I am feeling that rewarding exhaustion after having had a busy but fun weekend.
On Friday night, after Claire went to bed, I left Neal at home and hopped in the car to drive out to Toys ‘r Us for their Midnight Madness sale. The item I wanted in particular (a trunk with BOTH Elsa and Anna dresses, as well as bracelets, rings, etc. – regularly priced at $40 on sale for $20) was only going to be sold at half-price starting at 10pm. After being awake from 4:40 a.m. (thanks to a certain adorable munchkin having an accident in her bed) and working all day, I would have loved to have just stayed at home in my jammies, but it was worth it. I and probably 100 other people stood in line by the storage doors in the store from a little after 9pm until they finally opened them at 10pm and started rolling them out. I have no idea if everyone got a trunk, but I know I did, so I left very satisfied. I also remembered the story my mom and dad often told me about the first year Cabbage Patch dolls were out, and how my dad went to stand in a long line waiting for those to be unloaded, everyone tense as they didn’t know if they would get the prized gift for their children or not, and how much they would have to fight for them. I am happy to say that everyone was pretty civilized at Toys ‘r Us on Friday evening, other than a woman who gave a little shove to the father of a friend of mine who also happened to be at the store that night.
On Saturday, Neal took Claire to dance class while I stayed home to work on a file for work. It involves the final accounting for an estate, and I had to really focus on what I was doing, and it usually takes awhile, so it’s extremely difficult to do that at work when the phone is ringing and other work is pouring in. I didn’t mind; I had originally thought I was going to have to actually go into work on Saturday morning because of a serious backlog of work, but thanks to a very productive Thursday and Friday, I was able to avoid that. It’s not so bad having to work on one file at home while in your pajamas.
After lunch, Neal, Claire and I headed over to celebrate my niece, Breanna’s 9th birthday party. Claire was a little timid at first because all of Breanna’s friends were there already and she didn’t think anyone wanted to play with her, but after getting over her shyness (which took all of 5 minutes), she was in the thick of everything and we barely saw her.
Angel Claire
Claire didn’t fall asleep on the drive home, but she was EXHAUSTED. It didn’t take her long to fall asleep at all once we got her into bed.
This morning was quiet. We cleaned, I made supper (since we were going to be out in the afternoon), and then after lunch we headed out to a family event put on by the law firm I work for. Spouses and kids were invited to join everyone at a new indoor gym called Hop, Skip, Jump!.
Oh.my.god.
When we first arrived, the noise level was insane, but we got used to it fairly quickly, and honestly, everything is built so that it will allow adults to climb up on the equipment, so even the grown-ups got to have lots of fun. I followed Claire pretty much all over the climbing gym, going down the slides, climbing through net tunnels, and crossing bridges. I’m sure I am going to be mighty sore tomorrow, but it was so worth it!
