leaving on a jet plane...

Getting ready for any trip is stressful but traveling BY MYSELF + one on an airplane seems harder for me! Having to maneuver around the airport, check in, get baggage plus mind a two year that has a mind of her own, UGH! You see I am leaving the tribe, well 3/4ths of it behind! Miss Camryn & I are heading to MN to visit one of my BESTEST friends for the long weekend. Marisa & I have known one another since I was 4 days old! Can you believe that!? Our friendship has spanned the test of time! We have MANY a story to tell about one another! It was not a hard choice to have her & her hubby Paul to be Camryn's Godparents. In fact they will be the ones to care for them in case something happens to us. That's another story for another day. So being they hold such an important role in Cam's life it was VERY important that I get her up there for a visit! It is our plan that each of them will soon get to visit their Godparents!
I am excited but sad at the same time! Excited to be visiting one of my BEST friends but sad that I have to leave 5 people behind! I must say that I have been trying to plan this trip ever since BQ, before quads. EVERYTHING & ANYTHING has gotten in the way that is until now! I told my hubby that I needed this trip or I was gonna go CRAZY! He obliged me & is taking care of the rest of the tribe till I get back! YAY! What a WONDERFUL hubby I have! LOVE him! Packing for me + one was VERY difficult! At least when I pack for the tribe I know I'll have extras since there's 4 of them! But when I'm just packing for one, I get worried! What if I forget something? Uh oh! At least we're not going to Siberia & where there is civilization there are stores! Especially the Mall of the America's! I just won't tell Daddy what I forgot! haha! I am just SO psyched to be...
leaving on a jet plane...

the things I know for sure (part 2)...

Since becoming a mommy I have learned quite a few interesting things. Things that I may not have learned if I was not "taught" by my children. LOL! Here goes... The things I know for sure are... That I NEVER give the "tribe" rice for dinner without already knowing that they will throw it EVERYWHERE!... In order to not have a ton of laundry they need to be bibbed at ALL times!... That in order for us to have a good experience when we go out to eat we need to have their pocket bibs with us. They seem to catch EVERY crumb & serve as their plates!... ALWAYS have a travel container of wipes with you so messy faces & sticky hands can be wiped!... That even though their quad stroller is one MAJOR pain in the neck it gets the job done!... That most stores do not have enough stroller room for one stroller let alone a quad stroller!... When traveling hide a stash of small toys in the vehicle just to keep them amused!... That books are not only for reading but eating too! LOL!... That telling them you caught a bug will make them come to you EACH & EVERY time!... Never leave an open container out in the open or we will have a HUGE spill to clean up!... The tribe LOVES paper, any kind EXCEPT that which they sit on at the doctors office! LOL!... That certain seats in the 'burb are PRIME real estate & do NOT try to change the unassigned seating arrangement without a fight!... ALWAYS have another diaper under their bum when you are changing a poopy diaper!... and getting with the poopy theme I can now wipe a dirty bum with just ONE wipe! YEP!... That raising multiples is more expensive than I ever thought & VERY hard work!... Be prepared because people will ask MANY questions about our life... AND that no matter what I say people are going to have their own opinion about our "tribe"... These are...

the things I know for sure(part 2)...

Road Trip May '09...

