Vacation

The count down is on.  We are leaving in 10 days for our family vacation.  I cannot wait but it's snuck right up on me and now I'm in a panic to get meals planned and to make sure we have everything we need.

We go down to Lake of the Ozarks every year.  The first couple of years we went down we stayed at a family friendly resort. The owners of the resort are super nice people and we do miss going there.  But, then I found a great rental house that was perfect size for our family and a couple of friends with a washer and dryer which I don't know if I could live without now.  We are only there for a week but it's great coming home without a ton of laundry from the four of us so now I'm spoiled and won't stay anywhere without one.

The house we chose for our third year, as I said was perfect.  Unfortunately, the owners took the house off the rental program and sold the house the next year.  So the search was on for our 4th year down there for another rental home.  That year we had a lot of friends that wanted to join us.  Sounded like a great idea but let me tell you, trying to keep 4 other couples happy with their kids was the ruin of my vacation that year.  Some people just don't get what vacation is with a big group and I didn't enjoy playing cook and maid to everyone the entire week while one of  other women that went sat on her arse the entire week watching me. The house was beautiful though and the owner still sends me Christmas cards to this day which stinks as I'd love to rent from her again but all of her homes down there are 5+ bedrooms and not suited for two families of four. So, the next year I searched again for a smaller home but ended up getting asked by some friends if we wanted to stay with them so we did that.  It was a perfect house and we all loved our time there. They will be going down the same week we are again this year but have family staying with them so we are staying in our own house with 1 other couple and their kids.  This year we decided we wanted to stay back up towards the part of the lake we were familiar with so after endless searching, we found what we hope will be another perfect home to rent.   It will be our good friends with their kids that are almost the same ages as our kids staying with us. They also stayed with us last year at our other friend's place so I know we are on the same page as far as how vacation goes.

Meal ideas typically come easy to me but for some reason this year, I'm drawing a blank on easy, quick meals to prepare down there.  We of course will grill out a couple of nights but I'm at a loss on what to do the other nights.  Any suggestions would be welcome!

Catch Up Time

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've complained written about something.  It's been a busy spring for our family and I cannot wait for school to get out.  We spend most of our evenings running from field to field, my house is a disaster and I think we've taken up residence in my Tahoe.  However, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel as I count down to vacation, only 20 days away.

My biggest issue this year with the running is we have no set schedule for one of our activities. Practices are announced the night before or day of and games are moved around in a couples days notices.  This is the son's team which he is enjoying so much this year so it's hard to really get too upset about it so I just keep my mouth shut and fire up the vehicle each time.

 I am coaching my daughter's team this year and I've learned that as I get older, my patience with other people's children is growing very thin. Let me rephrase that.  I can't be upset with a 7 - 8 year old for most of their actions because someone is allowing them to act like that for the other 164 hours per week that I don't spend with them. It's really the parents I should be faulting here isn't it?  In my years of coaching I've never had a group quite like this.  Anyway, her games are going well and my parents tell me she reminds them of me when I was her age. That makes this mama proud.

Moving on, the daughter is also in dance this year again so we spend one night a week in a neighboring town doing the dance thing. She has told me she's not sure if she wants to commit to dance again next year because it's taking up too much of her softball time this year.  She is and I think will always be my little tomboy. She'd much rather be sliding into home vs. having her hair curled and having to put on a cute little outfit to perform in. She asked me the other night if she could just quit dance and I told her that's not possible. We need to finish what we started and she only has 2 weeks left until the recital.  Something happened 3 weeks ago at dance that made her change her mind about it.  I haven't figured out what happened but since that practice, she hasn't wanted to go back.

So with all of that going on, and running almost every night, we did find time to get some much need projects done around the house in the last month which felt great!  Any other off time has been spent trying to keep piles of clothes going through the washer and dryer and trying to stop by the store to at least have a gallon of milk in the house at all times.  Only 3 more weeks though and this chick is taking some much needed time off!

Why There Should Be A Test or License to Be A Parent

It seems in the past few months, I've seen quite a few stories of terrible parents and wondered why is it we have to pass a test and get a license to drive a car but not to raise a child?

