Rollercoaster Week

Before I ever met Craig, I was in a bad relationship and a bad place, and I got in the habit of calling my Mom up at least once a week, sobbing.  During this time, my Dad gave me the nickname Rollercoaster Girl, because he said my ups were way up, and my downs were way down.  He was right.  I was a ridiculous emotional mess then.  And it was interesting to see how once evil boy was out of the picture, I was able to stabilize back into a more normal, less crazy person.  It's been nice actually being me again for so long.

And don't worry, I'm still just fine.

But this last week has been enough to make anyone a little bit crazy.  This last week has had so many ups and downs, I hardly know where to begin to relate it all.  So it must be time to do some blogging!  Sorry for the novel that is this post, but it's all stuff I need to get off my chest.  Sorry for making you into my therapist or something...


Anyway, it began last Friday with Craig's fabulous idea: he decided we should get some pizza and take the kids to the park to eat.  I thought that sounded like so much fun that I posted it on our church's facebook page so any friends who wanted to could join in.  This is a scary thing for me to do, since I immediately began worrying that no one would come and I'd feel like a complete loser.  But I was in luck-- a whole bunch of people came and we had a splendid time!  Yay for Craig's great idea and yay for adding more friends to the mix!

As a special treat, we even took the kids out for ice cream on the way home, something which we have NEVER done before.  (Mostly because we're cheap.  And our kids tend to shy away from cold stuff so we worried it would just be a waste of money.  But mostly because we're cheap.)  But the kids loved the ice cream and thought it was the best day ever.  And it kind of was!

Except for later that night, as we were rushing around trying to get everyone not-sticky enough to put to bed, and I managed to accidentally kick the doorjamb so hard I broke my pinky toe.  That's kind of been sucking, I'll admit.  (It's not as bad as when I twisted my ankle, though, so there's that for perspective.)

So, yes, up and down.

Saturday was another good day, though.  Saturday was pretty much all up: the kids got to go to an awesome carnival planned just for them by our church, and Kendra and I volunteered that afternoon to stand outside a grocery store collecting food for a local food bank.  I can't say it was something I'd been looking forward to, but I was pleasantly surprised by how generous people were, and it was truly touching to let my little girl see the kindness of strangers.  And then once we were home, Craig kicked it into high gear doing yard work and making our backyard look decent again (while the kids and I chased the chickens around), so that was lovely.

A very Up day indeed.

So, naturally, Sunday had to be Down.

Sunday was awful.  Craig had meetings all day long, which left me in charge of keeping the kids happy, getting them clean and ready for church, and getting the house clean (which failed miserably as soon as my kids invited two neighborhood boys over, who got out pretty much every toy we own).  Then, as if that hadn't been fun enough, I had to sit with my four kids all during church and try to keep everyone happy.  While Craig had to go to a different congregation to give a talk.

I will tell you right now that it is not possible to keep four kids this age quiet and happy for an hour and twenty minutes.  (I also had to keep them from stepping on my broken toe or elbowing my pregnant stomach.  Also not easy.  The only plus here was that at least I didn't feel guilty wearing flipflops to church!)  So, yes, sacrament meeting was rough.  We survived it-- barely-- and I sent the older kids off to primary, ready to breathe a sigh of relief.

But before I could let out that happy sigh, a lady I know came up and began chatting my ear off about how contrary Bentley is (she apparently believes that his dislike of being hugged or eating chocolate is purely about being contrary, not any sort of actual personal preference).  She then moved on to pointing out how he couldn't sit still at all during yesterday's carnival (was he supposed to???) and wrapped that all up by suggesting I might have him tested for ADHD.  AND HE WAS THE ONLY ONE OF MY KIDS WHO SAT STILL AND DIDN'T CRY AT ALL DURING CHURCH.

Yes, let's speak to a pregnant woman with a broken toe who's just spent nearly an hour and a half wrestling four kids on her own and suggest that something's wrong with one of her kids.  What could be more helpful, kind, and Christ-like than that?

I've talked to enough people and enough of Bentley's teachers to think she's crazy and to not actually be worried.  But her incredible rudeness just kind of blew me away.  I'm still pretty angry just thinking about it.

I managed to escape from her and took Colton to nursery for the first time, and he actually didn't cry when I left.  Very brief Up!  And then I got cornered by a different woman who proceeded to spend twenty minutes telling me all her marriage problems.  I managed to get her to the bishop's office, hoping he could provide counseling, and when I tried to leave, she said, "No, go ahead and stay!" and launched right back into all her problems.  I was kind of relieved when I heard Colton crying and needed to go rescue him at nursery.  (He had tripped and fallen and was then inconsolable.)

Sunday was a very Down day.

Monday I got to Target and realized I'd forgotten my shopping list (down) but managed to remember everything on it and sort of felt like a rock star for that (up).  But then I got home and realized I didn't have to time to make any of the meals I'd planned (down).  Fortunately Craig pointed out that the girls' basketball team was doing a fundraiser at Chipotle that night, so it really was our patriotic duty to eat there and support them, so he saved us (up).

And then Wednesday.  Wednesday (yesterday!) was Bentley's birthday.  He turned eight, which is kind of an important age if you're Mormon, because he's finally old enough now to be baptized.  It's a big deal to us.  Craig and I stayed up late Tuesday night decorating, and I tried to make the morning special before he had to head off to school.  It went well, and I think he was having a happy day.  Up!  (And his party and everything else will be a different blog post, since this is already way too long!)

We dropped Bentley and Kendra off at school, and as we began walking home, Ryder ran ahead of me a bit (this is unusual, since he normally is at least twenty feet behind me).  I guess he was just excited about Bentley's birthday.  Before I even realized what was happening, he ran out into the parking lot, right in front of an on-coming truck.  A 5th-grader was standing there as part of their safety patrol program, and she snatched him right back and all was well.  I thanked her profusely, walked away, and then burst into tears.  It had all happened in about three seconds, but I realized that those three seconds nearly ruined my life (not to mention Bentley's birthday).

I never thought I would feel such gratitude to some little girl whose name I don't even know.

Up and down and up and down again.

I spent the rest of the day randomly crying when I would let myself think about how scary that moment was.  But also feeling so thankful that everything was all right.

What a week it's been.

I would really like it if next week could be boring.   Reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaally boring.