Opening Doors

I went to the mall recently for an uncharacteristic shopping trip for my most recent business travel.  I was alone; I didn't even carry a purse, just a wallet; I didn't have a timeline to be home.

 

I opened doors for three women with strollers and one person in a wheelchair with a spring in my step and a smile on my face.  That was the best part of shopping. 

Our New Lawn Furniture

Saturday: We arrived to an empty, new home.  Excited to get our stuff on Monday, but prepared for it to be delayed to Tuesday.  We were fresh, and ready, and excited.

Sunday: Hurt a little getting up out of the air mattress in the morning, but the thought that our stuff  might arrive tomorrow kept us going!  So we took advantage of our free day to go shop lawn furniture sales. 

Monday: Morning sprung, but we hadn't heard that our stuff would arrive.  No worries, we put up our lawn furniture in the sun room.  A cute, multi-purpose lounging and eating/gathering room for the next day--just till our stuff arrived.  The Internet was connected, so who needed anything else?  A pan to cook, please--we had some frozen meals.  My back hurt a little from the air mattress, so I opted for sleeping on the floor.

Tuesday: The moving company called yesterday, and the truck was still in Houston on Monday for routine maintenance.  We'd get our stuff on Wednesday.  We decided to pass the time at a local home and garden store.  I bought a tree, and added it to our little furniture collection. One more night on the floor, no problem.

Wednesday: I awoke to my daily double Alleve, thanked Patric for insisting that we take the coffee pot with us in the car, and then I threw a little sarcastic thank you at him for moving us here.  No worries, our stuff would come today!  Then the moving company called: the truck was broken down, in Houston.  After a few words flung here and there and everywhere, I went for a drive because I love my family, and I didn't want to kill them.  I bought the candle and added it to our little furniture collection/everything thing we own. Oh, no they didn't have a date yet when we would actually get our stuff.  After my calming drive, I suggested to Patric that he try pulling the cushions from our lawn furniture and sleeping on them.  We put a Transformer twin sheet around three of them to hold them together, and his snoring kept me awake on the floor.

Thursday: I clawed the Alleve from the bottle before attempting to sit up. Drank two pots of coffee.  Took the kids to register for school, where we found out they wouldn't accept our records, started a week earlier than we thought, and have to wear uniforms.  Then we got kicked out of an on-post laundry facility, went to the airbase, snuck into another laundry facility, washed our collective five pieces of clothing, and may have eaten popcorn for dinner.  We huddled around the computer on our lawn furniture after figuring out how to watch DirectTV online out of desperation. The moving company called that day, they may be there Friday, probably Saturday, don't be surprised if it is Monday.  Whatever.  As we drug our lawn furniture cushions to the bedroom, Patric suggested that I give them a try.  It may have been the wild look in my eye at this point.

Friday: I awoke with no hope, but I had slept.  We put our lawn furniture back together, ate breakfast around it, watched the news, watered our plant, lit and blew out a candle, swept up the floor around our lawn furniture and cleaned it up. And then Patric took the children out to buy them stuff to make their own fairy gardens, because we were running out of ideas and our lawn furniture was not that exciting anymore.  The moving company called.  They would be there at 8:00 am the next morning.  Whatever.

Saturday: Not really excited, but at least rested, I hugged my lawn furniture cushions before rolling out of bed.  We didn't bother to wake the children, because we didn't really believe our stuff was arriving.  So when it did arrive, we were pretty much still in our pajamas with skeptical looks in our eyes.  As things rolled off the truck, we realized it really was our stuff, and so started three days of unpacking and rearranging.  The lawn furniture is now where it belongs, on the patio, getting soaked in the rain.  Hallelujah

Well We Have That Out of the Way

Road Trip Number 1 with one mommy and four children.

(Notice I said number 1 as if there will be more to follow in the future.)

And really, it was to meet daddy, and on the return we caravanned home in two cars.

It was a good trip for cutting our teeth, which is good because this past weekend his unit announced the formal activation orders for the end of the year. But that's another story all together.

When we met daddy late Saturday, the first order of business was to go swimming. Benjamin is actually getting the hang of it.

But before we got there, we had to get there. So being a planner, I ran everyone around all morning Saturday wearing them out, letting them skirmish, letting them play in the backyard with the water hose in their pajamas. Saturday morning felt like breathing wool here in the Mid-South, so their pajamas didn't stay on long. And after we were sufficiently worn out, we had lunch and packed up for the road.

The ladies are very fond of swimming so far. Nicholas is a bit more reserved about being in the water and not his usual animated self.

