Tuesday, May 17, 2011

TMI...

Caution: The following story may contain "too much information." For those of you that are sensitive to stories containing "bathroom matter" I would not continue reading. Also those of you that (for some odd reason) want to continue managing the idea that I have perfect kids that never do anything crazy I would also suggest you stop reading this post as well. Now consider yourself warned!

So now that we are officially in Kansas, but living out of hotels, I try to plan at least one outing a day. Otherwise my patience thins and my children's energy builds. Yesterday we took the hotel shuttle with another salesman's wife and son to the zoo. It was nice saving on gas and having a friend for the kids to play with. I was happy to hear the zoo was free. Win win right?
So me and my new friend were sitting at the park in the zoo watching our kids play. They play really nice together. The day so far was almost to good to be true. Until I glance over at Kadan. I thought he was just playing under the log looking tunnel, untill I realize he has dropped his drawers and is doing his business under there. Yes my son is squatting going #2 in and on the park. Talk about embarrassing (and disgusting)!
So here I am cleaning up the park like I brought my dog to central park. Only that's the reason why I don't have a dog, nor did I bring a doggy doo doo bag either. No, no that's just my son who insists to this moment he thought that's what the tunnel was for?! I had to profusely apologize to our new friend and promise this is not a regular occurrence with us. Well crazy moments are, but not my son going to the restroom wherever he see's fit is not.  I am sure you can imagine why there is no picture with this post.
 

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Room Service?

How do I feed my kids while we have been living in hotels is usually one of the first questions I get. Here are a few things I have done:




BREAKFAST

Breakfast is pretty easy. We usually just have the hotel's breakfast. The key here is take extra's back to your room. Sometimes we would eat in the lobby then make a plate for later. Others I would go down while kids were sleeping, then bring up food for them. Even after doing that I would bring them down after they woke up for breakfast. Why? The extra food taken to our room was usually used for a snack or even lunch.
LUNCH
This is when I would eat leftover breakfast foods. We would use the bread meant for toast, with the peanut butter and jelly packets make great sandwhich's. Or sometimes I would pour cereal in a bowl and milk in a cup for a snack or lunch later. Yogurts and fruit were easy to store in our mini fridge. Oatmeal and hot chocolate packets easily cooked in a micorwave or with the coffee pot. Bagels and extra cream cheese packets were one of Kadan's favorites. I also used the coffee pot for cup of noodles. Then we would go out for kid's meals once or twice a week.

DINNER
Dinner was a little trickier. Especially when trying to avoid pizza, fast food and spending lots of money. I used my plug in griddle a lot. With the griddle I would have lots of grilled cheese's sandwhich's usually with stolen left over continental breakfast bread too! Quesidilla's were really easy as well as grilled tuna sandwhichs. Sometimes I would grill the roast beef with some cheese and brown some cut french bread for a hot sandwhch option. If you buy those add water and easy pour pancake mix containers and can steal small syrup packets as well this was another cheap yummy dinner most kids love. Sometimes I would eat heated up chilli and micorwaved potatoes and a salad. Those meals and a dinner out to eat 1-2 times a week we were pretty much set.
Just make sure to have paper products, plastic utinsils, paper towels, baggies, a spatualla, can opener 1 or 2 tupperware conatiners for mixing or storing, and no spill cups are great.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Inroom Amenities

Since we are living in hotels right now there are many advantages and disadvantages. I am enjoying the daily housekeeping part, not that I have anything else to do. The free breakfast is nice since I don't have to cook or clean up. The hard part is waking up in time to eat it. Free fruit in the lobby, free swimming, close restaurants, and one hotel even has free dinner soup and salad bar. Ok so the restaurants close by are both a plus and a minus.
One large adjustment has been laundry. Trying to balance the right amount of clothes. Too much clothes takes up more room in the car but means less laundry. Less clothes mean spending more quarters to wash more often. Today I went to the laundry mat to wash. Although I didn't realize till I was back in the room that all the clothes hadn't completely dried. So Adrianna's crib also served as a clothes line.

Monday, May 2, 2011

We're Off to See the Wizard...

We are packed in our small car up to our chins again. Not quite suffocating us but close. Steven is going to be selling mostly in Kansas this summer. Now that we have 1 more kid and 1 more kids stuff we are up for all new adventures.
3 car seats packed in tight. Every nook and crany filled. Lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwich's and we are ready for yet another 8 hour car trip. Crazy, you ask? Yes, yes we are!