Too Busy for our own good.
Now Playing: Leroy & Stitch for the kids in the next room
Topic: Family Business

The conspicuous consumption bug bit me again today,
We had to go to town to get miss 16's learners permit, we drove all the way there, (it's 25 miles easy, nothing's close to anything else here- I like it that way usualy) parked in a primo spot, after staring down a state trooper on his way into the parking lot too. went to get out of the car & I said to miss 16, 'where's your papers'
'what papers?' she says.
'birth certificate, something with your name & address on it that was mailed to you, the usual identification stuff?'
'you mean you don't have them?' She wails this last, the state trooper is staring now, the little ones are skipping about the parking lot.
'well, it's your permit, I thought you had everything ready to go!' I say getting defensive, I know when I went to take my learners permit test & my liscence test I was in charge of all my paperwork & everything else.
'duh mom, how would I know where to find that stuff'
I just sat there & laughed, after all, what else can you do? there was no sense in getting mad, it never even crossed my mind when we were getting ready to go to town, not even to a point where I actualy thought of her locating her birth certificate & having it ready to go, it wasn't until we actually got to the dmv that I thought of it. At first I wanted to just come back on Saturday but the dmv is only open 8-12 on Saturdays & none of us are any good at getting up early on the weekends & I'm not that into getting up & going to town as if I was going to work on a non-work day. My next days off after Saturday are the 4th of July holiday so that's out & then the next Saturday I have to work to swap with myself a day of my vacation & on the 10th we leave on vacation so if we were going to get this learners permit thing done it had to be today. So when she said 'nooo' in that whiny tone she uses so well I just said 'fine, we'll go get the damn papers & come back'. so all the way back home we drove to get the birth certificate. It turned out there is no way 16 could have had the stuff she needed because it wasn't in her baby book like it should have been, it ended up being tucked away in my file cabinet in the child support paperwork because I had to show proof of birth/parentage when I went for custody & child support. it took me nearly 1/2 an hour to find it myself & I would NOT have wanted miss 16 all up in my important paperwork. Then we had the loveley drive all the way back to the dmv we went, most of the way back in to C'burg Chrissie text messaged & said she was in C'burg & did we want to meet her for lunch. I texted back to tell her what had happened & then again when we got into town & she then said it was too close to her work time so we missed that opportunity.
16 did better than previously on the learners permit test, she did not, however, do well enough to pass. She says that a lot of her friends have done better taking the test on paper rather than on the touch screens on the computers there. We settled for a picture id (she likes it because the border at the top is purple, her favorite color, rather than blue like a liscence or learners permit)
After that everyone was VERY hungry, so we went to lunch in B'burg which is a college town nearby, at a resturant called Backstreets which has a nice patio for dining on which I love to sit on. This led to the second altercation between 16 & I because she wanted to eat inside with the air conditioner & I wanted to be outside in the sunshine, I won because the little ones voted with me! we had a lovely lunch, we were able to jolly miss 16 out of her sulk & there was nearly no fighting for once. More than I can say for the current moment in time. Backstreets is known for pizza but 16 didn't want that so we all had sandwiches, Mr 6's hamburger was nearly as big as he was, 16 had an italian sub, 10 had a turkey & cheese & had a greek calzone which was excellent.
Then my other reason to come to town kicked in, we scoured the second hand clothing shops for a few new clothes for the trip to Mass. Only mr 6 got much I'm afraid to say, I forgot to mention we ran into a friend/family member at the dmv who has a daughter a little older than miss 10 & she reminded me she has a ton of clothes for 10 so I wasn't really looking for stuff for her, she did get a skip it & a pogo stick however & 1 pair of shorts & a shrug which was just the right green for her & a really soft knit material. 16 is just too picky, we went to goodwill, TJ Maxx, Rugged wearhouse & Target looking for a bathing suit for her & none of them were good enough. she did find a couple of skirts she liked at least. I found almost nothing for myself, the goodwill in our area has only in the past year or so set up a plus size rack, before that shopping there was an exersize in frustration, I'd have to paw through all this stuff which would never fit me & it was very frustrating to see things which were beautiful prints or colors or styles which would never fit me. Now I can shop for both 16 & I on the same double rack of clothes but I only find a few things each time. I found 1 shirt I liked pretty well but it's a long sleeved shirt & I needed summer things, at $3.50 a shirt I bought it anyway, I'll need it in the fall I'm sure. but I was really hoping to find something new for work & for the vacation. Luckily Lane Bryant's clearance racks were full, out of 5 shirts I bought there only one turned out badly, it was just a little too small. It looks good on 16 though, a little too big for her but it's always nice to have a few extra things to wear!
Target was our downfall (it always is, I love their stuff, especially the housewares department) I got a grill for the 4th of July, (I have had steak in my freezer for shish kabobs since Chrissie came down in April & no grill to cook them on!)& charcoal for the grill. then I couldn't resist some pretty summer lights for the porch, on clearance sale which is always a nice thing. I love those little orange clearance tags!
Home & showered & ready for bed (at least I am, kids are still all over the place, playing with their goodwill finds (bug kits & these odd building toys with plastic bolts to hold them together) & watching tv. Time to raise the roof & send everyone to bed so I can go myself!