Once we hit the road, I was confident a good nap would at least claim the girls and a movie would occupy the boys. Elaine was asleep before we left the driveway, which may have had something to do with the half an hour I spent after buckling everyone in running back and forth to the house after remembering things like swimming suits, sippy cups, Elaine's blanket, and on and on. I was ready for a nap too by then. Half an hour into the trip I was able to have a quiet conversation with my parents and brother on the phone while girls slept and boys watched Spiderman. This was easy.

Saturday night in the hotel we played musical beds. Put the girls on the air mattress, us in the bed between, the boys on the right. You want to sleep with Alida Ben? Whatever. Okay, we'll sleep over here. No, Nicholas, oh forget it, you can sleep on the air mattress. Of course you can too Ben. We'll put the girls in the other bed. Oh, they're screaming. Okay, you take one, I have the other. And that is how we landed, girls sideways on the beds kicking us in the face and pushing on us all night long.



Patric claims that he had one foot of space the entire night. I claim that Elaine was doing round-about kicks with staggering flexibility until at least 5 in the morning.

An hour into the road trip, Nicholas announces he needs to potty. I pull off the road. Judge me here if you must, but this was the plan: Pull to the way back of the Dairy Queen near an empty lot where there were no cars, if the girls didn't wake up when the car stopped, I was going to let Nicholas slip out to the bushes and do his business and we'd be on our way. The moment the car stopped, the girls eyes blinked open ruining that plan.

The boys, of course, slept well. Nicholas popped up like a ground hog from behind the bed the second his father closed the door to go in to work on Sunday morning at 6:30. We had a well mannered breakfast at the hotel and then walked around the hotel on the baggage cart for a good hour.


Back on the road, our fate was sealed with a trip into Dairy Queen to visit the potty and then, because you have to after using their bathroom, buy something messy to eat. We shuffled in and crossed the line of people waiting to order so we could get to the bathroom. The girls were cranky from just waking up, so I had one in each arm and was directing boys towards the door. While about 12 people in line just stared at us, one nice man stepped out of line to open the woman's room door for us. They thankfully had a sizable handicapped stall we all fit into without anyone having to scrape up against a nasty wall.

Daddy rescued us later Sunday morning to head off to National Guard Family Day, but not before we stopped at McDonalds and let them play for half an hour while we had a cup of coffee and planned our strategy for the event and the ride home later in the day.


Back at Dairy Queen, it took no time at all to figure out what we would fight about in the bathroom. As Ben did his thing, Nicholas managed to sneak over to the handle of the toilet. I was making sure that the shocked look on the girls faces that seemed to have frozen them in place was still working and they weren't touching anything when I heard, "NOOOOOO!" Looking up Benjamin is now both doing his business and screaming for his brother to stop. One quick look a bit further, and I see Nicholas with a devilish grin on his face and one finger on the handle to the toilet. Benjamin begins protesting very loudly that he gets to flush. And as he makes his case, Nicholas plunges the handle. Pants down but business finished, Benjamin goes into utter melt-down mode. Quick look at the girls: they are still frozen, thank heaven. Okay. "Okay. Look Ben," I say out loud as I ready myself to take advantage of the room we're in. "You can flush for me okay? Okay?!" Nicholas is still laughing even though he who called the potty break did not produce. "Oooookay," fat bottom lip out. Disaster averted, we manage to complete our trip to the potty as a party of five.

This vehicle has too many letters to remember as an acronym for a name. But it was big and that was all that mattered.

As we exited the bathroom at DQ, I swear the same 12 people were still in line staring at us. "Are they twins?" the woman who had apparently been appointed to engage us in conversation asked. Yes.

Apparently some commanders will not allow the kids to play on the vehicles. Our daddy is not that kind of daddy, although he did not load up the machine guns with blanks and let people line up to fire them again this year. That was apparently frowned upon when he let everyone do that two years ago...

And so after DQ we stopped at the next three exits because of some drama of some sort. After that I deemed that we would not be stopping anymore and we did scream our way across our state that day through rain and all. And we made it there, and we made it back.

And I'm guessing we'll do it again because really, it wasn't that bad.

The Morning Routine

Perfect World: We leave our blankets in the crib when we leave the crib.

What We Generally Hope For: They take their blankets to the living room with them and leave them on the couch.

This Morning: We hauled the blankets downstairs. We hauled the blankets around with us. We stomped on the blankets. We wrapped up in the blankets and tripped on the blankets. We fought over the blankets and knocked each other down. We had breakdowns loading the car and wound up taking the blankets with us and screamed when we had to release them to go into daycare.

Perfect World: They forget that liquid exists.
What We Generally Hope For: They take a cup of milk, drink it, and leave it on the couch.
This Morning: We threw down the milk and followed on any adult's heels using our new word "juice," alternating with screams. This started a general juice chant from the children. I managed to find one abandoned juice cup by the time we left; two are fermenting in the back of my car, and I will forget about them until I see someone guzzling from them on the way home tonight; and one is lost somewhere in the pile of toys.

