Adventures Away...

Today was a day full of adventures and misadventures. The kids are doing well. However, with our cramped space I am sure that someone is going to loose an eye or tooth due to flying body parts and toys. Therefore, we have to get out of the apartment as much as possible. Getting out in a strange area (not that the actual area is strange.....well I guess that could be argued, but more that it is strange and new to us) can cause lots of adventures in itself.

Adventure 1: Getting Medical Records for Maddie's New Preschool

I received notice on Wednesday evening that I had to have all the paper work (6 sheets) filled out and turned into Maddie's preschool by today, Friday. If not, she would loose her place in the preschool. This wouldn't be so hard if it didn't have to be filled out by her pediatrician. Remember, we are in MN and her pediatrician is in GA. .. not like we could "zip zip" and take the papers to be filled out. So, Wade faxed them Thursday morning (as soon as the Dr. office opened) and I spent the day on the phone between the Dr. office and Wade to see if they were faxed back. After several attempts (some of the pages were blurred some didn't come through) Wade felt that we had all we needed. Once he was home last night, we noticed that yes we had everything, but the immunization records were not for our child. They were for someone with the last name Ortiz. How in the world did they fax us (several times I might add because of the difficulty) records for an Ortiz. Our last names don't even start with the same letter. So, panicked I was!!!! My mind was whirling. How can I get the Dr to fax more on Friday and get them from Wade and turn them in.....AAAAHHHHH. After a several phone calls this morning we were able to get the records of our child faxed to Wade's office. However, he had meetings all morning.....which leads us to...

Adventure 2: Going to Wade's office

Now, I know that you read this adventure and thought...."wimp" why would that be an adventure. I have never been to Wade's new office before. Had no idea where it was or even what office number he is in. I asked him, as he was having to hurry to a meeting, how to get to his office. His reply, "put the address in your GPS". Okay sure I have the GPS, but I was meaning more of where do I park, which entrance to I use, do I need ID, etc etc. Those questions, GPS will not help me answer. And as it was, GPS couldn't even help me find his office. To get to Wade's office one must go through a labyrinth of one way roads that are all named the same thing. How in the world can you be at the intersection of Bren's Road and Bren's Road? Very frustrating!!! Finally (and I mean finally) I found the office building and some time after that, the visitor's parking. Then, I had to haul the kids miles from the visitor's parking (okay that is an exaggeration it wasn't miles, but it felt like it) to the main building. Of course I found out was I was leaving there was a closer visitor parking lot...just my luck. I can say that United Health Group has a much nicer building than Home Depot and was much less stress to get in and out. The kids and I met his assistant, who is a hoot!!! (feels good to use southern slang like calling someone a hoot every now and then) She is really nice and didn't seem to be phased by my kids running in circles so that they could hear the echo in the lobby. We decided it was time to leave when Maddie asked if she could pick the flowers in the foyer....didn't want our redneck/southern roots to show too brightly :)

Adventure 3: Finding Maddie's new preschool and turning in forms!

Okay, so this really wasn't that much of an adventure. I just plugged in the address to my trusty ol' GPS (which has a very quirky voice...maybe if people here heard it they wouldn't be so interested in my accent) and off we went. Back and around...past our apartments ("look there's our hotel," was the comment from Maddie in the back) finally there. I had to run (literally) the papers in and back out. The wind here is terrible today. The temps in the high 60's but gusts over 20 miles an hour. And then we were off to a park to meet a mom and her two kids....

Adventure 4: Where in the heck is Shakopee, MN

It is about 15 miles from Eden Prairie, but you feel like you are about to fall off the ends of the earth before you get there. Lucky for us, it was a beautiful drive. Lots of lakes, rivers, trees, and HILLS!! Never have I seen two kids so excited to see a hill. Maddie was sure we had made it back to NC. I told her not quite!! You forget small things like hills when you live in a flat metropolitan area. Anyway the mom was nice. Her two kids, a girl age 4 and a boy age 2, were prefect for my kids. The park was incredible. It even had a little town set up in it. You could go to the "bank" or "eat" at a Mexican restaurant. And just for Maddie, the clover was in bloom. Watch out Daddy....Maddie is armed and loaded with lots of clover blossoms for you to take to work.

Adventure 5: Uh-oh....

If you are a mom, you know those are the words that you most dread hearing from the back seat. Especially if you aren't familiar with the area and looking for a small poorly marked road (have you heard of road signs, Minnesota???). I am sure I looked liked someone 60 years older than I am driving down the road. You know...stoping at every small road to see if that is the one you need. Yes, I had my trusty ol' GPS telling me that I needed to turn in 500ft. I, however, am terrible at gaging feet....I didn't know how far 500ft was. Ended up the road was the third one I slowed down to look at. Okay back to the "uh-oh". It was from Maddie. My darlin' Maddie who LOVES to chew gum....those who know me know exactly where she got that habit from (as I am chewing away typing this). We only chew sugarless and only with Xytol now. Anyway, I am sure you can guess what happened to a girl with long hair chewing gum. Yes, you got it...it got in her hair. Very traumatic I must add. I told her to hold still and we would have to find some scissors. Okay, maybe the wrong thing to say to my child who loves her long hair that can go in "one ponytail". A scream loud enough to be heard in GA occurred. "You will NOT cut my hair", yelled Maddie. I tried explaining that I wasn't actually going to cut all her hair just the few strands that were held captive by the gum. My explanation probably wasn't heard since the screaming ensued all the way to the apartment. Of course, during all this it occurred to me that we didn't have any scissors. We arrived at the apartment. I took my dirty and now screaming child into the apartment office. While trying to look as casual as possible, I asked if we could borrow the scissors (which of course sent off yet another unearthly scream from my daughter). After I man handled her, while the whole apartment office came out to watch (don't you just love doing things for an audience?), I was able to trim the 8 pieces of hair that the gum was in. You couldn't find where I cut her hair even if you looked. So, now a 8 hair "strand-less" Maddie and a dirty Sam are both sound asleep.

That concludes today's adventures of the Southern Sheeks as we try to find our place in the Mid-West!!!

We want to wish Granddaddy, Papa and all the dads out there a very Happy Father's Day!!!