"I'm a mess...SQUEAK SQUEAK!"

Oh the joys of the holidays....TWO CHRISTMAS PROGRAMS today....First I have to say that our 6 kids scheduling has totally gone awry....two days ago Jared came home from school and said "Mom...all moms and dads come to class...you no there." OH NO...It totally didn't make the calendar...so there was one that 'jumped the shark.' Then I get a call from SAM on her lunch hour..."MOM you have to call about my graduation pic or I won't get in the yearbook." Almost missed that one too....but salvaged a potentially serious parental gafe....then as I am driving around after an errand I hear a horn beep and look in my rearview mirror..it is Monica from down the street. I missed the deadline for Andrew's teacher's $10 christmas gift contribution. Monica was coming to collect. Luckily at the bottom of my purse was an envelope that had stayed there for two weeks that had Monica's name on it....I had to pull out 3 MacDonalds toys, a camera, tissue, brush, maxi pad and church bulletin to find it...I pulled off the lint and hand ironed the envelope and gave it to her....I made it this morning to Matea's christmas show...her reindeer head band ears kept falling down as she sang Rudolf biting her nails and with her glasses at the edge of her nose....Sitting next to me were first time parents...their daughter had manicured red and white fingernails, hair with a white bow, black mary janes and a perfect red velvet christmas dress...She waved to her family...Matea was too focused with her wilting reindeer ears in her pink christmas dress and wildly messy hair. We had a quick pizza for dinner and then we had to go to Ella's performance of "THE MITTEN" (we were supposed to donate a pair of mittens...I hadn't read the fine print) without Mark and Samantha. THis meant it was me, 5 kids and a sea of 400 other children...try to find your super hero wanna be boy in the crowd...not easy. So, we go to the concert...I have lost Jared again...put all the kids in a designated spot while everyone wants to hold court with me as my eyes cross in a million directions looking for Jared Super boy who is more like FLASH from the incredibles (ethiopian children are extremely fast)...finally I see a teacher who knows all the runaways are mine...she has Jared on her hand and brings him to me...another father is embarrassed because he assumed the African American person next to me was the parent of my other runaway child....So, then we go to hear Ella sing...Ella sings "I'm a mess squeak squeak...I'm a mess squeak squeak." Grace agrees that she is a mess because Grace is like Felix and Ella is like Oscar and they share a room..I tried all week to teach Ella to sing the word MOWWWSSsss..instead of mess...we would practice ..I would sing "I'm a mouse squeak squeak." She would sing..."I'm a mess squeak squeak...." I just decided to let her sing the 'mess' song instead..the truth is that I was really the mess."SqUeAK SQUeAK""