Alarms and a Day Trip

It is Labor Day weekend and I have started the holiday celebration. I enjoy every holiday that the kids and I get a day off from hearing the alarm go off. Elaine sets her alarm every “school” day and it is a blessing when the house does not hear it in the morning.

Elaine’s alarm is one of those hugely loud, repetitive, annoying buzzing alarms. Any day without hearing that in the morning is going to be a good day.

Just because Elaine’s alarm doesn’t go off, does not mean I/we get to sleep in, We still have a couple back up alarms. We have roosters and dogs working in unison to keep the family from sleeping in.

The roosters wake the dogs and me. The dogs start barking usually waking Elaine. On “school” days this is usually about ten minutes before Elaine’s (construction language) buzzing starts. The kids may or may not wake up from the dogs barking. I am not quite sure if the kids are awake or not. My kids either pretend to be asleep or actually are asleep (not very likely) so the do not need to get out of bed and feed the dogs.

This theory does not apply to Boy Twin. Not even Elaine’s buzzing wakes that kid. Nothing short of screaming in his ear wakes, Boy Twin. Of course, that only works if we watch him. He is an expert in moving from his bed to a couch undetected.

I’m sorry! I had no intention of writing a “complaining” story. I wanted to tell a story about our holiday celebration.

Elaine suggested we take a day trip into the mountains. My first thoughts were just driving home is like taking a day trip into the mountains. Why in the world would we want to do that? Then I thought about the alternative. The window screens have been rotted by the sun and need to be replaced. I need to tie up some loose ends on the cellular antenna. We need to clean the chicken coop. All of a sudden this day trip was looking pretty good.

Convincing the twins this day trip idea was a good idea was not going to be easy. I didn’t want to tell them it was day trip or stay home and work. Then Elaine would know I was on to her. I had to think of something positive about the day trip that would convince the kids to go.

I used that old, “We might see a moose.” I thought the chances of seeing a moose were almost non-existent, but I knew we would not see one working at the house. They fell for it.

They did insist that we stop at one of the mountain restaurants for lunch. I might be fooling myself. They are old enough to know it was day trip or stay home and work.

Girl Twin agreed to going, but not without conditions.

Girl Twin: I’ll go if we can take the SUV. Me: Why do we need to take the SUV. Girl Twin: I want everyone having their own window. Boy Twin: I want to take the Beast. (our pickup truck.) Me: Why do we need to take the Beast? Boy Twin: I want to watch movies. (Yes, our truck has a DVD player.)

I wondered about the logic of watching movies in a truck, on a day trip, to look for wildlife. But then I realized we weren’t working on the house. I voted for the truck.

The day trip actually worked quite well. We ended up at a craft fair hosted by one of the mountain communities. At the crafted fair Boy Twin said to me, “I’m bored, I should have stayed home.” I couldn’t disagree with him. He decided to liven things up and pick a fight about where the restrooms were at the craft fair. (Oh, the joy of raising middle schoolers.)

We didn’t see a moose, but we/they did see a movie. Me? I was driving and listening to Carlos Santana. I/we did see a herd of wild turkeys. It made me think of Thanksgiving and the next time we won’t use Elaine’s (construction language) alarm.

Happy Thanksgiving on Labor Day

Have a great Labor Day!

Our crazy lives!

Monner