Rise and Shine Girl Blog

Okay so some can accuse me of wearing my pajamas all day and in a few rare occasions wearing them to the store and out in public, maybe “rare” is a lite word to use here, but no matter what, I do brush my teeth every day. Somehow I missed yesterday!

For the past two months I have had nothing close to a routine/schedule, but yes I continue to keep some daily habits such as brushing my teeth, but today’s events got in the way. Rewind to Monday night…

Our Norwegian daughter, Amanda, is in town so we have been on the go amongst the addition of school starting on Monday. Monday evening Amanda and I attended one of my favorite local hangouts, Eddie’s Attic for their weekly singer/songwriter night. These nights are great, but don’t bode well for this 41 year-old bag bones. I usually don’t end up home until midnight and then I’m wired, so my head hitting the pillow and my brain falling asleep usually doesn’t happen until somewhere close to 1am.

Tuesday morning I woke at my usual time, 5:30am. I know it is early, but that is when my brain and body wake-up regardless of when I feel asleep. I began the morning with my usual routine which doesn’t include teeth brushing until I have had my morning coffee and breakfast. May sound gross, but I like to taste my morning food without mint flavor and the film of whatever is on my teeth protects my pearly whites from coffee stains. Ha…you just learned a new trick!

Being a tad behind schedule I didn’t have a chance to eat before walking Mia to school so the teeth brushing didn’t happen. I know…that fact is gross, but I had to weigh a tardy to bad breath. I could live with bad breath whereas Mia would be devastated to receive a tardy! Looking back it may have been worth the extra time to brush the grill because at 4pm yesterday while eating frozen yogurt I realized my teeth were wearing comfy sweaters while eating an arctic treat! Yes, it was 4pm and I still hadn’t brushed my teeth! Please…I do have a good excuse…better than the dog ate it!

After walking Mia to school I stopped outside my house to chat with some neighbors. This conversation consisted of the usual beginning of the school year banter including what is a good age to let your kiddos walk/ride to school without an adult.  I have always erred on the loosey-goosey side of parenting when it comes to this as I have seen the benefits of giving kiddos their independence and the message they can be trusted. I do have to remember that I no longer live in suburbia and less than one hour later that reminder would be right in my face!

While chatting with the neighbors Cole came soaring down the street on his bike heading to school wearing a great big smile and no helmet! I was not very happy about this, but realized it was my fault as I needed to fix his helmet and that was still sitting on my to-do-list. Ten minutes later we wrap up the neighborly chatter and I see Cole called me. I immediately called him back and there was no answer. My mind thought of all of the reasons he could be calling on his way to school and then for a brief moment I thought, “Could he be trying to call me from a trunk of a car?” Yes an extreme thought, but moments earlier I was chatting about child safety on the way to school. I did manage to push that thought out of my head, but still was puzzled why Cole would be calling.

Upon walking into the house I saw Cole’s football cleats and then it all became clear. Amanda and I made a plan that we would walk to the town and grab some coffee and then head over to Cole’s school to drop off the cleats. This was all to happen before taking Amanda out to shop, like shop to you drop shopping!

On our way over to get coffee we stopped at one of my favorite spots… the chickens. There is a local man who has about 30 chickens and leaves his gate open for walkers/runners to enjoy while out and about. If you are ever in a bummer of a mood, stop and watch a group of chickens, they are good humor medicine! Next, we walked through one of the local community gardens where we saw more chickens and a variety of beautiful veggies and fruits. What a beautiful morning in this great new city of mine! Next stop would be the coffee shop. On the way there Amanda and I chatted about my new nesting place and I raved about all the things I love here. Moments later we came to an intersection that I have already warned my kiddos about. There is a street that angles up to the one we were on and has big hedges at the corner making it difficult to see around the corner. With that said, I always make it a point to start listening before I can see around the corner. Thank god I had already developed this habit as I may not be alive and typing at this moment.

