It makes my heart sing!

Martina came home from her dad's house after spending the holidays there. When she came home, her Christmas presents were waiting for her here. Jasmine got to help her open them; she was very happy to help her! The first box was an impressive size to Jasmine. If she had curled herself up, she could have easily fit her long, lean body of nearly 4 years inside. She would make an absolutely beautiful present! She began to tear open the paper, shiny red and green. What a wonderful noise to the ears of a child... the ripping of wrapping paper. The power, the anticipation. What could be inside? Even though the present wasn't for her, she filled with excitement as the large slice of paper was extracted from the package. Her frame even taller now, with exhilaration filling every pore in her being. Her hands were lively and dancing for another piece of paper to rip off the package. What was revealed beneath the paper was less than she'd expected. Her body sagged with disappointment, the shoulders searching for a place to rest after such a thrilling moment. The brown, boring box was such a stark contrast to what she had been feeling just moments before. She exuded her disappointment with her voice as well, as if we couldn't read her body language. She said "Oh. It's just a box. It's not a toy." Martina, Winston and I nearly died with laughter inside. We told her that there was a gift inside the box. At this point she had already set herself up for the boring brown box, it almost didn't matter that there was a gift inside.


Soon after, Martina opened up a small present, again, she had Jasmine's "help" with opening it up. It was a bottle of perfume. Martina opened up the box, and spritzed a bit of it onto the inside of her wrists. She smelled it and was pleased with her new treasure. You could nearly see her thoughts right there on her nearly 12 year old face. Kids grow up way too fast. She asked Jasmine if she would like to smell it. She put her tiny little nose up to her sister's wrist. She closed her eyes and inhaled the sweet aroma. She opened up her eyes and said "Mmm. It smells so good, it makes my heart sing!"

And this is why I blog. :-) I love my family.

All dressed up and nowhere to go.

I signed up for vision insurance last month and was told I'd have coverage as of January 1st. So, I made an appointment for Jasmine, Sophia and me to go in yesterday, January 2nd. Now, for those of you who don't have little ones (plural makes it more difficult), this is NOT an easy task. First of all, Winston had to take the van for deliveries yesterday and so I had to take the much smaller car. The car seats were in the van. So, because he had to get to the stores and restaurants to deliver our chicken and pork, he simply dropped the seat on the front porch and I had to place the seat in the car. So after lugging this 40 pound awkward contraption into my car, not without giving me some bruises along the way, I went back inside to finish getting the kids ready. Two dresses, two heads of hair to brush, two sets of teeth to brush, two beds to make, two sets of socks and shoes... you get the idea. I now understand the meaning of "double trouble". :)
So off we go for our 30 minute drive to the eye doctor... it's pretty much 30 minutes to anywhere from where we live. In many ways, this is a good thing. Sometimes, it's a pain in the neck. We walk into the doctor's office, and I knew I was in trouble. It was a new office, and it was huge. Huge=echooooooo. The girls soon discovered that their voices would echo, so they tried out all sorts of sounds, all at one volume: LOUD. The only reason they stopped is because the discovered a plethora of eyeglasses on display. It was an eyeglass playground! I am convinced that every set of glasses that was 3.5 feet high or lower now has two different sets of fingerprints on the lenses.
Meanwhile, at the receptionist's desk, I was trying to sign in. Naturally, I had to fill out paperwork for Sophie and Jasmine since they'd never been there. Two sets of paperwork while they are running rampant over this vast new office. Uuuggh. While I was in the middle of the first page of 3 for Jasmine (I still hadn't even started on Sophie's), the receptionist told me that she couldn't find me in the system for insurance. I told her there must be some sort of mistake, and she asked for Winston's social security number. I told her the number and she assured me that it wasn't in there either. I repeated the number after closing my eyes, as if I was going to get a running start. I rambled off the 9 digits as if I were saying my ABC's, expecting this would surely do the trick. Maybe I hadn't given her the number correctly. No dice. Still not in the system. Okay, I am a bit frazzled, maybe I gave the number incorrectly, so I reached for my cell phone. Shymkent! I left it in the car!!! So, you guessed it, I had to get the girls together, along with my purse to run outside to get my phone. Jasmine had to get her Woody doll and purse, Sophie wanted her coat on. I glanced down to find out that she had also taken her shoes off somewhere in the office! Yikes!!! Now what???
We are now about 20 minutes into what should have been our appointment when I finally came back in with my phone. I store info in there like Winston's SS#. So I checked, and I had given her the right number. She looked a little frustrated with me and my children by this point, and truly I don't blame her. She gave me a phone number to call about my insurance. The first number she gave me was for offices only, so the guy on the phone directed me to another number. Three numbers later, I finally got the right one, only to get the following recording "Hello, thank you for calling ________. Our office is currently closed for the holidays, and will reopen on Monday, January 5th." Holy smokes!!! I ended up having to leave there without having our appointments at all. This is the true meaning of "All dressed up and nowhere to go".