Santa, signings and Sarah

phew...that is all I can say to sum up this weekend.
As you know, Arnie is in Vail, left on Friday, doesn't come back until Wednesday.
So I am single momming it for 6 days.
However, just because the spouse is not around things don't stop in place, life continues and you make do...like we did all weekend.
In hindsight I think we survived, but let me at least humor you with a few stories.

Sarah - you are likely thinking Sarah is my daughter, but in this case I am referring to Sarah Palin, or "hockey mom" as she called herself. Before yesterday I have never dressed my son in his hockey gear. That is daddy's job. In fact, I have never gone to a practice with him. I have gone to games, when the girls agree, but have never stepped foot in the locker room. So Saturday morning was my first time on the job. To try to make it easier on me I decided to put Ben in his gear first thing, heck he could eat breakfast in it. We left the house at 9:30 for a 10am game. Little did we know it would be our first snow storm in Cincy. It had been snowing for about an hour, and was below freezing, so the roads were not fun. For those reading this not in Cincy, this is not a great place to drive in the snow. People are not very comfortable and it pretty much shuts things down. But off we went.

Our normal 25 minute drive took 40 and we arrived at 10:10. Good news for us is the game wasn't until 11!!! So instead of being a little late we were really early. There was a big hockey tournament going on so we plenty to watch. About 15 minutes before his game I finish getting Ben ready putting his skates on...uh, oh...where are his gloves? No were to be found. Apparently he put them on at home too...and when it was time for breakfast, he took them off somewhere. So I go running to the front desk and find two big gloves in lost and found, they worked. The other blunder was Ben walked on a normal floor with his skates (because of course we were in the heated snack area vs. the locker room :). I treated him to a skate sharpening after the game, as his first words when he hit the ice were "mom, my skates aren't working!" I guess Sarah Palin I am not.

Signings. Two of them this weekend. Have I said how much I hate them. There is nothing fun about sitting at table behind your books with people walking by. I am so not a salesperson. I am a marketer. I think of great ways to talk to people and what products they want and then someone else figures out how to get them to buy it. I never have to convince my consumer personally. Well not with this. I brought the kids on Saturday. We were running around and it was just easier. We had coloring, puzzles and more and in general it made the time go by faster. Today I just took Ben which was great too. Not sure if it was a Saturday vs. Sunday crowd or the part of town I was in, but yesterday's patrons were SOOOO much nicer. All Ben kept saying today is "why are they so mean." Only a few more left thank god, as I get no pleasure in them. If only I could reach every working mom or expecting working mom more easily.

Santa. I did do one thing right and that was Santa. After a long day of hockey and a signing, we went to our towns Christmas night last night. It was so cold but we managed to see Santa arrive, sit on his lap (not Sarah), see some carolers and get balloon animals. Then we came home to a warm house and decorated our tree. It was the first time all three kids really got into it (maybe it was because Scrooge...aka Arnie was not around). They all behaved, climbed the step stool and had a great time, all while watching the High School Musical marathon on Disney. Now that is truly a Disney moment for you.

So, at 9:30 I am physically and mentally spent. Two of the three kids fell asleep while I was reading to them all, so I am not alone in the exhausted camp. But we survived and actually had a great time of it all. Less than 72 hours to normalcy again.