I decided to let the kids spend some time with my mother this summer. Mostly, I just wanted a break from the kids really bad. Based on the fact that she doesn't have a car big enough to hold all the kids, we decided to just take a few kids at a time. We figured with Amanda and Anthony's schedules this summer it would be best to let them go first. So.......
I drove the three plus hours to my mother's house and had to spend the night (I also took Nathan and Nicholas with me), since we got there at 10:30 at night. We got to the house okay, despite a few potty breaks and a 20 minute trip (to and fro) in the wrong direction.
I was fine with them going, I was actually pretty excited about them going. I was thinking to myself how great it was going to be without having two mouthy, bratty teenagers in the house. There would be less fighting, less screaming. How wonderful that would be to enjoy for a week?!
But as I was leaving the next morning, I couldn't believe the overwhelming sense that I was missing them - I didn't even drive five minutes before I wanted to cry. When did I get to be so emotional?
Then of course the little boys made up for it by screaming and fighting with each other. And I started second guessing myself - maybe I should have let them stay with Grandma too.
The screaming continued on the way home, to the point that I got lost, again. I drove a good half hour in the wrong direction, before I turned around and backtracked to where I took the wrong turn. Fortunately by this point Nathan had fallen asleep and while I was driving around lost and panicking a little - okay, alot. I asked out loud "what should I do?" When this little voice from the back seat said "Why don't you call Grandma and ask her to help?" Thanks Nicholas! I'm glad he seems to have his father's level-headedness!!
So, back on the road an hour later, we finally found a gas station with a restroom. You wouldn't believe the number of gas stations that don't have restrooms! What the hell is up with that anyway!?! I dreaded having to wake Nathan up to run to the potty, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, if you know what I mean. Of course that meant that both boys were awake and fighting again. I just don't understand how you can have two of the same color cups, two of the same drinks, with the same kind of snacks and they still find a way to fight over which one had the better thing. It's beyond me!!
All I kept thinking about on the way home was how unprepared I was for this little adventure. I just hopped in the car and went on my merry way, without thinking ahead about taking a map with me.....Here I was with two little kids in the car, lost as could be, so lost in fact that my mother's husband who lived in that area all his life didn't have a clue where I was. And I didn't even have a map that I could look at (not that I can read a map anyway) to help me. I kept hearing Rich's voice bouncing in my head "You never think before you do anything, you just jump in with both feet and you don't think. And then when you get in trouble, you don't know how to get out of it"
It's so true! I guess I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, I never think of the consequences! I just throw myself into to something without thinking and it always leads to Rich having to bail me out. You would think that a 37 year old woman with six kids would have more sense than that! Geesh!
Only two more days until I get to do it all over again.....go me!
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