Planning Family Togetherness-Time

Family Reunions are a lot of work! For the next month or so we're having THREE reunions. One is a biggie...the JPH reunion. My dad's family is in charge of that one, meaning I'm going to be taking part in it as well. Then at the beginning of August we're having an F reunion...all of my mom's sibling and kids. That's one that we only have every 2 years, so it'll be fun to see everyone else again! The third "reunion" is my immediate family. We've decided, just this year, to go to Lagoon every year as a family. So we had our planning meeting on Sunday while my sister was here (she lives in Utah.) We decided when to go and my brother-in-law said that there was going to be a Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert that weekend, if we wanted to go down early enough to go to it. We thought that sounded like fun, so we agreed. Then we decided that it might be easy enough if we just stayed in Salt Lake overnight and go to Lagoon the next day. So started our CRAZY planning! My sister and her husband have a weekender's pass for a hotel in the area and thought that it would be cool if we could all get rooms there for the weekender's price, but they found out that they NO longer do this program for NEW people! ARGH! So either we had to get the expensive rooms there, or find another place to stay. Well, after many debates, we've decided on a hotel that's not too far from temple square. (Within walking distance!)

Next task...getting tickets for the concert. The problem is that in my immediate family there are 11 individuals and when you get tickets for anything at the conference center you are only allowed 4 tickets per person, per address. In order for us to get tickets in the same general area, we'd need to get them at the same time...meaning, 3 of us trying for tickets as soon as they were available. Tickets were available at 10:00 this morning. My mom goes exercising at 9:00 until 10:30...so she wouldn't be able to get the tickets, but her computers were available. She wanted me to go to her house and get online at the same time my brother was online at another computer, so that we could get the tickets as close together as possible. (Are you following my crazy rant? I'm sorry...I'm so confusing...I'm still trying to get over all this craziness coming at me at once!) Today was also my first day back to regular babysitting for my friend L. My husband was supposed to be to work by 6:00 AM and we only have ONE vehicle! So here was our plan: I took Steve to work at 5:30, so that I'd have the van for the day. As soon as L's husband dropped the kiddos off at my house I would load them up into my van and go to my mom's house to begin preparations for getting tickets. At 2:00 I was to go get my husband from work, drop him off at home, then run Cameron to speech therapy which started at 3:00. Three is also the time L gets off work, but unfortunately today was the day she needed a ride HOME from work, and would I mind picking her up and taking her home, (crazy me, I said, 'no problem.') Then I was to get my husband and go BACK to my mom's house for a relaxing night. Doesn't sound too bad, right?? Don't count on it!

Here's what really happened:

My body woke itself up at 4:00 in the morning. DANG IT!! GO BACK TO SLEEP...I DON'T NEED TO BE AWAKE RIGHT NOW...SLEEP!! Finally I fell asleep at 4:45....just about 30 minutes before the alarm went of to REALLY wake up. Alarm goes off...Kick hubby out of bed...sleep for another 10 blissful minutes. After he's dressed, get Cam and throw on some shoes and get in the van and take hubby to work. Get home at 6:00...ready to go BACK to sleep for an hour and a half...didn't count on the sprinklers going in front of our door...RUN THROUGH the sprinklers...getting our jammies wet and climbing into bed to sleep with Cam's feet in my back! Wake up when the alarm goes of the first time, slapping the snooze, then rolling back to where I was and realizing I CANNOT sleep! Finally, the alarm goes off again...last call....Get showered and dressed for the day. Eat breakfast...oops....no milk...that's okay...I'll improvise...we'll have toast. Cam throws a fit, saying he wants cereal....'No, toast is just as good as cereal.' (Fight continues until I turn on Blue's Clues.) Eat for a few minutes until little L and E arrive. Pile everyone in the van and hurry to get tickets. Get to mom's house and find NO signs of life anywhere. Wake up brother who is supposed to help, only to find he's got his alarm set. FINE! Go upstairs and set the computers to the correct web page. At 10:00 coordinate with younger brother and await the web page saying "Tickets available now." Refresh.....refresh....refresh.....2 minutes into the 10:00 hour it shows up. Go on to get tickets....and had to wait in the virtual waiting room 3 times!! Get the tickets and sit down with little L and E. Trying to get BOTH to settle down and nap. Finally L fell asleep, and so did E, then I tried to get Cam to sleep...not gonna happen. It's 1:30 and E decides he's starving to death...feed him his second bottle...figuring he'd already eaten, gave him 2 ounces...oops. He wanted more! Drive to get hubby from work. The WHOLE way to the store, baby E is screaming his guts out...he hasn't figured out how to keep the binky in his mouth yet. Get hubby and hurry home to make ANOTHER bottle for the baby. Feed him until he's stopped crying, and gather the kids again to drop Cam off at therapy. Yes, I hit EVERY light along the way when it was green. That means I'll be able to get L from work at 3:10...not too shabby! Get to the main intersection before the place of therapy to find they are repaving the WHOLE STINKIN' intersection and traffic is backed up for at least 10 minutes! (For those of you living in bigger towns with WORSE traffic than I have...Not one word... Ten minutes is a LONG time for waiting at ONE intersection in my town!) Finally get to therapy, and the therapist ISN'T ready for us. (I had left the two who DIDN'T need to be there IN the van.) Get Cam settled at therapy and take off. Determined to take a DIFFERENT route...longer, but quicker! Get in the van to find that baby E is screaming....AGAIN!! While little L is saying, "Ba-bee....ba-bee.....ba-bee..." Shove the bink into E's mouth and hurry to get L. She meets me in the parking lot worried that she'd missed me. We chat and I drive her to her new apartment....ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN! Get her and the kids settled and rush off to get Cam from therapy BEFORE he freaks out! Try calling hubby to tell him that I'll pick him up AFTER I get Cam and to be ready, no such luck. Get the voicemail...three times! Finally leave him a message and get Cam. Hurry back to get hubby, and he SLOWLY saunters down the stairs and we leave for the air conditioned comfort of my mom's house. On the drive over hubby tells me that he looked up the hotel mom wanted to stay at in SLC and it was a fairly decent price. We get to my mom's house and she's on her way over to my grandparent's new house. (My grandparents bought the house 2 doors away from my parent's house. And last night we spent our Family Home Evening priming their bedroom and bathroom walls for the paint job they are getting today! I was SO tired it wasn't even funny!) Forget to ask mom about the hotel situation until AFTER I had gone into her house, so I hurried over to tell mom about what Steve found. She wants me to call my sister and find out what her plans are and then book 3 rooms. I call BOTH of my sister's numbers and NO ONE answers. So, I make the executive decision to just get the rooms without them. They call back and we decided NOT to get them a room since they already had a cheaper room somewhere else. Book the rooms, and print off the confirmation pages.

PHEW!! Now here I am...whining on my blog. If you went through and read that then I applaud you! I wrote it and I don't think I could have handled so much whining all in one shot! On top of all of this I KNOW I've got PMS...not a good thing! I want to snuggle down into bed tonight with a belly full of chocolate...do you think that's too much to ask? I hope not! :)