When My Problems Get Too Muddy, I Tend To Run Away

I received an e-mail yesterday that I believe will change my life forever.  For the good or for the bad, I haven’t figured out, but things are definitely going to change.  Starting June 20th, Costco will begin accepting all Visa card, not just the kind connected to your bank card.  I will be honest, I know that eventually it all comes out of the same place – but sometimes I would rather not pay for my industrial sized box of toothpaste with the money in my bank account. Sometimes, I would rather have the piece of mind that I can drag out the payment for my box of 400 single serve packages of Pringles over the course of my lifetime. It also really opens up the door for some of those larger ticket items…….like maybe those gigantic teddy bears I blogged about a few years ago.

Some of you have asked about the moat of mud next to my house.  Most of you who have asked have actually asked me in person or on the phone, not to many inquiries here on the blog, but I’m sure the curiosity has been aroused.  Let me take a moment to catch you up.  So, back on National Donut Day, the crew from our extended home warranty (Serve Pro – these are the people who are supposed to deal with our plumbing issues that take place outside of our home, ie. the actual pipes that led from our house) came and dug up the whole north side of my front yard.  It was terrifying and wonderful all at the same time because I have been waiting since March or so have this plumbing issue fixed and it looked like we were finally getting somewhere.  It started to rain on Friday and the crew eventually left, but with a hearty promise that they would be back on Monday to pick up where they left off.  Little did I know that a whole slew of drama had been unfolding before that rain even started.

Turns out, the Serve Pro men hadn’t bothered to mention to their higher-ups that there was a metal cable, left by the previous plumbers who had come to fix the initial problem back in February, stuck in the clean out pipe.  They figured that they would start digging and come to where the problem was and would take care of it without any issue.  However, when they had dug past the approved feet limitations, as well as time limitations for the job they had actually been approved for – the higher ups had to be notified.  When notified, our extended home warranty company said, “Absolutely not! We will not cover digging up a problem that another company caused in the first place.” So Monday, instead of watching my new friends continue to excavate my yard in the hope of fixing a problem, I watched them fill it all back in.  I also watched them destroy parts of my neighbor’s yard……the yard that probably holds the title for winning, “Yard of the Month” the most in our neighborhood’s history. Turns out, our original home warranty, the one that only covers things actually covered by the foundation of our house claims that they won’t pay to fix a problem caused by the plumbing crew that they sent out because it might result in the repair of another problem that would not be covered by them.  The extended warranty people refuse to touch our pipes until the metal cable is removed.  They both refuse to touch it saying it’s not their problem, yet if Brandon and I were to go out and just start digging, we would be arrested.

It has all become very messy both figuratively and physically.

I decided that for the time being, I should just leave.  So the kids and I have been here in Arkansas spending some quality time with Mumsey. The first full day that we were here, we went over and visited with Grandma – actually we were going over to take her to the doctor, but we visited with her, too.  I left the girls with her that afternoon for a bit while Mom, Reese and I ran so errands for her.  When we got back to her house, we found all three of them in the back yard.  The girls had bathed Grandma’s dog Butch, but they had also done this:

The fresh and clean Butch and Reese

I have no idea where the rubber gloves came from, or who was responsible for this fabulous idea to make “water babies” but they were all 3 having a wonderful time playing with these new little dolls.  A day or two after we left, Grandma came across the “babies” carefully tucked into a dish pan, both lovingly wrapped in a hand towel hidden under her dining room table.

This has been a pretty simple little trip.  Our main goal wasn’t to go any particular place or event – but simply to be with Mumsey.  To bring a little cheerful noise and chaos into her life that I know has become a little too quite.

We took walks, giving her a break from having to hold Tootsie’s leash.

We visited her neighbor with the chickens and goats.

We tried to go to the aquatic center where I spent many summers working as a lifeguard, but their flume slides weren’t working and they didn’t allow outside food or drinks.  We decided it wasn’t worth it.  Maybe had the slides been working, maybe if we could bring in our snacks and sweet tea, one or the other and maybe we would have decided to stay.  But with both issues – we decided it was better to move on somewhere else.

I don’t usually advocate such activities, having a real fear of natural bodies of water and all, but maybe because I was on a vacation, maybe because my mother suggested it and if mom suggests something it must be okay.  Maybe I was just desperate at this point and my children were very cranky because they had been denied an afternoon of swimming.  Whatever the reason, we found ourselves on the bank of Flint Creek, which dances gently through the property of my old high school.  My rules were simple, don’t go further than I can see you and keep your shoes on.  They had only their nets and their imaginations, but I think their time down at the creek was way better than an afternoon in the people soup of the Family Aquatic Center.

Reese caught a crawdad they named Carl. He was released with his family later that afternoon.

