Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Sometimes thing just DON'T go as planned

Mike and I had a "romantic" getaway planned.  OK, really we just wanted to get away from life for a couple days.

Now, let me start by pointing out that finding places for 5 kids to go for a full weekend is not nearly as easy as it may seem.  Conner was pretty easy.  We have amazing neighbors (who just happen to have a son a little older than Conner, (who he just loves to play with) who quickly volunteered to take him.  I set up someone to take Conner to church Sunday morning (as much as Conner didn't like that idea) and he was set.

Alia was a little more difficult.  She wanted to go to her good friend Jessyca's house.  I called and left a message.  However, I never heard back from her parents so I made other plans for her.  Mike talked with Jessyca's parents when he saw them and apparently, their phone hadn't been working, so they never got the message, but they'd be happy to take her.  So, I had to cancel the other place I had set up for her.

Next was Ann-Elise.  She wanted to go to her friend Janey's house.  I asked her mom and it was all set up.  Then I got a call last week letting me know that Janey's grandma was in the hospital in Utah.  They weren't sure what was going on, but it didn't look good.  Janey's mom was going to drive down there with her sister and make sure all was well, so she wasn't going to be able to take Ann-Elise.  Now, I have NO problem with that one!  Of course I wanted her to go.  Now I need to find another place for Ann-Elise to go.  OK, I can do this...

As for the babies.  UGH!  I had originally  asked my parents to watch the little girls.  My mom told me that my dad had been having some medical problems and she would probably be gone on Monday, so she didn't feel super comfortable with that.  I told her to let me know if she was for sure going to be gone on Monday, and if so, I'd make other arrangements.  About a week later, I was chatting (on Facebook) with my sister-in-law, Martina, and asked her if she was available in case my mom couldn't take the girls.  She jumped at the chance to take them and demanded that I let her have them.  They don't get to visit over there very often, but always love it when they do, so I let me parents know that I wouldn't need them.  However, Martina let me know that they were going to the mountain on Saturday morning, so they would have to get that girls after that.  Could she pick them up from my parents and then keep them for the weekend?  I'm sure I ruffled quite a few feathers trying to set that up!  But I was able to get it done.

Ok, back to Ann-Elise, now I have no where for her to go.  I call up my mom and ask if Ann-Elise could come over to her place for the weekend.  Seeing as how she didn't need a "baby sitter" on Monday when my mom was gone, I thought it might work.  Yep, my mom needed her to get some stuff ready for Ann-Elise's baptism anyway, so they could just do it over the weekend.

PHEW.  I think we're set...

Then comes the call.  Jessyca's dad calls to tell me that their septic tank is totally out.  They can put NOTHING down their drain.  He tells me that they have been showering at grandparents homes and catching and boiling water for dishes.  Ummm, where do you go to the bathroom.  Oh, they have a portapotty.  Perfect.  She can pretend she's camping.  She'll get over it!  It's a go (oh and they should have their septic back up and running today, fingers crossed!)

So, on Saturday, I shipped Conner out around 1:00 and Mike takes Alia out to Jessyca's for her "adventure".  I jump online to double check the confirmation for the hotel.  Guess what?  NOT THERE.  NOPE.  NOTHING.  WTHECK???  We have no reservation.  Upon further investigation, there is NOTHING available throughout Oregon or Washington either.  Needless to say, I spent about 3 hours in tears.  SOOOOO typical of me.  Really.  This is the kind of stuff that just sends me over the edge, but something that I tend to do often.

Well, as soon as Mike got back I told him, but we decided to ship out the rest of the kids anyway.  I got a call from Martina and they were almost home.  I told her that we would just wait and bring the girls out to her.  We drove out to Mike's work in Hillsboro and picked up his cell phone (that he forgot at work!) and then took Ann-Elise to my parents.  Then we headed to Martina's.  It was really nice to not have anywhere to be and so we stayed and visited for a while.  

We stopped in Canby and ate dinner and then headed home.  We spent the evening reading and playing Mario Kart.  I love Mario Kart!  On Sunday, we spent the day in bed.  Literally!  We woke up around 7:30 and I stayed in my robe until about 4!  I did finally shower...  I finished the 6th book in a series I've been reading and Mike knocked out half of Breaking Dawn (700+ pages!).  Oh, we also watched both football games.  That was fun.  No kids, no where to be.  I could get used to this.  The funny thing was that Conner was right next door and spent most of the day outside playing football with his buddies, so I was able to watch him through the window with him not even knowing we were there.  I was kind enough to let the parents know that we were there, in case they noticed movement in the house.  I didn't want the police called!

Really, the only "glitch" we had was when we got a call on Sunday morning saying that he had gone down to get his ride to church.  After knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell for 5 minutes, and no one answering, he came back to Jarod's.  Should they send him down again and have him try again?  I just told them not to worry about it.  He'd tried and that was all I asked.  I'm sure his ride just forgot about him...

On Monday, we were lazy for a few hours, and then made the rounds to pick up all the kiddo's.  

Ya know.  It was nothing like we had planned, but it was amazing.  My husband is the best and I love knowing that we don't have to do anything special, but just being together is enough to make a memorable time.  And the lesson learned today, class, is to double check your reservations well in ADVANCE!!!

1 comment:

Rebecca said...

That sucks! I'm sorry I think in the middle of all that I called you to ask you to teach Jake's class at church??? Hmmmm sorry. Anyways, well at least you got a rest and that's good. Hope the rest of the week goes better!
: )