Clothes Monster

WooHoo it's a little chilly in Texas. So this morning officially started with my 12 year old coming in to my room in a panic, "Mom it's 6:45 where's my jacket?" Many thoughts came to my brain all at once, things like 'I didn't wear it' and 'you should have left the house already, the bus will be hear in 2 minutes' and 'you only have one jacket, and you wore it all last week, what happened over the weekend that caused it to mysteriously disappear?' And there were more thoughts, but Spencer's panic over shadowed the thinking and I went into 'get the kid out the door, so I don't have to drive him to school' mode. I found a sweater in his drawer, a nice sweater mind you, and told him to put it on. As he is giving me a count down "Mom, it's 6:47! " and then he had the preteen age nerve to say "I can't wear that, it's not...'Me'" oh puke I thought, but needless to say, the mother look prevailed and I won. Sweater and all, the boy got off to school.
After having sent the 6 year-old back to bed at 6:20(he was up looking at Pokemon cards with his big brother, oh wait, is this maybe the cause of the 6:45 panic? hmmm suspicious) I thought I might be lucky enough to sleep for another 45 min. But that whole jacket thing and ya know... I did however get to nap a little between 6:50 and 7:10. That's when the 8 and 6 year old get up for school. Their bus leaves around 7:55. So I woke them up. There didn't seem to be any major wardrobe malfunctions until 7:45... and it was "Mom I can't find my jacket" from the 6 year-old. I did, however, know where his green pullover from last year was. "There's a jacket upstairs hanging in your closet." As we waited for him to go get it, I looked at my daughter and said, "Little do they know I'm a clothes monster. I put on all of their clothes at night, including all of the missing socks and jackets, and then I walk around the house and hide them like the Easter Bunny hides the eggs. " She looked at me wide eyed. " You do?" ...I wanted to say no that's your daddy's job but instead I said, "No, honey, I don't." She looked relieved, then got the joke and chuckled a little. And we wonder why our kids are sarcastic. I would like that to be the only punch line for this blog, but like my life 'it ain't over yet'. Now I didn't think there would be any other issues around the jackets... and then I hear this whine "I don't like this one, I don't want to wear it" I don't remember what exactly happened next, all I know is that the two of them were out the door. The six year-old in his green jacket.
Finally, now I could relax and call my husband (who works nights offshore (I'll explain that later)) to vent and focus on the 4 kids still at home. Not two minutes later. The front door opens. "Phillip's mom said we missed the bus!" Ha ha mom jokes on you. And because it's chilly in Texas, I couldn't just throw all the other kids in the car as is. They all had to have JACKETS
Good day to ya.