Camping, Good Food, Great Friends and Magical Moms

Now I totally "get" what a mom with three toddlers must go through each day as she struggles the balance of work and mommy-dom. All I can say is "Thank God for Shar"!!

The plan was for Shar to come with me to work today because we were meeting our good friend, Sue, of Random Ramblings, for a long-overdue lunch date. "No biggie", I thought. "We'll just take the dogs to Camp Bow-Wow for a few hours while we are in San Diego and pick them up on our way home". Seemed simple enough.

But before we could even get to today, Shar had to prepare Duncan's shot records, medical history, application for Day Camp, update the records of Prinnie and Digby's shots, and on and on. As soon as I got home from work late last night, we took the Kids seat belt clips that hold each of them snugly into their "seats" out of one car, and put them in the other. As I reviewed the records Shar had put together for each of them, she made their lunch for today and put each in their own container with each kids name.

"Great", I thought. "Car seats are done, lunch is made, records are ready to go.....ahhhh, time to relax." That was that....until this morning. Up at the crack of dawn, down some coffee, try to read the morning news paper, feed the kids, shower, get dressed, get THEM dressed (harnesses and leads), pack the "stuff" in the car, put each kid in their designated place in the car, swear a little at the fact my clean clothes are now filled with 3 colors of dog hair, roller them off, try to stop the kids from barking as they demand we get moving NOW, start to drive off and see a neighbor who wants to chat for a bit, which in turn causes the two little kids to insist that THEY MUST be part of the conversation but haven't yet found their volume control......ugh! We haven't even left the driveway yet, and I'm ready for the day to be over!

Finally, we pull into day care (Camp Bow Wow). Now the task of getting fully hairy starts all over again. Click the lead onto one dog, then a second, finally, the third. The two little kids come with me, and Digby with Shar. They literally pull us in to the front office area, until they realize that we are about to leave them for a while. But first, Duncan, who is new to doggy day care, must be interviewed and pass before we can leave. The clock is ticking and I am getting more and more stressed about the need to get on the road for our one and a half hour commute. Finally, the camp counselor comes out to say that Duncan passed with flying colors and can stay! Thank God, because we hadn't come up with a contingency plan if he hadn't.

Three hours after getting up, we are on the road to work. Lunch was awesome - yea, great food, but the company was by far the highlight of our day! Now we have to run to the new corporate offices (oh yea, we got the new space) to pick out carpet, paint, etc...., then on to the accountants for the weekly check run. Crap - we are now REALLY late to head out of San Diego toward home to pick up the kids. Do they charge extra if you are late, I thought?? Shar calls ahead and tells them that we are still about 1-2 hours out from getting there. Fortunately, they say that it's not a problem - the kids are fine.

We finally get back to day care and walk in the front door to hear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Duncan barking louder than all of the other dogs, including the big German Shepards. "Oh lordy, did these poor people have to listen to this all day" Shar and I said in unison. We ask - they said that he only barked when he was in his cabin. A counselor goes back to get who they have now named the "three-pack". The "three-pack" tears out and are determined to get out the front door without their harnesses. Here we go again, having to dress them as they fly around in crazed excitement that mom and mommy are here to take them home. I still have to pay for today's camp...I just give the guy my credit card and tell him to do whatever he needs to. The guy was nice enough to put the card back in my wallet for me when he was done because I no longer had any hands left.

Prinnie gets out of her harness twice as Shar leads Digby to the car (actually, he dragged her). She comes back in to help me with the two little kids, and we finally are on our way home. Once we pull in, another neighbor greets us, causing Prinnie to go ballistic. He is trying to tell us something, but we can't hear him over the two little kids, so we politely wave and pull in to our garage. He is waiting outside to chat, but we have to put the door down to deal with what we thought would be exhausted dogs.

They each are unbelted, and bound into the house. Shar and I look at each other and drag ourselves over the threshold. We are home.....at last! We are exhausted and defeated. The dogs are in their glory, and wide awake! We are repeating this adventure again on Tuesday, and are already trying to prepare ourselves for a repeat of today. I don't know how moms do this every single day.

Here is Duncan's certificate for passing his interview this morning. Oh, and by the way, he made friends with a dog named Gordo - a beagle - who seems to have taught our youngest the fine art of howling to the moon! Great!!! One chases space ships and the other howls to the moon!