Manic Monday #1 - Marble

This week’s Manic Monday word is Marble, and guess what. This week, you get two Manic Monday posts from me! That’s right! Aren’t you special?! The word Marble inspired two posts from me this week! Okay, the deal is that I had one idea ready to post (MM #2), and then I had a day that just about made me lose my marbles. So I decided to go with both. First, I will tell you about my weekend, then you can scroll down for a Manic Monday Marble treat!! And don't forget Mr. Linky - he's after MM #2.

It’s no surprise that as a stay-at-home mom I often (almost daily) lose my marbles and just about pull my hair out. It’s because of gems like these. Last night, we went out to dinner for Chinese food (my favorite). At Chinatown Café, they have one of those soft serve ice cream machines. Eli got himself a big bowl of ice cream and topped it with crushed Oreo cookies. He took it back to the table and was inhaling it when all of a sudden he stopped. He spotted the curved edge of a cookie buried in his ice cream. In the middle of a crowded restaurant, he screamed, “THERE’S A ROLY POLY IN MY ICE CREAM!”

You’d be amazed how that can silence a full restaurant and cause people to stop eating with their forks halfway to their mouths. And cause employees to look at us with an expression of complete alarm. I tried to respond just as loudly, “THAT’S NOT A ROLY POLY. IT’S A COOKIE! (insert nervous laugh here).” We left that restaurant very quickly.

Then today I had scheduled pictures for the kids at 9:15 a.m. I must have been smoking the crackpipe. First of all, Georgia has not been sleeping well the last couple of nights, so this morning she was unbelievably tired and cranky. As she was screaming, I noticed a new tooth poking through on the bottom. AHA! That’s the problem. That most definitely wasn’t going to make pictures any easier.

We got to the photo place and had to wait. Georgia started doing her 2-year-old thing and getting into everything. She was desperately trying to go into the photo studios where other families were having their pictures taken, and she screamed to high heaven when we stopped her. Then there was Eli. He was playing at the Lego table in the waiting room when a little girl came up and tried to play with him. God forbid he should share the f*cking Legos. He threw a fit because she messed up his building. He started screaming and crying. It was about then that they called our names. It was our turn. As we drug our screaming children into the photo studio, I was slightly amused at the look on the photographer’s face. Dude! I thought she was going to turn around and leave.

But, she did start snapping pictures. Out of about 55 shots that she took, we managed to get about 6 decent pictures. If you could have seen my children, this was a wild success! Eli was trying to position the back drop and use it as a slide, and Georgia screamed, “NO NO NO NO NO!” any time they tried to sit her down.

Here are a few of the out takes. (I really like the one where Eli has the strangle hold around Georgia's neck.)

Afterward, we went to Starbucks because I needed a jolt. I walked in and asked, “You don’t have any of that Starbucks liquor back there to add to my coffee, do you?” The woman looked at me like I was a nut. Can’t anyone take a joke?

After this morning, I decided I needed some alone time, so I did the grocery shopping. By myself. That may not sound like a big deal, but it is a nice feeling to stroll the grocery store leisurely without screaming children. Things were going very well. I stopped at Starbucks again (because there’s one inside Super Target) and continued my shopping. Eric had written the grocery list, and I was even doing well deciphering his code (i.e., he doesn’t write “deodorant,” he writes “b.o. stopper.”) He’s a comedian.

Then I got to the last item on the list – ice cream. I stopped in front of the ice cream and stood there for 10 minutes. I couldn’t make a decision. Suddenly this seemed like the most important decision in the world, and it was as if I had lost my free will. I had to call Eric to get his opinion on which ice cream to purchase.

After a full weekend, it was official. My brain had shut down. And I had completely lost my marbles.