Travel Tips

Here are just a few things that happened to us over the years.

1. Our five year old insisted on packing his own suitcase. I let him but then at the last minute I checked it. He had his swimsuit and toothbrush. That was it. I helped him finish packing and then he still managed to leave the suitcase at home.

Do a luggage check before you pull out of the driveway. It might slow you down a little but it will save you time and money later.

2. The worst vacation was the year one son started vomiting about half way to Florida. By the time we arrived another one was sick. We all ended up with it and spent most of the vacation fighting over the bathroom.

The only advice I can give you on this one is take barf bags and medicine with you. One son was asthmatic so we traveled with a nebulizer and inhalers for a lot of years. I always kept the medicine bag up front to make it easier to reach.

3. One year one son was playing in the ocean and got stung by something. We thought it was a jellyfish but when it kept hurting and didn’t get better we had to find an emergency room.

When you get where you are going check out where the local clinics and hospitals are. Hopefully you won’t need them, but if you do it will save time if you have an address.

4. Back in the day vans did not come equipped with movie screens and head phones. To keep our kids quiet we had a small television with a built in VCR that we plugged into the cigarette lighter and sat on top of a cooler.

It was years before I realized what idiots we were for doing this. DO NOT have objects in your car or van that could become jet propelled in the event of a crash. Even small suitcases can be dangerous if you have to stop suddenly. Keep everything in the trunk or the carrier except small items (and kids of course-lol) We were stupid and got away with it, but just the thought of what might have happened makes me sick to my stomach.

5. Don’t forget the sunscreen. One year I missed son number two’s ears. They burned and he spent the whole vacation crying every time someone (or something…like a shirt) touched his ears. The tops of children’s feet burn easily too.

6. Keep a sense of humor. I can’t stress this one enough. Kids are kids and they are going to challenge your patience. Ours fought over everything from who sat where, to who got the last cookie in the box.  The year the twins were toddlers none of the older children wanted to sit next to them.

“I sat next to them last year,” said the son who had the burned ears, “and they had dirty diapers in Tennessee and mom didn’t change them until we got to Alabama!”

That wasn’t true, but years later it’s still fun to laugh about.

So take a camera and take the kids on vacation. It’s worth it. I promise.

We still go to the beach every summer but it's so much easier now than when they were little!

Add this article to:

Things I had forgotten

1. I no longer have the luxury of uninterrupted writing time. I write a paragraph, change a diaper, write a paragraph, fix a bottle. Doesn’t do much for the flow of my thoughts but it keeps the baby happy!

2. The mess. Okay, so maybe I haven’t really forgotten how much mess a baby makes. I did have five, but I guess I repressed the memory of how much chaos one little person can create. You can’t walk five steps in any direction of my house without seeing bottles, diapers and baby paraphernalia.

3. Which reminds me of something else I had forgotten… how all the baby stuff totally takes over your house. This child has bassinets, baskets, swings, and do-dads galore!

And how the contraptions have changed. My babies had a wind up swing that rocked them about as long as it took them to get to sleep. Then I would rewind it, wake them up and repeat the process over and over. If I remember correctly I had bulging biceps in my right arm from winding up that swing.

My granddaughter’s swing plugs in, swings side to side, has rotating birdies that float overhead and with a touch of a button she can have either lullaby music, birdies tweeting, night sounds (crickets and frogs) or the ocean. Now that’s what I call advancements in technology!

4. How many diapers they can go through in a day. Did you know that they make diapers with a little stripe down the center of them that changes colors when the baby wets them? Who wants to leave a wet diaper on a baby? When I had children I could plead ignorance and say I didn’t know they were wet. No more. By the end of the day the Diaper Genie is running over.  Some inventor in a diaper factory is getting very rich.

5. Finally,I had forgotten the sweet smell of baby breath, the softness of their skin and hair. The amazing sound of their cooing. How tiny their little toes are.

I had forgotten what it felt like to fall in love again.

It’s wonderful and this nana is loving her new job.

My New Boss!

Add this article to:

“Aren’t you up yet?” he asked.

“No,” I mumbled sleepily. “What time is it?”

