Early to Bed

My intention was to take the kids to the County Fair last night, get them wristbands, and let them ride everything in sight as much as they wanted, then drag them to the Tractor Pull which I thought they would enjoy or at least should experience being midwestern children.

But I was too derned tired.  After Girls Night Out, then Girls Night In, I was ready for Girls Night To Be In Bed Early.  I succeeded in getting everyone horizontal by 8:45 and asleep by 9:00.  Hurrah!  The kids didn't know they missed going to the fair because I hadn't told them ahead of time that we might go.

Now the plan is to take them Saturday afternoon.  I probably won't tell them in advance.  In case I need a nap instead. 

Last night instead of going to the fair and riding rides until they were dizzy, we watched "Wipeout" on TV.  They love that show, which I think is kind of strange, but Sierra is living for the day when she can participate.  She thinks kids should get to be on the show, with easier obstacles of course. 

If you haven't seen this show and you love the Three Stooges or other slapstick kinds of programs where innocent people like to get knocked around by flying and swinging obstacles, knocked into water, shaving cream, mud or all three...then you should see it.  (Episodes free at abc.com of course).  The winner of the show gets $50,000 so there is some incentive for them to fling themselves into the mess, but really this show is not my kind of program.

So, after watching what the kids wanted to watch, we turned off the TV which is what I wanted to watch.  No TV!  A book instead.  We are reading "How to Steal a Dog" outloud together.  The kids resist this each time we start a long book until we get into the story then I can count on them to ask for just "one more chapter" until I'm too tired to go on.  Which was pretty durned early last night.   But we did get 2 or 3 chapters read.  It's a sad and serious book.  I thought it would be a funny book, from the title and the cover photo of a cute little mutt of a dog, but it is not funny at all.  It concerns a family that is homeless and living in a car.  The daughter decides that if she can steal a dog and get a reward for returning it they will have enough money to move back into an apartment. 

This book is on the recommended reading list by the school library, so I'm counting on it to have an ending that won't emotionally devastate all of us.    My kids hope I won't be sobbing loudly as I read the last page, like I did when I read "The Miraculous Adventures of Edward Tulane" outloud last year.  Jeremiah's teacher had read it to the class, and he wanted me to read it to him and Sierra at home.  When I got so emotional at the end, he looked at me very strangely. 

What?  I said.  It's so sweet and touching.

Well, he said, Mrs. R didn't cry when she read it to our class.

I thought to myself, What's wrong with her?  But then she probably knew what was coming and practiced Not Crying at home before she had to read it to the class. 

Maybe we'd better read the last chapter right BEFORE Wipeout is on, just in case we need a good laugh afterward.