Great Expectations

This was one of those weekends that looked great in theory, but not so much in reality.

Expected: Friday afternoon/evening we have Fall Festival at Anna's school. This is the normal thing: inflatables, face painting, various games for kids. Fun stuff for kids. We're looking foward to it. A minor hitch is that Anthony can't join us until after a rehearsal dinner, but that's no big deal. We'll have plenty to do and get to see lots of Anna's new school friends. We've been talking about this for at least 2 weeks.

Unexpected: at 4:15 (15 minutes before we leave for the school), Joshua fell off the playground at our new house and landed on his arm. He screamed like crazy for a really long time - much longer than normal. Plus he wouldn't squeeze my hand or put any weight on it. So off we go to drop Anna at the wedding rehearsal and I take Josh to Urgent Care. When you're 5 years old, weddings are beautiful and fascinating, but 1.5 hours of wedding practice isn't so interesting. And when you're 3 years old, waiting in Urgent Care for 2 hours gets old very quickly. You know we were all having fun. Finally we all are finished and we get to the Fall Festival for the last 45 minutes. I should mention that a cold front came through around 5:00 and it was about 45 degrees and we were not adequately dressed. This means we were FREEZING. We finally collapse at home around 8:00.

Expected: Saturday morning soccer game, cool weather, Anthony plays at an afternoon wedding. I have the brilliant idea to make chili and cornbread for supper since it is so cold! I envision Anthony coming home and the house smells wonderful and we get to have a nice family night.

Unexpected: 5 year olds really do not like playing soccer in windy 40 degree weather. They all struggled through the game, but it wasn't pretty. Then beegins the great afternoon exchange. While Anthony takes care of lunch, I grocery shop at Wal-Mart. (Of course it is super crowded and everyone is in my way.) I arrive home and Anthony leaves for the wedding.
Later in the afternoon I start the chili and the spice mix explodes everywhere. I'm annoyed, but this is our supper, so I load up the kids for the local grocery store. They don't have what I need, but while there Anna announces she needs to use the restroom. The bathroom at Bi-Lo? Blech. I hate public bathrooms. Then we go to the next local grocery store. (It is so fun to load up the kids in the cold for the 3rd time.) They ALSO are out of the spices. Seriously???? I call Anthony because by now he should be done with the wedding. Of course he doesn't answer my first 10 calls and I am totally annoyed. Finally he answers and responds to my spices request with, "No, there are some in the pantry". I am snippy and told him to go to WalMart and he figured out something was wrong.
We ate chili 2 hours later than normal, and with me being very out of sorts after 2 days of not fun.

Great Expectations are not helpful sometimes. Life just doesn't cooperate and I don't like to be disappointed.