Mission Accomplished!

We successfully faced down the enemy horde (read: one bug) this afternoon to get out of the house! He laid in wait for us to emerge but we were able to sneak past him unharmed (read: he was no where to be seen).....yeah, he was gone this morning. Haven't seen the yellow jacket since last night thankfully.

My mission today was to assemble and mail Robby's first care package from us. Is it bad that he got packages from my dad (yes that is packages as multiples) before he got one from me? Ah well, now he has two incoming. As we left the house there was a faint hint of rain in the air but it was dry so we took our chances. I headed for the PX first in order to fluff up his package a bit and get him a camera (one of his requests). Before going I'd scoured the internet looking for "Care package ideas" because Robby wasn't giving me much to go on with his "surprise me" attitude. So I hit the PX with a list of ideas, some well rested and supposed to be happy kids and started shopping. Anya - the one who is almost 8 months old and would have every reason to be irritable and cranky (because she's a baby and that's what they do) - was the best behaved of the bunch. I got one of the carts with a car on the front and within moments Inara was trying to climb out of the car while the cart was in motion no less. After being told to sit her butt down more than a few times, she started to get upset with me. As we waited...and waited....for the attendant in the electronics department to become available she got cranky. When the lady finally was able to help us only to find out the camera I wanted was sold out, she got crankier. So while we waited and waited for her to be available again to get the back up camera, she got even crankier. And the camera was only the first part of our shopping experience - there was more to get. Before we could go much further, I bent down and had a small meeting with Inara about her behavior and she was quiet the rest of the way.

As we checked out, I was asked the routine question "did you find everything you were looking for?" Um yeah...and then some. Why is that always the way it happens? I didn't go in there for this, that and the other thing - I was just looking for "this"! By I digress, I ended up with this, that, the other thing and oh that too. Our weather luck held from the PX to the post office as we all remained dry. Normally I refuse to go to the post office without having everything packed and ready to go. I'm dragging 3 kids along after all and can't afford to be packing a box while two of those kids weave in and out of people in line and the third looks at me and screams to be picked up. But today I didn't have much choice. For one, I didn't have any flat rate priority boxes at home and for another, I hadn't done the customs form before - but mostly I didn't have the boxes. When I started this experiement, I intended to fill one large flat rate box as much as I could and send it on it's merry way with tidings and insurance. Somehow the PX trip swelled that to two large flat rate boxes. It took me awhile to get them both packed and tightly taped before I sat down to fill out the addresses and customs forms. Then it took a few to do all that by which time the line that was empty when arrived was stocked with people rushing to get done before the post office closed - oops! So we moved to the line - or Anya and I did and Jadzia and Inara continued to run around like the monkeys they are. Mind you I tried to keep them in check and I even got Jadzia to come stand near me but Inara wasn't having it. The best I could do with her is keep eye contact to make her stand still a few arm lengths away - not that I had much use of my arms with the stroller, Anya and packages. She took off her shoes, much to my dismay, but stayed rooted in her spot otherwise.

When we got to the window, I loaded the small workspace with two packages for Robby, some books for Kisha and a book for someone else and tried to tell the worker what I needed for each one while keeping one eye on her, one on Anya who was starting to lose it with this whole experience, my third eye on Inara who was still staying out of arms reach for the time being and my fourth eye on Jadzia who was almost too quiet because I'd thought she'd disappear - yes I have four eyes, don't you? Somehow everything managed to get safely (I hope) into the hands of the postal worker and I got the kids in line with each other - Jadzia held Inara's hand, Inara held my hand and I pushed the double stroller with my other hand. When we got to the ramp I realized not only was it raining but it was POURING down rain. So I put Inara in the empty spot in the stroller and drapped Anya's blanket over both of them to try and keep them mostly dry. I took Jadzia's hand and we made a mad dash for the car. Jadzia and I were soaked but Inara and Anya were spared (although the blanket was very wet). Jadzia got in first to save her anymore rain and then I loaded the rest up. Somehow it's not fair that I got the most wet in all this.

Before long we were home and once again the rain had stopped so we were spared anymore wet - like I even would have noticed getting more wet than I already was. All in all, mission accomplished (times two really since he's getting two packages). I just hope they make it there fine.