Weekend Roundup

Having children is expensive. It is the most expensive venture a person will take on. Adding to the cost of your own children is other people's children.

This time of year seems to be the birthday season. Everytime I check my daughter's folder at her daycare, there seems to always be an invitation in there. Bella and I have different reactions to seeing an envelope in her folder: as Bella screams for joy, "Yay! Are we going to the party after naptime?!", Mommy is grunting in her head (whatever, I know other parents must think the same thing when they get an invitation for Bella's party!).

We had two birthday parties this weekend and a memorial service. Hmm, sounds like the making of a good movie á la Four Weddings and a Funeral. Anyway, Saturday was no big deal, went to the jump house (Bella jumped so much that she was super sweaty and I saw a boy touch Bella's head to see what was glistening), ate cake and fruit, went home. Perfect, my kind of party.

Sunday was another story. I took Bella to her very first drop-off party, which was a Princess Spa theme. I was nervous about leaving her at someone's house, but she was too excited to care that I was leaving her. I went straight home and started getting ready for the memorial service to follow. I drove back to the party to pick Bella up, which was just under 30 minutes from my house. I then drove back towards home, where my brother lives close by, just to find out that he wasn't going! Great, that was a waste of gas. I had to turn around and drive 40 minutes south to pick up my mom. We then drove another 20 minutes south to the memorial service in Seattle. Had no problems finding the church, but was very discouraged when I found out the church doors were locked. I tried to call all of our relatives and finally reached my cousin who informed me that the memorial service was on Saturday!

Let's recap that:

Dropping Bella off at a party:
Marysville to Everett 30 minutes
Everett to Marysville 30 minutes

Picking Bella up from party and intending to pick up my brother and his wife:
Marysville to Everett 30 min
Everett to Marysville 30 min

Driving South to pick up Grandma after finding out my trip back to Marysville was useless:
Marysville to Lynnwood 35-40 min

Driving to the memorial service:
Lynnwood to Seattle 20 min

Driving back after finding out that the entire trip had been worthless as we were there on the wrong day:
Seattle to Lynnwood 20 min
Lynnwood to Marysville 35-40 min

I spent way too many hours driving yesterday to pointless destinations. I literally used half a tank of gas in two days. To put this into perspective, a full tank will usually last me eight days, sometimes nine or ten.

I have four sorted loads of laundry sitting on my floor, waiting to be washed as I wasted time driving all over the state of Washington this weekend. Hopefully your weekend was better spent!