travel with kids – Page 19

In case you haven’t read my past couple of posts, I’m in Iowa this week, visiting my parents with my sister, Lily and Emmy. Poor Ed is languishing home alone, missing us dreadfully. (In reality, I bet he’s in his boxers playing air guitar while cranking Def Leppard.)

Have you ever been in Iowa? The wind blows somethin’ fierce around here. It was howling around the house last night, blowing the rain up against the windows, whistling through the trees…I almost couldn’t get to sleep. Almost. Hey, I have a bed to myself this week. I’m lovin’ it! Although I’m the one that snores, not Ed, so he tells me….

I was explaining my blog addiction to my parents, and my mom just doesn’t understand. She said it was the writing she wouldn’t enjoy. I actually thought she would be the one that would understand the most. She worked on a website for her church; she loved playing around with the design and she learned Photoshop to make the website better. Ever since she had her radiation treatments, though, she has given up some of her favorite hobbies so she can concentrate on getting well again.

My sister M actually had a good analogy for this blogging thing. She said it’s like having a pen pal. Lots of pen pals, actually. We tried to find pen pals when we were little, but our efforts always fizzled.

I love to read all your blogs; probably because they are like letters. Sometimes my comments are lame, but it’s just an excuse to say, “Hi there! I’m still out here, reading your blog, and I love what you do!”

I just asked Mom, “Is pen pals one word or two?”

“What?”

“Do you spell pen pals as one word or two words?”

“Bed pans?”

“NO, MOM, PEN PALS! Puh-EN Puh-ALS!”

*sigh*

We made Mom do a lot of walking in the mall today. She was really tired out, but she had a great nap this afternoon. Her hair is starting to grow back. Hurray! I know she’ll be back to doing those hobbies in no time. She is looking forward to spring, and getting back out in her garden. I took the picture of Emmy that’s in my header in Mom’s garden. I love that picture!

And so from Iowa, have a great day!

Your pen pal,
Ginny

I think I deserve some kind of award. Maybe others have gone more miles, but still…isn’t there some kind of reward for me? I just traveled 350 miles with my four year old and 19 month old today. It’s only 8:30 p.m., and I’m exhausted. Just wrap me up in a blanket and call me a burrito. You’ll have to forgive the typos today. I’m going to bed.

Speaking of burritos, Ed will be living a bachelor’s life for five days. I think he’s planning on eating burritos every night. Live it up, amigo. It took the girls two hours to get to sleep tonight, compared to their normal 45 minutes. We have their routine down pat.

Speaking of typos, no matter how often I read and reread a post, I tell my stories wrong. I need an editor. Someone with a big ol’ red pen, circling all the things that just don’t tell it the way I meant to! You see, this editor must be a mind reader. Just yesterday, I wrote a list of what I did with my girlfriends before I was married. I mentioned going to the college bars, and so some commenters thought I was in college when I went out dancing, etc. Makes sense…I did say we were in a college town. I neglected to write that we were 30 years old, not college kids, out for a good time. We were “townies,”–you know, the people who actually live and work in the college town full time, year round.

The little editor in my mind just got her red pen out. I should mention I did have help on our travels today. My sister came along for the ride, and I couldn’t have traveled without her. I guess I really don’t deserve that award after all. Just hand it over to her. She went above and beyond her auntly duty today!

Lily, now in her wisdomly fourth year of age, kept asking how far it was until we got to the river that meant we were in Iowa. We still had about an hour and a half until we reached the Mississippi, and she asked, “How long is that?” I had a brainstorm. “The length of 3 Sid the Science Kid shows,” I told her. The question she asked from then on was “How many Sid the Science Kids until we get to Grandma’s house?” We sang all the songs from the show on the way to Grandma’s. That was going to have to do; we don’t have a DVD player in our van.

Songs help keep us sane when we’re traveling. Emmy loves the song “Where is Thumpkin?” We sing the PC version; instead of “How are you today, sir?” we sing “How are you today, friend,” and we call “Middle Man” “Tall One” instead. “Ringo” stands in for “Ring Man”. I really have to be careful when I sing this song when I’m driving. I drive with my left hand and hold up the fingers on my right hand. Another driver could really get the wrong idea when we get to “Where is Tall One?”

Want more random? Visit Keely over at The Un-Mom for lots more!