Life lessons learned on my trip

1. Graham has a MUCH larger bladder than I do.

We did have one “side of the highway” stop for him, but apart from that, it was me who dictated the pee stops. I would be barely able to waddle over to the restroom, and I’d ask him if he needed to go too. “No. Not quite yet” was his reply. The difference is likely due to the fact that I have a watermelon sitting on my bladder.

2. The “family bed” is not for me.

Some people practice this with their kids, and more power to ya. We’ll sleep with our kids if they’re sick, or have a bad dream, but generally everyone sleeps in their own bed and is more rested for it. The kids and I ended up sleeping in a queen size bed together while we were gone. Let me rephrase that. The kids slept well in the bed. I laid with them and managed to get a little sleep in between every whimper/sigh/annoying noise they made in their sleep. And never mind the feet in my face. My kids do some pretty interesting manoeuvres while sleeping.

3. There are some really bad/annoying drivers out there

One example: the Mary Kay lady in her big burgundy truck, who felt the need to tailgate me while driving 110 km/hr on the highway. I was doing exactly the speed limit, in the SLOW LANE. If you were looking for a pace car, why didn’t you tail one of the folks who flew by us? I ended up slowing down to 90 just to get her off my tail, then saw her doing the same thing to another red minivan up ahead. Seriously.

4. My kids are great travellers.

It’s about an 8-hour trip door-to-door if you count stops (which were fairly brief). The trip included a 50 minute ferry ride, so that was fun for the kids. Graham is at the age where you can explain what is going on, and he’s fine. Especially since all he has to do is sit back, eat snacks and watch a movie. Nathan was in the same position, but a little too young to understand the explanation part. Regardless, he did fantastic. The new movie for the DVD player definitely helped, as did all of the snacks I packed…and a couple new dollar store toys. Plus the fact that I have amazing kids.

5. Matthew and I are meant to be together.

Not just in the “we were made for each other” way, which we are. I mean that we are made to be TOGETHER. In the same house, spending our days together. Some couples need the work day apart in order to function well together, and that’s totally cool. We, however, are completely happy to both be working at home all day long, and are still the first person we want to hang out with when we decide to go out. He did get a lot of work done when we were gone, but missed us too much for us to stay away a moment longer. And we missed him.

We made it home safely, and while we had a good time, it’s always good to come home. Besides, we got home in time yesterday to witness the biggest thunderstorm I’ve ever seen, including the HARDEST rain I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t good news for our still-in-progress (and not yet sealed) addition, what with the WATER coming in and all. But Matthew & my 2 brothers got the water pump going, and I think the little bit that got in has dried by this morning.

But oh, the thunder and lightning that went with it. Shook my house so hard that dishes rattled. Pretty powerful stuff.

Never a dull moment at my house.