A Re-Post

Oh my goodness, I just found this post from March, and I had to re-post it. It's such a funny story, and I had completely forgot about it! Enjoy :D


Procrastination

I invited my grandpa and his new wife, Esther over for dinner tonight because I had to give them their wedding pictures. But first, a little history: I am a procrastinator. Always have been, always.....won't be?? I'm hoping! Usually when we have people over, I am praying they'll be late because I'm NEVER ready on time. Ever. No matter how good my intentions, I just can't seem to get my crap together and produce on time! This actually rolls over into many areas of my life because I'm also always late arriving places. What's up with that? How do other people actually succeed at being on time?? I prepare things in advance, I wake up early (or intend to at least, that's gotta count for something), I plan..... but to no avail. I'm always late. But that's not the point, that's the history.
So, in my attempts to be prepared and not be rushing at the last minute, I sent all the pictures to the photo lab on Friday, assuming I would have the pictures by the next day like I have in the past. Saturday rolled by.... no phone call saying the pictures are done. Sunday rolled by... no phone call. Monday is the big day of picture delivery, they MUST be ready THREE days later, so I didn't wait for a phone call, I called them. It ends up the photo lab is closed on weekends, so ALL orders received over the weekend have to be processed on Monday, which means they often aren't all filled until Tuesday. "You've gotta be kidding me!!" But thankfully since my order was placed on Friday, I was close to the top of the list. Woohoo! But still, my plans were wrecked. I had wanted to get the pictures in the morning, giving me plenty of time to put them in albums, play with the kids, clean the bathroom and wash the floors while the boys slept, prepare the dinner during lunch so I wouldn't be flustered at the last minute - all the details that a wonderful hostess unlike myself would do. If the pictures weren't done until mid afternoon, that would be nap time and I don't have anyone to come over to stay with the boys while they sleep so I can run out. If it was after nap time, that would be cutting it very close since the lab is 20 minutes away. So I did what every married woman does - called my husband for help! Oh how I love my husband.... so he agreed to pick up the pictures on his way home from the course for work he was at today, saying he'd call when he left.
The rest of my day did go pretty smoothly, I prepped for supper during lunch, cleaned the bathroom as planned, Anthony fell asleep great, Ethan didn't sleep and woke up Anthony... not so great... so I washed the floors with the boys awake. What is it with kids needing to be right under your feet each step of the way?? It's cute and all that they want to 'help' but come on! Sometimes you just need to 'git er done!' without worrying about redoing the work you just did because of those little feet! So yes, I patiently, very patiently, since I'm very patient.... coaxed the boys not to walk where it was wet.... pffft, try coaxing a 19 month old not to walk on a wet floor? How could you? Nope, so I got out the gate and locked them in the downstairs :D
They actually didn't mind because I gave them a snack, don't call CFS ;p
Then just as I was looking forward to Chris' arrival with my pictures, with just one hour until my eager guests arrival, he called to say he hadn't picked up the pictures because when he'd called to tell me he was leaving, I didn't answer the phone. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? He was. Jerk.
But finally, finally for once in my life I had done it. I had thought of all the details and would accomplish a successful dinner party. All I had to do was mix a couple ingredients to spread on my casserole, pop it in the oven, and I would have a whole glorious hour to focus on the pictures. Uh no.
To make a long story short, I didn't pull it off because I didn't have oregano. Oregano of all things, a key ingredient in what I was making, so I had to drive to the store (where I realized I hadn't planned dessert so I had to buy stuff for that too), which took 20 minutes, go home, mix it up, pop it in the oven, then had a whopping 15 minutes of flustered, frantic picture putting-in (??) while my cranky one year old dumped a bag of blocks all over the clean living room, and then my ever-so-early grandpa arrived 15 minutes early. Who does that?? My kids were both wearing pyjama shirts with no pants, I had a shirt on that was too small, the casserole wasn't done cooking, the once clean living room was a mess, and best of all I had NO PICTURE album to hand to them! Awesome.
I explained to them the circumstance, and they very graciously waited for me to finish. In the end, I must say, their reaction was worth all the chaos. They sat and laughed and talked about every picture and the details of the day. It was very cute and I was just happy to have it done. My next post will be about what happened around the dinner table. Stay tuned :D