Driving, driving, and driving... Oh, and did I mention the driving?!!

Seeing how I live in suburbia, you might think that I actually live close to the places that I frequent. You might think that, but you would be wrong. To illustrate my point, here is a record of my driving today...

7:45 am- Drive Young Son to his elementary school for the first day of 5th grade. Bring Teenage Daughter with us, since she has to go to Freshman orientation at 9am. (6.49 miles)

8:30 am- Wish Young Son a happy first-day-of-school and drive Teenage Daughter to our high school. (4.79 miles)

8:45 am- After dropping Teenage Daughter off, return home to pick up Teenage Son for a breakfast date. (4.1 miles)

9:30 am- With Teenage Son behind the wheel, drive to Hobee's for a mother/son breakfast date. (3.08 miles)

10:45 am- Continuing with Teenage Son in the driver's seat, leave the restaurant and go to our local, cheap haircut joint for a much needed summer-is-officially-over-it's-time-to-get-the-hair-out-of-your-eyes-especially-when-you're-learning-how-to-drive haircut. (2.69 miles)

11:20 am- Return home with newly shorn Teenage Son and await Teenage Daughter's phone call informing me that she is ready to be picked up from Freshman orientation. (4.15 miles)

12:00 pm- Having received said phone call, return to high school to pick up Teenage Daughter. (3.68 miles)

12:15 pm- Return home while listening to Teenage Daughter give a detailed report of how insipid delightful orientation was. Spend next two hours checking email and doing household chores. (4.1 miles)

2:30 pm- Tag teaming with Hubby, drop Teenage Son off at orthodontist. Hubby will pick him up when app't is finished and drop him at cross-country practice. (4 miles)

2:45 pm- Drive from orthodontist back to elementary school to pick Young Son up from school. (6.6 miles)

3:10 pm- Drive Young Son home so that he can have a quick snack and get changed for soccer practice. (6.84 miles)

4:15 pm- Turn around and drive Young Son back to his elementary school where soccer practice is being held. (6.49 miles)

4:40 pm- After picking up uniform from team manager, leave Young Son at soccer practice and head over to Target to pick up much needed laundry detergent and toilet paper. (only 1.2 miles!)

5:00 pm- Teenage Son calls to let me know that cross-country practice is over and he's ready to be picked up. Finish in checkout line and drive to high school. (6.43 miles)

5:20 pm- Pick up sweaty, stinky son and drive him home so that he can take a much needed shower before dinner. (4.1 miles) Wait a minute- this kid's running CROSS COUNTRY! Can't he just RUN home? Sure he's already run up and down hills repeatedly for the past two hours, but the kid needs to train, right?

5:30 pm- Pull into driveway as I wave to hubby, who is now pulling out and driving Teenage Daughter to her Algebra tutoring session. Push Teenage Son out of car and back out of driveway. Get back on the freeway, in what is now rush hour traffic, in order to pick Young Son up from soccer practice (6.49 miles)

6:10 pm- Load Young Son into my second home SUV and return home for a few minutes before dinner. (6.84 miles)

6:50 pm- Head to our local family-run Mexican restaurant for dinner since I've obviously had NO time to cook anything. Meet Hubby and Teenage Daughter there when her session is finished. (1.68 miles)

8:00 pm- After eating dinner, walk to Carvel's ice cream for dessert. Return home with what I hope to be the last car ride of the day. (1.74 miles)

So that's how my day went- 85.49 miles. With gas being forty-thousandish dollars a gallon, and since this is only the beginning of soccer and cross-country seasons, you can see that it could really start to add up... Franky, just thinking about it all is exhausting! As a matter of fact, I think I need to go spend some much deserved time in front of the TV to watch the Olympics. And while I'm there, I think I'll make some phone calls and see if anyone wants to do some carpooling.

Although if taxi-ing children was an Olympic sport. I'd be a strong contender for the gold!