Birth Day and kindergarten car-pooling woes

The last few years, my birthday has been on a weekend day and boy have we lived it up!  Three years ago, we spontaneously picked the kids up after school on a Friday and went up to Jackson Hole and went to a really fun swimming place there.  The next year we also went to Jackson Hole and stayed in a really great hotel, were real tourists, and went swimming, but this time in the hotel's pool.  O.K.  I guess last year's birthday wasn't as exciting for the kids come to think of it;  Abram was still a relatively new baby which always motivates me to stick closer to home, and my birthday fell on Sunday, so I don't remember what we did for sure. At any rate,  I was having fun inviting the kids to my birthday parties and having my birthday be a day that they anticipated.

This year, I was wanting to make some really great plans once again, when I suddenly realized that the kids had school.  What a kill-joy!! Shawn and I decided that we would take the kids bowling that evening for the party.

opening presents- glad to see that I can pull off a surprised face when  I already know exactly what I'm getting!!

Sunday evening, the car started making funny noises, so we took it to the mechanic the next morning, which left us with Shawn's five-passenger commuter car. By evening we still didn't have our car back, so our plans changed again and it ended up that Shawn made me two fabulous pies and then we watched Tangled - a movie that the kids got for me.  We ended up having a nice evening, and later, for Spring break this weekend (spring break here is pretty short - Thursday and Friday plus the weekend) we will play out our original plans.

Shawn wanted me to do what he termed a Tosca Reno pose with his pies. She is a woman that he thinks is very annoying because she has pictures of herself posing -just like this-throughout her entire cook book.

And now for the car-pooling woes.  Three weeks ago, a new woman moved into our ward who happened to have a kindergartner.  I have been taking turns driving with one other woman, and so we asked this new woman if she would be interested in car-pooling.  I drove the first week, and the mother was outside her garage waiting for us when we pulled up to the house, so I pulled into their driveway.  As I backed up to turn and drive out, I heard my car hit something.  The something was some short pipes (for their well) right on the edge of their driveway, that I would have had no way of seeing from my rear view mirror.  This was horrible planning on the part of whoever built the house, and we are left with a nice little dent on the back of our suburban. That was the first woe.

See the little pipes to the left of the picture?

The second woe happened yesterday.  My car-pooling partner and I had driven for the first two weeks and it was now this new woman's turn to drive.  I was happily enjoying my birthday and had been gone for most of the morning, then got home and was talking on the phone to my sister Ivy. It was high time that Isabelle should arrive home and so I was watching for her and talking when suddenly my cell phone started ringing again and again.  So, I hung up from talking to Ivy and called whoever had been calling me, and it turns out that it was the school and that no one had picked up Isabelle or my car-pooling partner's son.

Luckily Shawn was home, having taken the day off, and he jumped in his car and went to get them.  Meanwhile I noticed that I had a couple of messages on my phone.  Well, to make a long story short, (I know, I know, it's too late!) this new woman had left me a message that she had decided that because of all of her "commitments" the car-pooling thing wasn't going to work out for her so she wouldn't be picking our kids up today!!!!!!!!!??!!!!!!! Then she had left one more message during the time that I was talking to Ivy that said, "Well, I'm at the school. Why aren't you getting your kids?"

I will just tell you now that  I was pretty steamed! And incredulous, astounded and amazed! Here she had happily let us drive for the last two weeks and then when it was her turn it suddenly wasn't convenient, and never did she make personal contact about it. That is what bothers me the most - that she just assumed that I would get her message last-minute. So, she picked up her own daughter, and left ours kids there.  I'm trying to see from her perspective how that could be a friendly, reliable, responsible thing to do. I must admit that I'm having a hard time. Who does something like that?!?

Have you ever noticed that it's usually right after conference that something like this happens?  I guess because you watch and listen and think about how you're going to try so hard to be more charitable, forgiving and the host of other things that the church leaders talk about, and then you have to have something happen to help you practice.  I guess that's why?

Just a random picture of Kami for 80's day today