Lucky Thirteen and Counting

I am starting into the “leaving the kids anxiety” syndrome.  I am wrapping away listening to Christmas music and the “what if the plane goes down over the ocean and I die and 14 kids are left without a mother” feeling pushes its way to the front of my mind.  I am convinced it is the Holy Spirit trying to tell me something.  I fight it, and win, and know of course I am going to be fine and come home.  This is normal for me.  I do it every time I am ready to fly.  It is something I have to deal with, and it makes planning trips very difficult.  

I am running around here like a chicken with it’s head cut off, and even that doesn’t alleviate the stress of leaving.  Maybe it makes it worse.  I have completed my shopping, almost completed my wrapping, mailed off all my packages and Christmas cards. I have the laundry done. But I still need to pack the kids clothes for the overnight adventure with their father and The Nanny.  But I have discovered in the past few days, when a cold front moved into SoCal, that my children have all grown.  So, even though I am done shopping, I am going to the mall today to buy the kids long pants and long sleeve shirts that fit them.   They can’t be looking grungy. PERIOD. But it is even more important to be looking cute if they are going to be seeing their father.  I have no idea why that is important, but it is on so many levels, even the shallow ones. 

My big kids are busy taking their final exams.  It is HIGH stress in Chattanooga.  Shaylee calls so often that I feel like I am taking the finals with her.  If I ever start drinking it will be during finals week. She freaks out when she takes a quiz, so you can imagine FINALS!  I am so ready to be done with this semester!  Side note, I have no idea what Bronson’s class even are, let alone his final schedule.  He just floats through life and aces everything.  This is just another way to irritate his little sister.

Shaylee called me the other day to tell me she had found an old TV from the 1960’s on the side of the road.  She brought it back to her dorm with her friends and they were going to get it working.  I mentioned to her that even if they got it working, she would have to buy a conversion kit because in February 2009 it was all digital, no more analog.  

She sat there for a minute and said, “Are you serious? So in February all the clocks on the wall are going to stop working?”  Yep, that’s my blonde daughter…..  yeah, the one in the college prep school!  

Saturday night Brandon and I went to our very first PARTY in The OC! I was extremely nervous about what to wear and what to bring.  Since we don’t drink and I figured the smartest gift was wine, I was worried that I would get something yucky, tacky or cheap because I seriously don’t have a clue about alcohol.  But, after calling a few people that do drink, I was instructed to go to BevMo and tell them where we were going and how much we wanted to spend and they would help me out.  So, that’s what we did.  I paid $75 dollars for something that looked nice enough to set on my shelf.  I tied a Christmas ribbon on it and called it good.

The attire wasn’t so easy,  I texted my friend Molly and she told me to wear something Sparkly.  I don’t have anything sparkly, unless I have been doing arts and crafts with Kate and Jazz.  That is about as sparkly as I get.  I asked Desi what she thought I should wear and she made it even worse.  She said, “Have you ever seen The Real Housewife’s of the OC?  That’s what you want to look like.  Bling yourself out.”  Well, Shit.  I don’t have bling, or fancy schmancy things, unless I dip into my sex drawer, but come on….   

It all worked out, I tried on everything I owned and settled for white slacks, heels and a black sweater.  It was fine.

The party was amazing.  We met wonderful people, got to know some of our neighbors better, ate amazing food, enjoyed fabulous music and had a great time. I will do it more often.  And no, Warren G wasn’t there.  Sadly the G family got evicted a few months ago.  The economy has gotten the best of all of us, even rappers. Their house was foreclosed on and we miss them.  I love those kids and Warren’s wife Tenille is darling.  Even though the initial cupcake drop off was a failure, we became good neighbors with them. We still see them driving around town, and even Warren himself honks and waves!