Got the time?

I lost my watch a while back. I kept thinking it would turn up eventually. But it hasn't. So, I went to the store today to buy a new one.

I showed it to Brian this evening. It's silver and kind of sparkly. He looked at it and asked why I had chosen it. (It looks nothing like my old watch.)

"It was the only watch in the whole store that had the correct time," I replied. It's the truth. And actually I'm quite grateful. It made chosing a new watch very easy.

Brian started laughing. But seriously, doesn't everyone choose their watch that way?

Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

It's snow day 3 this week. And it's still snowing. I'm not really complaining. I like snow well enough, and my kids don't usually bother me. It's just the little things that start to get to me.

Like exercising. There's nothing quite like trying to exercise with an audience. And not even a quiet, respectful audience, I might add. One would think they could keep their comments and questions to themselves...

"Mom, how come you aren't doing it like the lady on the video?" Gee, I wonder.

"Is that sweat on your pants? Gross!" Why, yes it is! Thanks for noticing.

"You're not very good at this." You think?

And my favorite: "I'm exhaused just watching you!" That would be from all your laughing and mocking.

Of course I don't even have to mention the giggles and muffled laughter behind me on the couch. I may be out of shape but my hearing is fine. So, although my self esteem may be suffering, I look forward to enjoying at least one of the perks of having my children home on a snow day---I'll let them clean the bathrooms and fold laundry. It's only fair. They've had their entertainment.

I'm just saying...

I'm a nag. I know, it's not like I'm bragging or anything. I'm just trying to face the facts. And if my husband says that saying something more than once is nagging, well that makes me a nag.

But is that really such a bad thing? Why does that always have to carry such a negative connotation? I like to remind people of things. It's what I'm good at.

For example: every day for the past 10 years I've told my kids to put their dishes in the dishwasher. And today as I was unloading the clean dishes from the dishwasher I found someone had added a dirty breakfast dish this morning. How can I be annoyed to find dirty dishes mixed in with the clean when my family is only doing what I have trained them to do? I can't, but it does show that nagging is effective. And it doesn't really matter that I couldn't find the dirty spoon so I went ahead and put all the silverware away anyway. If I couldn't tell it was dirty, chances are my children won't notice either.

Okay so back to nagging. I'm trying to be less of a nag. I will never be able to give up my nag status, but I'm trying to improve. However, I've found that telling someone to do something in a nice, round-about, "less nagging" way doesn't usually work.

For example: sometimes the drum set is left upstairs in the living room. Which I might add right now, is NOT where it belongs. So trying to do better I say, "Gee, I sure am getting tired of looking at the drum set in the living room." What I'm really saying is TAKE THAT DRUM SET DOWNSTAIRS NOW! But since I didn't actually say that, what happened? My son merely rearranged the drum set. Not exactly what I was going for.

So it all comes back to this. I'm a nag. It's what I'm good at. If you don't like it, too bad. Or just do it the first time I ask and we'll all be happy.

I've lost track of the time.

It's been a busy day and I've been trying to run around to get everything done before the kids arrive home from school. I look at the clock and figure that my youngest should be home any minute. I check out the window to see if I can see my neighbors van yet. I take the kids to school in the morning and my neighbor picks them up from the bus stop after school. It's a nice arrangement.

Ten minutes later I start to get worried. Not panicked. Just concerned. So I go over everything in my mind once more: I distinctly remember my daughter telling me that quiz bowl practice for today after school was cancelled. So she should be taking the bus home. Hmmm. So where is she?

Now I'm worried that my neighbor doesn't expect my daughter to be at the bus and maybe she made other arrangements for her kids to get home. And therefore my child is stranded without a ride home.

It's sleeting outside and I can just picture my daughter trying to walk up the steep hill to our house. I grab my purse and keys not bothering with a coat or even my shoes. I can't believe I let my child walk home in this weather!

I drive around for 10 minutes and my daughter is no where to be found. I've driven every possible route home and I'm to the panic point. My child is gone!

I drive like a maniac to the school figuring if I get pulled over I can just let the police take over. I pull up in front of the school and leave my car running as I race inside.

"My daughter didn't get off the bus!" I shriek. There is a part of me that whispers I may be over reacting just a tad, but I don't listen as I rush to the counter.

"Well that might be due to the fact that school doesn't get out for another hour," the lady informs me.

I look at the clock. I mean I really look at the clock. Oh. I'm mortified as I slink back to my car. And hope that no one notices that I'm not wearing any shoes.

Stealth and yoga.

At Walmart today there was a little boy wandering around. I was just about to ask him if he was lost when a man walked over to him first. "Are you lost?" he asked the little boy. "My mom is here but now I can't find her," the little boy replied, his lip trembling. The man asked if he could help him find his mom, took his hand and off they went.

Huh? Had I just witnessed a child being abducted? What if he walked right out of the store with the little boy? And I didn't even have a very good description of him! So that was when I started following them. Very covertly. He was wearing a black jacket, black t-shirt, blue jeans and a black overcoat. It was the coat that first made me suspicious. Creepy guys wear trench coats, right?

They wandered around the produce area and I was getting worried. Why didn't he just take the boy up to the front counter to have his parents paged. I mean, that's what someone who wasn't planning on abducting a child would do.

I needed to get a little closer. His eyes were brown, he had long brown hair pulled back into a pony-tail. I just couldn't gauge his height!

We had veered back around towards the front registers just as I got next to him to determine how tall he was. Taller than me. I'm not really very good at this.

As he approached a cashier to tell her about the child, I sighed with relief. The pressure was off, I no longer had to figure out his shoe size. I turned around and to my surprise and horror, bumped right into the creepy dude.

"Sorry," I apologized. "Are you following me?" he asked.

"Well that depends," I stammered. "If you were going to kidnap that boy, then yes, I was following you." Awkward pause, so I continued. "But since obviously you aren't, then no, I'm not following you."

He shook his head. "The boy was lost, I was only trying to help him find his mother. He said they were looking at apples and then she was gone."

Oh, right. That would explain the tour of the produce section. I gave a sheepish grin, apologized again and started to walk away.

"So what would you have done if I was trying to kidnap him," the man challenged.

"I know yoga," I tried. He laughed. "No really," I warned him as I went into the warrior pose. Which I guess isn't as intimidating as I thought. He laughed harder and reached into his pocket.

No way. I just knew he had a gun. I couldn't believe that this was how my life was going to end. I was going to get shot. At Walmart. I stood there frozen. Just like in my dreams I couldn't scream or run away. I was paralyzed.

"It's okay," he replied pulling his ID out of his jacket pocket. He was a Walmart employee. "You can stop cringing," he told me, "and thanks for the laugh." He walked away, still laughing and shaking his head.

So even though I need to learn some new moves and I'm not as stealthy as I thought I was, I guess it turned out to be an okay day.

The boy found his mother. And I didn't die in Walmart. Yes, overall it was a pretty good day.