The End.

It's over, it's over, the cookie sale is over!!!!

I'm just a leeeeetle bit excited about that. We still have a variety of 12 packages or so to sell, but our Troop Leader took them off my hands and plans to get rid of them herself, and the donations we've received throughout the course of the sale will more than pay for those in the meantime. All I have to do now is collect payments from half the girls, submit the report, and then by Wednesday night, life can return to normal! Yippee!

In the meantime, here's what's up:

Rob worked all day Saturday. The kids were supposed to be cleaning their rooms all day while I cleaned other stuff, but I'm utterly worn-down and exhausted, so I rested for most of the day.

I'd told the kids if they got their rooms clean, they could pick ANY TOY THEY WANTED from my burgeoning toy closet. You'd think that would be a pretty good motivator, since there are some pretty sweet toys in there now, but nooo... Jack and Sophia did diddly squat. Zip. Zero.

Chloë, on the other hand, took that opportunity and ran with it. She cleaned up her room lickety-split, down to every last thing being picked up off an extremely cluttered floor. I had no idea what she might pick, so I was surprised when she chose the kitty-cat Dunk-adoo or whatever it's called, that I got on clearance at Tarjay last week.

The girl is OBSESSED with kitties!!  Sophia wanted the same thing, so she pitched a bit of a fit about Chloë getting it, but too bad, so sad - she didn't clean her room! This is the sad, pre-dunk kitty.

This toy is utterly stupid! You put it in a bag filled with water, let it soak up, and presto-chango: NOTHING HAPPENS. Except it gets wet. Haha! Chloë didn't care, though; she kept insisting it got bigger, but really? No. It didn't. At all.

We were going to go to church in the evening after Rob came home, but he didn't make it on time, and I was too tired to go by myself with the kids. So that sucked, since we are seriously trying to go more... as far as the rest of the evening, I have no idea, other than that Chloë became suddenly ill. She had a headache that I'm sure was a migraine, she was dizzy, she puked several times, and had major coughing fits. She may or may not have had a fever... but it was all-but-the-coughing gone by morning, so maybe it was just some odd bug she picked up at school?

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early to do a booth sale. Thankfully, Chloë felt fine for that, since it was the last day to sell and we had about 5 cases to get rid of. I went upstairs to shower and found our bedroom completely destroyed. Sophia was undoubtedly the culprit, and I had a conniption about it. Seriously, I was beside myself!  I f**king hate that. It makes me crazy that she ruins her own stuff, doesn't take care of anything, lets it all go to pot... but stay out of MY room and don't touch MY stuff!!!! Needless to say, the locks are now back on the doors. 

When I get my energy back, hopefully by Wednesday when I plan NOT to sub, I am going to go into their rooms (including Chloë's which is now a huge mess again! WTF!) and Clean. Them. OUT. Anything that is broken, has parts missing or is just plain a stupid toy, I'm getting rid of. Anything I never see them play with, into the Freecycle pile. Trash, Freecycle, look out - here I come!! They have way too much crap in there, so it's kind of understandable that they might have a hard time keeping their rooms cleaner, but they ... eh, really, never mind about that. I'm sick of talking about it right now!

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So, back to the booth sale. It was at Kroger, which has two entrances, so to maximize our chances of getting rid of all the cookies, I split the two girls up. I had two tables, so we just divvied up the remaining cookies evenly, 30 to each girl. After the two hours, Chloë had manage to sell all but one of hers, including a couple that we ran down and pilfered from the other girl's table! L. had sold all but 8. So, it was a pretty successful last-day sale, I think, since SO many people turned us down for having already purchased their limit.

After a quick run around the corner to deposit some mystery shopping pay checks and mail-in rebate checks (they really do come, so do those!), we drove to the church where the Brownies meet with the remaining 9 boxes. The church was letting us sell there, but I couldn't stay because Sophie had a birthday party to attend. I handed them over to our leader and went off on my merry way without a SINGLE BOX OF COOKIES to worry about selling. Yee-haw!!

In the end, I sent Rob with Sophia to the birthday party, at the bowling alley, for a little boy in her preschool class. I was still so mad at her, for destroying our room, so I didn't want to spend the entire 2-3 hours with her yelling and being upset. Instead, I sic'd Chloë and Jack back on room-cleaning duty and took a nap.

Jack has been asking for this remote-control helicopter for his birthday for the past couple of weeks. I've been reluctant to get it, because (a) I already have some toys for him in my stash and (b) I don't want to shell out the $$ just to have him break it, so I made him a deal: Clean up your room TODAY, and I will get the helicopter you want. Don't clean it TODAY, and you don't get it.

Long story short, I am NOT buying the helicopter. I would have been more than happy to if he would just clean up his farging room, though!!

After my nap, during which time Rob and the demon-child returned, I got to work on the killer deals at the drugstores (CVS, Wags & Rite Aid) for this week. I knew there would be some good ones, and I didn't want to miss out like I have for the past fortnight or so. It literally took me five hours to assemble my coupons, make my lists, and get ready to go. When I think about that, it's kind of redonkulous - but I wouldn't do it if I didn't completely enjoy "the game"! 

By 9:30 PM, I was ready to go. That's right, I went out that late, and stayed out 'til nearly 0100! I had to use Swagbucks to research all the stores in my area and see which ones would be open until late-o'clock, so I didn't go to my normal stores. Which was kind of good, because I had a lot of deals to do, and I didn't want to irritate the cashiers who see me all the time. Hee.

That went well, and I only missed out on the deals I couldn't do at all because I'd run out of printer ink. Pretty much everything else was in stock, so it bears repeating for the umpteenth time: Try to go on the first day of a sale! I plan to get some ink tonight after Rob gets home, and then hit up Wags again for the remaining 3-4 thigns I couldn't get.  Stay tuned for my Steals and Deals post, next.

