We had an adventure this weekend!
The original plan was to pick up Alex on Sunday after Greg had a Daddy-Daughter weekend with Gen. With so much change in plans (a CONSTANT occurrence when dealing with the schedule of 5 kids) - - - - - we decided to ALL go and find some adventure. We went to Montana, two different water parks and an amusement park. It was nice to laugh & play for a few days. We really, really needed that.......we work so many hours and have constant bricks on our shoulders. The best moment: The family boat ride…..where Dad was absolutely soaked while the rest of us stayed relatively dry. Gen & Ryan laughed for hours about the shocked look on his face every time the waves crashed over him! When it was time to do the family raft ride down one of the slides at the water park…..he smiled and excused himself to a lawn chair in the shade and took a long, sleepy nap! We still went on the raft….and snuck in ice cream as we waited in the long line! She-poo, who could not enter any of these parks, stayed at a doggie resort; complete with her own lawn chair & umbrella. They said she met up with a dog named “Joey” and they chased each other around the “resort” lawn. Even the smallest Smith had a great weekend.
Last night I couldn't sleep, so I decided to read back through an old journal from last Fall. I came across an interesting memory........I was talking with one of our children about his brother. The child in question called the other "a liar who doesn't tell the truth". Needless to say, I was so upset when this happened last year. Not particularly because he called his brother a "liar" (hey, when you're the mother of this many kids....you hear every name in the book), but because of who TOLD this young man that his brother was a liar. Why would another adult (yes, you read that correctly, an ADULT) say this about a young man? For the life of me, I cannot understand why an adult would try to come between two brothers. It made me mad all over again. When it comes right down to it, I know that I can call always call my big brother and he will be there in a minute. Likewise, my sister Amy knows that she can call me and I’m there. Maybe some people just don’t have those types of relationships - - - - so they do their best to destroy the links of others.
When this happened, our oldest drove all the way home from college and had a talk with his brother. He explained the event that lead to the adult making this statement (an event that later made the adult look bad – thus may explain the reason for their behavior). The two seemed to smooth things over that weekend. When you watch this type of thing happen between your kids, it’s just leaves a sore. I will never, ever forgive the person (or people) that tried to drive a wedge between those two young men. Sad thing is, I believe these people are still attempting to cause trouble between the two.
I hope my kids realize how lucky they are to have one another…..letting someone come between them would be unforgiveable. Now that my father is gone, I find myself leaning more and more on my siblings. Kind of strange how the circle comes back around…..isn’t it? Our kids always joke about which one of them will be taking care of us when we are old and cranky. We’re already cranky………they are just waiting for the old part. Grant is convinced that his senile father will sit down on his new leather couch (shirtless and sweaty after taking his morning stroll) and put his shoes up on the coffee table. He jokes that he will come home from a long, hard day, to find his Mom & Dad on the couch eating chips & drinking the last sodas in the house. They will then ask (with a look of confusion), “Is it really that hard to run down to the store & get some more for yourself Grant?” Ahhhhh….the pay backs we have planned for these 5 kids!
Go and hug your brother/sister this week! Speaking of sisters….one of mine sent this last week. Smile, read & enjoy:
To Those of Us Born
1930 – 1979
Very well stated, Mr. Leno.. TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930's, 40's, 50's,
60's and 70's!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered
with bright colored lead-base paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes made with Lard, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank FLAV- OR- AID made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY?
Because we were always outside playing.....that's why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, &
no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever..
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team…..those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. What can kids today do besides push buttons...
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?
The quote of the month is by
Jay Leno:
'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?”
The original plan was to pick up Alex on Sunday after Greg had a Daddy-Daughter weekend with Gen. With so much change in plans (a CONSTANT occurrence when dealing with the schedule of 5 kids) - - - - - we decided to ALL go and find some adventure. We went to Montana, two different water parks and an amusement park. It was nice to laugh & play for a few days. We really, really needed that.......we work so many hours and have constant bricks on our shoulders. The best moment: The family boat ride…..where Dad was absolutely soaked while the rest of us stayed relatively dry. Gen & Ryan laughed for hours about the shocked look on his face every time the waves crashed over him! When it was time to do the family raft ride down one of the slides at the water park…..he smiled and excused himself to a lawn chair in the shade and took a long, sleepy nap! We still went on the raft….and snuck in ice cream as we waited in the long line! She-poo, who could not enter any of these parks, stayed at a doggie resort; complete with her own lawn chair & umbrella. They said she met up with a dog named “Joey” and they chased each other around the “resort” lawn. Even the smallest Smith had a great weekend.
Last night I couldn't sleep, so I decided to read back through an old journal from last Fall. I came across an interesting memory........I was talking with one of our children about his brother. The child in question called the other "a liar who doesn't tell the truth". Needless to say, I was so upset when this happened last year. Not particularly because he called his brother a "liar" (hey, when you're the mother of this many kids....you hear every name in the book), but because of who TOLD this young man that his brother was a liar. Why would another adult (yes, you read that correctly, an ADULT) say this about a young man? For the life of me, I cannot understand why an adult would try to come between two brothers. It made me mad all over again. When it comes right down to it, I know that I can call always call my big brother and he will be there in a minute. Likewise, my sister Amy knows that she can call me and I’m there. Maybe some people just don’t have those types of relationships - - - - so they do their best to destroy the links of others.
When this happened, our oldest drove all the way home from college and had a talk with his brother. He explained the event that lead to the adult making this statement (an event that later made the adult look bad – thus may explain the reason for their behavior). The two seemed to smooth things over that weekend. When you watch this type of thing happen between your kids, it’s just leaves a sore. I will never, ever forgive the person (or people) that tried to drive a wedge between those two young men. Sad thing is, I believe these people are still attempting to cause trouble between the two.
I hope my kids realize how lucky they are to have one another…..letting someone come between them would be unforgiveable. Now that my father is gone, I find myself leaning more and more on my siblings. Kind of strange how the circle comes back around…..isn’t it? Our kids always joke about which one of them will be taking care of us when we are old and cranky. We’re already cranky………they are just waiting for the old part. Grant is convinced that his senile father will sit down on his new leather couch (shirtless and sweaty after taking his morning stroll) and put his shoes up on the coffee table. He jokes that he will come home from a long, hard day, to find his Mom & Dad on the couch eating chips & drinking the last sodas in the house. They will then ask (with a look of confusion), “Is it really that hard to run down to the store & get some more for yourself Grant?” Ahhhhh….the pay backs we have planned for these 5 kids!
Go and hug your brother/sister this week! Speaking of sisters….one of mine sent this last week. Smile, read & enjoy:
To Those of Us Born
1930 – 1979
Very well stated, Mr. Leno.. TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930's, 40's, 50's,
60's and 70's!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered
with bright colored lead-base paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes made with Lard, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank FLAV- OR- AID made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY?
Because we were always outside playing.....that's why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, &
no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever..
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team…..those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. What can kids today do besides push buttons...
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?
The quote of the month is by
Jay Leno:
'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?”
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