We watched Sunday’s race together.  If your driver has to lose, it’s better to at least be watching it with other people who care as much as you do.  I also don’t think Mumsey minded one bit being crowded on her couch with these 3.  Reese, didn’t appear to have the same feelings as Mumsey.

And on Monday, we took a visit to the Gentry Wildlife Safari – rated #4 Drive thru safari in America.  As you may remember, we visited here back in April, Lila and I just greeting the animals along the fence and not actually going inside.  That visit alone kept the little girl entertained for about 45 minutes, so imagine how excited all three of them were to get to go in beyond the gates.  I think we were there for about 4 hours, and Reese could have probably spent his entire time with this girlie.

Gentry doesn’t have a whole lot of other action going on, but if you want to say that you’ve pet a baby white tiger or seen a whole neighborhood of prairie dogs right up close, this place is probably your best bet anywhere.

The kids had the best time petting the kangaroos, feeding goats and baby camels and Mattie found her little snippet of Heaven getting to cuddle these two baby cougars.  We do think its possible that if a camel shows some health issues here in the next few days, we might be responsible.  While attempting to feed one peanut butter straight out of the jar, Ms. Camel took a very strong hold of the plastic spoon we were serving her with.  Mumsey managed to wrangle the spoon away, but it wasn’t entirely intact.  In our defense, the lady at the front entrance welcomed us to feed their animals our peanut butter and their snack bar is where we procured the plastic spoon.  With that, I wash my hands of it all.

We have a few hours left here in Arkansas, as it will be time for us to make the journey and cross the bridge back into Tennessee this time tomorrow. Enjoy your day wherever you are, if that means petting exotic animals or just making a fort behind a couch to get a little alone time.  Happy Wednesday Friends!

A Great Way To Kick of The Summer, But Maybe Don’t Do It In Three Days

There have been other news worthy events here in our little world.  One of them being that the family went and spent a few days with a certain famous mouse at his theme park metropolis in Orlando, Florida.  We left the Saturday right after school was out – also known as the day not even 24 hours after Cybill had her corn cob removal surgery.  It’s not that our trip wasn’t wonderful or memorable, it most certainly was! It’s just that it was a whirlwind of excitement – a marathon through 4 parks!  Literally, in the 3 days that we were touring the wonder that is Disney, we walked over 27 miles and stood for probably 8 hours. We left Orlando late at night and drove for as long as we could, slept and then continued our journey.  I’m not sure if you know this, but the journey is always longer on the way home….or so it feels.  We arrived home late at night and then when we woke up back in out beds, it seemed almost as if the whole adventure had just been a dream.

We hadn’t been to a Disney Park in 4 years.  The last time we went, Lila was just a tiny baby and we had a horrible experience with losing her only pacifier.  Did you know that the Mother’s Room at The Magic Kingdom sells pacifier clips and surprisingly enough, they aren’t Disney-themed? Last time we were there, none of my children were able to ride much more than the Flying Dumbos and Reese was terrified of Pirates of the Caribbean. I think their favorite part had been eating the Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream at the intersection of Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land.

Lila’s first Disney visit

 

 

Disney visit 4 years ago……they have grown!!!!!

And funny enough, when we were right at that same location this year, they both made the startling discovery that they had been here before…..and ate ice cream….with Mumsey and Poppy.

Last time we were there, Reese had a melt down at the sight of a person dressed as Woody from Toy Story so the only characters we could go meet were the real-life ones….like the princesses.

This time, I think Lila was the only one interested in meeting a princess.

Mattie did show a little enthusiasm in meeting Pocahontas.

They were all ecstatic at getting to hang out with this guy….though Lila was so excited that she went and hugged him, then immediately came right back to me squealing.

The theme for this trip was definitely Star Wars, and as much as they liked the Magic Kingdom – Hollywood Studios and all the Jedi action was probably the favorite.

I’m almost 100% positive that this chick wasn’t actually part of the Disney “Cast”. There weren’t any handlers hanging out with her or escorting her around. The main giveaway was that she wasn’t listed anywhere on the Disney app and all the characters have times and locations and even fast passes in some case. This lady was just hangin’ out….but even if she was a weirdo who just decided to dress up as Rey from Star Wars and walk around Hollywood studios….my girls were enchanted because she was doing an awesome job. I like to think we made her day too asking for a picture.

These are Jawas and they are traders from Tatooine. Mattie traded this one a rainbow loom bracelet for a droid part. The Jawa was not willing to trade with Reese for an ink pen or a dried rose petal Lila had in her wallet.

One thing that Brandon and I found hilarious was how in this land of enchantment, we often found our middle child just chillin’, often by himself in rather random places.  This proved to us that A) it doesn’t take much to entertain him and 2) The normal things one would think are going to be a hit and impressive, don’t always resonate with him.  He is definitely our unique little bird.

