I want to scream!!!

Talk about frustration. I think I had about all I could handle today.

Things were going quite well. We woke up and had pancakes and sausage for breakfast and then we went on our field trip to the museum. The kids were well behaved and I was really proud of them.

I dropped Kate off at art class and took a quick trip to the PX. Then, I dropped Ellie off at art and took Kate home for a bit.

Let me preface this with the fact that I have to be early to everything. I just do. It bugs me if I am late, so I usually plan to be extra early. That way if anything happens to make me late, I am still early. Weird, huh? It came in handy today though. (And thankfully I'm married to someone that is the same way. We would have some serious problems otherwise.....)

So, I left to pick Ellie up, giving myself 45 minutes for a 15 minute drive. The kids had a new movie and I let them put it in the car. When I got to the gate to get on post, I realized that I didn't have an ID card. I had left it on the counter at the PX.

So, the gate guard told me I would have to drive around to the main gate and go to the visitor's center to get a pass. Ok, I still had time - annoying, but no problem. That's what I thought until I got there and Nick was soaking wet through his pants and he had pulled his socks and boots off (it was negative 5 degrees out). So, I changed his diaper and put his shoes on (his pants were still wet mind you). Then I dragged them all into the visitor's center.

I had never been in there before and wasn't sure what to expect. However, I did not expect a line of 20 people in front of me and one man working at the desk - without any sense of urgency as the line was now all the way to the door.

Of course, not one of those 20 people (who were all waiting to get a pass to go to some sort of party) took pity on me and let me go ahead of them. Not that I asked, but everyone heard me let the man know that my 9 yr old was waiting for me to pick her up. I had no way of calling her teacher and I thought I was going to let out a huge scream of frustration right there in line. Especially since I was carrying my 40 lb, urine-soaked 2 yr old the entire time. By the time I got my pass and drove to her class, I was 30 minutes late picking her up. I felt awful - especially since they had no idea where I was. I'm just glad that I had left so early, or I would have been an hour late.

Then of course, I had to pile them all in and out of the car again to go in the PX and retrieve my ID card. At that point, I decided that we were going to eat fast food for dinner, because I was so irritated and tired that I didn't want to come home and cook - not even opening a can of chicken noodle soup. So, they are all upstairs watching a movie now and I am ready to curl into a ball and go to sleep.....