Too early. Too dark. Too Monday.

Waking up this morning was not easy.  For any of us, apparently...

Yesterday The Hubbs went fishing with Super-Bro again.  They left in the neighborhood of 9:30, with a promise from Hambone that they'd be back earlier than normal.

After they took off, I showered and got dressed before taking The Princess on a wagon ride/walk through the neighborhood.  On our way back we saw Kristal - one of my friends from back in the day - driving down the street to her house.  I had just found out that she's moved in right down the street from me...small world!

We hung out at home until it started getting hungry in there - time to take The Princess to Burger King in McHenry for lunch!  There didn't seem to be any high chairs, or even booster seats...which seemed odd.  But we did fine sitting together in the booth like a couple of big girls.  The Princess had chicken tenders and shared (okay, hogged) the fries that came with my meal.  We shared our raspberry-tea-monade and watched the bigger kids in the play area while we ate.

We had gone here with the intention of trying out the play area...however, the kids in there were so big, energetic and plentiful that The Princess had no interest.  Worked for me...I was a bit nervy that she'd get up in that thing and start freaking out, and I'm sure I'm over the weight limit (not to mention the Winnie-the-Pooh type images that come to mind when I think of myself attempting to shimmy into/out of one of those kid-sized tunnels!), so I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go in and get her if she needed me to.

From there we headed over to Aldi for a little bit of stocking up.  The Princess has been out of trail mix for over a week now, and that's just a disaster.  Trail mix is her favorite thing in the whole wide world, and everyone's lives are a little less shiny and happy when she doesn't have her fix.  Fortunately, the trail mix is within 10 feet of the door, so I was able to chuck about $20 worth in the cart before getting shopping-induced ADD (a common occurrence for me!).  Unfortunately, though, The Princess recognized the bags and started angling for an in-store snack.  I figured what the heck...I'm buying $20 worth, she can start in on it if it'll keep her happy.  So I ripped the top off of a bag and handed it to her.

She didn't make a peep through the entire store.  You should have seen her, clutching her bag of trail mix like she had found the holy grail and picking all of her favorites out first.  Too cute.

From Aldi we headed to Mobil, where I got a cheapo car wash...The Cab is no longer a filth-pot, though the wash didn't do as good a job as I had hoped.  I guess I should probably start washing the car more than once a season, eh? 

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

Pulling into the driveway I once again noticed the horrible looking dead plants hanging from my house and fence.  Something needed to be done!

In we went to unload the groceries, and I set The Princess up with her very own bowl of the special trail mix (a blend of four different kinds, so you get all the good stuff in one!) in the living room. 

And out I went to start the task of cleaning up the front of the house/yard/driveway.  I took down all of our hanging baskets, which had started slow and painful demises at the first frost.  Walking down the sides of the driveway, I removed all of the plant skeletons from the basket planters and realized there were a ton of leaves and branches on the driveway and in the front yard.

Out comes the leaf blower.

Every so often I'd peek my head inside and check on Kiddo...the bulldogs kept a good eye on her.  :)  After I had cleared the front yard and driveway I realized that the gutters really, really needed a good cleaning.  Actually, they've needed it for months.

Up on the roof with the leaf blower.

That's always fun.  I love to see the looks on people's faces as they drive by, watching me blowing leaves off the roof and out of the gutters!  You try living directly underneath five mature silver maples...you'll jump on that bandwagon soon enough.

Did you know that blowing the leaves off your driveway and front yard is not the best idea if you haven't done the roof yet?  Oops. 

Back down with the leaf blower for some touch-up work.

I'm proud to report that the front of the house looks a lot better now than it did yesterday morning, but it was a lot of work!!

Stinking of gutter sludge, I tip-toed inside and threw my clothes directly into the wash.  Careful not to get any sludge on anything that would hold onto a smell, I maneuvered my way into the shower and rinsed off to kill the odor and that all-over icky feeling you get after a good wallowing.

Feeling a bit more human, I climbed into my jammies and joined The Princess in the living room where we quickly became engrossed in Happy Feet on the Disney Channel.  We both relaxed for a while with the doggies, expecting Daddy to come home any time.

I was surprised to find that I had almost started gnawing on the arm of the couch...time for more food!  Since I had just been grocery shopping, I had my choice of any of the good stuff.  So what do I do?  Make the biggest bowl of cereal possible and share it with my kid.  Someone's got to pass on those traditions, right?

The Disney Channel continued to keep us company as we loafed around the house, waiting for the Mickey Mouse special to come on.  A little over half-way through the special, Daddy finally came home.

That was after 6:30.  A long day on the water, especially considering the fact that they got skunked all day.  Bummer!

The evening went by quickly...we were all in bed at 8:30 and probably asleep by about 8:37.  Hey, it had been a big weekend, and we were tired.

So, imagine my chagrin this morning when the evil alarm clock began stabbing daggers into my brain.  Ugh.  Too early.  Too dark.  Too Monday.

Add to that the fact that The Hubbs had another epic battle with the Tupperware cabinet, and we were a pair this morning.  I called a little while ago to check in, and he has assured me that he will not (as previously threatened) throw away everything in the cabinet today.  I checked...the garbage guys had already been there, so I think I'm safe.  I also made sure to mention the fact that I'd be pretty upset if I came home to a melted glob of used-to-be-Tupperware in the driveway.

When I opened The Princess's bedroom door to wake her this morning, she was splayed on her tummy...dead to the world.  I checked her Pull-Up, decided it wasn't worth a battle (she was in feetie-jammies...the kind you have to basically take completely off to go potty...she had just woken up and was all toasty-warm...definitely not an ideal time to be ripped from bed, stripped and plopped on the cold pot!) and took her directly to the car.  She and Dirt Pink gradually got through the waking-up process in the time it took to get to the train station.

I know this happens every year, the whole being-dark-when-you-wake-up-and-then-again-by-the-time-you-get-home thing.  But I will never - I repeat, NEVER - get used to it.