A day in the life
A day in the life of me doesn't seem very exciting but we'll give it a go.
#AdoptionTalk is in its 14th month…or something like that. I’m stoked to see that the linkup has grown, gathered steam and brought life to more voices and stories.
So now, a peek behind the curtain.
My co-hosts and I collaborate (and sometimes commiserate) in a closed Facebook group. One certain member of the group usually posts a couple of days before the posts are due:
“I have no idea what to write for prompt blah-blah-blah. What are y’all going to write about?”
Ahem.
In a fit of unexplained desire to be more organized, I looked at this week’s prompt early.
“A day in the life.”
That’s pretty easy, I thought, although a day in my life isn’t usually anything worth recording. Sure, I have my notable, squee-worthy moments here and there. I have my high highs, my low lows and my “good gravy, I gotta write this shit down before I forget.” And yes, I am the nerd who says stuff like “good gravy.” I like gravy…but I digress.
I thought I would pick a day when I was actually doing something semi interesting and jot down notes about what I was doing throughout the day. Please note I said “semi-interesting” so keep your expectations low, okay?
This doesn’t have much to do with adoption. Although we will probably always face our own special issues that are tied to adoption, most of the time, life goes on like anyone’s life goes on.
The backstory: my husband and I watch a lot of HGTV. One of my favorite shows is Fixer Upper. In fact, Joanna Gaines and I are BFFs in my mind…in a totally non-creepy way, of course. The Magnolia Market is in Waco, Texas which is only a short drive from where we live. I keep telling my husband we need to take a little trip up there…because Chip and Joanna have been begging us to come up and hang out. I made that last part up.
We’d planned on going to Houston last weekend. There are a bunch of museums and the Space Center up there (I guess it's over there…I'm so bad with directions) and it’s a weekend trip we’ve been talking about for a long time. For a couple of different reasons too boring to mention, we decided not to go to Houston and decided to go to Waco instead.
Waco is not most desirable tourist destination in Texas…I’ll just put that out there. We got on the internet, found a place to stay and made a list of the family-friendly activities in the area and off we went. So that’s the backstory. Here we go:
8:38 – My husband wakes me up with a cup of coffee and leaves me to drink it alone in bed in total and complete peace. It was the first morning in forever that I’d woken up to find a kid not in my bed. Wahoo!
9:24 – Fed my family breakfast – bean and cheese tacos. If you haven’t had a bean and cheese taco for breakfast, you’re missing out, although I guess that’s kind of a regional thing.
San Antonio breakfast tradition. #saturday #SanAntonio #refriedbeans #cheese #tortilla #breakfast
A photo posted by Ripped Jeans & Bifocals (@jillrobbins2012) on
10:40 – Van is loaded, family is on the road. FYI, target departure time was 10:00.
11:35 – My kids are whining because they’re hungry and thirsty because we’ve been riding in the car FOREVER.
12:17 – We stop at a rest area with a playground
12:30 – On the road again
1:04 – We have officially passed our target arrival time because of traffic and road construction. Road rage makes its first appearance of the day.
2:00 – Arrive at Magnolia Market in Waco. Stand in line for almost an hour to get in the store. Spent 20 minutes in the store because it was crowded and expensive and I was scared my kids would break something.
3:49 – Arrive at Dr. Pepper Museum. Complete stranger tells me I have toilet paper on my shoe.
4:15 – One kid slams his finger in a vintage Dr. Pepper cooler and everyone in the museum stares at us (the Dr. Pepper Museum is not a very large place.)
4:25 – Spent 15 minutes watching Dr. Pepper commercials from the 70’s and 80’s…seriously this was one of the highlights of the day.
4:45 – Arrived at the soda fountain/snack bar and got in line behind a family of eight. Stood there for 10 minutes and observed the ice cream scooper girl had been waiting on one person the entire time we’d been waiting. Hanger and impatience won out and we found a McDonalds.
6:00 – Arrive at our hotel
6:15 – Said hotel had been booked because of its indoor pool, so I sucked up my bathing suit anxiety and went swimming with my kids…sorry, no pictures of this. No really, I’m not sorry and neither are you!
7:35 – Managed to pry kids out of freezing cold pool. Set up “camp” on hotel patio next to the propane fire pit with our provisions: ice chest full of sodas and a bottle of wine and a box of crackers. Watched kids run around and make friends with people at neighboring tables. Chillaxed. Lamented the fact that we only brought one bottle of wine with us.
I was asleep before 9:00 p.m.
All in all it was a really good day. The boys are pretty portable and other than some whiny-ness and spats in the car, they’re pretty easy to travel with. I’ve almost gotten used to the stares when we’re out and about as a family. I’m not sure if people are looking at us because of the multi-racial aspect of our family, because of Zack’s limb difference of because I just look really, really tired. We don’t live in a super diverse area and I always wonder what it would be like to live in New York City or somewhere mixed families are a little more common place.
Here are a few pictures of the rest of our time in Waco, which is an okay place if you ever find yourself stopping through when you’re in Texas.
No Chip & Joanna sightings today. #waco #hgtv #fixerupper
A photo posted by Ripped Jeans & Bifocals (@jillrobbins2012) on
Monkeys watching monkeys. #familyfun #kids #zoo #texas #waco #instagood
A photo posted by Ripped Jeans & Bifocals (@jillrobbins2012) on
If you're interested in visiting Waco, here are some helpful links:
Hampton Inn, Magnolia Market, Cameron Park Zoo, Texas Ranger Museum, and of course, the Dr. Pepper Museum!
Save the image below to your “travel” or “stuff to do in Texas” Pinterest boards:
Thank you for reading!
Now on to the Adoption Talk Linkup!
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Love the ten finger t-shirt! You are rock in’ little man:)
This was fantastic! I love your writing style…you can make even a semi-exciting day sound like The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. 😉 P.S. Your kids are super cute! Thanks for sharing!
Hilarious! And I learned that there is a Dr. Pepper museum, who knew? Not me
Right???? Had I not Googled “things to do in Waco, TX” I would have never known, either.
I loved the humor in your day. I do have to openly apologize to anyone who gets stuck behind “that family.” You know? The mega-sized one? Yeah, that’s us. Lol! Between my kids and their friends we are sometimes “rolling deep” with 10 people. Apologies!!!
Aw, large families don’t bother me…the girl who took 10 minutes to scoop one blob of ice cream into a cup? THAT bothers me.
Travel stories are always colorful when you have kids. Haha Your posts always put a smile on my face; thanks for sharing! 🙂
I think it sounds like a great day! I love road trips – yes, even with the kids!
It wasn’t the most glamorous trip we’d ever taken, but yes, it was good! Thank you for reading, Allie!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m gonna have to get back to #FTSF…I miss y’all!!!!
Hi Jill,
Sounds like your life is busy, if you say not glamorous! Sometimes I wish for a more mundane day just doing ‘stuff,; As long as the family is together, it’s all good!
Thanks for sharing.