A Day in the Path of a Tornado...

...or just in the path of a 2-year old. TORNADO stands for: Twoyear Old Running Nonstop And Destroying Objects.

This picture sums up how my day was: a MESS!

Really, my house seldom looks like this. In fact, my husband had it looking immaculate when I came home from school last night. I had to rush around cleaning up the debris before he got home because I was downright embarrassed.

First thing I did was try to retrieve my film review from my disk so I could e-mail it to my professor (since it was due yesterday and all). Key word here--"try." As in, to no avail. The disk seems to be ruined or something, so now I have to write that entire review over.

Next up, the boiling water incident. Since I'm a cheap skate and happened to find a stamp from last Christmas, I decided to boil some water and peel it off of the unused envelope so I could mail an item out today. So I turned on the water to get a steam, but I forgot about it. This is rare, but I was such a shambles trying to get ten thousand and two things done at once that I just...forgot. But it wasn't that long, so I did end up succeeding in getting the stamp detached and re-attached to the proper envelope for mailing. But then I tried to use a little glue to keep it stuck on and the thing erupted, spewing glue all over me. That was nice.

I made the 10 mile one-way trek to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, which I had procrastinated all day. When my aunt called at 10am telling me there were going to be tornadoes this evening, it got to weighing on my mind and I finally decided around 3pm to get out and get business taken care of. Got in the parking lot of Wal-Mart and realized that yes, I did remember my crock-pot classics coupon, but I forgot my darn wallet, which contains my IDs, checkbook, etc.

I started talking to my son, but when I turned around, he was asleep in his car seat. So I just muttered silently to myself all the way back to the house. I took the time to do a silent prayer, as well, knowing full well that I needed some sanity in my day.

So I ran back in, fetched my wallet, and returned to Wal-Mart. Things were starting to look up when I got the front row parking space. But then I had to wake up cranky butt and tote him around, careful to make sure he didn't make any unwarranted additions to the cart. But of course, he did anyway. But I had to smile when he picked up one of the Blue Hawaiian wine coolers out of the cart and announced to the whole store, "Daddy's! Daddy's!" (Note: We're not hefty drinkers by any means but an occasional cooler can be sooo refreshing.)

In the parking lot, contents escaped my Jeep as I was trying to cram the too-many groceries into my vehicle. I didn't bother chasing the debris, which mainly just looked like some receipts and cotton balls I had been keeping for church projects.

On the way home, I battled the elements and was 10-and-2 with the steering wheel, trying to keep total focus on keeping the Jeep on the road. We're almost home and I feel a thud against my back. Clayton had escaped his car seat and pulled himself up the back of my headrest. I about freaked out, but luckily I was able to stop at a stop light half a mile from home and get him situated.

So as I pulled into the garage I glanced down at my odometer because I had decided to reset it earlier and oh my gosh...an array of triple sixes. As if I needed another bad omen. I instantly pressed reset.

Then the real tornadoes came and I spent about an hour in the bath tub with my son while I read my professor's memoir, which I just started yesterday and have been glued to since. But I didn't get much read while in there because the phone rang twelve times and I had a dump truck racing up and down my thighs.

It's been a long day.