We took the tribe on a "Road Trip" last week. We actually planned this for quite awhile. You see my niece Katie, the one I took everywhere as a baby, was graduating high school! We just had to be there. Michael worked EXTRA just to cover the expense of the trip. He is such a good doobie! We love him SO much!! Going to her graduation makes me think of mine, had to believe that it was almost 21 years ago that I had my own graduation. NO way!! I still feel like a "spring chicken"! LOL! For those of you that know me personally.. Katie is the niece that I babysat from birth until her 1st birthday and then they moved away to GA! She was my best bud & we have a special bond. She has such a beautiful heart & I love her so! Hard to believe she is all grown up and graduating high school! YIKES! This is going to be a LONG trip with 4 toddlers but we just have to be there when she gets that diploma! (= I packed up the 'burb & off we went, GA or bust! Even Grandma went with us on this adventure! We tried to keep them occupied as we drove. Sometimes it was easy other times it was HARD! They crave attention! There was only 1 of me to go around so I amused them however I could. There was even a time I sat in the BACK of the 'burb. This was quite the feat! People driving by probably wondered what some GROWN woman was doing climbing over seats & sitting in my kids laps. YES I was in their laps! hahah! ANYTHING to make my kids HAPPY! (= We even searched for FUN play areas for them to stretch their legs. This trip sparked an interest in me to write a book on cool kid places to visit! That's ANOTHER story! LOL! Overall the kiddos did great. Remember, I have high expectations. I wanted them to appreciate the view, sit in THEIR seats & never fuss. What was I thinking? They are 2 year olds!! One important detail you all need to know is that we took them on this adventure WITHOUT even a DVD player. What can I say, I am a product of my upbringing! We would just play games, read or play the I spy game. I can remember my dad giving the first kid to spot the Washington Monument a quarter! That was BIG money back then! hahah! I cannot wait till they are older so we can play the ABC game, check out license plates or even play car BINGO. {I found this game at Restoration Hardware} Another reason no DVD was that they are not really movie watchers anyway. I know, I know, a DVD player is a "Must have" when travelling with tot's. Not us! We were roughing it! I'm sure if you ask my hubby he will say NEVER again! LOL! There we were singing, "reading" books & eventually throwing balls around the 'burb. Brendan LOVED that! He had this nerf football & a tennis ball that he would throw up to the front of the 'burb. Then Daddy & Grandma would throw them back to him. He would laugh & laugh. Laughter is SO much better than crying anyday! We also had a few "new" car toys that we inherited from my cousin. One was this lacing toy. It was this THICK cardboard bunny that you lace w/ shoelaces. That lasted quite awhile & they each had unique ways to lace it that was until they ATE it! Yes, they ate the cardboard bunny! They will eat practically ANYTHING!! There are knawed on things all over this place! You'd think we were raising animals!! LOL! Our trip lasted about 11 hours if you included the few "pit" stops. Daddy made great time! Being that we arrived on Thursday night we took them to the Atlanta Aquarium on Friday. It is unlike most aquariums. One of the tanks sort of reminded me of the aquarium we visited BEFORE KIDS at Paradise Island in the Bahama's. They have all kinds of fish! We saw sawfish, whale sharks, Pompano of all things, sharks & even some otters. The tribe LOVED the otters! We happened upon their section just as they were being fed. So they came face to face with them! They even got a kiss from behind the glass! TOO cute! Needless to say they were conked out on the ride back to Uncle Rick's. We had Katies graduation on Saturday. Her school is one of the largest in Gwinnet County. They had 729 students graduating that day. Her principal gave a speech saying how incredible it was having so many students graduate & all the places they would be attending college. Practically all the Ivy league schools were covered. I wish I had a copy of that speech, it was AMAZING all the facts he recited! Graduating itself is such a HUGE accomplishment! HOPEFULLY, Katie will continue her education by attending some sort of college. She has mentioned that she wants to become an ultrasound tech. Wouldn't that be cool!? She could do ultrasounds on pregnant women maybe even some multiple mommies!! We hope that she applies soon so she can attend in the fall. There we were trying to spark interest in her, getting her to register. That is one thing that I regret, not finishing school. In fact most of the family did not finish college until MANY years later. Hopefully she will do better than all of us combined. (= On Sunday we went to Rick's church. I cannot tell you how long it had been since we'd been there. It was so nice to see all the people that prayed for us during our pregnancy & after their birth. We are part of their church family now. AMAZING! We were busy little beavers for the 5 days we were there. After the graduation we had a few BBQ's to celebrate her accomplishment. We even met up with some more "extended" family, Dorsey & Eleanor, in downtown Roswell for their Memorial Day festivities. It was SO nice to meet up with them. They kept us all entertained! Dorsey he is quite the character!! We are gonna need another vacation to help us recoup from this one! haha! I will say that the best part of our trip was that by the time we left Katie had enrolled in college. YAY! On our way home we even found an AWESOME playground at of all places a local Burger King in Dublin GA. It was HUGE! Like what you'd find at a local park. TOO TOO cool! I am SO stopping there again!! Since we left GA rather late our stop over in Savannah was not meant to be. Hubby SO wanted to go eat at Paula Deen's restaurant! He & Grandma watch her show EVERY weekend! No Paula Deen's for us! He was left with just a drive by!)= Maybe next time! When your one cranky child is FINALLY sleeping you DO NOT wake them! LOL! We kept on driving until we hit Amelia Island, FL. It's a very quaint seaside town! They even let you drive on the beach! TOO cool! Of course we let the tribe out of the 'burb to walk on the beach & put their toesies into the surf. They LOVED it until that first wave came. We had kiddo's running EVERYWHERE! haha! It was quite the sight! I took some pictures which I'll post when I get home! We stayed at the Days Inn there, you know the kind that has the swimming pool in the middle of the parking lot! LOL! It brought back SO many memories of my childhood. We used to stay at places like that ALL the time! Practically every trip we took was by car! My mom even commented on how she is reliving some of the moments she had with us but now as Grandma. They LOVE having her with us too! Now I am the Mommy & we're doing things with our kids that my parents did with us. TOO wild! Road trips can be so cool if you appreciate those moments. Other than Miss Avery catching croup this was one AMAZING...

Road Trip May '09...

blow out...

And I'm not referring to diapers or a hair do! On our way to Tampa we had a tire BLOW out on the BURB! We are all safe & sound now but here is what happened... We left for Tampa on Saturday morning at approximately 915 am. Of course the babies did not eat all their breakfast so we brought along their leftovers for them to eat on the way. Other than that things were pretty good. Brendan was loving having his Grandma sitting next to HIM. He just loves being able to look at her & touch her. It is very funny to watch. He really does love her most! It was kind of chilly out when we left. I decided to take a different course then the one my mom's TOM TOM, a navigational device, told me. Little did I know that this was a BIG mistake! It kept telling me to turn around then it started giving me some CRAZY directions. Like heading WAY N of the lake to get to another road up North to cross the State. AND then I noticed the trip time, 5 1/2 HOURS! Whoa! This was only suppose to be a 3 1/2 hour trip!! I started to get concerned so I called Michael to make sure I was not completely lost. He is like an Atlas of Florida. He knows all the back roads of Florida. Literally! He basically told me that I screwed up & should have just followed the directions the TOM TOM gave me from the beginning. I would now be traveling on some 2 lane roads through sugar cane fields, cow pastures, small towns, etc. He told me that it will be a LONG ride. YIKES! I should have realized then that our trip was DOOMED! We were making pretty good time even with the change of scenery. The babies behaved, YAY! We finally made it to I-75 and were almost home free when we heard this LOUD pop sound. Next thing I know the warning device in the BURB goes off saying "check tire pressure". This has happened quite frequently & we take it in to be checked & they say they could not find anything wrong. After hearing the loud pop I figured it's better to be safe than sorry & I pulled over to the side of the road. We were in the middle of NOWHERE and there I was checking the tires. Yep, we had a blow out. My left rear tire was completely flat & missing half of it's tread. After looking at that tire I thanked the Lord that he kept us safe when it blew. ANYTHING could have happened & we were all in one peace safe on the side of the road. Now to find out exactly where we were. I had NO idea where on I-75 we were. Note to self: Alway's pay attention to the mile markers as you are driving. I searched on the GPS for my coordinates. I know these digits mean a lot from working for the police dept. If you know your coordinates they can give the police a location to come to. Well, that is how it is suppose to work. I called 911, gave her my coordinates & she had no idea what I was talking about. Boy, I must have been in the middle of no where for them not to know that! I looked in my rear view mirror & saw a call box about 50 yards behind me. YAY! Now I had to walk there to find out what mile marker it was. Why did I not pay attention to that sign when we passed it!? On my way there a nice gentlemen stopped to help. He reminded me of my Great Uncle. I was SO happy to see that good samaritan. He told me what city I was in, Punta Gorda, and offered to help change my tire. I just could not have him get out in traffic & change my tire. I know how dangerous it is to change a tire on an interstate & would feel terrible if something happened to him. Especially while changing my tire! So I called 911 again, AAA, as well as FHP, Florida Highway Patrol, to get anyone to come help us! They all told me that someone would be on their way soon. 1 hour later we were still on the side of the road waiting. During this time we had one other good samaritan stop. A nice YOUNGER guy offered to change the tire. I figured it would be safer for him to change it than the older guy so now to get the spare down from under the trunk & to find the jack. Well, let me tell you we removed EVERYTHING from the BURB looking for the jack & tools to remove the spare only to find that we did not have the tools! They sold us a vehicle with no tools! Oh, it gets even better! In order to get the spare down you need a "special" key crank. We did not have that either. Remember this was SUPPOSE to just be a 3 1/2 hour trip & I was not anticipating any of this! Well, the babies ate through almost all of our food! Now we were in the middle of no where with 4 hungry babies! A trucker who did not have a load stopped to help us. He was a Godsend! Not only did he have many tools he even had a box of crackers that he shared with us. FOOD! YAY! Now if we could just get that darn spare tire down! He tried EVERY tool he had & none of them worked! We were doomed! The trooper never showed up, the AAA guy came but he did not have the correct tool either. I figured if I could get a driver of a Suburban to help us we could just use their "tool" & we would be set. That sounds easy, right? I would stand by the road & try to flag down a Suburban. DOo you know how many Suburban's drove by us, MANY! Not one driver stopped! I said to myself right then the next time I see a person in the same type of vehicle I'm driving, STRANDED, with children, in need, on the side of the road, I am going to stop. You never know, they could be in a situation just like I was! All the while my 2 good samaritans worked away at the guide below to try & get that spare tire down. God love em'! Our last hope was another AAA Tow truck that they dispatched to come help us. Hopefully he could solve our dilemma. It ended up taking a tool from the AAA Tow truck driver & one from the Trucker to FINALLY get the spare tire down & changed. 2 1/2 hours later... We were as good as new, well, sort of, just tired & a little worried that we may not ever make it to Tampa. I drove EXTRA cautious & we made it to the shower just a few minutes late. Everyone was wonderful, the food was yummy & the mommy to be looked FABULOUS! I never want to experience a road trip like this again, better yet I hope I never have to endure another...


blow out...