Taming Raw Energy!

Life changed at the Bennett house Thursday night when Christian (little) turned his ankle and heard a pop! When our neighbor carried him home...I had no idea my life would be over for at least the next two weeks. That sounds whiney and I hate whiney, but you are not here!

Friday we spent all day at doctors offices and x-rays only to end up with a boot and crutches (little calls them crunches). It was all fun and games for the next thirty minutes as he told everyone he had crunches. Then we got home and reality set in, actually it hit him upside the head. What do you mean I have to relax? Sit in a chair? Watch TV? Play video games? Read a book? It was at that moment I realized, he doesn't do those things. At least not very long or for not more than 30 minutes at a time. A trip to Toys R Us to buy new video games...really helped for another 30 minutes.

I am not a scientist or an engineer, if I were perhaps I would know how to tame raw energy. I really need that particular skill. Right now we are just trying to get through every second, minute and hour. Don't get me wrong we are not miserable. He doesn't hurt. The problem is he wants to take the boot off. His arms are tired of the crunches. He doesn't want to watch to TV. He doesn't want to play video games...he's done that. He wants to go outside. He needs fresh air. He wants to go to his friends house. He wants to do anything except sit and relax.
Like I said, how do you tame raw energy. How do you pin a cloud down? How do you keep looking in those sad baby blues? How do you do this for two weeks?

I know these next few weeks will be...trying. In 19 years of children we have been so blessed. We have never had any broken bones. Our children have never been really sick. Thank you God! Thank you for always taking care of my family. Thank you for the blessings You continually pour out on us. We are blessed!

Haley the terrible

I am not sure what has gotten into my precious little one. Last week she spilled nail polish, this week she cut her hair. Not a little bit....my Haley she does things big. She cut her hair drastically. She said she wanted it short like mine. Well, she has achieved that goal, on one side. I called my friend Carla and hopefully she will be able to do something. (Carla is a miracle worker)

Why do most people think it is the terrible 2's? All of my children have been good in the 2's. Really it is age 3. Three year old's are the terrible ones. Three year old's take their new found independence to a whole new level. Haley Bug is definitely expressing her independence...she can do it herself.

As I look at her lopsided head I can't help but laugh, perhaps that is why we are having such an issue with our number 4 child. She is funny. All of us laugh at her antics. It is hard to get on to the baby girl when she is so entertaining. In other words, if Haley is terrible we made her that way. I am trying to decide if I want to post a picture of her haircut. Even lopsided she is beautiful.

Wonder what she will do next? Wonder if I will laugh or scream?

Adventure of the college kind

Courtney has moved to her college campus and is not living here in this house with us. So very weird. I am having a hard time believing the noise level could go down so much just minus one child (and a quiet child at that). Oh wait, she is not a child. She is an adult. My baby is an adult. So hard to believe. She can do everything for herself and does not need me anymore. One could say I have been successful in raising one and just have 3 to go.

Instead of asking me if I feel successful in raising an adult, everyone keeps asking me how I am doing. Well, I am fine.
Maybe it would be hard if she was an only child.
Maybe it would be hard if the two littlest Bennett's weren't so....active.
Maybe it would be hard if she was far away.
Maybe it would be hard if I wasn't so confident in her.

She is an incredible young woman. She has a great head on her shoulders. She loves the Lord and knows she belongs to Him.

She also has a healthy fear of her mother. I am not a mean mother, I am just a mother like mine. My mom was great. She just hinged on crazy, you never knew what she would do or where she would show up. (I can't believe I am saying this, but I strive to be like her.) A great mom with just a little touch of crazy. You never know what I will really do or where I will show up. (It will keep her honest and always looking over her shoulder for me.LOL)

But in all honesty, she is and always will be my baby. They all will. Of course I miss her, but I am so excited for this part of her life. I want her to enjoy every minute.

Nail polish

Have you ever had a moment in your life when you knew something was terribly wrong. You just couldn't put your finger on it? I had that happen today when my darling 3 year old kept looking at me in such a strange way. She kept walking by with this weird look on her face.