When he told me, I said a quick goodbye and ran to the bathroom. A glance in the mirror told me I shouldn’t have gone to bed with my hair damp. My bangs looked like I had spikes growing out of my forehead. When I was little my mother would give my bangs a spit bath to make them lie down, but I wasn’t that desperate. I turned the water on and splashed it on my face and hair. It didn’t look much better but at least it wasn’t sticking straight out.

I grabbed the clothes I’d worn to church the day before and put them back on. Next I scooped up the basics from my makeup arsenal and threw them in my purse to take with me. I looked with longing at the coffee pot as I ran through the kitchen, pausing only long enough to grab three chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. By the time I arrived at work I’d eaten my cookies, slicked down my bangs (again), and put on some makeup.

After I’d been at work about an hour I took a bathroom break. As I was washing my hands, I looked in the mirror above the sink and promptly burst out laughing. My 3-year-old granddaughter had spent Saturday night with me, and Abby loves to play in my makeup. Obviously she’d taken my blush brush and swiped it through the blue eye shadow. My cheeks were blue!

Later I saw one of my first-period students and asked him why he didn’t tell me.

“I didn’t notice,” he replied.

Another student said she thought it was a bruise and didn’t want to embarrass me by asking how it happened.

This teacher has learned her lessons. Don’t go to bed with my hair damp unless I want to look like a porcupine, when Bill is traveling set two alarms in case one doesn’t go off, and never ever apply makeup without benefit of a lighted mirror and my eyeglasses.

I wrote this post a few years ago. My students were 7th graders….they are now high school juniors. Unbelievable how time flies!

For all my teacher friends, hang on…summer is almost here!

Add this article to:

“How did you know?”  my daughter asked.

“Because I cried every time you and your brothers got your shots.”

My daughter inherited my hormones and my ability to squirt tears like the water hose the boys ran over with the lawn mower.

Happy 1st Mother's Day to my daughter Rachel! You are an awesome mommy and we love you so much!

Sunday is Mother’s Day and for every mom whose mother is no longer alive, it’s a bittersweet day.

While I will think about my mom I also want to thank God for the honor of being a mother. Next to the day I married the love of my life, nothing else compares to bringing home a new baby.

I can still see the tiny bundles wrapped in blankets and tucked snuggly inside the Moses’ basket my mom gave me at my baby shower. Each one of my babies came home in that basket, including the twins who now are so big their feet wouldn’t even fit inside it!

I am and always will be a sentimental sop, so years ago when I read Erma Bombeck’s “Wet Oatmeal Kisses” poem I boo-hooed. But I took it to heart and did my best to treasure every single moment of the motherhood journey.

If you’ve never read it grab a box of tissue and enjoy. Happy Mother’s Day Moms and Happy NanaHood Nanas…Enjoy the journey!

WET OATMEAL KISSES

by Erma Bombeck

This was written in response to a young mother’s complaint about the house being messy and the children being unruly.

The baby is teething;
The children are crying.
Your husband just called and said “Eat dinner without me.”

One of these days you’ll explode and shout to the kids,
“Why don’t you grow up and act your age?”
And they will.
Or “You guys get outside and find yourself something to do,”
and “don’t slam the door”
And they don’t.

You’ll straighten their bedrooms all neat and tidy;
toys displayed on the shelf;
Hangers in the closet; animals caged.
You’ll yell, “Now I want it to stay this way.”
And it will.

You’ll yell, “I want complete privacy on the phone — no screaming!
Do you hear me?”
And no one will answer.

No more plastic tablecloths with stains of spaghetti.
No more dandelion bouquets.
No more iron-on patches.
No more wet knotted shoelaces,
muddy boots, or rubberbands for ponytails.
Imagine a lipstick with a point!

No babysitter for New Year’s Eve.
Washing clothes only once a week.
No PTA meetings or silly school plays where your child is a tree.
No car pools, blaring stereos, or forgotten lunch money.
No more Christmas presents made of library paste and toothpicks.
No wet oatmeal kisses.
No more tooth fairy.
No more giggles in the dark, scraped knees to kiss
or sticky fingers to wash.

Only a voice asking – “Why don’t you grow up?”
And a silent echo — “I did.”

Add this article to: