Traveling with kids and other natural disasters

You have either already been somewhere with your children and you are laughing/groaning to yourself OR you only have one child and they are under the age of 6 months hence the "what do you mean?" look on your face. Read on, you will need the heads up!

I, having four young and fairly ... uh ... exuberant children, have braved a trip with them before. It was an excruciating and torturous journey. It was the most stressful and loooong day of my life and I swore that I would NEVER take them any where again! (That trip to the grocery store nearly killed me! ; )

So now I am about to brave a 4 hour trip in the SUV with said monsters and I am shaking in my Manolo Blahniks (YEAH RIGHT) I mean Born made for comfort loafers. Just imagine yourself trapped in a 12 foot by 6 foot box on wheels with a 1 year old screaming UT UT UT UT (which is monster for I WANT OUT OF MY SEAT NOOOOOW!) while the 2 year old says "I want out too, I want to watch dora, where is my choctic milk, Mommmy Mommy MOMMMMY, I want daddy to hold me, and the 4 year old is telling her brother who is 6, I don't want to watch Hot Wheels Acceleracers again, I want to watch Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princess, Mommy he won't let me watch Barbie, Mommy I am squished, mommy , and the 6 year old says, I don't want to watch that girl movie, I am bored......"

Okay, I am exaggerating they aren't 3/4 that bad and even the best kids have their limits. If I don't plan very carefully those 4 hours can be very aggravating for kids and turn them into well, monsters. Here are some organization ideas I have put together to try and make any trip more enjoyable. So here we go.

1. Pack a bag with disaster recovery tools. Pack a bag that has everything you need to clean up messes. Paper towels, ziplocks in various sizes, trash bags, and if all else fails the handy dandy baby wipes.

2. Pack an emergency kit. Take along a first aid kit, blankets and coats if cold, and water. Research the area you are going and pack appropriate emergency supplies for the region and season.

3. Pack a picnic. There is nothing like going on a road trip to bring the ravening beast out in your child or spouse. Make sure you have lots of healthy snacks on hand. Small individual size bags are very convenient but frankly alot more expensive. Taking the time to pack crackers, veggies and fruit, pretzels, etc into individual size portions will make handing them out on the road or even at a scenic destination much easier. Less mess and convenient clean up are also benefits. My kids also love juice boxes or pouches. These do not have to be cooled to be very tasty to the kids, they clean up easier than a dirty cup and also leaves more room in the cooler your beverage of choice!

4. Portable potty anyone? If you are taking a very long trip through certain places restrooms are few and desperate in between. With young children you may want to consider a portable potty. You can find them at places like Target for about $14.99 and you can by liners for them for about $5.00.

5. Pack a backpack or tote bag for each child. Put in it their personal favorite books, games, game boys, walkmans, and small toys. Make sure you have a coloring book and washable markers or colored pencils. I would avoid crayons if it is hot because they tend to melt for the little ones and a notebook for the older kids. They can write interesting events that happened on their trip, notes to friends, draw pictures of things they saw.

For added adventure take alook at the ideas on http://www.tripkids.com/index.html. They have a travel buddy you can purchase if you like which has journals, a backpack and a doll. Or if you are like me and do not have room for anything else they have a creative idea about getting stamps from each location your visit. This is a great idea for memorializing your trip. You could get any number of items to put in the kids very own "travelog". Post cards are readily available and a great visual reminder of where they have been.

6. Have a hidden stash! Come on moms admit it. Who doesn't hide away special treats, movies, games, stickers, and toys for that occasion when you REALLY need the kids entertained? This is a good time to indulge your kids alittle. Just think about it like this. You have strapped down 40 or 50 pounds of compressed energy into a small hard seat with numerous buckles and snaps and said "you are now boarding the travel high way please keep your seat backs and tray tables in a upright (and uncomfortable) position for the duration of your torture, I mean trip." Break out the big guns and you and your children will benefit.

I personally like to shop for bargains when it comes to well, most things. You probably won't find me buying a used portable travel potty but most other things yes. I frequently shop on line and ebay is rapidly becoming one of my favorites for kids items. When my son decided that Legos Bionicle were the "thing" to have I just could not imagine spending $10 on one little toy when I knew I could do better on ebay. I bought about 14 pounds for $20 plus shipping and oh boy oh boy I was hooked. I buy books, movies, toys and clothes. It is hard to pass up the great deals. So if you have the time I would suggest doing some trip shopping on line!

Any trip should be a time to bond your family closer together. Take sometime to enjoy just being with them and do what you can to make it enjoyable for everyone. Relax and if you need to put in the ear plugs!

Mommy you have been on there forEVER!

Tuesday I spent a good portion of the day and frankly ALL my available internet time looking for accomodations. My husband has a conference that he is speaking at in Lake of the Ozarks. So, we decided that we would all go and make it a family vacation. Take all the kids, rent a boat and tour the lake, visit the outlet mall, Miner Mikes arcade and a few other exciting things. (we haven't taken a vacation in a while ; )

Now, we have known this for probably all of 3 or 4....months! Yes, months. I stupidly assumed that his secretary would be making reservations so I am just going happily along. Singing "I can't wait for our vacation! I wish it was here right now! I can't wait to go to..." oh yeah, by the way honey where are we staying? Then I find out that not only do I need to make reservations but the whole resort is booked! Yep, every last room.

