Memorial Day Lessons

First I want to say I hope everyone took a moment during their Memorial Day Weekend to say thanks to our military: past, present and future. It is because of them that we live in the land of the free. I found a post on 24/7 Mom that I really loved called The Meaning of Memorial Day.

This long weekend gave my family an opportunity to go visit my big sister. I haven’t seen her since February and it was a long overdue trip. I took an almost 400 mile round-trip by myself with three kids. You may wonder why 3 when I only have 2? Well Baby E came with us. She is usually part of our family on Sunday’s but because we were not going to be home on Sunday she came with us on our trip starting on Saturday.

I had a great time, and luckily we left before we over stayed our welcome and things became heated between the cousins.

I did learn a few things from our trip:

1. My daughter knows how to add, subtract and tell the difference between MORE and LESS. I knew she could a little but the knowledge she possess is truly mind boggling.
2. Counting down seconds for three hours actually sucks.
3. I absolutely HAVE to get the DVD player in the van fixed.
4. I hate ponds. I used to swim in them all the time when I was a kid and never thought twice about it. But now that I’m older, I can’t help but think about everything that I can’t see below the surface!
5. Sunblock must be applied with help! I have a nice sunburned line across my back where I couldn’t reach.
6. The Boy sunburns way too easily. Even with sunblock on. Also, he gets picked on by everyone! No wonder he is getting so mean, he needs to be in order to stand up for himself.
7. My kids NEED swimming lessons. This is beyond a want now. I was a nervous wreck with my son on the deck at the pond. I kept seeing him fall in and we didn’t have a life jacket small enough for him.  The most water my kids have seen is a shallow pool from last year. We need swim lessons so we can all breath a little easier when they are around deep water.
8. I am not as young as I once was. Driving in the middle of the night is for the birds! Driving at night is nice for keeping the kids quiet, but not for Mommy.
9. I keep moving further away from my family! It is a sad realization. Hubby hates the trip already, but our final move will take us an additional 20 minutes further away from my entire family. On the flip side, we live closer to his family than we ever have before- the nearest is his brother who is 5 minutes away.
10. I need to make time to see my sister. Kind of like we make time to see Hubby’s family. Whether we make the drive over to their house or they come to ours, we need to spend more time together.
11. I am REALLY glad I don’t work retail anymore where there is NO holidays, just days that are busier because everyone else has the day off.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend and was able to spend time with your friends, family and loved ones.