Thursday I had my three year old niece for most of the day. (She was banned from daycare because of a fever the day before.) She went with me to New Orleans to take Miss Teen to fancy smancy artsy fartsy high school.

While we waited for Miss Teen to get out of class, 2.5 hours, we walked through the Faubourg Marigny and the French Quarter. I walked, she rode.

Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Teetah (my name to her), why is that house purple? Teetah, look at the bird. Oooo Teetah, look at the pretty flowers, don't pick them or no one else will get to see them. Teetah look at the birds (repeat this one for every.single.pigeon. we saw) Teetah, can I pet the puppy? Teetah, I want to see a parade, (sorry Anna, no parade today...Mardi Gras is over). Teetah, let's dance. Teetah, that trumpet is toooooo loud. Teetah, I want white pants a red shirt and I am going to throw swords when I get home. (like the Vietnamese street entertainers we saw). Teetah, I want orange juice. Followed by: Teetah, there is hair in my mouth. (It took her saying that twice for me to realize that she was talking about the pulp in the juice.) Teetah, look at the igloos (cinder blocks). Teetah, I don't like the loud truck noise, walk on another street. 2.5 hours of this. By the time I got home I was soooo happy be around my sullen, non-communicative teenager.

Friday and Saturday was son's school fund raising/fun/field day. It starts with a "fun" run of 0.5 mile. Son was a nervous wreck and pushed himself too hard. It took 30 minutes for him to catch his breath and calm down after trying to sprint for half a mile.

Then was the box parade. All of the kids from 4th-8th grade get a cardboard box (think U-Haul box). They then create something from this box for a parade. They can combine their boxes with other kids, but must wear whatever they create. There is usually some sort of theme related to the theme of the fund raiser, this year it was the 20th anniversary of the event and the theme was open ended. My son and his best bud combined boxes to create a barn and they wore hats to look like the heads of chickens. So, they were chickens sticking their heads out of the barn. (The school has a barn with chickens and bunnies. We used to have goats also). I am having a hard time explaining this well, but the boys won second place in their class. Some of the creations in other grades included a parody of the headmaster's pickup truck with working headlights and spinner rims, two hot air balloons, a chariot with riders, and some stain glass looking butterflies.

There is also a juried art show in which son won a first place ribbon for a glass mosaic of an electric eel that he created last summer. He was thrilled to death about that and it made up for the lack of fun run.

Saturday was one of those days that I had to be in four different places at once. After working a deal with the mother of son's best friend so that she could cover one thing and I would cover another, the day was whittled down to just having to be in four places sequentially. First, up at 6am to catch up on laundry so that we weren't all going commando for the day. Second, go to son's school and work the obstacle course for 4 hours until my sister came to relieve me, (payback for having Anna on Thursday). Third, run home, shower and dress for a wedding of some of my best friends. (Lovely ceremony, perfect match, now 6 kids between them.) Fourth, change in the bathroom of the wedding venue to go to the end of the horse show that son was in. (He did great, placed in one event and had the best times he has ever had in most of the others.)

Today, church. My sister's husband came to our church on Easter and loved it. (Gotta love those Roman Catholic's reactions to the Episcopal church) This is a good thing, but this morning the ONLY reason I dragged my sorry butt to church was because I knew he was coming back and I didn't want to be harassed about skipping church. Then Miss Teen had belly dancing class in New Orleans. Toss into the mix that son had to make a cave for a school project and husband had to rewrite some alto sax arrangement for the show opening Friday. Meanwhile Miss Teen has some sort of writing project for school in which she has to come up with a societal monster that affects everyone and a hero to defeat it a la the Odyssey. Her monster is religious intolerance. It made for an interesting conversation on the drive into New Orleans.

So, I am:

1. Tired
2. Sunburnt
3. In serious need of chocolate
4. Grateful that my children are not three
5. In possession of clean underwear
6. Ready to go back to work tomorrow so that I can rest
7. Did I mention Tired?