photo courtesy Pixabay
By Kelli Bowen
There aren’t a whole lot of days that the girls and I have girl-time. Partly because Hubby is more of a home-body than I am and partly because I seem to be pulled in 8 different directions at any given time.
We did find ourselves with the evasive “girls night” one night last week and it did NOT go how I had hoped.
Hubby let me know he was going to work late, so I said no worries-girls night! I picked the girls up, had their favorite pizza on speed dial and suggested we break out a board game. We all like games. Miss A ran to the closet to get Kids’ Charades. She started to set up, and then something happened and she stormed into the bathroom. After enough time had lapsed that I knew she wasn’t actually using the facilities, I came knocking. She was sobbing. After several minutes of asking, I found out that she was upset because Miss E and I hadn’t been helping set up the game. The game that she’s set up a hundred times on her own, the game she has never asked help to set up. I explained, as lovingly as I could, that her sister and I are not mind readers and we would certainly help if she wants us to. We wiped the tears and went back into the living room.
Fast forward about 45 minutes and Miss A is back in the bathroom sobbing. Now the culprit? Miss E hadn’t played Legos with her and she had promised to play legos. I explained we had been playing the game so she can’t play two things at once…sigh…maybe you guys should go downstairs and play legos.
Fifty seven seconds later Miss A came flying up the stairs. “Look in my window!” In her window well was one large and very alive salamander.
After a rescue, frantic terrarium assembly, and two attempts to smuggle the salamander into the garage after I had said “No” to a pet salamander: back in the bathroom sobbing.
Sweet Mother Mary and Joseph…put the mother-loving salamander in the friggin pond. This idea was met with shrieks of TERROR as the salamander would most certainly be eaten by fish!!
After a mom-meltdown and threats to wash hands thoroughly and eat the delivered pizza they had yet to touch, I get a call from Miss E…from the backyard.
Miss A went to tell Miss E to come eat. Miss E somehow STILL had the salamander, Miss A saw and went running full-throttle toward her. She then hit the edge of the sidewalk, or path, or invisible hurdle, and biffed it HARD: skinned knee, road rash wrist, bonked face, and yet-again sobbing in the bathroom.
After a tearful shower and bandaids, we headed to bed.
If anything, I hope our next girls night goes better. Now if anyone needs me, I’ll be in the bathroom…sobbing.
Kelli makes her home in Cass County with her husband, two daughters (11 and 8) and two dogs. She works for a regional seed company by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend and writer by night.
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