Chocolate Castles as wel

It feels like I have not written in months, when in reality, it has only been 4 days. Before I left to babysit in Phoenix, I had posted some lessons learned from keeping our 10 yr old grandson for 4 days. Also, I had written that upon my return, I would post more lessons learned after a week of keeping a 3 yr old, a 5 yr old and a 13 yr old. This is the lesson that I learned last week:

WHEN DETERMINING WHERE TO LIVE WHEN WE GET OLD, WE WILL MOVE TO OUR KIDS THAT ONLY HAVE 1 CHILD, NOT 3!!!!!!

There…that was my lesson that I learned.  After spending 5 days in Phoenix with these angels, I learned that I should have trained for a triathlon before attempting this challenge. I learned that I should have had a chiropractor on speed dial.

Never attempt keeping 3 youngsters, at my age, without first buying earplugs, a great pair of tennis shoes and lots of benedryl (for the kids, not me)! I found myself running car pool with a roll of toilet paper in my purse, for Noah’s runny nose, (I couldn’t find any tissue), which really felt weird, when reaching into my purse for my wallet, grabbed the roll instead. The cashier looked at me, then looked at Noah and said, “I totally understand.”

Do not ever enter a restaurant without a bleach rag or antiseptic cleanser. I must have made 5 trips back to the silverware station for clean spoons after Noah kept knocking his onto the floor.

NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE without at least 3 pair of extra “big boy” underwear! Sometimes, the “big boy” forgets he is a big boy. Need I say more?

All in all, I can’t even begin to tell you how many trips I made up and down the stairs. When I brought the boys their milk for the night, I was so proud that I had bathed them, had them brush their teeth, and they were actually in bed without one boo boo for the day. I handed them their milk and Caleb says to me, “Nana, you have the wong cups. Noah has to dwink his out of his baby cup and I don’t dwink out of this one, because it is a baby cup.” I told him to just exchange them and all would be right in the world. He looked at me and said, “Nana, Noah’s uses the cup that looks like a cow uddor (Caleb doesn’t seem to see the need to use “r’s” so we never hear a “r” in the Dupree household), but it only has 1 uddor on it” So I ran back down stairs to find the cup with the 1 “uddor” on it.  (Are they really teaching 5 yr olds about cow udders in kindergarten now)?When I come back up, I bring two new cups of milk and promise God that when I turn 65, I will go to Africa to be a missionary, if I just don’t have to run back down the stairs again that night. Caleb tells me that I still got the wong cup for him, but he will use the one I bwought up. God is faithful! If I survive this week, I guess I will be preparing to learn how to live in Africa. I kind of feel like this past week was a great start for learning how to live in the wild.

When I plopped into the chair in the airport, waiting for my flight to take me home, I sat there thinking about how old this week made me feel. Why couldn’t I keep up like I could 40 years ago? My aching muscles and swollen feet reminded me that I guess I truly am not as young as I like to think I am. But after a couple days of rest, I’m sure I will be just fine and ready to tackle the next big challenge.

Upon arriving in Dallas, I walk off the plane, in my cute little wedge sandals, knowing that Randy will be waiting with open arms to welcome me home. Well, a few minutes after leaving the plane, I am walking so fast, that I hit a wet spot on the floor that has just been mopped. Whish…down I go right in the middle of Love Field terminal C. All the precious little 15 yr olds walking around me, come over to me and I hear people saying, “help her up, somebody, help the lady up.” I felt my face turn red and didn’t realize until I got up what I must have looked like, trying to get up by myself, having turned over on all 4’s and pushing my way to try to stand. It was a proud moment, I can assure you. But in the distance, there Randy stands, with a huge grin on his face. Was he that glad to see me or had he seen me fall? Could I feel any older than I had when the minivan that had dropped me off at the Phoenix airport was decaled with “nanlicious”? My dear sweet son-in-law thought it would  be cute to have this on the van as I drove it around all week.

Surely things will start to feel better as soon as I get to the house. Surely, as soon as I have a glass of sweet tea and sit down with my chocolate candy I had saved, I would begin to feel my youthful self again, well maybe after a good night’s rest. So settling down on the couch with my tea and chocolate, Randy brings me an envelop and says, “guess what you got while you were gone?” I glance down to see the giant envelop with giant letters forming the words “WELCOME TO MEDICARE”. I guess they think that we can’t see little letters unless they are the size of a large Vitamin.

I think that the Nanalicious van doesn’t look so bad after all. At least it didn’t have a handicap sticker on the license plate and with 3 kids in the back I didn’t feel as old as I did right then sitting there with the Medicare papers to fill out.

Wonder if the witch doctors in Africa take Medicare?