After breakfast, we picked up Yasmeen and headed back to the house for a major cleaning fest! With Mohammed coming home later that day, I wanted to make sure that he came home to a neat space, so the girls and I worked hard at clearing the countertops in the kitchen, emptying the fridge of anything we weren't using and making sure the dishes were washed and put away. We also cleaned up the toys in the family room and vacuumed the rug. After working diligently, I promised to take them out for a ride. We definitely had to get some special slide oil at the music store for Yasmeen's trombone at her instructor's request and we'd even discovered a $10 Carvel gift card Yasmeen had found while geocaching a while ago when we cleaned up--so that meant ice-cream for all! All this and it was only noon when we finally left the house.
After our errand, and some ice cream, we decided to take a drive to a town a few miles away and check out the local Borders there now that they are closing all their stores and have a liquidation sale going on. It's so sad to see it go since it was my all-time, favorite bookstore. Guess now I'll have to rediscover Barnes & Noble, although it has never been my favorite. Not sure why, but I always liked the layout of Borders and the "vibe" there. On the way there, we made a pit stop at a local playground and let everyone out for a bit of air now that it's not oppressively hot outside like it's been for the past week. Adam was thrilled to run, as were the girls, although they couldn't possibly admit it being 9 and 11 of course. They just played along for his sake!
Once we reached Borders, we looked around and Leena found a book, along with Adam, who lucked out with a Thomas the Train board book that had a miniature set of trains in the back. From there, we went to Michaels (nothing new) and Kohl's (for Leena), but by now it was 3pm and Adam was beside himself since he hadn't had a nap. We were all getting cranky and it wasn't until we put 2 & 2 together that we realized we'd skipped lunch in our hurry to get out the door after cleaning. We'd had breakfast earlier that morning, and some ice cream for lunch, I suppose, but no real meal. Now we were starving and I had a splitting headache.
We headed home to eat and start dinner preparations, but not before a stop at Shoprite for some staples. Once home, we ate leftover pizza from the day before and I started preparing a London Broil and rice for Fetah (Mohammed's favorite Egyptian dish--thanks, ShooShoo for showing me how to make it!!). Luckily, Adam fell asleep right in his stroller as we were heading out of Kohl's, so I was able to transfer him to his bed to finish his nap while I cooked.
Mohammed came home around 5:30pm and we were all excited to see him. Absence DOES make the heart grow fonder, because we all jumped with happiness when he came through the door. It helped even more when he put down a bag on the (clean) kitchen counter from Sprinkles. That's a well known bakery we had discovered in DC back in March, and they happened to have one in San Diego. After dinner, we had a great dessert and then it was a little family TV time!
It was a busy day, but a great one...and we are all thankful to have Mohammed back home!
1 comment:
What a beautiful day! I can totally relate to being so busy/distracted that I forget to eat!
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