So I am hunting through the hundreds if not thousands of available hotels, motels, condos, homes, and house boats trying to find some place that is close to the conference, nice and affordable at the same time. Trying to compare all these to each other and I find that either the site has neglected to put the prices, a map, pictures or some important peice of information. This was soooo frustrating!

NOTE ANYONE DESIGNING A WEBSITE:

People always want to know the following no matter what the item is:

1. The PRICE
2. The DESCRIPTION dimension, weight, color and anything else to help visualize
3. Too Many PICTURES
4. A MAP if it is a place, or if not just throw one in for good measure it will fill up the page ; )

Okay, you have probably found yourself in similiar situations. Looking on the internet for so long your eyes are burning and blurry, your head is pounding and you have forgotten what you are looking for. Your children are saying "mommmmmy you have been on that computer forEVER! Will you play with me, come on mommmy." And you still haven't found what you are looking for. Whatever that was!

So here is what I suggest. First, muzzle the children, next bang your head repeatedly on the keyboard, then close your eyes and point at the computer. Whatever you point at is what you will buy, reserve etc. So if you find yourself staying in a beautiful resort in the Cayman Islands sipping iced tea on the beach tell everyone you got the advice here on that SAHM i am. But, if you find yourself in Backwoods Arkansas with Bubba and his crew of pen hunting dogs.....Blame yourself. Really, why would you think that this time when you bang your head on your keyboard it would be any different from every other time!?

Here is what I really suggest:

1. Take a deep breath.

2. Set the kids down for a snack and a new movie, playdoh, or whatever you have on hand.

3. Get a pen and paper. (yes an old fashion pen and paper or crayon; )

4. Write down a list of what exactly you ar looking for.

5. Below that itemize what exact information you need to find out. Then run a search using the item and some of these descriptive terms.

6. Open a new folder in your favorites on your browser. Save any sites with promising information in this folder.

7. Methodically search each site and use your paper to make notes on each site so you do not get confused on where you saw it.

8. Utilize super sites that have already done the research for you like Expedia for travel, Amazon or Ebay for shopping.

Well, friends I got to run. It is time for preschool drop off, lunch, park time, elementary school pick up, preschool pick up, dinner, laundry, dishes, bedtime and one thousand errand in between. Take care.

2 socks + 1 washing machine = 1 sock ... huh?

Many times through out your life you have heard someone say "the washing machine ate my sock" and you have laughed that laugh that says " you my good friend are a moron."

Alright, to really understand why I am so fascinated with the whole "washing machine mystery" I have to admit to having the worlds largest pile of unmatched socks! I am not kidding. I have enough to fill a large dresser drawer. You'd think I would get rid of them. But NO! I for the longest time I kept thinking I was going to find their little lost mates. Then one day.....WOW!! I was going in to switch the laundry around and the wash tub (or slop tub as it is sometimes called) was filled up to the top and teetering on the razors edge of a major flood in the laundry room floor. As I raced over to turn the washer off out of the drain pipe shot ..... you guessed it ...a sock. Yes, it was a genuine certified white hanes athletic sock. Now, not only was the sock that had come flying out of the drain hose in the tub but the culprit blocking the drain was also a sock!

So, now you know the secret to what really happens to your socks... now what do you do about it? Just a step ahead of you here I searched the internet high and low looking for the magic answer. Do you know what I found instead? I hesitate to suggest it but search google for "washing machine eating socks" get a clear sense of what a mystery this seems to be.

FINALLY, I found the solution I was looking for! Thanks goes to www.WASHINGNET.org.uk for their contributions to saving poor mateless socks around the world. And if that is too far for you to go, may I suggest your local Target ; ) or at Target.com you can get a handy dandy laundry bag for $2.99!

http://www.target.com/laundry_bags.html

Save a sock buy lingerie bags!

Okay that is all for my silly nonsense today folks.

Talking to Myself

Why blog? Well, I am a stay at home mom (SAHM) with 4 great kids but conversations always seem to revolve around Lego Bionicles, Barbie, Dora Dora Dora the EXPLORER, Hot Wheels, Hot Wheels Acceleracers, Strawberry ShortCake, Barbie Island Princess, Barbie as Rapunzel...And that is just my husband!

No really no one is interested in the really exciting things I have to say like how 2 socks + 1 washing machine = 1 sock. Or how to add zucchini and carrots to fruit smoothies and your kids won't even taste them.

So I found that I have been talking to myself. At first I thought, thats okay everyone talks to themself. Finally, I realized I needed help when I started thinking what I was saying was interesting! I needed real grown up human contact. I needed to make friends, other women who had similiar interests. Moms who wanted to discuss the best way to get little susie potty trained or how to list your used items on ebay, how to use the left overs from last nights roasted butternut squash, or how to create a website with a 1 year old banging on the keyboard. But sadly the parks kinda lonely after dark! I don't really have much extra time during the waking hours for socializing. So it was either the looney bin or at least find someone I could say I was talking too.

So here I am friends, talking to you. I hope your day is peaceful, your night is long and your husband treats you to a free trip to the coffee shop....alone!

Take care.