About teenagers.. and Sarcasm.

I think I will just go ahead and dedicate this post to Carley and Madie because they have me contemplating life a lot lately. Actually, they have me questioning what interstellar being pushed the fast forward button without my permission and sent us racing through the years at warp speed! (Trekkies take note: I am fully aware that the new Star Trek movie opened this weekend and as I watched middle aged moms parade in and out of the school yesterday wearing their Star Trek communicator pins, I was certain my girls would be proud that I have only been to ONE Trek convention in my entire life and to this day I have never felt the need to learn Klingon!) ANYWAY.. as I was saying, Carley and Madie continue to amaze me every day and I am darn proud to be the mom of such high achievers! This week Carley was appointed Key Club publicity officer and Madie was appointed FBLA officer with the job of reporter. Even as I hear the "ka-ching" echoing from my shrinking bank account, I have to admit it is pretty cool that there will be TWO overpriced Layton High officer sweaters draped across various pieces of furniture in the weeks and months ahead. ;)

Looking back, I have to laugh about thinking that the busy years were behind me. Who could blame me for thinking that having five little girls under five years of age was an insanely difficult and zombie-ish time of my life? Back then my days were filled with Huggies, Infamil, and Barney on an endless loop! Side note: to this day, if I even think about a Barney song it will lodge in my brain and torture me relentlessly for hours. This blog alone will cost me some serious sanity points - "If all the raindrops were lemondrops and gumdrops, oh what a rain that would be! Standing outside with my mouth open wide...." Do you hear it in your head? Did it get you too? If I could go back and have a conversation with my younger self, I am certain that I would insist that Beethoven, Rochmononov and Chopin were given at least equal airtime to the Big Purple Dinosaur! My point is that although those days were not completely out of my control, I was certainly not the one dictating how the hours of my days were filled. It was a good day for me if I had time for a shower!

Where is this blog going, you ask? As I type this post, the clock is ticking steadily toward 5am.. I have been up since 3:30am and I think it is because my brain knows I have very little free time on this Saturday of mine. Saturday. This is the day that the working world idolizes. It is the time to set your work-week cares aside and just hang out, right? Right? Wrong! Someone must have removed the "Teenager" chapter from my Life Handbook because I know I would have remembered reading about how my time would once again be sucked away from me, but not by Purple Dinosaurs and speeches consisting of, "Please don't hit your sister over the head with your sippy cup, it's not what nice people do." The Teenager Time Suck is a little different and it goes something like this: Mom, I don't want to stress you out, but the five of us need to be in 40 different locations ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Can you drive us? You weren't doing anything anyway, were you? And right about then my Mom Smile is activated and I agree to do the impossible. All the while, in my head I am trying to sort out the logistics of getting them to and from their destinations on time while trying to maintain some of the errands and appointments that I had previously arranged for my weekend. I have decided that this is exactly why mama birds shove their babies out of the nest. Oh, you want me to go fetch you worms, clean the nest AND pick you up the latest version of "Migratory Birds the Gold Edition", OHMIGOSH! What IS that down there? Look! And then when the curious little birdies give in to their natural curiosity, a little hip bump and they're independent, wildly successful and on their way to providing for their parents' retirement someplace warm. What? It could happen!

Seriously, the insane schedules have done one great thing for me this week... I have finally gotten over my fear of the girls getting their driver's licenses. I actually can't wait for them to be independent drivers if it means I can sleep past 3:30 in the morning! Congratulations Carley and Madie on your Officer achievements this week!