Post Office

Alright, so my last two attempts to visit the post office have been successful, in so much as I have mailed the items I went to mail. Unfortunately, they have also been good representations of how having 4 small children can affect your mind.

So about a week ago I went to send a DVD to Sarah (my sister-in-law who lives in Arizona). I was scrambling about trying to remember the DVD, her address, the cards that Karlee made for her and my kids (so far, I have never forgotten them!). I made sure we all had shoes on (that is something I have learned from arriving without them so many times), got us all buckled in and we were off. We got to the post office and while my kids played tag throughout the post office I got an envelope and managed to get it all sent. I felt good about accomplishing so much as we headed back out to the car. As we are getting in the car, Karlee says "Mom, why is our car running?". I respond, "That's not our car, it's the one parked next to us." I get us all buckled in again and climb into the driver seat only to find out that it was, in fact, our car that was running. Keys in the ignition, air conditioning blowing, etc. I guess if I am looking at the bright side then it helped me to get home even faster when you just leave the car going. When I told Jake this story, he wasn't surprised at all!!

Then today I went back to the same post office to send my Mom her birthday present (which should only be about 4 days late...I am so on the ball!!). Once again, scrambling about getting the card signed by all the kids, remembering to bring the address, shoes all on, bow on the gift...and we are off! I get to the post office and the kids start playing tag again (that's a post office favorite!), except for Spencer who enjoys trying to pull the blinds off the windows. I manage once again to get the envelope filled out and go up to the Post Officer to send it. This time she rings me up and I open my purse to pay...only one problem. I have no money, no credit card, no checks and an expired debit card. I left everything in the diaper bag on the counter at home from the carnival we went to last night. She said now that it is rung up she can't do anything to help me...I have to pay and she can't ring anybody else up until I do. I am lucky because the post office was pretty much dead at this point, but I still have no money. I was also lucky because Jake was at home working in his office...so I called him up and he made an emergency trip to the post office to bail me out. At least the car wasn't running when we finally got back into it!

So, the moral of the story is... try not to go to the post office when you have 4 small children with you...it can only end in tears!