The phone rang early last week. Seeing my husband was on the other end, I picked up. His employer wanted to send him to Sweetwater, Texas to look at some buildings, and he wanted to know what I thought. Why I’d love to visit Sweetwater!!
You know how much I love to travel! A couple of days later, the seven of us crammed in a rented Ford Explorer and headed north. Getting away and the first leg of our trip was quite the fiasco. We were in full Irish mode. Oh, the issues trying to leave, number of things we forgot, and crazy time figuring out the vehicle. It would have all been humorous had we not been in def-con stress mode.
Everything came to a head over a work conference call that my husband was supposed to have…wait for it…on speaker en route to Sweetwater with the whole crew in the car. It was the king of bad ideas.
Every human was warned not to make a sound, and it may have worked, but the conference itself was having technical difficulties, and the call didn’t come in until over 30 minutes after the silence embargo was declared.
The call finally came in, but in spite of our rock solid silence the man couldn’t hear Jason and told him to call back. Next came issues with the number and patches of dead zone. By the time it was once again time for the call, I had kids screaming and angry. Jason was furious, and I’d had it.
Sometimes it just takes Mama to explode to restore balance. No more Mr. Nice Mom. Taking matters into my own hands, I lectured the poor, miserable inhabitants of that Explorer up one side and down the other. When I was done, everyone behaved and (Would you believe?) was in a good mood.
I still just shake my head and laugh at the drastic difference. I guess I just had to get good and mad, because the rest of the trip was wonderful. We had such a great time exploring more of Texas and getting to see a few friends from the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Oh the family dramas, no? I’m pretty sure we all have them. I’m not recommending moms everywhere explode at their families. Ha! I’m just keeping it real. This many years in, and I don’t have things all figured out. What I do recommend, is keeping your sense of humor through the crazy times, as much as possible. 😉
Nice to have seen all of you guys too!
Hope to see you again soon!