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Today, Monday, I didn't sub because I'd signed up to volunteer at the kids' school all day. I've received at least three calls a day since I got my official letter, so hopefully I'll get called for tomorrow, my first planned day to sub (after Friday didn't work out). I've called SubFinder all evening, but there aren't any jobs yet. Fingers crossed - and that it turns out to be an elementary school, my favorite age group!

I got to school about a half-hour late, since I overslept. I didn't even get a chance to shower or change my clothes or anything! Just grabbed my things and walked out the door.  I guess I passed muster, though, because at least half a dozen people told me how great I looked! I think it was the clothes I was wearing today; they were rather figure-flattering for me. Everyone wanted to know how much weight I'd lost, and the compliments kept flowing all day. It was pretty great, self-esteem-wise!

Unfortunately, I missed Sophia's class. They were leaving just as I'd arrived. I caught sight of Soap looking around, and I'm sure she was looking for me. :( I'd told her last night I would be there, so I felt bad. When she finally saw me, she smiled but didn't say a word, because her class was expected to be quiet as they walked out the door. She didn't cry, though, and she never mentioned it after school, so I imagine my little booboo wasn't too soul-crushing for her.

On the other hand, when Jack came in... Things started off well, anyway. The librarian started off pairing him with another helper, but everyone jumped in to remind her to send him to his mom! He was quite demanding about it, so it was just another little petal off my he-loves-me, he-loves-me-not flower. He was asked to pick a buddy to also be paired with me, and he picked a little boy who was basically mute and had the personality of a shoe. He refused to talk, refused to look at or touch the books, and had no expression on his face. Poor kid; something is obviously "up," there. I sent him to sit down without putting a single book on his wish list. Oh, did I mention that's what I was doing? We volunteers were there to help Pre-K through 1st graders fill out their Book Fair wish lists.

Jack went through the motions of filling out his list, but he really wasn't into it. Instead, he cranked about wanting to go home, hating school, hating to read, blah blah blah. I guess it just wasn't his day, and when he saw Mama, he gave up!  I even showed him some truck and car books, but he had no interest. And then I remembered a book I'd looked at earlier, a bigger and more expensive book that wasn't on the cases the childnen weren't "allowed" to pick from for their wish lists. It's all about the body human and what goes on inside, as well as germs and other things that affect us. A pretty cool book with lots of detailed pictures, and since Jack is always inquisitive about that stuff, I thought he would really enjoy it. I was right. I showed it to him, and he brightened immediately and shouted, "I want that one!!" It's only $10, and I get a $5 credit for volunteering, so completely worth it. I'll pick it up on Thursday, the Book Fair's Family Night, and either stick it in his Easter basket or give it to him for his birthday in a week.

(Holy cow, he's going to be SEVEN in one week!!!)

The rest of the time passed quickly. I really enjoy this particular volunteer opportunity the most, out of all the things I've done for the school. Especially when the neighborhood kids come in and request to be paired with me! That makes me feel good. This one little boy, John, who came up to me at the Burger King cashola night last week and said I was beautiful, walked up to each of us women there and said, "You're beautiful!" He was a riot; we all got a real kick out of him.

Afterward, I had about an hour and a half before the kids came home. I'd planned to clean and be productive, but after talking to my gran'pappy for a half-hour (he'd had another 4-day hospitalization recently, which I was unaware of because of being so busy with cookies) and assuring myself he was fine, I crashed again on the couch. If I didn't absolutely HAVE to get up and got to the bus stop to meet the kids, I would have stayed there, too. It was hard to pull myself up!

After they came home and had a snack, I let them put in a movie so I could lie down some more. Sophie and I snuggled up tight under the blankets on the couch, to watch The Swan Princess, and I fell fast asleep again. I was hoping she would, too, but no such luck. I was vaguely aware that they put in a second movie, Aquamarine, when that ended, and feeling grateful that there was no Cub Scouts meeting tonight. Homework and dinner could therefore be delayed, and my nap extended.

Until, that is, our troop leader showed up to bring me the rest of her daughter's cookie money. Oops! I had a hard time shaking the cobwebs out of my brain, but she was completely understanding, since she's in the same boat with the exhaustion right now. (She's got four kids ranging from 5 to 16 or 17, and her husband is deployed, and she is constantly busy with both Boy and Girl scout duties.) We chatted for a little while; I enjoy her loud, outgoing personality a whole lot. It's easier for me with that kind of person, when they are not a close-close friend, since I tend to be more quiet and reserved in those cases. Plus she's really just very nice!

When she left, Sophia popped in a Veggie Tales and opted to ignore my requests to clean up the living room. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have stood for it, but I was too tired to demand it. Chloë and Jack worked on homework in the kitchen, so I could help them while I made dinner for them. Jack did really well tonight and got his done quickly, but Chloë took forever and a day to finish all her work. She has a science test tomorrow, but by the time she finished all her homework, it was half-past-bedtime, and I didn't want to keep her up to study. That really aggravates me, though... so, I'm not expecting a fantastic test grade tomorrow.

I really have a ton of things I could be doing, but I'm going to blog last night's deals instead. I'm too tired physically, and mentally, I'm once again in Effexor withdrawal mode. Rob picked up my prescriptions the other day, but somehow or another, they have gone missing. I discussed this with the kids, none of whom seemed to know what happened to them, but I gave them the "this is life-or-death for me" speech.  Still, none of them knew where they went. So, it's a mystery, but at least Rob managed to get another emergency fill for me this afternoon. Hopefully he'll be home soon to give me one and get me back on track, but in the meantime, I'm virtually useless. Bah.

I'm off to eat a quick salad and then post about the deals. Sayonara, arrivederci and ciao!

Fin.