It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, er, monsoon season

I started my morning this morning at the DMV. Because who doesn't want to start a rainy, gross morning with a trip to the DMV with a 3 year old? I had to get a replacement decal for my tag since I discovered a couple of weeks ago, when the nice officer pulled me over, that I never received it in the mail back in June and have been driving on an expired registration ever since. That errand was as easy as pie. We walked right up to the counter, paid the $8 replacement fee and walked out - into the rain - with a new decal.

The next stop was the Macy's at Lenox. I had seen an ad yesterday that convinced me to get out and purchase the very first Christmas gift of the season. I immediately located the item, secured myself a friends and family discount, and generally felt pretty good about the whole experience...UNTIL....

Pressley and I were on our way back to the car to head to the parcel pick up. Did I mention there is a monsoon here in Georgia today?

[As an aside, I realize that we have just very recently come out a some pretty serious drought conditions here, and I'm supposed to be very thankful for the rain. Blah, blah, blah. But, I am OVER it. ENOUGH with the rain, already.]

Anyway, while I very protectively watched Pressley navigate through a puddle to make sure she didn't get her feet too wet, I turned my ankle (as has become known around here as "pulling an Amy") and tumbled headlong into a puddle as deep as my bathtub. And considering how wet I was when I got up, I apparently wallered around in it a bit. The front of both pant legs were soaked from the knee down. And the back of my left leg was wet from waist to ankle. I seriously felt like I'd been swimming. And I was cold. And embarrassed. Well, I would have been embarrassed if anyone had seen it, but I think (but for this blog entry) it would have been mine and P's little secret.

Now, mind you, I've still not retrieved my purchase from the parcel pick-up. That was another whole ordeal. I didn't want to get P out into the rain again, so I left her in the car to just pop in and let the good customer service folks I was waiting for my purchase. I waited inside (soaking wet and cold) for approximately 10 minutes without any luck getting anyone to pick up the phone at parcel pick-up. All the while, I was nervously pacing to the door every couple of minutes to look out and check on P. About the 10th time I checked on her, I decided to use the nifty little device on my key chain that allows me to roll down the windows remotely to just roll down the window for a sec to ask her if she was ok. She was. But then I realized that the nifty little device would not roll them back up remotely. Of course! So, I had to run out into the rain, get into the car, crank it, and roll up the windows. As I'm doing this, it dawns on me that I'm getting wetter than I anticipated I would. That is because the sunroof had also opened with the oh-so-helpful little doohickey. For crying out loud.

I did finally find one helpful person who actually let me return to the car to sit with Pressley and then delivered my package to my trunk. So now I'm back home - out of the wet jeans and into my stretchy pants. Dry and almost warm. I've never been more grateful for my seat heaters, by the way. But you'll have to forgive me if I'm feeling a bit like the love-child of Scrooge and the Grinch. If only we could really just focus on Jesus' birth, and time with family and friends, and not all the other insanity, I'd be just fine.

The one bright spot here is that Evan has a playdate with a neighbor today, so I don't have to go to the bus stop. Which means I can stay in my dry stretchy pants until time to go to church tonight. And, I can take a nap with P today. And you better bet your britches that I will be doing just that.

Perhaps after my do-over, I'll have enough Christmas spirit to get me through the kids' Christmas program at church tonight.