Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A day in the life of the Badillo Bunch (Warning! It is really long)

Okay, so I had a pretty embarrassing, frustrating day. As many of you know, our debit card number was stolen when we moved here to Cali. To make a long intro short, we have been without debit cards for a month and a half and we finally just received new ones with a new pin number.  Be forwarned, it is long.


Today I went to Wal-Mart for cleaning supplies and shampoo for the kids and tried to use my new pin number and it wouldn't work. So I had to run it as a credit. Fine, no big deal. After Wal-Mart I headed to the grocery store called WinCo to do my grocery shopping, yeah, can you believe it? No SuperWal-Mart!  Anyway, after over an hour of fighting with Aidan over everything in the cart, we finally made it to the checkout counter.  The clerk rang up all of the groceries. I swipe my card and entered my pin, hoping it would work and that I had just entered it wrong at Wal-Mart. It didn't work of course!  Just my luck. I asked the clerk if he could just run it as a credit and he told me NO!  They don't accept credit cards!  Only checks, cash or debit cards. Oh man. What was I to do? I called Lemuel to see if he was home or close to home to see if he could find the paper with the pin number on it to get me the correct pin. Thank goodness he was heading home for an address and was able to find it for me. Of course, I had it right the first time and so my card was still not working. I bagged all of my groceries and then pulled off to the side to call my bank and find out what was going on. They couldn't help me worth beans! "The pin must have matched one of the other cards we sent you."  Great, now what? Thank goodness by this time Aidan had fallen asleep in the cart so I wasn't having to listen to him scream on top of it all. So I had to leave my whole cart of groceries to the side and apologize profusely and hide from embarrassment. Can you believe it? I am still a little dismayed about the whole situation. My friend Michelle informed me that the reasoning behind not accepting credit cards is so that they don't have to pay an additional fee on their end. 

So, I get home and put Aidan down with about 15 minutes to spare before Max would be home. I transferred laundry and then threw another load in all the while talking to my girlfriend Michelle.  Max got home and then another battle began. HOMEWORK!  I can't wait until school gets out. I am counting down the days more than my children are!  And I completely agree with the kids, "I hate homework!" I think it is more stressful for me than them. Almost everyday without fail, we do 3 hours of homework between the two of them. Thank goodness Elena finished quickly and then Lemuel arrived home with his turn to help Max.  Laney went to play while Aidan was still sleeping and I ran to Albertsons to get the groceries that I couldn't get at Winco!  I think the most annoying part about the whole situation is the fact that I got everything I needed at Winco for under $90, and then I head to Albertsons and they didn't have half the things I needed and the produce was horrible. They didn't even have limes!  Plus it still cost me more than what Winco would have!  AAAAAAHHHHH!   I know I am venting but sometimes I just need to. 

So, I got back from groceries, to a complete disaster. Elena, Max and their friends were inside the house playing since it was 105 degrees outside and they had made forts with all of the bedding from all three of their beds. Of course they were from fully made beds that I actually got made today. I brushed it off and went to unload groceries and start on dinner. After dinner, Lemuel was going to the gym to play tennis and some friends wanted Elena and Max to come as well and swim. So Lemuel took the older kids and left me with Aidan. I figured, that is fine, he will play and I will get the dishes and kitchen cleaned and then fold the laundry I washed today. Of course, while I was loading the dishwasher Aidan came in wanting a snack. He opened the cupboard to get some crackers and then went into the family room to watch his movie. He comes in when I am just finishing loading the dishwasher and says, "Mommy, need a towel." Warning signs start flashing in my head. I don't question, I just grabbed the rag and ran into the living room. Instead of crackers, Aidan had gotten the bottle of syrup out of the cupboard. Do you see where I am going with this? Yes he did!  He dumped the ENTIRE bottle of syrup on the coffee table and the carpet. I looked at him and he grabbed the rag out of my hands and says, "I spilled mom, I sorry" and then proceeds to smear it all over the remainder of the table. Then as he is wiping, he sings "clean up, clean up, clean up...." That is the only part of the song he remembers. It was so adorable it is hard to be angry and then I realized, it is going to be okay. At least it is not paint! (a little side snicker for Kahea ;)) It will come out. We got it all cleaned up, and then put him in the tub to get cleaned up as well since by this time he had it in his hair and all over his face.  

Finally, I am sitting here posting to you and plugging this in my journal so I can remember that despite crazy days like this one, I truly am grateful I am a mom.  

8 comments:

Shanna said...

Oh my gosh.....what a day! And I thought my day was crazy! So sorry. When I have a day like that it helps to think of that song by Trace Adkins "You're gonna miss this". Have you heard it? I LOVE that song. Makes me cry. One day when our kids are all grown up we'll remember these crazy days and wish for them back! A good friend of mine wrote a cool post on her blog about the daily challenges of being a mother and how this song really put things into perspective.

It's fun to see what's going on with you guys through your blog!

fijiangirl said...

I've had so many days like that! It is good you can see teh humor in him trying to help you clean up the syrup. when things like that happen now I quiclky take a pciture of it so I can remind them what they used to be like when they get older! I hope you get your debit card thing worked out.

Angela said...

HOLY CRAP! That is quite the day! I agree with the hating homework thing. It really drains ya, and I only have one that comes home with it.

Alicia said...

oh the things we do for our families... we get humiliated (I've had the debit not work and thankfully Cam was there, but he was to runout to the car to grab my wallett with the cash, but cam back with the wrong wallet... long story short ended up running in and out 3 times... with people waiting... AHH! SO Embarrassing!!!), today I got peed on, oh and the MESSES we clean up! Holy smokes! That in itself deserves a solid gold medal!!! Way to get through the day Jess! And thanks for sharing, I needed to know someone else had a crazy day too!

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain Jess! Been there, and it's even worse when you know there's money in your account and for some weird reason your card doesn't work. And I always end up in front of really impatient people that I just want to smack and say,"Chill out, you don't even have any children with you!" Hope everything goes better for you today! And I too can't wait for summer and NO homework!!

Wilde Things said...

Phew! What a horrible day! I hate grocery shopping and have resorted to sending Travis an emailed list so he can pick it up on his way home from work.
As for homework, I am fighting Tyler about it right now . . . one more week!! Luckily I do not have 3 hours to deal with.

Michelle said...

Girl.. you needed our girl's game night that we had last night. We all missed you terribly.... and all of us had been having crapy days, so I had a drink for the girls.. and may I say it was a mighty fine drink since I haven't had any since getting prego. Anyway, we didn't get any games played last night, but we had a great time venting and being naughty and finally called it a night at midnight. Next time we'll be sure to call and put you on conference call... then you can have all the horrible mental images that come for our girl talks!

Stephanie said...

Wow Jessica, sorry to read about all "the stuff that could go wrong...did" post. I've not (yet) experienced anything to that degree (just syrup in hair and lots of homework), but you are a better mother for it. Now you can handle just about anything your kids throw at you!!