sand in my toes...and other unmentionable places

So it turns out that these two littlest kids of mine don't actually get along all that well. I didn't know this until Monday. The man claims he could have told me that this was the case but seriously, how does he know? He sees them 30 minutes a day.

Whatever. Man. You think you know so much.

I had no idea, which can only mean one of two things:

1. I live in a world of denial, or

2. I need to pay more attention.

Neither of these is all that flattering to me as a mother so we won't dwell here.

Yesterday I told them that we would go to the zoo. Yipee, the zoo! I decided to call before to make sure our passes were still good because with the kind of luck I am prone to I would have gotten there and found out they expired and been forced to either pay $100 to renew them or turn around and leave. Option one would have left me ticked right off since I don't actually plan on going to zoo very much and option two would have had me leaving with two very irate children.

I called, the passes had expired, no zoo. So the kids were irate at home instead of the parking lot of the zoo which, in my opinion, is way better.

They were down right angry, and rightfully so, until I went online and googled FREE fun things to do in Calgary.

Hey kids, guess what? There's a beach 10 minutes from our house. Interested?







Perfectly blue, cloudless skies. Hot sun. It was beautiful. Like a holiday.

I won't mention the two kids who went missing within 40 minutes of me setting up camp. The second child created such a ruckus and upheaval. They dragged the lake for ten minutes before he was found playing in some trees. I was ill. The mother next to me was in tears, packing up her kids to get them out of there before they pulled a dead body off the bottom of the lake. I stood, trying to decide if we should leave before disaster or after. I mean, what are the odds that a kid would drown at a lake I am at? I'm sure they're pretty slim, right? Plus, I had just made myself comfortable.

Was that insensitive? I apologize.

When they found him I almost marched over to give him a piece of my mind.

"I don't care if you are only 7. My nerves are shot due to the stress in my life and I can't handle dead little boys at the bottom of lakes when I am just trying to relax and enjoy the sunshine! You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves!" (The last two sentences were taken directly from my favourite Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice. Since I could not have said it better than Mrs. Bennet I pass the mantle to her.)

Anyway, I said I wouldn't mention it so I won't.

The moral of this particular story is that I live ten minutes from a great little beach and lake and that I should remember to put sunscreen on ME today, since we are going back, as well as the children.

Ouch.