by 6:42 p.m. At the barbecue by 7:00.

     Given the insanity of the day, I was pretty impressed with us for only being a half-hour late. Once at the barbecue, I was able to relax, unwind, and enjoy myself. We had a great time, with good food, wonderful friends, and finally, a break for Mommy. All in all it was a very successful weekend. I still have a ton of stuff to do in the next eleven days (so forgive me if my posts are a bit sporadic), but after those couple of hours to recharge, I feel much more positive in my outlook toward getting it all done. Here's hoping that you had a fantastic 4th of July weekend as well :)