Even the Best Laid Plan

Hello, my name is Brandi, and I am a blogging failure. Well, at least I have been for a couple weeks. It just kept slipping lower and lower on my priority based to-do list. You know, beneath bathing & feeding children (always with the eating!), picking up toys, and lately, around our house, wiping snotty noses. I know my fellow moms know this list all too well.

But now that I'm blogging...I have two major (to me at least) points of discussion. Number 1 - you know what can ruin a day? When I have planned everything. I have accounted for every possible scenerio. I have extra diapers, extra clothes, empty water bottles filled with juice to keep costs down, I have double the Kleenex for the snotty nose situation. But when you get to where you are going everything goes wrong! Snotty nose kid is fussy, the baby hates anything that confines her, and the oldest has suddenly become deaf and doesn't listen to a thing you say. Then to top things off, the hubby is annoyed by that entire situation. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? Everyone is happy in the car. Everyone is happy on the way to the entrance. You pay and BAM! No one is happy, and now I'm frustrated. So here are my new found solutions:

1. Drive just your family so you don't feel guilty for leaving early. - It's not that you don't like carpooling. Who doesn't? It's just sometimes enough is enough for your family and the other parties you are with shouldn't be punished because your family lost their mind.
2. Know when enough is enough. - This one is rough for me. I want to keep trying to make it work. I want it to be perfect. I want their to be a million perfect photo ops. Sadly this is the real world. Three kids? You are lucky with one photo op and one of them will be crying. Sometimes you have to say...we will be happier at home in jammies and that is where we are going.
3. Don't go if you know your kids are a mess. - Taking snotty nose is not a good plan. They want to be laying on the couch with all 1 million episodes of Dora on Netflix and a sippy cup of chocolate milk. Either reschedule, or one parent stays behind. Don't get excited, you will probably have to draw straws.

So...number2 - Since when did it become "ok" to take a picture of someone else's kid with your phone and walk away like it is completely normal? Now do people think I spend hours reviewing privacy policies and settings on Facebook, because I'm cool with other people having pictures of my kid? And why do you think you don't have to ask? Honestly, you can take a picture of my kid if you enjoy seeing your iPhone4s smashed on the pavement in front of you. Yes, I know they are adorable, I made them. Enjoy them while they are you in your eyesight then creepily stare at the cute kids behind us. Am I alone? Is this abnormal? I have to ask, because as you may have guessed, this day has turned me loopy.