Service and Balloons

John had volunteered to help a man who was moving into our branch. I think John was feeling bad about leaving me home alone with the kids, since my day yesterday wasn't the greatest, so he asked if we wanted to come along. Now, I didn't help with the moving, I just stayed inside the car with the kids watching the men do it all, but I noticed how they all had smiles on their faces. I was proud of Joey because he got out and offered to help also. I cringed every time I saw him carry something breakable, like picture frames and stuff, but he did a great job. He is really growing up.


Afterwards, we decided to head into the Quad Cities and grab a bite to eat. We remembered that Golden Corral has a special Tuesday nights where kids eat for $1.99, What a deal! The kids love the all you can eat buffet, and the price was right so went for it. We actually had a pleasant dinner out, despite the conversation with Joey and all his "drama" at school. I think we got a few "listen inner's" on that one. Ahhh, gotta love 5th grade...or not. :)

When we were just about ready to leave a man by the name of Mr. B Loon came and asked if the kids would like him to make them a balloon in any shape that they wanted. It's hard to say no to that, especially because A. Kids love balloons and B. John got me a balloon shaped like Charles Barkley on one of our first dates. (weird I know, but I was a suns fan) so we kinda like balloon art, it always brings back memories from the past. :) Anyway, we thought it might be fun, despite our gut feelings!

Joey had him make an alien with a yellow body and blue head, Jacob wanted an Alien with a yellow head and white body, Bekah wanted a princess crown, Luke got a dragon, and Adam had a Bazooka...ya, whatever. :) They were having so much fun with their balloons and they turned out really cute, so after dinner I wanted to take a picture BEFORE they got ruined on the ride home.

This was the picture before all HE-- broke lose! :)

First of all I noticed the camera setting wasn't right, hence the blurry picture, so when I went to change that, EVERYTHING changed. Bekah knocked the Alien out of Joey's hand which in turn caused him to throw a huge tantrum complete with foot stomping and yelling at Bekah and crying out of control while his Alien was blowing away. John hurried and snatched the Alien but not in time to stop the head from being popped on a bush, which caused an even bigger scene with Joey. John snatched him by the arm and dragged him to the car while lecturing him about the way he was acting, reminding him that he is 11 years old! The wind picked up right then, which blew off Bekah's crown and she and Adam went running after it...through the parking lot! I started yelling at Adam to stop, (to which he didn't listen) which in turn caused me to keep screaming at him, "Adam! Stop! There are cars! Stop! It's not worth it! (as I'm chasing after him) I guess this scene made Luke upset and he decided to throw his dragon down, which also started blowing through the parking lot. Adam caught Bekah's crown just in time to start chasing Luke's Dragon. Becoming paniced I scream even louder at Adam...as I see a car start to back up...you can imagine my fear, as I'm trying to stop him, pull Bekah and Luke to safety while he continues to chase after Luke's dragon screaming hysterically back at me "I'm just trying to help!!" (over and over through sobs and tears) Then John joins into the madness, and yells..."EVERYONE STOP YELLING AND GET IN THE DANG CAR!! WE ARE NEVER GETTING BALLOONS AGAIN EVER!!!" (ya, it was quite a scene, I'm sure we provided entertainment for somebody. John rarely loses it, so we know it's serious when he does) We all zipped our mouths, I snatched from Adam all the balloons, (which included Luke's too) and we quickly piled into the van. There was complete silence. All that could be heard were some sniffles from the back. It stayed this way for a couple of minutes, until Joey pipes in as happy as could be "Actually, I think I like my Alien better this way." John and I simultaneously bursted into laughter, being able to see the humor of the whole thing. John then said, "I guess it doesn't make sense that I yelled at you guys to stop yelling" :) The whole scene reminded us of one of our favorite TV shows "The Middle" it airs on CBS and it's hilarious. We often feel like that's our life. We talked about some of the different episodes, and compared it to us, and ended up laughing and enjoying the ride home. Anyway, so the moral of this story is ALWAYS go with your gut, and NEVER EVER get balloons!! :)