Then I saw her foot. Her foot that she had tried to wipe off the spilled paint or something and her foot was stained. My heart sank. I said, "Haley, what is that? What did you get on your foot? Did you spill it anywhere in Mommy's house?" By the way, that is too many questions to throw at a scared 3 year old that knows she is in BIG trouble. So she asks the most important question.
"Mommy, are you mad at me?"
At this point I am not sure if I am mad. I am not sure if this is paint..then it hits me square between the eyes. She was in Matty's bathroom that is that awful purply black nail polish. I start pacing. Then I start looking all over the house.
"Where were you with the nail polish? What room were you in?" I am sure I looked like a madwoman.

Then I saw it! In the very middle of Haley's bedroom floor. A circle a little bigger than a golf ball of purply black nail polish. I had forgotten that I was on the phone with my friend. She started searching the Internet and told me to try Windex. So, between Windex, Nail polish remover and Scrubbing bubbles and lots of minutes scrubbing on my hands and knees, I have decided everyone gets to live today. (Even my Boy who was telling me his opinion and squirting more cleaners and just talking non stop.)

On days like today I think will I ever be able to have anything that isn't food, paint, or something stained? How many cleaning products does one family need? Usually, I end up thanking God for all these very messy kids. Kids that get into everything. Kids that say, Mommy are you mad at me? After all there are carpet stores all over town or I could pick up a throw rug at Walmart. What is a little stain. We live here. They will grow up someday (at least that is what I have heard).
So, I told Haley, "No, I am not mad at you because you showed me the spill."
Then I searched the house high and low for any nail polish and put it under lock and key. Life really is too short to worry about spilled nail polish.

LIFE

After 3,319 miles and a month and a day we all still like each other. In fact the kids are all at the table playing the game called LIFE.

They asked if I wanted to play and I said, "I am playing the game of LIFE and my car is full."

I thought LIFE was a fun game too! Then LIFE hit me upside the head and now I think why did I even play the game. I guess it would be fun to play now if I wasn't so busy playing real LIFE.


So LIFE is busy here!! We have had great friends to come and visit. One came all the way from Texas! We have been to two weddings. We have been buying books for the new school year. Courtney is getting ready to move on campus. We have been working and playing hard. My brother Sean is staying with us for a few days. He had to have an emergency appendectomy. He is doing very well. The biggest problem is he feels good.

I keep saying, "They just took your appendix out through your belly button. You need to rest." Perhaps he will listen. ( that would be a great space on the LIFE board....You didn't listen to your sister. Pay $1000 and go back 4 spaces. ) Maybe I will write my own game of LIFE...oh wait I am!!!

Hey y'all, pray for my baby brother. In the Lisa version of LIFE if you cross your sister....you don't get to just pay and go back...she has creative ways to torture you!

And so the Bennett Odyssey continues....let's see where the journey takes us.

Day 10

Well, we left Chicago and were to head to Indianapolis to a place called Conner Prairie. Conner Prairie is a living history museum we have been to before and love. But we all decided to head to a place we love more instead....HOME! We were all so tired and had had so much fun we were done. We were ready to fall into our own beds. Nine hours later we did just that. We came home to a very HOT south and a very warm pool. We are use to 82 degree weather and this 100 degree weather is too much.

After logging 3319 miles, we had a wonderful trip (you can tell by the mounds of laundry). We all were able to reconnect with each other. We all still like each other. We didn't get a ticket or get into an accident...well, I call it a very successful trip.

When you get ready to go with yours...call me. I have great tips on packing. Oh and I just can't wait to get on the road again.

Day 9

Chicago!! Wow! I had forgotten how much I love this city!! We had a very early start and had an incredible day.

Here we are taking a water taxi. Great way to get around in Chicago.

The Hershey Store!! We shopped along Michigan Avenue and after going into Tiffany's and Cartier's we went to the Hershey store. (We could actually buy something in this store) Christian Parks made candy, we bought candy, we had samples of candy....made us forget about the diamonds...Chocolate really is the answer.

