The Daughters and I drive about 15 minutes to school each morning, 20 minutes if we forget our school work ('cause why would we actually think to bring school work to school, right?) and 30 minutes if we drive through the donut shop. This is to say we have a window full of quality-time opportunities between 15 and 30 minutes every morning. Most mornings, we chose to fill the time by fighting. This is a prime skill that we've perfected. Yes, I'm using the term "we" because when one is confined to the space of a minivan with two squabbling sisters, it makes one cranky as heck and one just might be inclined to fight right along with them.
Not that it happens to me.
Much.
In an effort to save my sanity (why yes I do have some left, thank you very much!), we tune our radio into our favorite morning radio show Dave & Nina of Mix 96 - Tulsa. As luck would have it, their Dirt Alert (celebrity gossip) comes right in the middle of our drive. We get to start our mornings by hearing about how Miley Cyrus thinks her dad is the coolest or not coolest (what week is this?) and how Charlie Sheen is a flaming train wreck and how Justin Bieber cut his hair! That particular story elicited screams from The Daughters, FYI. Immediately following the dirt alert comes the traffic report and then a commercial and then...
... The Do-You-Know-The-Show Contest. This contest has become the entire reason for our being! The minute the traffic report starts, our fingers start flying as we frantically dial the number and giggle about what prize we would choose if given the choice and when we would go pick up the tickets and if "Momma would sound like a big dork on the radio like she does in real life". (Uh-huh... direct quote from Daughter 2.)
This past week, we felt an urgent need to really win the contest, so we took the home phone (which is also a cell phone) with us to school. This way, both Daughters will have a phone and will be dialing to their hearts' content. Yes, it did occur to me that their calls may cancel each other out, but you know what? My new motto as a momma is "As long as they're dialing, they're not killing each other."
Friday, however, we struck gold! The phone that Daughter 1 dials began ringing... and ringing... and ringing. Dave and Nina finally invited us to call in (HA! Way ahead of ya there!), and our phone was still ringing. We held our breaths and the phone was still ringing. We giggled our fool little heads off and the phone was still ringing. Then...
... Dave said, "Who are we talking to?"
"{giggle, giggle} It's me! Minivan Momma!" The Daughters were shrieking in the background and I took my hand off the steering wheel to flap my arm aimlessly between the seats, ya know - the international Momma sign for BE QUIET! And while we did cross the center line, who cares anyway, we won! WE WON!
Dave & Nina (my new besties) told me that I'd won a family four-pack of tickets to go see Bodies The Exhibition - that's the exhibit where cadavers and muscles and arteries and bones are exposed and formed and on display for your viewing pleasure. I told them that The Dad had been dying to go see the exhibit. Ha! Look at me being all funny before noon! {giggle, giggle} Then Nina warned me that if we took our kids, it'd be fun and informative, but we'd certainly have some explaining to do! If only Nina knew that everywhere we go with The Daughters we have explaining to do! Usually to other patrons and the general public and not to The Daughters, but it's certainly become a way of life for The Dad and me!
I hung up and The Daughters squealed with delight! FINALLY, our quest had been achieved! We had won and won big!! Then we got quiet and listened to me sounding like a dork on the radio. What do you know? Daughter 2 was right.
The the phone rang again. We got silent thinking Dave and Nina were calling back to tell us that we were not winners at all. I snagged up the phone, relieved to hear FloJo's voice.
"I wasn't sure it was you," FloJo said, "Then I heard you giggle, you big dork! So, when are you going to go see naked bodies?"
"I think we'll go this weekend..."
To be continued...
