Tuesday, March 4, 2014

The Alma Mater factor

If any of you read my last post, you know I should be packing some boxes but since I ran out of packing tape...I'm done for the night. (right?).

I'm reminiscing tonight: SO I don't know how many of you returned to your Alma Maters for your five year reunion, but one of my besties from college and I promised ourselves we'd do it. And by golly, come what may, we DID!

Lucky for me, the reunion only meant a three hour drive for us. My friend had to fly (with her two kiddos), stop for a bit to see another friend, rent a car and drive for three hours (coming from an opposite direction of course or we would've just driven together :) ). She somehow toted two carseats, several carry-ons and only one (yes I know, impressive, right) checked bag~two toddlers in tow. And did I mention she was 6 months pregnant?!?

As I was making preparations for our trip, I somehow caught my pinkie toe underneath a door and broke it. It swelled and the whole foot was turning all kinds of purples and greens. I was also just barely 6 months pregs and my husband (bless his heart he works too hard and has the craziest schedule) was super busy with work. I'm a first born and often just do things on my own (I'm also stubborn I guess) so I loaded all our stuff up in the car and headed to see my friends! Luckily my in-laws live in the same city as the Alma Mater-we were all crashing there for the weekend.

I get a frantic call from my friend~she's at the ER! Her daughter was playing on a trampoline and ended up breaking her leg. Poor lil thing! Such a trooper, my wonderful friend (who is also a wonderful mommy) finally arrived at the in-laws house in the wee hours of the morning ready for a fun weekend.

We had the crazy idea we would take ALL the kids to chapel, a great tradition of our Alma Mater. My friend's sweet daughter couldn't walk so we needed a stroller for her, one for my then 20M old, and one for her 1 year old. My creatively inventive father in law helped us rig two Walmart bought umbrella strollers together with some rope and some 1x4s and some zip ties I think. This way I could push one and she could push one. It even folded, he did such a great job! :)

Of course we were already running late...we finally packed everyone and everything in the car. I have an Equinox with only three seats in the back. We packed all three carseats back there, two strollers, snacks (of course), and our bags in there and headed out! We made it to the Alma Mater, got out the strollers, buckled the kids in, stashed the snacks and bags, and made the hike to chapel. So here we were two very pregnant mommas (both of us were showing way more than we had in our previous pregnancies), a rigged double stroller, one kid in a cast, one of us with a broken toe across campus! This is dedication right?! We made it to chapel only to hear the very end of it before we could all the strollers in the door!!! Oh my!

We also had the great idea that we'd take them all to the Homecoming carnival-strollers, broken toe, broken leg, preggers and all! It was a task to get those stinkin strollers around the field but the kids had lots of fun. Got to see the mascots, play some games (I just found a hacky sack we won from a game there yesterday), ride a pony, and pet/hold some animals.

We had fun eating out and catching up with friends and family the rest of the day. Eating out with kids is always fun and we always leave our mark at unsuspecting restaurants! Oh and bonus, our husbands made it in that night as well. So now at least we had help :)

The next morning we headed to the Homecoming parade. Admittedly, we had never been as actual students in college, but figured it would be fun for the kids! The seats were already arranged in my car so the moms and the kids headed out in it, our husbands in my husband's car. Of course finding parking wasn't easy, running late again. AND the husbands couldn't find us till the parade was almost over! It wasn't too long and not extremely exciting but they did throw some candy...not toward us though. We obviously had three kids and one was in a hot pink CAST~throw some candy our way!!! Ok, ok, we got a couple pieces!

Next was lunch with another bestie/roommate. She had alluded to us through several conversations that her kids (daughter and son) were crazy, like really hyper and crazy. When we all got in to the restaurant, greeted each other with hugs and sent my husband back to pick up keys from the house, my daughter decided to show her what crazy was and literally took off on an obstacle course sprint throughout the restaurant! I'm talking in and out and under tables (where people were sitting, already eating...excuse me sorry about that), around and behind the bar, and almost into the kitchen. She's fast! And I was 6 months pregs with a broken toe!

We sit down, trying to catch up with everyone but with five kids 3 and under at the table let's just say there were lots of interruptions. My daughter, the star of the day, was in a mood and started screaming that she was ready to eat! After calming her down (yea, the food did take a LONG time to get there; guess that's why that place is closed now), the food finally came. My friend who had made the long trip and I still laugh~our other friend, who claimed her kids were SO crazy was actually enjoying her meal. We remember it like a slow motion movie playing in our heads: Our friend with the "hyper" kids were literally sitting, using utensils correctly, not using bibs and eating their food very quietly and politely. Our kids~well my daughter had not only thrown her cup several times along with random bouts of screaming but she was currently flinging her macaroni and cheese all over the restaurant, over her shoulder, across the table, on my husbands lap, etc, etc. Her kids~ I laugh shaking my head at my daughter's behavior and see my friends' kids~the sweet little girl with her broken leg has her cast literally up on the table, foot and all right by her plate. She's wearing a dress~legs wide open! My friend's cute little boy at the end of the table is chewing on the tablecloth! What a lunch that was! Crazy and hyper? No sweet friend, your kids were so well behaved and were like angels!!!

So many great memories came from this crazy weekend! Oh I forgot to add that my in-laws who were so gracious to offer their house for all of us to stay in had LOTS of plumbing problems at their house! We had a couple times where we had to wait a bit in between flushes and showers but it was all good....at least on the inside. The side of the house where the line was exposed showed a different picture!

We all had so much fun that weekend!! We did make so many great memories that we will never forget! We kept our promise to each other and returned to the Alma Mater! No matter what happened that weekend, we were together. This friend of mine who came from so far, ordered me to be her friend only minutes after we met. The rest has been history! Our other friend/roommate had been my roommate the previous year and we all just clicked. We have seen each other through a lot! Through lots of laughs, tricks, some tears, crazy dances, singing in the shower, long nights of watching the Bachelor finales, nasty school projects, Miss America dress up parties, late night talks about our futures, dating, proposals, planning weddings, long games of nerds, being in each other's weddings~ GROWING up! I love those girls and I hate that we don't get together more often! But that weekend, we were together, our husbands were together, our kids played together, it was like old times~and THAT was completely worth it! All of it! I SO hope we all make it back for our 10 year reunion, but I am forever blessed by the memories of that weekend!

You can't make this stuff up folks! It's TOO crazy, but it's my crazy!