Just a view of the city.

We took the kids to the Chicago Art Institute. We were able to see Picasso, Monet, and several other great artist. My reason to go to this museum is the Thorne rooms. I couldn't wait to show the kids exact replicas of period rooms completely to scale. (My degree is in interior design and these period rooms are painstaking reproduction of European and Early American rooms.)

Here we are in a skybox at the Sears (Willis) Tower. We are 103 floors above the earth. They literally built a glass box for you to step into. It is extremely freaky, very strange feeling. Some of us ( me and little cb) weren't really excited about it. But, we got the picture.

Day 8

We said good-bye to Gary and Mike and Minnesota and headed in a direction we have come to love....SOUTH. After 8 days on the road we are all glad to be on the way to Chattanooga.

We stopped in Wisconsin for a Pop!

The ride down was very uneventful except for the fact Haley talked the whole way. She made up songs. She chatted nonstop. Until we were 4 blocks from our hotel, then she went to sleep. There is something that says the Bennett's have arrived when Haley gets out of the van crying and Christian Parks is turning flips. The girls and I were laughing uncontrollably. It may be time to come home.



Here is the view as we came into Chicago. There were 10 lanes of traffic completely full. We actually had to sit in traffic for a while. Hello, we have been in Nebraska, we haven't seen this many cars in 8 days. I guess we won't complain.
We got to our hotel and saw it was about to rain. We thought we would give it a few minutes before we headed out. Well, the bottom opened up. It poured. It stormed. Then we saw the weather. Tornado warnings in our area.....about the time we saw it on TV. The sirens went off. Christian Parks had a panic attack. (HARD TO BELIEVE BUT MATTY WAS FINE) We went down to the basement of the hotel with the other people in the hotel. So as it turns out... great memories....no tornado, just panic attacks. As I always say....It will be OK...or it won't! Today it was OK.

Happy Anniversary!!! Christian and I were married 20 years ago today!!! Hard to believe---time flies when you are having fun!!

We are blessed to have 4 great kids that wanted to spend 10 days in a mini van visiting 10 states with their parents...even were excited!

We are blessed every time we buy them something or take them somewhere they all say thank you.

Speaking of being blessed...there is nothing like Chicago deep dish pizza. We love Giordano's!!

We tried to go visit the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower), but the visibility was 0-5 miles. Hope the weather is good tomorrow. Wonder what tomorrow holds?

Day 7

Our last day in Minneapolis....what to do? Well, we love the Minneapolis sculpture garden and don't think a trip to the city would be complete without seeing the spoon and cherry. So we started our day here.

Here is a picture of our four bars. At least that is what they look like to us. After posing for pictures we headed downtown to see the two story Target!!

Walking around downtown Minneapolis is so much fun. I love the skywalks (enclosed pedestrian bridges that connect the buildings). We went to check out the new Target Field the Twins stadium....fabulous.

By this time we were hungry, so we found Matt's Bar. Matt's bar is the home of the jucy lucy they won the 2010 "food wars" Matt's bar is a step back into 1950's. Great place.

The jucy lucy, lived up to its name. Who wouldn't love a cheese stuffed hamburger. The waitress will warn you. Be careful...with the first bite it will burn you. We loved them. Amazing. Incredible. Worth the trip! I wish they had smelloblog.

Well, we needed a little more retail therapy before we left so back to The Mall of America. We had to get Uncle Gary on a few of the rides. The girls and I needed to buy a few more things. We are doing our part to help the economy.

After shopping till we dropped, (literally the guys were laying on this couch in the middle of the mall) it was back to Gary and Mikes for pizza and goodbyes. We have had a great time and had wonderful hosts. We hate to go, but are ready to see Chicago. Thanks for a great time in your great city.