Some of the stories I've seen are listed below:

Florida Mom Scalds Baby  source: foxnews.com
Baby's Room Grow House  source: huffingtonpost.com
US Marshals Capture Des Moines Man accused of sexual abuse  source: desmoinesregister.com
Iowa mom accused of drowning 15 month old son  source: desmoinesregister.com
Woman Guilty of Child Abuse  source: 10news.com
Father killed three month old  source: dailymail.com

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are so many other stories out there of innocent children, murdered or abused at the hands of their own parent(s).  I just don't get it. Why is there not a class that we have to take at least stating the obvious ways to keep our children safe? Why is there not a test we have to take showing that we understand that it's not ok to punish your children by putting them under scalding water?  Yes, these are all things we should know but we should all know to stop at the red octagon sign as well but we still have to take a test to prove we know it.

Ok, reality is, I know there will never be a test.  I know that there are always going to be bad parents and unfortunately, more children are going to be abused and/or killed by their irresponsible parents but what is the answer then?  We've had awareness groups for years and I whole-heartedly stand behind them rooting them on but it seems that's not working.  What else can we do?  Tougher penalties for offenders.  Tougher laws on the books not allowing these parents to have more children?  What's the answer?

The Ultimate Blog Party 2012

Check out the Ultimate Blog Party 2012 at 5minutesformom.com.  If you have linked here from their site, a big Welcome!

I am a mom of 2 great kids who try my patience at times but I don't know what I'd do without them.  I am fairly new to the blogging world but love being able to put my own thoughts out there.  I'd love to have more feedback whether it's positive or negative as I believe everyone should be able to use their voice.

Thanks for checking my blog out!

What a pill.

A few months ago, my son was prescribed a pill form of an antibiotic.  I didn't think anything of it as this was the first antibiotic he'd been prescribed since he was a toddler and at that age, they get the liquid form.  What a nightmare it turned out to be for him.

As I gave him the first pill to take that morning, he gagged, threw up a little and finally, after 20 minutes of this, got it down.  That night, we tried it again only to have him again gag and spit the water out of his mouth he was trying to take it with.  Again, after about 20 minutes, he finally got it down.  At this point I'm thinking that he's just over thinking this and psyching himself out.  He's taking a small pill for crying out loud. We continue doing this the rest of the weekend (with the same results) until it comes to Monday morning.  On this morning it's so bad that now the pill is starting to break down where it gets chalky and I know there is no way we are going to get much further now.  I kept chalking it up to him being stubborn and just not wanting to take it.

Not my son but the same look on  his face when I handed him the antibiotic.

Then I talked to some friends.  Apparently there are many people in the world that cannot take pills. I never knew this.  So my question is, what do teenagers and adults do that can't take pills?  Do doctor's prescribe liquid forms for headache relief, antibiotics, or any other medication that typically comes in pill form?  Is this problem something my 12 year old will grow out of?

Our Understated Birthday Party

So, my hubby finally started feeling better and we were able to have my son's birthday party last weekend (I know, bad mom it was a week late).  We let him choose 6 of his friends to have over and then let his little sis have a friend over to keep her out of the boys' hair. The day was such a success.

The kids all showed up around 1:00pm and after a short "rules" meeting headed up by my hubby, they were off on their 4-wheelers.  The girls on the other hand, decided they wanted to do other things not with the boys.  Perfect, my plan actually worked for once!

The boys rode for the rest of the afternoon and since they were doing so well following the rules my hubby decided to take them to a different farm that he said they'd have even more fun at.  Little did I know the translation for "even more fun" meant a 10' x 15' mud hole.  As the girls and I made our way down there we quickly discovered just how much more fun the boys were having.  Most were already covered in mud from their helmets to their boots.  Good thing I told the parents to send a change of clothes.  The 5 other dads that wanted to supervise this party were having just as much fun as the boys I think.  They were laughing uncontrollably every time one of the boys would hit the mud hole.  Yeah thanks jerks, are you laughing because they are having fun or that I'll be the one cleaning this shit up?   The girls decided they wanted to get involved and off they went so now I have 9 kids covered in mud.  This will be interesting when we get back to our house.  All went well though.  We all made it back to our house and the other dads helped the hubby spray most of the mud off the kids before they were instructed to head into the house, one at a time to jump in the shower.  After everyone had made it back into clean clothes (thank goodness they actually brought some), it was time to start feeding these hungry boys.  We always take the easy way out and grill hamburgers and hot dogs.  It gets the boys fed quickly and clean up is a breeze.

