High Expectations

Do you ever find that those days that you have the highest of expectations end up being the most disappointing of days? Well, that seems to usually be in my case as in my day yesterday. What a rollercoaster ride of a day I was on yesterday!
I was so excited for errand day to be here finally. I love errand day because that is the day that my husband finally has a day off, it is his payday and even though we have to run those tedious errands of paying bills and grocery shopping he always makes sure to include some fun by taking me out for breakfast or lunch and sometimes a little fun shopping even. I woke up this morning excited to start my day. I thought before I got ready I would take some time for about an hour to spend on my computer. My husband enjoys a little bit of alone time that he doesn't usually get at home and he likes watching the Today show so I thought before we started our day I would give him some space and clean up my Facebook page. Even though the laptop is mine and my daughters my son seems to think that ownership is in the power of the possessor and therefore keeps it in his room, which is fine though a little annoying at times. On this particular morning I left it in his room and decided to just log on. I was working on cleaning up my Facebook page and kept hearing a rattle of what sounded like a chip bag or something. I figured I was just a little paranoid because my daughter had said that she saw a mouse the day before run across the living room and down the hall into my son's room. Me and my husband had laughed at her but I promised to get some mouse traps. See, both me and my husband absolutely HATE mice! We can't even empty mouse traps and used to throw them away, trap and all. We hated having to deal with mice on those occasions when mice tend to try to get into homes, so much that we always usually kept a cat around or our big dog Trixie seemed to keep them at bay so that we haven't seen one in years. This has been a great thing about having our animals. However, this past year we gave our dog away to my brother as we were not home enough to give her the attention that she needed and deserved. Anyways, I got freaked out enough by the noise in the room that I decided to quickly get off the computer so that I could get out of there; but as I went to get out of my chair, the mouse darted out in the middle of the room scampering about very scared. Of course, I screamed and took off running and told my husband that in addition to getting the locking gas cap today the mouse traps were a must. I decided to be a big girl and buy gloves so that I can actually clean the mouse trap out instead of just throwing the whole thing away.
I went ahead and got ready and we looked over the bills we needed to pay real quick, grabbed some movies to return and headed for Shane's work. Now, my husband makes a decent living but it seems as though no matter what you make it just is never enough and by the time we figure up everything we need to pay, no matter how good it looks on paper there is never enough money to go around. We pick up his check and on our way to the bank we review how much money needs to be deposited. When I explain to my husband that on top of bill money needing to be deposited I also have jewelry that I have bought and need to deposit that money as well. This evidently hit him wrong today and so I get to hear for the next 15 minutes about how maybe I need to get a job to pay for the things that I want, etc. I explain to him that he gave me permission to spend this amount already. However, I do have to admit to being a little bit of a "space cadet" if you will. See, I do the budgeting but I always have to have my husband review it because inevitably I seem to forget those $50 things here and there that add up and then I can't figure out why in the world my paper budget doesn't match my actual budget. As usual, I have managed to remember after he gets paid and not prior to payday. We proceed to cash his check, get gas and decide where to eat. We end up eating a quiet lunch at Cracker Barrel as this is one of the few places where we can eat on Thursdays if we are running too late for a good breakfast, but not late enough for lunch. We finally decide to make the most out of the rest of our day, I receive an apology and we proceed to the bank. Once we are done at the bank it is just a matter of deciding if we are going to go ahead and get our license plates renewed this week still or if we have to move it back because of several things I left off of the budget. We know that we are going to Tulsa for the Thanksgiving holiday and I did budget a few extras in that I thought we had co-pays on for the week and we didn't so for the most part things were balancing out fairly well. We head to the license bureau in Buffalo as Shane has to return a logging chain to a friend that lives there. It is a small office so we figure we can get in and out easily without spending the whole day there. This works out very nicely and we get those errands ran. Shane then decides to go ahead and pay on the kids' layaway for Christmas so that we don't have that worry next week during Black Friday. We drive back into Springfield, take care of this matter and by this time I am starting to not feel very well at all. My stomach is cramping and I feel very gassy. We get the layaway paid on and Shane starts looking around. I am not feeling well and start to get a little moody so we leave and return our movie and decide to look for a new release, The Ugly Truth as we have been wanting to see that. We manage to get aggravated at each other again in the movie store, I am in quite a bit of pain by this point and so I head to the car while Shane checks out. He asks me if I am okay and I tell him that I am sure I will be fine. He wants to know if I want to go grocery shopping. I tell him yes, we need to go so we head to Harter House in Strafford which is close to our house. Shane offers to go inside while I sit out in the truck but I figure walking around might help. I have had this kind of pain recently but never this bad. We go into the store, do a little shopping and I start feeling like I am going to pass out, so Shane tells me to go on out to the truck. I sit out there doubled over while he finishes up and then we head home. By the time, he got out of the grocery store I was starting to recover fairly well. We got home and had just enough time to unload the groceries and put them up before having to leave to pick our daughter up from school. We get her picked up and decide to get Chinese takeout for dinner. I can only eat about 1/2 of mine before my pain returns full force again. I go ahead and set my mouse traps up and am quite excited to catch my mouse and have also learned how to use the locking gas cap and am thrilled about each of these new weapons. I am now ready to lay down for a little bit. My brother calls to check on me and I tell him how I feel and he insists once again as he did last week that it is my gallbladder and I need to go have it checked out and removed. He described my pain to a "T" but I tell him I am not thoroughly convinced and I don't have time to mess with that right now. I get off the phone and relay the message to Shane and he tells me that I need to schedule an appointment. I remind him that I don't really have a doctor that I like but my brother has St. John's docs as well and really likes his so maybe I should check into that. He tells me that he needs one too and wants me to put it on my agenda to get appointments set up. I argue with him and go to bed. A few hours later I get up, visit with him before he has to go to bed and then once he is asleep I put in my movie to end my evening and very disappointed that he missed out on getting to watch it with me.
All in all I guess the day was a success and everything managed to get accomplished. However, I always find it funny how it seems as though when we have the highest expectations for our day or for our relationships those are the times when they flop the most. If only I could learn to enjoy things as they happen and not have such high expectations maybe then I would find myself not so disappointed at the end of any given day; but then again, isn't that just part of life? :)