We begin to approach the corner and I hear an engine revving up and getting louder and louder, like a transmission was going to land on the street. I peek my head around the corner and there was a car hauling up the street probably somewhere between 50-60 miles an hour in a 25 mile an hour zone! It was clear this car wasn’t stopping at the intersection. My first response was to push Amanda out of the way and then the sirens started. This car took a right hand turn 5 feet from us almost driving on the outside of its right wheels. I caught the eyes of a woman jogger who had all of this commotion coming to her from her backside and motioned for her to stop and stay there as I could see she was shocked and panicked. The car then drove another block and took a sharp right turn again with about 4 police cars and one motorcycle in pursuit. When it was clear, we walked over to the jogger and she was holding a computer that fell off the police motorcycle. I immediately could tell she was in shock and her tears started to flow. The first words out of her mouth were, “My son, he is at school just down the street.” I didn’t put two and two together at the time, but so was my son. This chase probably went right by Cole’s school!

It is intriguing how the brain works. For a brief moment I had my non-professional brain working, but then the professional side kicked in. I was in crisis thinking mode! I noticed the jogger had a beautiful accent not to mention a beautiful face! After checking in with her and giving a strange, sweaty woman a hug I introduced her to Amanda as I had a feeling they may have been from the same part of the world. This gave us all a moment to bring our heart rates down and flush the release of hormones in our body, so important to do when our bodies have been put into shock! We then parted ways carrying a police computer. A moment later a police car drove by, not at 50 miles an hour, and we flagged it down to hand-off the computer. Next stop was the coffee shop. Just as the coffee cup hits my hand I realize Yoshi, our mutt of a dog, has a grooming appointment this morning and I only have another 20 minutes to get him there! Fortunately, the groomer was understanding and gave me an additional 30 minutes to get him there.

With coffee in hand, cleats on my back, a Norge to my left and my heart rate in a normal pace we head to Cole’s school and make our drop. Next we head back towards home. I pass a fellow old-school Chicagoan I met the day before and chat a bit and next thing I know I have 10 more minutes left to get Yoshi to his grooming place! Amanda and I hustle back to the house, I grab Yoshi and jump in the glorious Mom mini-van!

Twenty minutes later, I’m in a line of cars at a red light with a freight train stalled on the tracks. I AM SO LATE! Another 15 minutes later I find the groomers and walk in crossing my fingers and toes that he will still take Yoshi today. Our new house has all hardwoods and I can’t handle seeing another hairball roll across the floor. Let’s just say the Swifter and I have become great dancing partners! When walking in I couldn’t read the groomers face, so I had to think fast. Here is what I said, “Okay, I so appreciate you giving me more time to get my dog here and I realize I am way past that window. At one time or another we have lied about our dog eating our homework to save us from getting in trouble at school, we have made our dog look like a bad guy when the reality is the majority of dogs I know would never be interested in eating a piece of paper compared to the other things it could find. I don’t have a dog to blame on my tardiness, but I can say that I have been in the middle of a police chase and caught by a stalled freight train, yes true story. I am asking you to please take Yoshi and make him handsome despite the fact I’m super late and that this dog’s handsomeness should be delayed no longer as of a result of crazy humans getting in the way.” This poor guy got an earful and I think I took a breath of air somewhere in my plea. His response, “Girl it’s all good! I’ll take him in and maybe you should go get a massage or something because sounds like you have had a big morning!” I almost gave him a hug and a kiss on the check to show my thankfulness and then I realized that I was probably pretty ripe and that I still needed to brush my teeth.

When I arrived back at the house I realized we only had a few hours to get Amanda to the stores before having to get Mia, so in the car we jumped. After shopping I ran home for a conference call, next walked to get Mia and her friend from school, visited with some friends and then it was time to get Yoshi and some frozen yogurt with Amanda and Mia. It was while sitting and eating yogurt that I turned to Amanda and said, “I never brushed my teeth today!”

The sun is rising as I type this and it is time to gather the troops for the day, but first stop this morning, my tooth brush!

Rise and Shine!