Dating Daddy All Day

Good Thursday morning!

WARNING! WARNING! Perhaps you like the cereal I'm about to warn you about. You may have 15 boxes of this product in your pantry right now. But if you haven't purchased it yet, I would definitely recommend skipping High School Musical Cereal. And I'm a big cereal person. I love ALL kinds of cereal, from sugary to bran. I am NOT a picky, picky cereal person. However, when I walked into K-Mart last night and saw a clearance shelf with Zac Efron looking at me (so cute), and saw the box was marked $.50... Well, I just couldn't help myself. Let me just say, that is $.50 I will never get back! As always, I'm just trying to help bring families closer together! (I've added the picture to the Gallery so you'll know it if you see it!)

Weekend Family Fun

The following events were taken from http://blog.al.com/bargain-mom/. (Remember... Jennifer gave us this website a couple of weeks ago. This website was full of good "things to do" this weekend.)

Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum in Calera - Dads get in half-price ($6) with a child ($8) this Saturday, but only for the 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. excursion.

Montgomery Zoo - Dads get free admission this Sunday for Father's Day (with a child's paid admission, of course).

McWane Center - Dads get free admission this Sunday for Father's Day (with a child's paid admission).

Krispy Kreme - Dads get a free glazed doughnut Saturday or Sunday this weekend... just for being a Dad! (We're definitely doing this one!)

Tannehill State Park Trade Days - Tannehill will have over 300 vendors in the park this weekend. Adult admission to the park is $3. For more info, go to their website at www.tannehill.org.

Vacation Mishap #4 - I Swam in a Tropical Depression... and Lived to Tell About It!

This particular vacation happened after marriage, but before children. I didn't want you to think I was a bad "Mom Example." Basically, I was just an idiot.

Mike and I had gone to the beach with six other friends and had camped at Gulf Shores State Park. Mike and I were the only married couple, so I stayed with the chicks in a camper, and he and the guys stayed next door in a pop-out. We had a very, very good time. However, on one of our last days on the beach it was very dark, very threatening. The waves were huge though, and some of us couldn't resist a little body surfing.

As you can imagine, the undertow was unbelievably strong. I'm an okay swimmer. Mikie, Scott and Billy probably fall into the "good swimmer" category (maybe a little better than good... I don't want to offend anyone). My friend, Celeste, had been on the swim team her entire young life and later was a lifeguard. My friend, Kerry, was an Eagle Scout... so I assume that means he was an expert swimmer, too. (I'll have to ask him next time I see him.) Two of the girls stayed on shore, but the rest of us hit the waves. And we had a ball. You absolutely did not need a surfboard. The waves would actually carry you and throw you onto the sand.

We had been "playing" in the ocean for quite a while, and it was very exhausting just standing in the waves and undertow. As happens when you are in the ocean during a storm, before I knew it I was more than knee-deep in the water. I was suddenly chest-deep... and struggling. I had been standing next to Kerry and Celeste watching the antics of the other three guys when suddenly they were several feet in front of me.

I yelled their names, and they turned around. I still remember the look in both of their eyes. I was in trouble. "SWIM!" they both yelled. And as I swam as hard as I could, they both reached and grabbed and reached and grabbed some more until one of them had my hand. A few seconds later, the other one had the other hand, and together we kicked, swam and fought the current to get back to shore.

We were so, so fortunate to survive such a stupid, stupid act. God was (as always) watching out for all of us that day. (I would kill one of my kids if I knew they had done something so stupid. I know I'm using the same word a lot here... but nothing else fits quite as well.)

To this day, whenever several of us get together and we start talking about "the good ol' days" and the trips we took together, someone will say, "Remember when we swam in the storm?" And Celeste, Kerry and I shudder and shake our heads.

But we learned a VALUABLE lesson. It has never happened since and will never happen again. And as parents, I think we have all instilled the "Rules of Swimming in the Ocean" deeply in all of our kids. I know checking the flags is the FIRST thing we do every morning before we start a day on the beach... and we definitely do not question the flags.

Sorry. It wasn't a humorous story, but it was most assuredly one of the worst Vacation Mishaps I ever experienced. Tomorrow I'll have something a little "lighter." I promise.

New National Holiday #5 - Okay. This one is a little self-serving, even for me. However, June 18 will from now until the end of time be "National Tell Someone About 'A Simple Life' Day." Now before you think too badly of me, remember I'm a numbers person. My goal is to have 1,000 hits in one month before the blog is a year old (October 16). So far, the most I've gotten is 868 a month. That is SOOO CLOSE! Again, you don't have to clean your house or fix a meal for this holiday. If you want to, you could even tell the person you call June 17 on "National Call the First Person Who Pops In Your Head Day." That's right. Make it a "twofer." I don't mind. I'll let you know if we break 900 this month. (Right now, we're doing pretty well!)

Dating Daddy All Day

This one takes a little planning. What you are trying to do is accomplish ONE date per child in ONE day. This date will work best if you have multiple children... but not 8 like Jon and Kate or 18 like the Duggars. We're talking two to five kids. We want it to be enjoyable, but not exhausting.

Depending on the number of children you have, help them plan the same number of outings in one day. They do not have to be individually expensive or individually time-consuming.

For example, if our kids were younger, the "Dating Daddy All Day" would go something like this:

1. Because Mikie likes Milo's, Roxie would take her Daddy to Milo's for lunch after church. They would then return to the house.

2. Because Mikie loves to fish, Josh would take his Daddy to Wal-Mart and let him pick out one or two lures for his tackle box. They would then return to the house.

3. Because Mikie loves doughnuts, Austin would take his Daddy to the closest Krispy Kreme for a FREE doughnut and cup of coffee. They would then return to the house.

4. We would end the "Dating Daddy All Day" with a movie and popcorn all together in our den... because he loves that activity, too.

Make a list of what your Daddy likes/loves. Then assign a child to a particular activity on the list. Remember, all of these "gifts" are surprises until the child gets in the car with Daddy to tell him where to point the car.

Have fun with this one, and make it a Father's Day he'll talk about for days to come.

Have a spectacular Thursday. Go to Chick-Fil-A between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. tonight and get your free chicken strips. (I don't care if you do have to wait 45 minutes... IT'S FREE!) Tomorrow I'll share a couple of good Father's Day books, the TV Review of Jon & Kate, my last Vacation Mishap (not the last one I ever had, but the last one I'll be sharing this week), and my last New National Holiday. It's already the weekend. Can you believe it?

Next week, I'll tell you what we did for Mikie for Father's Day. Since he reads the blog, I can't let the secret out just yet.

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.