Boo number two

Today was a long, slightly draining day at working that consisted of picking both of the girls up early from their schools and taking them to their dentist appointment that was quickly followed by an emotional and physical breakdown/tantrum/fit that the 12 year old was gracious enough to perform in my presence. It was over math homework, over the question: 6 miles = ______ yards, to be precise. There was door kicking, pencil breaking, which was quickly followed by pencil throwing, to name a few, with bouts of "I HATE YOU!!!" being screamed in her mom's general direction in the home office. 

This type of behavior never happens when it's just me there. And that's not at all to say that I have better control of the kids than their parents do. It's just that at the first inkling of that type of behavior, all it would take is the threat of me calling one/both of their parents to make them stop. But since their mom was home, watching this volcano of emotion erupt in front of us all, I was unsure how much disciplining I should be doing since the situation had never presented itself before. In the end we (the mom, the 9 year old, and I) just barricaded ourselves in the home office and let the 12 year old throw her fit alone, paying her no attention. She finally wore herself out to the point of tears and then just cried until she felt better. I know that age isn't exactly an easy one to go through, but having emotional explosions like that doesn't make anyone's life easier. And it makes me question whether or not I ever want to have kids myself, haha. 

I left their house around 7:00, feeling quite drained. I had a Costco trip planned since I needed to refill my protein bar stash and a new bag of Fruit and Nut Medley was definitely in order cause I was down to the banana chips, raisins, and kiwis that I really didn't care to eat, which made me wish we had a compost pile or worm bin so I could throw my unwanted morsels in there to be turned into food for my plants, but I don't know if those things are even compost-able? I hope so. 

I went to a different Costco than I normally shop at and was saddened to see that it didn't have a gas station. Boo. And then when I walked inside I found a baby tree that I fell in love with:

A Weeping Cherry Tree! Absolutely gorgeous! But then I was saddened again when I read the info on the plant and realized that, while we have a very decent size backyard considering we live in Chicago, this tree would grow far too wide for our narrow city lot. Boo number two :( 

I finally ended up getting home a little before 9:00 and was exhausted so I relaxed with my daily perusing of CNN, People.com, and Facebook, where I left Boyfriend the following message:

"I've loved you for approximately 150 days now. That's a lot of days. I feel like I deserve a prize or something :P xox"

And wouldn't you know it, Boyfriend came home from work early, less than an hour later, a Butterfinger with a bow on top in hand. My prize :) That simple gift was enough to turn my whole day around. Love, love, love that boy.