What exactly DO I do for a living?

Last week probably ranks as one of my toughest in a long time. I'll just leave it at "the economy stinks" and you'll all know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, on Wednesday, I'd had a day of meetings--we're talking one of those days where I was in the bathroom at work and I could sense (yes, like Spidey) someone hovering outside of the bathroom waiting to talk to me. I even contemplated sitting inside for a long while just to get a little breather, but then realized that long stays in the bathroom inevitably lead to rumors, etc.

Regardless, I was spent...keeping all of the balls in the air was a ridiculous endeavor and it seriously felt like at every turn I was either a) needing to schedule yet another meeting to make progress on something, b) needing to deal with yet another "personnel issue", or c) realizing I was not quite on my A-game. But, I smiled through it...positive-d my way through the tough stuff...took deep breaths and pressed on. You know the feeling (I hope...). The highlight of the day was my Amy's Organic Burrito for lunch--it made me uber-happy, which says a damn lot about the day!

Fast forward to the end of the day. I run--yes, literally, run--out the door because I have 20 minutes to get to the preschool to pick up my kids before they become those two sad-looking children sitting alone on a bench out in front of a closed school without any parents. Thankfully, traffic was kind to me and I made it with 5 minutes to spare. And seeing their two precious faces as they ran to me was like a gift from above...nothing's better on a rough day.

So, we get into the car, and they begin to pummel me with questions--this happens some times--about pretty much everything. "Mommy, why is your visor down?" "Mommy, why do you only have cheese crackers in your car and not peanut butter ones?" "Mommy, why don't you have lipstick on?"

Then Rhys hits me with one that stops me cold: "Mommy, how was work today?" I did one of those sort of stunned, yet proud-of-my-precocious-son faces and said "Thanks for asking, Rhysie, my day was pretty rough, but I'm better now that I'm with you."

"What did you do today that was so tough, Mommy?"

"Nothing big, Rhys, just worked."

"But what do you DO at work?"

"Daddy just says I talk to people, Rhys." (Me trying to avoid the real stuff...)

"Oh, so you meet and talk to people?"

"Yes, honey, exactly." (Hmm...sounds like I'm a tour guide.)

"I think I know what you do, Mommy...(drum roll, please...) you staple a lot of stuff. That's what you do all day." (insert proud Rhys smile here, as he's clearly figured me and my job out).

"Yep, you've got it Rhys, I definitely staple a lot of stuff...makes for a tough day."

I laughed and laughed in my own head...had to, because those many times that I thought to myself: Am I just making widgets? I now know the answer is definitely "no," I'm just STAPLING widgets. ;)

"Mommy, I'm going to marry a beeeeauuuutiful woman"

This past weekend, Mark was at a bachelor party in New Orleans (don't know too much about the actual goings-on, which is very, very good), which means it was 24/7 mommy-boy time. And we had a blast--partly because I spent a lot of time priming myself to just "go with the flow," and partly because I think my kiddos took pity on me...they almost wore the look of "mommy, we recognize this weekend is going to require a lot of patience and work for you, so we're going to try to not kill each other and be really sweet." And they were! Hallelujah!

We snuggled in bed, I took them for Krispy Kreme's in their PJs (with no shoes, I might add...and no, they didn't go inside, we just went through the drive-thru), we went to the park and played until we all were dead tired, we went on a bird hunt with their toilet paper-tube binoculars...I even found myself laughing instead of cursing when I pulled out handfuls of shells and sticks from the bottom of my washing machine while doing laundry.

By far the best moment, though, was a car ride we took...and I'm still not entirely sure where we were going because frankly, it just wasn't important at that moment, I was too busy laughing. The boys were in the back seat having a conversation about when they grew up and it went a little like this...(oh, and a quick backstory: until this very moment, we were pretty darn sure our pink-loving, flower-picking, clothes-obsessed, sweet-as-peaches-pie Rhys was already on his way to being gay at 3):

"Coley, when I grow up, I'm going to get married like mommy and daddy."

"Yeah, me, too."

"I'm going to marry a beeeuuuuuteeeful woman, Coley." (Insert mom's shocked "reallly??" face here.)

"Ewwww!! I don't want to get married anymore."

"I'm going to, Cole, she's going to wear a princess dress." (Uh, oh, we've come full circle.)

"Rhysie, I don't want to get married!!"

And it went on and on like this...two hilarious, almost parallel conversations that just cracked me up. THE best part, though, was what happened later. As I'm multi-tasking in the house, I hear Rhys and Cole talking about this AGAIN on the couch...

"Coley, I really do want to get married... Do you want to get married?"

"Rhys, I'm sick of you talking to me about this--this is the 30th time you've told me that. I don't want to hear about it any more!! I just can't take it!"

He just can't take it?? Yes, folks, at 3 1/2, Cole's had enough...he's at his limit. Honestly, their comedic drama is more entertaining than General Hospital (and I should know, I watched it--then taped it while I worked--for 15 years. I know, a bit obsessed).

I actually had to break up their debate and explain to Rhys that Cole just wasn't ready to talk that seriously about getting married yet and to give him time. (Even writing that cracks me up.)

So...whatever the reason, the God of Appreciation and Patience shone down on me this weekend and made me realize a few things:
1) My son isn't gay, he's probably bi. (Just kidding...)
2) It's never too early to start talking--and arguing--about marriage, it just happens naturally.
3) If you ever wonder if your kids pick up on what you say, wonder no more...in fact, I think that's the 100th time I've said that and I just can't take it any more! ;)