Like I Needed Another Excuse

to eat at Burger King.

Beer at Burger King

The existing BKs won't be having the "Whopper Bars" installed. Instead, BK will be building new restaurants, starting in South Beach. Cities like Vegas and Los Angeles with a high tourist population will be next.

Personally, I wouldn't mind having one of these in my town. But I can see why people would be upset about it.

So Lazy Today

I have no motivation today.

It started pouring rain last night around 10:30 and it still hasn't stopped. Right now, I think I see a few snow flakes mixed in with the rain but that could be my eyes messing with my brain.

I found out at lunch that our county is under a "State of Emergency". There is a big command center set up somewhere and have this evacuation plan ready.

I can see it as both a good thing and a bad thing. Good thing: It is possible that the Little Colorado River will get too full after it stops raining and the snow melts next week. It is possible that it will flood some of the houses outside the city limits (including Lonnie and Sharon's house).

Bad thing: People are already freaking out. I drove by Safeway and Walmart on my way back to work and the parking lots were packed!

I had to feel kinda bad for the people that waited until Today to get semi-prepared for this storm. But then again, it is their own fault. We have known about this storm since Monday and it isn't even as bad as the weather people predicted it to be.

I, on the other hand, am more than prepared. LoL Of course I am. We have even offered to take in our friends (and their pets) that might get flooded until everything dries out a little.

Ok, that is definitely snow that I see.

I Can't Believe It

While Hubbs was busy (probably doing something stupid) this morning, Monk Man and Bobblehead found my Oreo stash.

Really, what I think happened is that Hubbs tried to sneak a cookie or 2 this morning after I had left for work. The boys must have watched him not hide it well enough. I hide them very well behind all the booze in our liquor cabinets. Hubbs isn't a good hider. He isn't very observant either apparently.

The boys had just enough time to devour the ENTIRE package.

Just the thought of it makes me sick. My poor Oreos. They weren't the normal, average Oreos either. They were the White Fudge covered Oreos. You know, the "better than sex" ones.

They tried to keep it a secret! I walked into the boys bedroom at lunchtime and saw the crumbs on their bed and the box peeking out from under the bed.

So of course now that I am here at work, the Oreos are the only things I can think about. Hubbs had better be at the store right now getting me a new box of Oreos.

With Kids. And Dogs. In A Tent. 1-10

This wintery weather is giving me a bad attitude. I am tired of the ice and cold. And the thought of it ONLY being January pisses me off even more.

I need to blog about something that lifts my spirits and that I can look forward to when winter is finally over.

Camping! With kids. And dogs. In a tent.

Right now, the idea of being able to get away from people makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I would pack everybody up and head out to the woods right now except for the little freezing to death issue. I am going to try and post 10 camping tips at least once a week until spring. Or until I run out of useful things to say. Or until I forget.

For the readers that might have missed all my Camping Is Fun posts this summer, here is a little history. For those of you who have already read about it, you can skip the next 3 paragraphs.

Up until last summer (2009) we really hadn't done much as a family. My boys are little hellions so I avoided public things as much as possible. Plus I don't really like to be around a bunch of people. So that means the Circus, the Fair, Water parks, the zoo, the Carnival, Disney Land, for the love of pete even the mall, all those things are BAD ideas for us.

Anyway, some time last summer, Hubbs had the brilliant idea of trying camping. We went on our very first "As A Family" camping trip in August (I think) and we were hooked. We spent almost every weekend of August and September out in the woods.

It solved our problems with not spending time together and not doing much with the boys.

