Back from the Midwest

Back from a very productive if somewhat waterlogged trip to Michigan. This was my first time in Ann Arbor, and I have to say that I highly recommend it to anyone who has not been. It has a great small town feel to it, with lots of restaurants and little boutiques (the picture is from one of my new favorite stores, Sticks, on South Main Street). The university was also very impressive. Grandma D is from Michigan, so Dad has some roots there and had been hoping to bring the girls up to join me for the weekend, but it did not end up working out. Probably for the best, given how rainy it ended up being. I did manage to snag him a "Harvard: the Michigan of the East" T-shirt and found some shark tooth necklaces for the girls at a local farmers market. No Big Blue paraphernalia for Mom though, as her Wisconsin roots just would not allow it!
So, the Moo is now officially on the LCDS swim team! Our schedule appears to be shaping up thus: Mondays, Bean swims, Wednesday Moo rides, Fridays, Moo swim team followed by Moo swimming lessons (only for the rest of the semester, and then swim team will be enough, I think). Add into that the fact that this week we have back to school night tomorrow, a playdate with the new LCDS family we are sponsoring on Thursday, and the Moo has her theory class on proper grooming of horses on Friday night, and I think the following conclusion is inevitable: I have become the psycho mom I have sought to avoid morphing into. Add on to this the fact that my car is once again in the shop (the AC was broken when they fixed the water pump) and you are looking at one stressed out psycho mom.
SO the constant mantra now is the reminder that things could really be much worse and that other people have real problems and would give almost anything to be beset by the issues we are dealing with. Most of our major annoyances are self-inflicted or are really minor little issues when placed in context, and for that I am trying to remember to always be thankful and count the little blessings . . . like husbands who understand when you have reached your breaking point and act like it is TOTALLY normal to break down crying because the rental car the dealer got you is bright yellow and slightly less elegantly styled than a Toyota Yaris. (I defy anyone to not burst into tears at the prospect of driving such a car, stress or no stress -- it's YELLOW).