Driving

My husband has to be gone for most of the weekend (including Friday) but he took an intentional day off work yesterday to make sure that I had some key things that I've been needing for a while now. We've moved around so much in our almost 6 years of marriage, but I've managed to retain the same driver's license the entire time (even up to a year longer than suppose to BECAUSE of all our moving & the fact that a military ID can often take the place of the usual "photo ID" requirements). I finally relinquished ownership of that well-used piece of plastic for a newer, updated one yesterday! =) After finishing my entry for Wednesday on Thursday morning (which I'm finding is more realistic & helpful than doing the night of the actual day), I got up & did my best to get my husband awake & ready for the day. I understood that this was his only day to "sleep in" because of his weekend duties, but I've yet to find a way to deal with the nervous energy that I build up when watching the sun climb higher in the sky & another mealtime skips by & I still feel unproductive as I wait.  So I wrote 2 blog entries. :-p lol.
We finally showered & ate some leftover pancakes while I cleaned up the kitchen again & discussed the specific errands we had to do for the day. Drivers' license (since I wasn't the only one of the two of us who hadn't switched over to our new state of residence), title & tag registration of my vehicle, a regulation appropriate haircut, & desperately needed dishwasher detergent. Our new state has a TON of regulations & this wasn't our first attempt at the licenses. Nay! This was my FOURTH. I truly had been living the "3 strikes" you're out mentality, but this time we resolved to try a different location to see if it yielded better results. Before leaving, it took us about 2 hours of re-reviewing their requirements & gathering the needed paperwork like a pygmy trying to find water during the dry season -and I'm a pretty decent organizer when it comes to paperwork!  As I mentioned earlier: it finally worked! :-D I think I deserve some sort of "well-prepared Mommy" award for not only keeping my girls relatively quiet but happily occupied AND fed during our almost 4 hour ordeal at the actual DMV! Praising the Lord even now that we had friendly, helpful, & even fun clerks to get what we needed! The car registering didn't happen but we will save $$ because of the advice of the clerk James got. :-)
We returned to the car all pretty hungry & looked for something we could all agree on in an area we didn't know very well. Remember, we went a little bit out of our way to avoid the other DMV that had given so much grief. ;-) An Old Country Buffet met our needs & gave us all some time to relax & unwind... so much so, that we had to keep reminding each other that is wasn't actually Saturday. lol! Suddenly, at least one very full school bus, of what we decided was a high school sports camp, of teenagers began flooding our peaceful, "off-hour" lunch/dinner, so we got back in our car to continue our errands.
We realized that time was getting short (I thought of all the "sleeping in" time that had eaten up so much of the day) & that it would be better to drop the kids & I at home while my husband received his "regulation" haircut. Once home, I chatted with my neighbor-friend that had been texting us about trading date-nights until her landlord arrived for a scheduled visit. Once in the house, I cleaned up a bit while the girls watched some tv. Daddy returned with 3 bags of cherries & the same desire as I did when he dropped us off -to just unwind and zone-out. :-) We settled down for some family viewing time with Wes & Travis from Common Law. Literally half way into the show, the husband remarked that Costco was closing in 30 mins.  Rather than doing it by myself or staying at home with the kiddos, I told him that we could make it happen: we would go together. We immediately got up, got into the car, happily sang to Lion King & Tangled on the way, & enjoyed weaving our way through the quickly emptying aisles of Costco. We'd almost finished our trip when we remembered the dishwasher detergent! hehe... For simply recording our day, I feel it is important to interject how much I love shopping as a family. Yes, we do have some rotten ones, but for the most part I love the random spontaneity & jovial teasing from my husband, the enthusiastic input & "revelations" or "announcements" from our oldest, & the giggles or cute comments from our littlest. It fills my heart with so much joy to watch father & daughters playfully interact and to show off the love & joy that my husband & I have in each other to our daughters & the "world." :-)
Barely 5 minutes after leaving the parking lot, the girls were asleep & the hubby found a Disney reggae album on Mog that we listened to for 10 minutes in our driveway. The bathroom began "calling" me so we brought the girls up to their room, changed them into pjs, returned to the car to unload the groceries, put them away (I finally relieved myself), & we sat down again to finish our tv show. Once finished, we talked a bit about the busy day & headed to bed.