Perfect World: We sleep until 6:00 and get ready. They sleep until 7:00 and wake up one at a time so we can get them ready in peace.
What We Generally Hope For: We sleep until 5:30 and creep around our own house. At 6:40 we divide and conquer. He goes to the boys room and gets Nicholas ready while Ben snoozes. I go to the girls room and pluck Elaine from sleep taking her downstairs to get ready while Alida snoozes.
This Morning: At 6:20 both girls start screaming to get out of jail right in the middle of him trying to eat a bowl of cereal and me doing laundry. The more leisurely act of eating was trumped by dirty laundry duty, and he got to share his meager corn flakes with the birds up there. That extra 25 minutes we generally hope for is when we get their toothbrushes ready, vitamins lined up, get cars packed, drink a cup of coffee, finish getting dressed ourselves, find all of their shoes and coats, and tune up the cartoons for the other hopeful part of our morning. We finished all of that this morning while babies chased us around screaming for juice.

Perfect World: We are greeted with smiling faces who quietly say, "Good morning mommy. I love you."
What We Generally Expect: Nicholas will wake happy. Benjamin will wake a grump. Elaine will be okay once she gets juice. And Alida (at the current time) will walk around screaming and throwing herself on the floor in various dramatic fits that have no meaning to us what-so-ever.
This Morning: Nicholas didn't want to get out of bed or anything else for that matter until he remembered that he needed to start hoarding toys, then he took off in his socks only to scream at the girls for taking his gloves, to find his Ironmen, to stuff it all in his medical kit, and then start going after Ben's comic book. Benjamin was a grump, but stayed to himself once he got some juice and a comic book. At least he stayed that way until Nicholas started a fight with him. The girls, well they were up at 6:20, and that was plenty of time for both of them to dream up dramas to fling themselves to the floor over.

Perfect World: Once we're all dressed, we watch cartoons until it is time to leave. Then we line up and head out the door.
What We Generally Expect: Someone will linger upstairs playing with toys. The other three will stay in the general area of the television with one throwing a manageable fit over something. This will give us time to get coats on, shoes on, brush teeth, and hand out vitamins.
This Morning: We scattered to the far corners of the house after getting our juice. One was off to hoard toys. One was off making a dirty diaper. One was in our faces throwing a fit. And the other was actually in front of the tv so enthralled that when it did come time to leave, he threw a fit.

Perfect World: Everyone is ready a few minutes early and lines up at the door to go to the van in an orderly fashion.
What We Generally Expect: We will be able to herd everyone out the door with perhaps one melt-down and holding two juice cups and a handful of Fruit Loops. One child will take off into the yard if it is warm enough for a bit of a chase.
This Morning: Benjamin decided he was not going to school today, so he threw a fit. Then he wanted to ride in daddy's car. No, he wanted to ride in mommy's car. No he had to go potty. OH bother. The girls threw fits until they had their blankets in hand in the car. They have also become expert in arching their backs to make it impossible to buckle them in their seats. Nicholas wanted to ride in daddy's car. So when I tried to help him into daddy's car, he threw a fit because he wanted daddy to buckle him in. The daddy that was inside taking Benjamin to the potty. When we arrived at daycare, the drive-up was full of cars, so we parked in the lot and dumped three out of the van, one out of the car, and shoved juice cups and blankets back in the van all while clutching girls to keep them from taking off across the parking lot. And we both settled into our cars hoping for a long commute this morning so that we could relax for a few extra minutes.

That's How We Roll

So you want to go to church, huh?

Pre-church rules:

1. No milk on Sunday mornings

2. You will take Dramamine if I have to hog tie you and stick it down your throat

3. You may only have a small, mild breakfast if any

4. We do not get dressed until all of this is finished.



Car Rules:

1. You will wear a bib

2. You can hold the raisins, but I will not open the box or encourage you to eat any

3. We have filled the car with extra clothes, paper towels, and a bucket in case you heave. We will clean you up and continue on our way; we know you are not sick in a stay-home sort of sick way




Finally, we will run the AC even in November, so don't go thinking you're going to get all warm and doze off back there.

Supplies Are Running Low

The supply pre-second-set-of-twins.
What do you do when you find out you have your second set of twins on the way? You start buying diapers while you still have some pretend disposable cash laying around.
The supply this morning.
What do you do when the supply runs out and you are down to your last package of diapers that the girls fit over there on the right? You buy two Potty-Me-Elmos and start dreaming of the end of diapers. And then you hit reality and go over to diapers.com and fork over some cash in the hopes that they make it to your doorstep before you run out.