Day 6

Today we spent 6 hours in the most wonderful place....THE MALL OF AMERICA!!
520 stores, 50 restaurants, a Nickelodeon theme park and lets not forget the theater! People come from all over the world just to visit this mall. Did I mention 4 floors! We had a blast. We went to the theme park and rode some incredible rides. Oh and of course we shopped! The guys hung out with us as long as they could. Then they went to ride some more rides.




Haley loved the train in Dora's town.

Courtney and I rode the avatar ride!!! We also had our picture made with Aang!

Here is a view of the theme park from the 4th floor theater.

Then we went to the American Girl Doll store and bought Haley her first Bitty Baby. All of the kids were so excited about her getting her doll and thought it was funny that I bought it while Daddy was on the phone with a client. (Maybe he should bill the client for the 20 minutes of vacation time + what it cost to leave his wife alone with 3 girls in a doll store.)

I think her face says it all! She loves her baby.

By the way, Christian knew I would buy her the baby ( he knows me well).

We finished off the day with some time at the park playing on the slide, swings and a zip line. We then had grilled burgers and brats (real handmade, not the store bought).

Not sure what tomorrow holds, but I think there is a juicy lucy in our future.

Day 5

Where oh where have the Bennett's been? That is the question!
Well, we left Sioux Falls, South Dakota and drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota. We arrived at Uncle Gary and Mike's around 2 o'clock. We went to Minnehaha Falls and walked around. We went to this pizzeria downtown and had a great dinner. We then slept....I mean SLEPT. We were exhausted. We slept for 10 hours. I guess after driving 2,200 miles in 5 days and seeing all we have seen you are just...tired.

Day 4

As we say goodbye to Nebraska-Here are a few last notes:

1. Our TomTom only recognizes 2 roads in Nebraska neither of which we were traveling. We finally turned him off all he said was, "turn around". He never recalculated.
2. On Hwy 2 we travel 260 miles and we are fairly confident we saw 255 miles of coal trains.
3. The sky in Nebraska is HUGE.
4. The nicest building in each of the little towns we went through belonged to the VET.
5. On Hwy 2 you can drive 100mph and I have to say the mini van drives very smooth.

On to South Dakota! Our Western States are so beautiful. We drove through Custer State Park. We saw prairie dogs (Haley called them cats) and tons of buffalo and deer. I included a photo of the buffalo. There were signs everywhere that said : Do not approach buffalo-they are dangerous. This guy was laying by the road. You should have heard Matty she wanted us to keep moving. Christian stopped the car and I rolled down the window and snapped the picture. The screaming from Matty for us to go didn't even phase the buffalo.

Then on to Mount Rushmore. Incredible!! Fabulous!! What can I say? We walked all the trails they would let us and enjoyed every moment.

Hands down our favorite activity of the day--The Bad Lands of South Dakota---!!! They were breathe taking. Especially, when little CB would go to the edge. I didn't want to be the mom that lost a child and be on CNN. Our southern accent...CNN...boy fell down because mom has so many kids she couldn't watch them all...and they wonder why I am so EDGY!

I did finally let them climb the hills and they even took the baby. I did go part of the way up the mountain. They had a blast, I calmed down. No one had to be rescued.

Our last stop of the day. The Corn Palace in Mitchell. Yes, it is made of corn. Loved it!! Oh we stopped at Wall drugs and got our free ice water and a buffalo burger. We loved SD and maybe we will move here.

Day 3

Ok, so here is a picture of the hood of the car, complete with tire tracks and dents. The dents aren't very big and they are hard to see in the photo. Again, we are so blessed the tire didn't hit a little higher.

We spent most of the day at a living history museum. Loved Grand Island, Nebraska and the characters at the museum.
At the general store we bought dill pickles out of a crock, rock candy and sour cherries. Does life get any better?

Yes, we found a place to lock up Christian. The only problem is he got out!!

