When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? Well, I am trying to take that approach to my life because I have realized that I have allowed a little too much negativity to creep in. So, I am finding joy in the journey and learning to laugh a little more when life doesn't go as planned. So, this is the story of my night tonight, I want to record it for me. It definitely was better experienced than explained - so forgive me if you don't find it as entertaining as I did. It was a night to remember.
Tonight Clint came to me and said, "Hey Babe, Cinco De Mayo - should we go to a Mexican Restaurant?" I thought about it for a minute because it would mean taking the kids out to a restaurant and I felt like I had been fighting them tooth and nail to get their chores done this afternoon, and rewarding them with a restaurant dinner was a little much. However, this mama chose to get laundry done today instead of anything else and honestly - I hardly think about dinner ahead of time, so I agreed to go to a restaurant because I didn't have anything planned to make.
We drove away, but first threatened our kids that if they fought in the car, we would drive them back home and they could eat cereal and Clint and I could go on a date. I was really looking forward to that date, but I am happy to say, we made it to the restaurant without any drama in the car.
We walked into the restaurants crammed little entry with people on both sides and 20 people piling out before us to put our name on the list. The hostess said the wait was 60 minutes and Clint put our name down, then I looked at her and said, 60 or 16 minutes? As if someone would say 16 minutes on a wait time, but you never know. The hostess confirmed the 60 minute wait and I looked at my four kids, ages 11,9,7 and 5 and said, sorry - we aren't waiting. So, we squeezed out of the crammed entry of the restaurant and got back in our car, called around at a few other restaurants and picked the one that had the shortest wait time.
As we were driving we saw a restaurant that we had never seen before, it was a Mexican Restaurant and looked like a dive - so naturally we thought it would be the best place to try out for the first time. Dives are usually the best food. So, Clint turned the car around and pulled up to the make shift house/restaurant. We sat down and put in drink orders, followed closely by our food order. 5 of us got our drinks and it took another 30 minutes for the 6th drink to come out. We watched as 4 groups of people came in, sat down ordered and got their food before us. In the meantime, my 5 year old is being silly and crazy - not too much and not loud, just being so annoying and I am sitting next to him. I am trying to make him laugh and get him to not complain that his food isn't here yet. My 11 year old is taking in the environment and realizing the injustice of us not having food while everyone around us is eating, the 9 and 7 year old are doing their best to behave, but after an hour they are starting to do boy things - making faces and trying to spit out water from their straws. We did have 2 small bowls of tortilla chips - so yummy, but not enough - I felt like we were scavengers trying to beat out everyone else to the next chip. Did I mention this was a late dinner start for us to begin with?
So, I am watching my watch, the clock just keeps on ticking and after an hour of sitting there and trying to figure out which one of us will ask where our food is, we finally got a hold of a waiter. I asked him what happened to our food? Are they still cooking it? He then tells me that his aunt left and didn't put the order in. Say, what? We sat there waiting for our food the whole time and the order was never put in. The waiter then told us he could put the order in and put us before anyone else and my first thought is, no, sorry. So, hungry and bummed out we left the restaurant. Hey, we got free chips, salsa and drinks though. That's a plus, and they were really good chips.
We started this adventure at 6:15 pm and now it is 7:30 pm and we still haven't had our Cinco De Mayo dinner, but there is no way I am trying a sit down restaurant again with our kids. So, Taco Bell Drive through it is! While we are driving to Taco Bell one of our children is crying about the devastating fact that they haven't eaten yet, how hungry they are and the drama was so overwhelming - it was funny. I just started laughing and had to explain to this child that everyone was affected by what happened and that we were all hungry.
Once we got to Taco Bell and got sandwiched into the drive through lane, my 5 year old started doing the potty dance. We made sure the kids all went to the bathroom at home before we left, but then he drank a lot at the previous restaurant and now, it was coming. Clint was telling him to hold it, but my mother instincts took over and realized the exploding child was literally about to explode. While in the drive through lane, I got out of the car, pulled my son out and ran into the Taco Bell and took him to the bathroom. Let's just say he really had to go and peed like a gallon of water that he just drank. He was happy, we avoided disaster and we go back out to the drive through lane to find that Clint had moved a total of 5 feet. We were still waiting in line at a fast food place. I couldn't help but notice the two women behind me laughing with me, they watched the whole episode. When it came down to it, it took us 25 minutes to get our fast food Cinco De Mayo tacos and burritos.
We laughed all the way home, seriously - well, no - I laughed all the way home, while the kids complained and Clint thought I was going a little nutty. Normally this would have irritated me, but everything went wrong and it was just so funny. If we would have stayed at the first restaurant and stayed for the wait time, we most likely would have eaten before the time we left the second restaurant. Also, if we would have let the second restaurant put in our food order again, then we would have eaten before the time it took us to eat our 2 dollar tacos and burritos at Taco Bell. Needless to say, it was funny - dumb, but funny and I loved that I could laugh instead of get mad. It made my night so much better. After almost 2 hours, we finally got to eat.
All this for a 2 dollar taco? Oh, and by the way - my kids didn't like their burritos. Figures.