This is not ours but looks very similar to what we saw!

Once everyone got done eating the boys disappeared to the basement to play some pool and darts while the girls decided to head upstairs to do their own thing again.  I couldn't believe how easy this was.  Why don't we always just have all of the boys over at once instead of having one over every other weekend?  Then I remembered why.  There was very little sleeping at our house that night.  Two of the boys decided they were going to stay up all night and most of the others didn't actually go to sleep until the early morning hours.  I got up at my normal time of 5:30am expecting to have a room full of hungry boys within the hour.  Yep, that didn't happen.  So I started up load #2 of muddy clothes so everything would be washed and dried by the time the boys left.  Around 8:00am I could hear them start moving around upstairs and knew that was my cue to start breakfast.  Yep, I took the easy way out again and made them bacon, pancakes and eggs. Quick and easy to fix and fills them up.  The assembly line of boys came down and within minutes were scarfing down everything I had made. Have you ever fed 7 growing boys?  Dear lord, I think every one of them has a hollow leg.  Crap, I've got the girls to feed still so off I go to make up some more.

We made it through breakfast and as I'm cleaning up I look in the living room only to see 5 of the 7 boys looking like they had just got done eating a Thanksgiving meal and about ready for their nap. Yep boys, that's what staying up all night (for the most part) does to you.  We let them boys hang out for a few hours in the morning and decided to start rounding them up to take them home around 11:00am. Of course, nobody wanted to leave but at this point, I'm exhausted, my son is about ready to fall asleep and the hubby looks like he took the red eye flight home last night.  Fortunately, one of the dads shows back up in the morning to help us get the 4-wheelers hosed off and loaded and volunteers to take a couple of the boys home for us.  Everyone is delivered home by 11:30am and as the boy walks back into the house, he doesn't miss a beat taking off his shoes, heading to the living room and crashing right there on the couch.

All of this fun and I didn't get any cutesy decorations, didn't need a 3 tier cake, didn't bother with gift bags for the boys to go home with, and didn't have catered food in the shape of any animal or character.  What I did do was just let them have fun and all for less than $150 for 9 kids - overnight.

So:

Drinks for the boys:   $30.00

Food for the boys:     $55.00
Gas for 4 wheelers:    $35.00
Laundry Detergent:    $10.00
Knowing that they couldn't stop talking about the party all day yesterday at school:  Priceless.

When Two Is Enough

When does it ever end with family/friends.  I have two beautiful children who sometimes drive me up a wall but I love dearly.  My oldest just turned 12 and my youngest is 7.  Who in their right mind would think I would want to start all over and have a baby?

I really thought my hubby and I were past the point with family and friends and the lingering question of, "when are you going to have another"  but just recently the question reared it's ugly head once again.  Are these people serious?  So, here are my top ten reasons why I am not interested in having another child. Selfish as they may be.

1.  I didn't enjoy pregnancy and have no desire to have another tiny human in my body ever again.

2.  I didn't enjoy the infant stage. All they do is eat, sleep and poop.

3.  I'm glad to be done with daycare and to have more money to spend on actual fun time with my family vs. paying it to someone else to enjoy my children while I am at work.

4.  I enjoy my sleep.  I have no desire to start midnight feedings again nor do I miss changing crappy diapers in the middle of the night.

5.  I can go to a store without hauling around the dinosaur sized infant seat.

6.  I can take friends/family  in my car now without having to remove the car seats that, once they are in, are virtually impossible to get out.  Then you have to try to get them back in again.  Ugh!

7.  I don't have to climb over safety gates, worry about small decorations being down to low or worry about if I got the child safety latch back on the cupboard with the cleaning supplies on it.

8.  I don't have to lug a bag full of formula, diapers, burp cloths, etc. with me everywhere I go now.

9.  I like being able to talk to my children so I know what is wrong with them.  The guessing game before they could talk drove me batty.

10.  I'm almost 38 years old and my hubby is over 40.  Enough said.

Don't get me wrong.  I enjoy other people's babies for a limited amount of time but don't think my old, tired body is ready for another one of my own.