Then, after driving through the sand hills of Nebraska which are absolutely beautiful. We arrived at Car Henge. A replica of Stone Henge using ...CARS. Crazy, yes, but incredible. Side note...the lady said to be sure to stay on the path because they had bull snakes. Not sure what a bull snake is but had no desire to find out. Unfortunately, the path is not what I would call a path. When you have to put one foot in front of the other that is a tight rope not a path. Anyway, nothing is funnier than watching them all run and scream when they think someone saw a snake. It is the little things in life.

When we arrived at our hotel we ended up having to dig in the trunk..we were trying to decide what needed to come in it was chaos. We were laughing and cutting up. Turning around we saw this man watching all the commotion with a smile. He said, "Wow, Tennessee licence plate and you all get out of the car all laughing..what a happy family." Yes. We are still a happy family.

Not sure what tommorrow holds, but I am sure we will enjoy it!

Day 2

We left rainy St. Louis for sunny Kansas City. We found Arthur Bryant's (recently featured on Travel Channel) it was fabulous! The cook made fun of our accent so I made him take a picture with us. Christian and the kids liked the Original sauce, I preferred the Sweet Heat. Good food and Good time.

Next we went to Union Station and the Crown Center downtown Kansas City. We had a wonderful time. We enjoyed a model train exhibit...we found chocolate!!! But a hands down favorite was the Crayola Store!

Haley quickly started coloring!

Christian found this really cool color wheel completely made out of crayons!

I learned that out of 20 most recognized smells in the world, crayons are #18, coffee comes in at #1.


We left Kansas City headed to Lincoln, NE our stop for the night. We were not on the interstate 10 minutes when a truck in front of us had a blow out. Very scary moment! Tire treads thrown at our windshield...and Matty screaming, "Jesus" loudly and repeatedly. It helps to know Matty to truly appreciate the moment. Kudos to the man in the red truck who managed to maneuver his truck across three lanes of traffic without wrecking. When we stopped later for gas, I realized how blessed we were. There were tire treads on the hood of the van and also a small dent in the hood. Better the hood than the windshield.

This picture is coming into Lincoln, NE and we could see the rain in the distance. Awesome!

Superman

We stopped in Clarksville, TN and had dinner with Lindsay for her birthday! Happy Birthday Lindsay! You are a great aunt. Aunt Lindsay brought them coloring books for the trip and it was her birthday...she is the best. Plus we were joined by Robert and the Elliott's.



Then off to St. Louis, but on the way....we saw Metropolis really does exists! Who knew down in southern Illinois the greatest superhero who ever lived is alive and well!!



The kids loved the big Superman in the middle of the town square!

We liked the photo ops!

Hero!!

Where will we be today? Here is a hint, BBQ.

3 coolers, 9 suitcases, 1 stroller, 1 snack bag, 1 snack basket, 1 dvd player with 2 screens, 3 computers, cameras, video recorders, pillows, coloring books, books to read, movies to watch, jackets in case it is cold, DS, Zunes, cell phones, chargers.....UH OH! Where oh where are all the people to go???

That is another photo. Hope life is treating you well.

The Bennett's

Odyssey

The definition for odyssey is adventure, excursion, expedition, tour, travel, trek, trip, voyage, wanderings, drive, junket, and quest. If you know us you know that an odyssey is the perfect vehicle to get us from one junket to the next.

We are a crazy family of six heading out on a whirlwind tour of 10 of our great states. Join us and our adventure. All of our trips have one thing in common, no matter where we go we up the anti a little. This drive is no different. We always like to play games. On this trip we have been inspired by a facebook post. We are going to play a round of Bennett Bingo. Here is the list. This is our quest.

1. A mullet
2. Ugliest hat
3. Worst shoe choice
4. Most likely to be arrested or appear in "Just Busted"
5. Weirdest thing for sale
6. White socks and sandals
7. Wife beater T-shirt
8. Mohawk
9. Candidate for "Walmart People"
10. Housewives of _________(fill in the blank)

We must find these items before we get home with pictures to prove it...can we do it? I know we will have fun trying. We love to see new cities and places, but we don't want to miss the people. Send us some ideas of other things to find!!

Lisa