Losing my marbles

It's official. I'm losing it. I forgot to pick up my kids on a Friday two weeks ago (story to follow), and then yesterday I went to pick them up, only to get to the front of the drive through pick up line and hear (from the principal, no less) that they weren't there and had gotten on the bus! I screwed up twice in two weeks! Bad mom, very bad mom! The second one wasn't as bad as the first because at least I remembered about the kids, just didn't remember that it was Tuesday, not Monday. Tuesday is a bus day. The holiday weekend screwed me up. They beat me home just by a minute, but they know the garage door code, so they just let themselves in. Kari actually saw me in the pick-up line as they passed on the bus. She hollered, "Mom!" and I do remember hearing a kid yell that from a passing bus, but it didn't register that it was MY kid.

 A few weeks ago, the bus route changed so that our stop was one of the first ones rather than the last one, as it has been all year, and even though I don't like the bus, I decided it was ridiculous that the bus was beating us home after school. The pick up line is very long. Kari didn't want to ride the bus, but Joel did, so we compromised. Pick-up Mondays and Fridays, bus Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It had been working out pretty well...until two weeks ago Friday.

It wasn't a typical Friday for me. That's my excuse, anyway. Soon-to-be-sister-in-law, Lindsay (Blake proposed on Mother's Day, and she said yes! Wedding is Nov 16th.) came over for lunch, and we were still chatting away when I looked at the clock, saw 3:15pm, and realized the kids weren't home yet. They usually walk through the door around 3:15pm on bus days. But Friday is not a bus day. Lindsay was in the middle of an enthralling story about her time in inner city LA when I jumped out of my chair, interrupted and screamed, "I FORGOT MY KIDS!" then immediately went into panic mode, trying to find my keys and get Grant and Aubrey to come inside from the trampoline and get their shoes on. Lindsay suggested/kindly offered she stay with them so I could take off to the school ASAP. Good plan! Yes! Good idea! I drove, probably too fast, to the school, pulled up to the curb, and saw the kids standing in the front office. The secretary was just picking up the phone to call me. School gets out at 3:00pm, and it was now 3:20pm. Flustered though I was, Kari and Joel were calm as could be, at least on the outside. They thought it was funny! I was glad but still so, so sorry, mortified actually. I made my apologies to all, and we came back home, my heart still racing. Talk about humble pie! Lindsay, who doesn't really know me yet, got quite a picture of me that day! I'll have a lifetime to show her that I'm really not crazy. :)  I have reminders in my phone to make sure I don't mess up again. I think school just needs to be out now. Summer's almost here!