So here are 1-10 of my tips for camping with kids. And dogs. In a tent.
1) Bring twice as many diapers. It is inevitable that Bobblehead gets the squirts for at least half of a day when we are camping.
2) Bring 3 times the wipes. I have baby wipes everywhere. In the car, in the tent, in the diaper bag, in all 3 of the trucks, at work, in every room of our home. Baby wipes are great for those "good enough" cleanings, especially when you are camping. Marshmallowy fingers? Get the wipes. Dirty face? Get the wipes. Need to blow your nose? Get the wipes. They also take makeup off.
3) Dress in layers. Even for bed. Out here, the temperature changes quickly. It can go from hot and sunny to cold and rainy in no time.
4) Don't forget the sunscreen. I got a horrible sunburn on one of the trips. I was sitting under the trees, in the shade and still got burned.
5) Remember the First Aid Kit! Someone always gets hurt.
6) If foods need to be cut up, do it at home and not at camp if at all possible. You know all those Ziploc containers we can get for cheap/free? The ones with the blue lids? Those are PERFECT to use to store food in a cooler. They seal up well enough to keep the melted ice out and they stack!
7) If you can find one, buy a plastic egg holder. You will know it when you see it. Look in the camping section at Walmart or Big 5. It is bright yellow and folds up. Now it will NOT keep water off of your eggs but it WILL keep your eggs from breaking better than the egg cartons which disintegrate in a cooler. Ok, I found a green one at amazon.com
8) Bring Glow Sticks! The bracelet size is perfect. As soon as it starts to get dark, break out the glow sticks and cover your kids in them. Arms, legs, belt loops, anywhere you can. They help me keep track of the boys in the dark and they help the boys get to sleep in the tent. They also help me keep track of the dogs in the dark. 1 bracelet sized stick around the little dogs neck, 2 around the big dogs neck. If you are camping with a group, the glow sticks will make you the coolest mom in camp for the night.
9) Bring REAL shoes. Like sneakers with laces. If you are anything like me and live in sandals in the summer, you will want to fight this tip. BUT good shoes are a must! I wear my sandals when I am driving up to our camping spot but change into real shoes as soon as we start unloading our stuff. I put my sandals inside the tent until after the kids are asleep and I don't have to chase anyone or even walk farther than the pee bush.
And 10) Make sure all the food is put away before you start getting drunk. This includes the dog food and even the garbage. We had a furry friend run off with all the dog food on our first camping trip because we forgot to put our stuff away. I learned my lesson and everything gets put away before the kids even get put to bed.

Check back next week for tips 11-20. Maybe. If I don't forget. :)

Thanks!

Thank you all for the encouragement today!

This afternoon has been harder to deal with than this morning was but I am still going strong.



P. S. What is up with all the spam lately? I have had to delete more spam comments today than I ever have had to.

I am enabling the word verification thing again until the spamming dies down.

Big Day Today

I am quitting smoking today.

I have smoked since I was 16 so 11 years. I have tried to quit 3 times and failed miserably all 3 times. Hopefully the 4th time is the charm.

Hubbs is quitting too. But he gets to quit his Skoal habit as well as his smoking.

Yay for no more spitter cans laying around the house just waiting to be knocked over.

I think once I have kicked my habit, I will become a better mom. Lately, I have been kind of slacking on doing things with the boys. I won't have any excuses not to.

Keep your fingers crossed that I can get through the next couple of day without killing anyone!

Where Has The Time Gone

Seriously, it is already the 8th and not one post from me yet.

Ok, so I will start with our horrible drive up to MIL last weekend. We got out of town early, like 7:30. We are driving along the highway, doing good. All of a sudden, not even an hour out of town there is snow, icy roads and fog. Great.

We get through all that, through Gallup and on a different highway. Right between Gallup and Shiprock, in the middle of nowhere, the car in front of us slams on their brakes. Hubbs taps his breaks and we just happen to be on an ice patch.

I, of course, am not wearing my seat belt because I was turned around yelling at Monk Man to get his ass in his seat. This is where I get a little fuzzy. I hear Hubbs say, "Oh Shit" so I turn forwards and we are spinning into the other lane of traffic. We hadn't spun far enough to get out of the ice so we kept sliding. And sliding. I see this giant pile of dirt on the side of the road and we are sliding sideways into it. Since I am a dumbass, I braced myself. I planted my feet in the floor, covered my face with one arm, stuck my other arm against the door, took a deep breath and stiffened up. When we hit the dirt, it was about a foot away from my window.

Then we started to tip. I remember thinking, "How the hell am I going to get the kids out if we roll?" Luckily, there wasn't enough momentum to make us roll. But we did hit hard enough to separate the 2 right side tires from the wheel bead. By the time Hubbs got us turned around the right direction and on the right side of the road the front tire had already gone flat but the rear tire was losing air much slower.

We sat on the side of the road for 2 damn hours. I called my shop first to see if they could track down a tow truck. Nothing. I called 911 to see if they could get somebody out to us. Nothing from them either. I called FILs insurance. They called a tow truck from a company nowhere even remotely close to where we were. Unacceptable.

Hubbs and I argued about should we wait, should we try to drive, should we have my dad bring us my car and have the Tahoe towed later. I finally decided that we were going to put the spare on the front and drive as far as we could while the other tire had air in it still.

We made it to a tire shop and got the tired put back on the wheels correctly. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. The boys slept from the time we left the tire shop until we pulled up to MILs house. I was so tired that I didn't think I would be able to stay awake until midnight but I drank a Red Bull and chased that with a bottle of wine.

We played cards until midnight and then I finally got to go to bed.

What started out as being an 8 to 10 hour drive turned into a 14 hour nightmare. But I should be thankful that it wasn't worse than it was because it could have turned out way different.