My Unlucky Friday?

I had quite the adventure today. This morning I picked up my purse and found it to be far too light. My wallet was missing. I immediately panicked, trying to retrace my steps and where I might have dropped it or left it.

I filled the car with gas the evening before. Did I drop it at the gas station?
Did it fall out of the car when I was getting back in?
Did it fall into the cracks of the car seats?
I had imprudently left my purse near the front door, something I always thought twice about. It is a very convenient place to leave my purse, but it is also dangerous. Someone walked into the house and stole my mom’s purse years before. Did someone come through the unlocked door and steal my wallet from the purse?

All of these thoughts rushed through my head, but I couldn’t confirm any of them.

After I dropped Madeleine off at school (good thing I didn’t get pulled over since I didn’t have a driver’s license), I stopped at the gas station.

“Did anyone find a lost wallet?” I asked the mechanics.

“No,” they reported, but they took my name and number anyway. (Another problem—my wallet didn’t contain my current phone number anywhere within it.)

The younger girls and I then returned home where I cleaned and searched the kitchen. I searched the car earlier in the morning. My stomach had a huge knot in it.

It was time to put a hold on the credit cards. Fortunately we’d recently reduced our cards down to two, so the calls were limited. The customer service reps reported that the most recent purchases were my own. No suspicious card activity—yet.

My stomach continued to churn. How would I get money? My husband was on another continent. I had some extra checks, but I didn’t have ID. No one would cash my check without ID.

How would I get ID? I had an Oregon driver’s license, but I wasn’t in Oregon. Oh, dread the thought of having to take the driver’s test again.

A few hours into this whole process, Elodie asked me casually, “Mommy, do you need money?” Elodie was with me at the gas station and during the search through the house for my wallet. She knew it was missing.

“Yes,” I answered, very suspicious.

She then led me to her room and pointed under her bed. There was my wallet. Elodie had been prowling during the night and taken it from my purse. I found my wallet stashed with my missing scripture highlighter, three unpopped bags of popcorn, and a pacifier. Behold, Elodie’s secret lair.

Lesson learned—I must hide my purse, not from potential thieves, but from my daughter, the prowler.

Weekend at the Cabin

We spent a “sibling and cousins weekend” (minus Leanna, who is in Paris, and Steve, still in the marines) in Heber City this past weekend. (Heber is about an hour from where we live.)

We rented a five-bedroom cabin with themed rooms—The Pup Den, The Butterfly Sanctuary, The Deer Retreat, etc. Some of us found it a bit too woodsy for taste, but we really did feel we were nestled in the great outdoors. The cabin also included a hot tub, a pool table, and a ping-pong table. Some of us enjoyed the hot tub, especially the children, some enjoyed the pool table and some smashed their hands with the balls (Madeleine), but none of us made it to the dark basement for ping-pong.

On the whole, we had a very relaxing weekend playing games, watching kids’ Halloween movies, decorating Halloween sugar cookies, and taking turns cooking. (We all ate way too much good food.)

Here are my highlights from the weekend:

-Enjoying the first (substantial) snow fall of the year: It was gorgeous when the sun came out and glistened on the white snow everywhere. My girls enjoyed putting on makeshift snow gear and walking around in the powder. The drive back down the canyon on Sunday morning was spectacular. We were scared about driving in the snow, but we made it with only one small skid.

-Sitting in the hot tub with snow on my head: Having a freezing head but a hot body was a first for me. I wasn’t sure that I liked it, but the little girls in the hot tub didn’t seem to mind a bit.

-Playing American Idol until 1:00 a.m.: Kimberly (my sister), Becky (my sister-in-law), and I stayed up into the wee hours singing to a new American Idol karaoke game on the PlayStation. My voice could not compete with the two lovely singers challenging me, but we had a wonderful time. We especially enjoyed all of the rude comments from computer-generated Simon Cowell.

Overall the weekend was a chance to spend time with my girls away from the usual distractions. Sure, there was still lots of mom work (cleaning up after Camille threw up, constantly wiping Camille’s runny nose, wiping up a huge chocolate milk spill on Madeleine’s Sunday dress, etc., etc.); but I also got to play “Go Fish” with Elodie, watch Hocus Pocus with the four oldest cousins, and enjoy a wonderful time in the hot tub with Sydney and Madeleine (as I guessed what ocean animals they were and pretended to buy fast food from them).

Typical Morning

Today started out as a classic example of the dynamics between my three daughters.

Camille woke up first, as usual. After she ate breakfast, she accompanied me in my efforts to wake Madeleine up for school. Camille sat on the bed, patting Madeleine’s head and chatting delightedly at her. Madeleine didn’t move or respond at all.

