Wanted: A Week Without Any Stress

Our lives are usually pretty hectic. Lewie Clark always jokingly says that things are never easy for the Cearley family. It seems that more often than not, we can't go much longer than a week before some stressful event occurs. Luckily, most are on the smaller scale.

This past week was, once again, full of those small, irritating things in life that cause stress. When you think of life and the big scheme of the universe, they aren't that important. However, it's hard in the moment "not to sweat the small stuff!"

First, and most significantly, we lost our video camera. We have no idea where it is. We know we used it a couple of weeks ago for Owen's track and field day, and we might have possibly had it with us on a few other outings where we didn't record with it. When we went to use it this weekend, we couldn't find it. We turned the house upside down, we looked in every nook and cranny of our cars, and Stuart drove to his office to check there. I called Channel 7 and Southside Elementary to see if it had been turned in to a lost and found. No luck. It's pretty much gone. We probably left it somewhere, and it got stolen. Neither Stuart nor I can exactly retrace every time we had it in the past two weeks, which just goes to show you that we are getting old and our memories aren't what they once were. It is so frustrating to lose something that was so expensive, but more importantly we have lost all the recorded memories of the kids that were on the tape. Those can't be replaced. If you're at a pawn shop near us and see a Panasonic camcorder for sale, please call us, so we can check the serial number!

Then, the very next day, our riding mower broke down. I always hate those unexpected expenses (right after the warrantee expires)! It is at the repair shop right now, and we are awaiting the news of how much the repair will destroy our bank account! We are hoping to get it back quickly (and cheaply) as our grass is now about a foot high!

Recently, Arden has been waking each morning by 5:45 a.m. Luckily, I figured out that covering her bedroom window with a heavy blanket to block the light will help her sleep for an hour longer in the mornings! I am not a morning person, and 6:30 a.m. is about the best I can do with a good attitude. But 5:45 a.m. -- in the summer! I was ready for a nap by 1:00 p.m.! Now, she is sleeping until 7 or so, but we have a hideous black blanket hanging in her formerly pastel "shabby chic" nursery that says "San Antonio Spurs" written across it. I'm going to have to convince Stuart that we need a pretty window treatment with blackout lining for her room . . . the blanket has got to go! Unfortunately, most guys don't value the same aesthetics as women. He thinks the blanket is fine and would rather get a Wii instead of drapes!

P.S. We went on our first excursion to Chuck E. Cheese this week (it was our very first time ever!). I found out that if you join their birthday club online, they will email you some coupons. I got a coupon for 100 tokens for $10.00. We arrived shortly after they opened at 9 a.m. and didn't order any food to save money. The games all take one token each, so we had enough for 100 games (10 cents each). After 1 1/2 hours, we had only used 60 tokens between the two boys, so we saved the remaining 40 tokens for another trip. I think that was the a pretty good entertainment value for $10.00!