It is now 4:20am. I have officially been awake for just over an hour. In less than 45 minutes I have to get up and get ready for work.

What the heck am I doing typing an entry at this hour?

Punkin stirred and cried out around 3:00am. Apparently one of her books had slipped off her bed and onto the floor. Hubby got up, retrieved her book, "coveyed" her again with her blanket and got two kisses for his effort (from what I heard). I was pleased that I didn't have to get out of my nice warm comfy place, but then realized that I had to get up to answer nature's call, and have been up since. I decided to try to do something constructive with my time, so I'm here. If I fell asleep now, I'd only be more tired, and cranky on top of it, when the alarm went off anyway. That will be in 40 minutes.

So, I'm up earlier than I wanted to be, but I'm writing an entry, so that's good. Life is a bunch of mixed blessings isn't it?

I wasn't able to accomplish a lot of things on my "to do" list at work yesterday, but I did make a fairly good dent in it, and the day passed quickly.

I was able to extract Punkin from school yesterday in under 15 minutes, which must be some sort of record. (Actually, the "picking up process" has gotten a lot smoother since they put that Little Tikes slide out of sight. It was sitting in the middle of the common area at the school, and couldn't be avoided if you were coming or going. That added at least 10 minutes to each dropping off and picking up.)

So, we got home earlier than usual.

Punkin and Hubby entertained themselves while I cooked the vittles, so dinner was ready earlier than usual.

Punkin ate some fruit and a few bites of her pork chops before pronouncing herself done with dinner. Hubby and I had just finished as well, so dinner was over with earlier than usual.

Then Punkin ran out of good temperament. It just faded away. Suddenly there were tears that wouldn't stop coming from her eyes, her hands were in her mouth like she was trying to get her teeth out, and nothing we did consoled her. What set it off? She wanted a "muffin." (For our purposes, a muffin is a Gerber Graduate snack bar.) "The Parents" calmly told her that since she didn't finish her dinner, she couldn't have a muffin.

An hour later she was finally calming down. Yes, I said an HOUR later. Nothing worked. Not hugs. Not a nice warm, bubbly bath, nothing. We came downstairs to visit Daddy and there were a few moments of quiet. Then something set her off again, and we decided that maybe it was bedtime. She actually took the news quite well, considering it was about 30-45 minutes before her standard bedtime. She was crying and I had to carry her up the stairs, but she went to bed without a "struggle," and we didn't hear a peep out of her until 3:00am.

I suddenly found myself with "extra time" and I took advantage of it. I uploaded a few changes to some pages around here and submitted a request to join a webring. Then Hubby and I headed off to bed ourselves. I was asleep before 10:00pm. That's something else that doesn't happen too often.

A quick check of the clock tells me I only have about 15 minutes left before our alarm goes off, and my day begins. I can only imagine what the day has in store for us, but one thing is for sure, it will mostly be filled with good. A little bad will be sprinkled throughout for flavor.