Elodie, sleeping in another room, woke up due to the noise in Madeleine’s room. She walked in, wrapped tightly in her blanket and feeling groggy. Camille slithered off the bed and ran to Elodie, delighted to see her other sister. Camille tried to hug Elodie, but Elodie pushed her away and yelled, “Leave me alone!”

Elodie ran to the corner for refuge, but Camille pursued, still trying to hug Elodie. Elodie kept resisting, and so Camille resorted to plan B—attack. Elodie was leaning against an inflatable Dora mattress, and Camille attempted to smother Elodie with it. This continued, Camille delighted by her efforts to torment Elodie, when suddenly Madeleine emerged and toppled the mattress on top of both little sisters.

Just another morning with the sisters.

Weekend with Dad

Thursday afternoon I finished my ironing and made a huge dent in my “to do” box. I even got my eyebrows waxed with my sisters, an outing long overdue. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you aren’t interrupted every thirty seconds.

In the meantime, Russ and the girls enjoyed a country festival, at a venue called Thanksgiving Point (surely familiar to Utahans reading this).

Friday morning we accomplished some much needed chores, like buying a soon-to-be-needed winter coat for myself and salt for the water softener. (I was afraid to haul those forty-pound bags around on my own with Camille in one arm.) We then let the girls play castle to their hearts’ content while Camille napped. Vacations can be so nice.

Friday evening we met Russ’s cousin (Marianne) and her family to attend the “Scarecrow Festival” (also at Thanksgiving Point). The only problem was that I hadn’t anticipated how cold it would get after dark. The weather was very mild when we left the house, and Elodie and I set out in sandals. Brrr. They didn’t keep us very warm we got to the festival. Fortunately, Elodie likes things “coldie,” so she didn’t seem to notice.

The kids spent most of the evening jumping in bouncy castles and sliding down inflatable slides of every imaginable form (whale, dolphin, Pirates of the Caribbean). Madeleine and I even went through a “junior haunted house.” It was pretty tame, and Madeleine said she wasn’t scared. However, we weren’t about to take the easily-scared Elodie in with us.

Madeleine finished the evening by getting a very cute pumpkin painted on her face. The effort didn’t last long as she wiped it off as soon as we got in the car. Oh well.

We spent the night at a hotel in Salt Lake. Madeleine and Elodie LOVE hotels, so we decided to splurge. The two of them stayed up way too late and were way too wild. In the meantime, I had a horrible night sleeping with Camille who wakes up very thirty minutes, cries for ten seconds, and then goes back to sleep. Overall, no one got much sleep, but the older girls had a lot of fun.

After our complimentary breakfast (where Elodie ate boxed cereal that Russ bought at the grocery story the day before), we swam in the hotel pool. The pool was another HUGE attraction for us because Elodie and Camille have been banned for months from public pools in Utah, due to an outbreak of some parasite. They were so excited to finally dive in. All of them had a great time, and we loved having the pool all to ourselves.

After getting ourselves bathed, dressed, and checked out, we headed to the Gateway Shopping Center in downtown Salt Lake. There we visited the “Gateway Discovery,” a new children’s museum. It was a pricey outing (they charged us EACH $9.50, including little Camille), but the kids had such a great time. They shopped at the mini grocery store, played with balls, pretended to work on a construction site, delivered mail, “rode” in a helicopter, and more. (For you Oregonians, they had many of the same features as the Portland Children’s Museum.)

Overall, it was a great family weekend. It reminded me how nice it is to have a spouse. On my own, I don’t usually dare such adventures.

Russ's Visit

We picked Russ up from the airport last night. We haven't seen him for over a month-and-a-half. Madeleine and Elodie kept asking, "Can we get Daddy yet?" They were SO excited.

Camille stayed home with my sister, Kristi, and Elodie and Madeleine got a late-night treat of a trip to the airport. We were delighted to see Russ at the baggage claim.

I was apprehensive about Camille's reaction to Russ this morning. She can be very shy, especially around men. I figured that Camille wouldn't remember Russ at all and would have a hard time adjusting to his presence. I was wrong.

As soon as Russ entered the kitchen this morning, Camille walked up to him and snuggled in his arms. It was very sweet. Yes, she's already back to wanting Mom to carry her around, but at least she doesn't feel scared of her dad.

Madeleine had a break from school today, but Elodie still had preschool. We dropped Elodie off at school and visited the library and the park with Camille and Madeleine. It was SO nice. It was nice having a parent for each child rather than feeling like a sheep-herder the whole outing. It was also nice to enjoy time with them rather than feeling like I needed to rush and get things done.

Russ is now on an outing with the three girls, and I am at home alone. Wow!

I intend to tackle my huge pile of "to do items" and the huge pile of ironing. We'll see how much progress I make.

Growing Girl

Camille is seventeen-months-old today. She is definitely becoming a little girl. I promised I would post a few pictures of her new pigtails.