Taking a break at a window sill about 20 feet away from the rest of us, enjoying his icee in solitude

 

Where’s Reesie…..found him

I’m sure there were benches nearby but this spot was just fine

He later mentioned that Disney has the best plants he’s ever seen

When I look back in the records, it would appear that he did a lot of random standing back on his original visit, too. This is back from our visit in 2012.

They had a fantastic time and memories were made – the bigger two wore their ears pretty much the entire time.  For a few magical days, my older children were friends.  No one had any real meltdowns…..they may have started to drip a little, but no complete meltdown.  

We had a fantastic time and maybe in 4 years, we will be lucky enough to visit again…..though it makes me kind of sad to think what that family picture will look like and how big those 3 little people will be.

News Worthy Events

I’ve been taking a break.  Mainly, having the kids out of school and being out-of-town has kept me preoccupied…..that and being on constant Cybill vs. Corn alert.  Part of it may have also been that up until this weekend, I just didn’t feel like anything blog worthy had happened.  But then this Friday, everything changed.

Do you remember about 4 years ago (actually it was more life 4 months ago but losing one of our bathrooms has been a pretty big deal) when I announced to you all that our guest bathroom was doing weird things and blah blah blah we were going to have to eventually dig up our front yard in order to fix it? Well, the time is now.  Two men and a Bobcat arrived Friday morning cutting off our water a bit before we were ready and then blocking us in so that even if we had wanted to leave and go somewhere that did have water – we could not.

But I feel like our inconvenience was completely worth it because they left this huge crater in our front yard.

And because my children are hogs – woo pig sooiiee – and because the sewer lines hadn’t been touched yet, we decided to let the kids make mud baths out of dirt piles.

I feel like I should have made a Tide commercial when I washed their clothes out later because they all came out so clean!

Before

After…..with Tide no less

And while all this crazy, Lord of the Flies, Reese pretending to be fighting in the trenches of ‘Nam action was going on outside……this is what my husband was doing inside:

Random hydrangea arranging on a late Friday afternoon.  But they turned out beautiful!

Friday was also National Donut Day.

It seemed like our patriotic duty to honor this national holiday.  I guess much of Memphis also decided that this was the way they wanted to show their love for their country because when we showed up at Gibson’s this is what the donut cases looked like.

This is the stuff nightmares are made of!

We made it out with our dozen glazed beauties and because it had been so stressful to see the cases so bare……I ate two on the way home.

Our weekend continued to be eventful into Saturday  – where that night the kids and I took in a fancy dance recital downtown at the Cannon Center.  I have mentioned on here before how happy Parents Observation Day at Lila’s dance class makes me, you can only imagine how much I loved every minute of my pseudo niece Layla’s spring showcase.  I had a front row seat to so much cuteness! Not a whole lot of dance talent going on in those little bitty classes, but cuteness for days! Layla, of course, was phenomenal and I was bursting with pride when that last curtain dropped.  And Lila was so proud of her bestie!  Watching that little one run to her bestie and give her the biggest hug than thrust her grocery store bought miniature roses as a token of her pride – so, so precious.  Not a bit of jealousy or envy at her friend getting all the fanfare (and getting to wear the awesome costume and real make-up!!!!!) but just genuine joy for her buddy.

Now that is something blog worthy!

And lastly, today there was a real live mermaid at the pool.  It was a super crazy day, being the weekend and all and in the short time that the kids and I were there, they had two separate birthday parties.  Party number two seemed to have a mermaid theme.  I guessed that by the two mermaid balloons that danced around the tables.  But as I was packing the kids up to leave, my guesses were confirmed as a man walked through the pool deck carrying a real live mermaid.

The place went nuts!

None of us were prepared for this craziness! We were just excited that the snack bar was open and then this?! It’s possible that the kids and parents invited to the party were expecting this, but those of us who were just fellow patrons of the same pool………..a little heads up would have been wonderful.  We were finally able to leave the pool but not without Lila crying and wanting to know why she couldn’t go and be with the mermaid.  I actually said out loud, “She isn’t our mermaid, Lila.” To which Reese replied with, “But she’s at our pool.” So note to self, to anyone else planning to bring any other mythological or previously thought of as extinct creatures to the pool or another public place where you might plan to have your child’s birthday – just know that there is going to be a riot.  Should a unicorn come prancing into the wading pool next week, it might just get ugly.

P.S  – I took a terrible, creeper looking picture just to prove that the mermaid was there.  The woman in the lounge chair let me know that she has seen her at other birthday parties and apparently you can rent her.  Who knew?! But now it looks like we’ve figured out Mattie’s future career!