Living up to her name

So let me just recap the last few weeks around here in three words...insanity, medication and Princess.

Yes, Kathryn had strep and had to stay home and keep me on the run for a few days. Just in time to make sure that I was not at all well rested to endure a whirlwind trip to San Antonio chaperoning Alli's high school choir. They were selected to sing at TMEA which is a big convention for all the music teachers in Texas...really quite an honor. And during their concert they debuted a piece that was especially commissioned for them. Here...you can take a look/listen:





The composer actually flew in to hear the choir, the kids were so honored. And then, he went to eat at Hard Rock Cafe with us. And they just thought that was too cool. And Alli always has to get her pictures in with everyone. So here's Alli and Dan Forrest:

 who is much younger than I thought he would be. I mean really the image that comes to mind when you say the word "composer" is some old white haired raving genius with wads of crumpled paper all around his piano. It's nice to know that young, good looking men can achieve musical brilliance as well. And eat burgers and fries.

While chaperoning this event I was given a group of 11 girls. My job was to account for them at all stops on our trip. I was told I needed to keep the group together while we spent a few hours at the mall. I told them to disperse and meet me at Starbucks 15 minutes before we were to meet the rest of the choir and if they saw their teacher they were either to duck into the nearest store or tell her I was in the bathroom. Seriously, I try to take 4 girls to the mall on a regular basis and that's a disaster. No way was I gonna attempt that with 11.

I will not lie, it was a good group of girls. They even told me that I "was a really cool chaperone, really chill" and I told them I would continue to be so as long as they didn't do anything stupid. Which they didn't. None of my girls snuck out after taped into their rooms at 11pm curfew. And in the morning in the elevator down to the lobby, they all thought how much fun it would be to be a young mom like me and I immediately started into my speech of college, college, college and then you could think about marriage and motherhood and Alli rolled her eyes since she's been hearing this speech since in utero. But whatever, they all want to be in my group when we go to Disney.

So let me fast forward a bit here. Alli and I both obviously picked up the flu on the bus ride home. Which led to a very miserable week. Where I had little to no rest because moms don't get sick days. And then, still sick, the little ones had a swim meet all this weekend which I had signed up to volunteer a million hours so that the swim club would not cash my extortion check. And I made it a family affair, Steven was on setup, I made taco soup for a million people, served water and lemonade to officials and coaches and chopped up fruit in the hospitality room. The teens even had to work the concession stand. And after we busted our butts, we still might have about 10 more hours of slave labor volunteer work left to meet our obligation.

And so after a weekend of complete exhaustion, where one only wants to go to bed, one ends up taking a princess to the Urgent Care Center because she has twisted her knee in an attempt to avoid a spiky plant. Don't ask. All you need to know is that she sprained it really bad and it's very, very swollen and bruised. And that she is not a very good patient and I am not a very patient nurse. And she sucks on crutches. And she is a rule follower that let the school nurse know that she had Advil in her purse* in case she needed some during the day only to be told that I would have to come up to administer any medicine she might need. So no matter that she actually went back to school to have her friends wait on her hand and foot, I still get to plan my day around her as well. And all you need to do is pray that it heals up because I really, really don't want to have to go see an orthopedic. I've had enough of doctors these past few weeks...

And now that she has lost the use of one leg, she can't practice driving on this:

Yes. A car. A new car. For Princess. Who doesn't have a license. And won't til June. But my husband is some kind of wiz at Internet car shopping and worked a deal that we couldn't pass up and there you have it. And honestly we are all very excited about this. She works so hard, is a straight A student, we are very happy to be able to provide her with a vehicle. And while she might, and rightly so, think there will be a new amount of freedom to be had, there will also be more responsibility as well.

Because it's high time I live up to my title as Queen and have someone else run little ones to practice and pick up some milk and bread at the store.

*Do you think the potheads let the AP know they have weed in their lockers?