Yeah - I said that (sub titled - Missing Supernanny already)

Life has been pretty hectic around here lately. Supernanny is officially on maternity leave and 2 of the 3 kids have been running fevers and puking for the last 2 days. Add in busy times at work, a Down syndrome walk to prepare and fundraise for, Halloween costume getting and piles of laundry and you get a scene like what happened to me this morning.

Our doorbell rang at 9:00 AM. Since Mike took yesterday off to stay home with the sick boys, today was my day. At 9 this morning, I had on an old robe, my hair and teeth were yet to be brushed, yesterday's mascara was all over my face and I was wearing mis-matched holiday socks (different holidays - left was Easter, right was Christmas). I have no idea what possessed me to open the door, but I figured it was probably someone trying to sell me something and I would use my lunatic looking self to scare them away.

It was a woman I had never seen before holding a large file folder and dressed appropriately for a meeting she was obviously at my door to attend. My first thought was she was a new therapist I forgot about hiring, but she wasn't wearing socks or holding toys, so that thought went out the window pretty quickly. I am pretty sure I stared at her for 5 minutes without speaking while I was racking my brain for any hint of a meeting I had set. She introduced herself as Susan, Ella's new developmental case worker with the state and asked if I was ready for our goals meeting. At this point, she had to know I wasn't prepared for our meeting, I wasn't even wearing pants!

I started to stutter a bit, my mind was racing with when I had set this meeting, why I didn't put it in the calendar and if I should let her in just to be polite. I knew that last one wasn't an option, I didn't have any goals on the tip of my tounge to talk about, I wasn't dressed to sit and chat, Mike was upstairs shaving, blissfully unaware of this woman at the door and Ryan was moaning from the couch about dying or being dehydrated or something. So, instead of inviting her in or just apologizing for missing the meeting - The first words out of my mouth to her were -

"Oh, I sent Ella away so we can't meet today"

Imagine, I am dressed as if I either was recovering from an all night bender or am homeless (it was neither, I promise) and I told a CASE WORKER that I had sent my child away so she should just leave. She looked at me horrified and I am pretty sure she said "you sent Ella away?"

Yeah, a little clarification was needed before she called CPS or barged into my home to see what kind of nutcase I was. I launched into a speech about how I hadn't really "sent her away" but my boys were sick and we have our Down syndrome walk tomorrow so I didn't want Ella to get sick because she would then probably be hospitalized so she was staying at her Grandma's. It all makes perfect sense, but when you are standing at your door, looking like hell, mascara and uncombed hair everywhere, a 5 year old with mismatched clothes standing next to you and you are so embarrassed that you are talking way to fast and over sharing details that don't matter, it might just appear like you are a little crazy and could have "sent your kid away".

Instead of leaving it at that and letting her talk, I then I told her the nanny was on maternity leave, told her Reed had a fever and was missing school and missed school yesterday too (I was way over-sharing at this point), I mentioned I was normally dressed by now, but didn't want to because I knew I would be cleaning up puke all day and so I forgot to brush my teeth and well, I just kept talking till I realized I looked and sounded ridiculous.

Her response -

"Well, thank you for calling and rescheduling."

Now, I know at this point she was pissed that I wasted her time, appeared to have sent Ella away and that I don't own face wash. I get it. I set an appointment, forgot about it and was making excuses instead of just apologizing and letting her get on with her day. After she said that though, I didn't know what to say next. I didn't call and reschedule, so obviously she was being sarcastic, but I did want to reschedule, so do I say - "Umm, I didn't but can we now" or do I blow if off and tell her I will call on Monday? Instead of one of these options, I decide to take the much better route and tell her my other son was throwing up and I had to run and would email her to reschedule, I then closed the door a little to quickly. Now, I don't normally get flustered or embarrassed or use my kids to get me out of situations, but when you are standing in an old robe at your door with a woman you don't know and you look like death, I will apparantly say anything to just close the door and move on.. After I closed the door poor Reed was so confused... He told me Ryan wasn't puking and wanted to know why Ella wasn't coming home.

Yeah - Such a great way to start my day....

Since Supernanny left us to have a baby, I have lost a clothes hamper somewhere in the house, dyed Ella's new socks hot pink, realized I have no idea what the kids eat for lunch, noticed I haven't bought toilet paper myself in months and we are now out, forgot about a baseball game and a meeting for Ella, gave Reed diet sprite because I forgot to buy regular sprite and my sick primadonna's just HAVE to have sprite and missed two days of work myself. She has only been gone 4 days.... Odds are when she comes back 6 weeks from now I will have lost one kid at the mall, forgot to buy laundry detergent and not noticed until we are out of clean underwear, made pancakes for lunch one to many time and will have given up on matching clothes or getting the kids to school on time.