Sense of Accomplishment

I started off today with a to do list and a plan. I got the kids up, dressed, fed, dressed again (now I remember why they eat breakfast everyday in their pj's), and loaded into the car. First stop....Post Office to mail some long overdue packages. That plan was scrapped when I realized I didn't have a debit card, a credit card, or a check and I didn't have enough cash to mail the packages. I really wish that I could be more organized about getting things into the mail.

Next stop was the hospital at Ft. Bragg for some medical paperwork for Olivia. I finally find parking and then realized that the stroller wasn't in the car. I seriously thought about just turning around and scrapping the entire thing but I didn't. I had a mini-pep talk with the kids in the car about how important it was to hold mommy's hand. Peter's response was "esss mama" with a beautiful dimply grin. Olivia's response was to look at me with her big brown twinkling eyes and giggle like a maniac. Just thinking about that moment again makes me laugh. We got into the building and up to the 5th floor to turn in the paperwork. In the waiting room Peter played happily with the toys and was so proud of himself for rocking by himself in the rocking chair. Olivia threw magazines all over the place, ran down the hallway 2 or 3 times and set of an emergency exit door alarm, giggling like a little maniac the entire time. We finally got the paperwork we needed signed and stamped and were on our way. Back in the car we headed to our next stop, turning in the precious paperwork we'd just finished filling out. As I made my second trip around the parking lot I thought "this just isn't meant to be, we'll just head home" but then a parking spot appeared. Another little mini-pep talk, this time with the promise of chicken nuggets if everyone behaved and we headed out. We made it to the right place and turned in the paperwork and headed out. Peter pushed the emergency alarm in the elevator (I guess he was jealous of Olivia's emergency exit alarm at the hospital). As the elevator doors opened on the 1st floor we were greeted by 3 MP's (military police) ready to assist us, or arrest us, I'm still not quite sure. Olivia chose this moment to begin singing the "ABC song". Seriously by this time I really can't do anything other than laugh and I do try to laugh it off but I get the feeling that the MP's don't think I'm taking this issue clearly enough. I announced that we had to get home for nap time (I'm sure they think I'm completely bonkers by this point) and we just head out to the parking lot. After I got everyone loaded up into the car I let out a big sigh and felt the most enormous sense of accomplishment. I didn't get everything done that I needed to get done, we had to deal with several minor emergencies, but I did it!