Time flies when you're having fun...

I’m feeling pretty "kidded out" right now, but instead of ranting and raving (believe me, I’ve done that already) about the past week with my kids, I’m just going to relate some of the past moments spent with my two angels and hopefully I’ll be able to laugh.

• Before my parents came to visit last week, my son asked me how long they were staying. Well, my mother had told me two days, but since they have never stayed for more than a day before, I told my son not to expect more than an overnight visit. When my parents arrived, I was in the kitchen when I heard my son ask his grandma how long she was planning on staying. My mother answered that they were staying for two days and my heart lurched as I heard my son start to say, "Really? My mom says you never…" I don’t think I’ve ever moved so fast in my life-I got to the room just in time to ask if anyone wanted any ice tea, and my son never had time to finish his sentence

• I promised the kids that we would go to the pool for a couple hours on Friday since everything (at least with me) was returning to normal. We were in a hurry (as usual) and I asked if they would apply their sunscreen themselves-I had gotten a call from my husband and several texts from a co-worker, and it seemed like a very logical decision at the time… Now my son is ghostly white like me, so when I got off the phone I really covered his back, but I mistakenly thought the other body parts were adequately protected. We were only at the pool for a couple hours, but by the time we got home, I was wondering whose kids these were-both looked as if they were wearing a red mask! Their skin was red around their eyes, tops of their cheeks and nose, and I had a pretty good hunch that sunscreen never made its way to that part of their face. Thankfully a slathering of Benadryl made them human again by Saturday morning.

• We signed the kids up for the summer reading program and decided that we would take part in this year’s "Get Outdoors" campaign. 30 different parks have hidden wooden markers, and each marker contains an etching related to a different water related topic-you follow the clues given for each park trail to find and rub the etching in your book. The trails for each park are rated for difficulty, and we decided to do both a hard and moderate trail with daddy on Saturday. We decided on the hard trail first and I noticed 2.40 mi. in the upper right corner of the book-hmm…  Smooth gravel paths turned into a rocky up and downhill climb and the further we went, the worse it got. My daughter and husband were faring quite well, but my son and I were faltering for several reasons:
  
  •  A) Gnats decided that we might make a tasty snack, and they swarmed incessantly around our faces. I don’t like bugs, any bugs, and neither does my son (long story short-he had gotten one in his eye so he was now wearing my sunglasses-the figures you see way off in the distance are my husband and daughter...), and we weren’t too crazy about becoming gnat food. My very tolerant husband said the gnats wouldn’t bite as long as we kept moving, and this might have calmed my son but it didn’t fool me. (Where was the bug spray when I needed it?)
  • B) I shouldn’t have gulped down a bunch of water before our hike because I desperately needed to go and was getting cramps!  
  • C) My son and I are klutzes-he and I were tripping constantly over the rocks, and I am now nursing a soar knee. 

Things started out jolly, but then there was nothing but angry shouting- my daughter at my son because she wanted to lead the way, my husband at my son when my son decided he didn’t want to walk anymore, and me at my husband for yelling at my son. Just one angry family going for a hike in gnat filled woods in the 90 plus degree weather. We finally found the marker and did make it out of the woods in one piece (my son got a piggyback ride most of the way back-poor hubby!) when my crew decided that we should do a couple more trails-one rated moderate and one rated easy. I did the easy with them but the moderate was still up and down hills, so my knee and me stayed behind on the nice trail bench…

Then there is a mish-mash of things from refereeing some of my kids little squabbles to things I just can't label. Here are some excerpts:

• My son likes to stand behind my daughter when she goes online to play Jump Start. (By the way, I will be reviewing the new Jump Start Get Moving Family Fitness Wii game this week and hosting my first giveaway, so stay tuned…) Anyhow, he has played a touch more than she has and has a tendency to shout at her for doing things "wrong." Well my daughter is usually pretty patient with her brother, but that patience has run out these past two weeks. She turns around and bops him in the head, he comes crying in to me, and she loses computer privileges.

• Then we had an incident in the yard. My son grabs my daughter’s shirt and won’t let go so my daughter gives him a kick and each comes back to the house crying about the other. An early bedtime for both (can anyone say parent party?) seems to have done the trick because we have had two very pleasant children the past two days.

• Our dog has been fixed and hasn’t done "the nasty" since November, but occasionally he tries to dominate over my son and certain objects. I just had this discussion with my son this morning:

"Mom, I need to keep my Hulk hands up high because Uno keeps trying to love them."  
I snickered but held it together. "Okay, that’s a good idea."
"You know mom, I can’t lay down on the couch anymore."
"Why’s that?"
"If my arm is hanging down, Uno wants to rub on it. And the other day when I was hiding from him under my quilt, he straddled my neck and tried to do it to my head."

Okay, it’s not funny but is funny at the same time and I tried to calmly tell him to call me if the dog started doing this again. Then when my son left the room my daughter and I exploded with laughter-I really needed that (although my son, not so much…) I hope you can find some funny in these long summer days too!

Molly over at I'm a Sleeper Baker recently passed me the "I'm Going Places" award and I need to tell you where I'll be (or think I'll be) in ten years then pass it on to ten other bloggers, so here goes:

-My daughter will be in college and my son will be finishing high school (will that officially make me old?)

-My husband says that he wants to retire in ten years, but looking at having two in college, me thinks not...

-And me? Well, I will still be teaching and hopefully will take a stab at some formal writing. Only time will tell, right?

Now I'm going to pass this on to ten other wonderful ladies:

Septembermom at My Voice My View
Nicole over at A New Normal
DG at Diary of a Mad Bathroom
MOPTG at Mom of the Perpetually Grounded
Yonca at Yonca is Cooking
Lyndsey at This is my life
The Girl with the flour in her hair at Peeling an orange with a screwdriver
Zen Mom at Zen and the Art of Motherhood
Shelly at Tropical Mum
And Tesa at 2 Wired 2 Tired