20 comments:
Oh no! That wasn't your dinner day! But good that you could laugh about it anyway. :D
Greetings from Germany, Rike
You are a wonderful story-teller; thanks for sharing your family "adventure" with us... oh, and by the way, your positivity is shining through!
I remember those days of dining out with the kids, waiting on the food to come and trying to keep the children sane. There was always chip contests to see who could stuff the most chips in their mouth and salsa dripped everywhere. And the food always seemed to take too long to show up. Great way to make lemonade of the circumstances. Hopefully you had a little Latin music playing in the background as your family enjoyed their Taco Bell... at home.
Not only is it a great story but I bet your kids will remember it forever and hopefully it will end up being a funny story in your family. Been there before myself and you are so right..........if you just suck it up and wait the first time it would have been better than what you end up with...........I am still laughing at the scene of your little one needing to get out of that car and into the restroom......like now.........been there done that too.
Great Story! I remember those days well. I'm a grandmother now and long past all that drama. But I'm glad you could laugh about it. I know we went through an incident like that 2-3 times. So frustrating. You're a good Mommy!! And NORMAL!
Okay, it is funny and I had to laugh, sorry. Me and my family never go in a restaurant on a holiday because it's crowed and loud and you need to wait a long time. We always go one week before or after and it's always fun. Oh, and it's a good idea to call ahead and ask for a table. Perhaps next time you do this and can enjoy a dinner night with your family.
That's too funny (in a sad sort of way)! LOL!! Definately one to document. Some day this will be the story that everyone laughs over! I really am not a fan of going out on the holiday. Day before, day after it's all good! :-) Heck at my age, I am starting to recognize that potty dance myself again! tee hee
Oh yes.
"memories"
So funny the aunt left before putting the order in.
I am sure she realized it later, much later
It was a great day yesterday. We had chicken noodle soup with cheese on top. and home made corn bread.
Then again, it is pouring rain here in Northern Virginia.... for the past three days.
I think today is the last full day of rain.
Time flies. It is May already
Having raised four sons, I can so relate to the humor of this story. Thanks for the smile.
This is a story that will get better and better with the retelling. So tell, and embellish it often. Before you know, it will be a hysterically funny night that everyone enjoyed.
Oh, Judi, I commiserate and laugh with you! I don't know if you keep a journal or if you scrapbook at all .. but THIS STORY is exactly the sort of entry that fairly begs to be documented in a scrapbook!
Go back to the first 2 restaurants and take photos of the outside ... you already have a picture of your Taco Bell gastronomical delight (cough, cough) .. and then, using the verbiage you've already written, make a scrapbook page out of it. You've told it SO wonderfully and, as has been commented on previously, this adventure will get better with the retelling.
Heh ... you could even ask your kids to write down .. or audio record, which you could later type up ... their recollection of the adventure and add that documentation to your page. It would be SO delightful! :-)
I can so relate to this story! And aren't you glad you decided to just laugh at it instead of being irritated You had a delicious Taco Bell dinner (ha ha) AND got in some giggles, too. Isn't it true that laughter is the best - well everything? And as for the kids - they will laugh about it too someday, I'm certain.
What a good example you set, making a funny tale out of an irritating situation. I was informed yesterday that my job was eliminated. I'm choosing to look at it as a door opening. Now I'll be forced to find something new to do, maybe honing my quilting skills and turning that into a job. You just never know!
Carole S.
The best family memories are hardly ever about 'successes' - the best part will be when (or if?) they talk about it again and again and it gets funnier with each telling!
And here I was laughing because when I saw the taco picture, I said "hey, that's what we had for dinner too!" We did not have the experience you did though. I'm glad you are taking the lighter side of the experience, I've been working on doing the same. I keep telling myself I don't have time to not be happy. Thank you for sharing your story!
~Brandy
I won't laugh at your restaurant adventures, as I have 3 kids, and they are only a couple years older than your's. Restaurant adventures are only for the hungry, not for anybody seeking a happy experience. If you don't want to cook, or do dishes, go out! I usually have one that fills up on bread, and one that is done with his meal before our's make it to the table. It isn't perfect, but I'd do this any day of the week over the alternative that comes 8 yrs from now when they are all gone.
Ah Judi, I totally feel your pain! I was having printer problems and decided to just go and order some new ink which you think would be simple enough!I rang the store and they didn't have any, so they told me to ring the other store which I did and they had some. So I said can you double check to make sure it is the right one as your store is much further away than my first store.
I was assured that she checked and it was the correct one. I drove out and once again asked that it was definitely the correct one but low and behold I get home and she had given me two colored cartridges instead of a colored and a black. Ughhh...lesson learned, check it myself the next time before I drive all the way home.
We all have days like these :)
Good for you for hanging onto your humor. Not easy to do sometimes......
thank-you for sharing this story. We've been there and had similar experiences. Life is all about these situations and how we deal with them. Your kids will remember the laughter.
I am so glad you shared this. There is so much pressure to be the perfect family, the perfect mom with the perfect kids, especially online. This is the story of my life, too -- we have gone through the same dance taking kids out to dinner, right down to the boys spitting water out with their straws. Although I can laugh about it after the fact, I'm afraid I'm right there with you hoping that they DO misbehave in the car so we can take them home for cereal and have a grownup dinner by ourselves!
Post a Comment