first impression

our neighbors moved last week.  the couple that bought the house are from Venezuela.  they have lived in the U.S. for 5 years and wanted to be in this school district, so they moved from deer park to the house next door.  we saw them for the first time late one evening when they had come over to check on things in the house before the movers moved them in that coming weekend.  i told them that i wanted to make them dinner as soon as they got moved in.  they seemed appreciative and we settled on monday......tonight. 

so...i waited for annslee to wake up from her nap and ended up dragging all four kids to target to get the groceries.  let's not even discuss how the huge TV (that my parents handed down to us) that was in the back of the suburban fell out when i went to get the stroller out.  nor how i lifted it back in.  nor my pulled back muscles. 

i have gotten off track. 

we were rushing around target like crazy people...trying to get everything we needed for turkey chili frito pie, corn bread, and cinnamon cream cheese squares for dessert...plus all the stuff we needed for our upcoming trip to iowa and south carolina.  my goal was to get dinner done and to them by 6:30 and it was 5:25 as we entered the check out line. 

i had spent the weekend doing all of our laundry...which was probably 10, or so, big loads.  as it came out of the dryer...i piled it in laundry baskets which i then emptied out on the living room floor today.  my plan was to fold it all tonight after the kids were in bed.  so...when we came in from target...we flew in the house and i started cooking right away.  groceries were everywhere.  kids were everywhere.  laundry was everywhere.  grocery sacks that had turned into children's art projects were cut up and colored on and were everywhere.  after i got the corn bread in the oven and the chili simmering, i ran to the neighbors and let them know that dinner was almost ready and that i'd bring it in over in about 15 minutes or so.  she looked at her watch and said, "is 30 minutes okay?  melvin is not home yet."  i thought that the response was kind of weird, but shrugged it off and thought that maybe she wasn't comfortable with me bringing it over without her husband there because his english is better.  i said, "sure.  no problem.  i'll have it here in 30 minutes."

i came home, and continued getting everything ready, and packed up in tupperware.  annslee had become rather fussy, so i decided that tonight would be the time to let her go ahead and feed herself.  i took her clothes off of her, tucked her into her highchair, and gave her the bowl of chili, cheese, frito chips, sour cream and a spoon and told her to go at it.  she was thrilled!  some of it made it into her mouth.  i think.  she looked like she had used chili to gel her hair into a nice, spiky do like her brother's. 

this is before she spiked her hair with it.

after the neighbor's dinner was all packed up and ready to go, i called chad and the kids to the table to eat.  they started eating and colton helped me carry the neighbor's food out the backdoor and across the side yard to their backdoor.  they didn't answer.  "hmmmm?  that's weird.  and my hand is getting really hot from the chili."  chase appeared in the driveway and said, "mom...the neighbors are in our house."

what? 

i hurried back in the back door, and they were in the front foyer with chad.  she was dressed in a nice, silk blouse; designer jeans with heels...holding a pie for us.  their 2 year old was neatly dressed, with his hair perfectly gelled into that cute little boy do and the dad was dressed for the country club.  they had arrived for the dinner party.

boy, were they in for a treat.  i guess there is something to be said for being authentic.  an authentic clarkson household is what they got...

not only did they get a laundry covered living room; a kitchen that looked like a bomb went off; being served out of tupperware and a naked baby covered in chili...but chad in his boxers, fresh out of the shower.  luckily, he sent one of the kids to answer the door while he grabbed the first pair of shorts he could find.  don't worry.  he didn't have to go too far.  they were all on the living room floor.  sigh.

thank God they didn't need to go to the bathroom.  when i went in there...it hadn't been flushed since the last time one of the kids had used it.

 what do they say about first impressions again?  never mind.  i don't want to know.