Vacation | E. Tyler Rowan

And they’re off!

We’re getting ready to go. All my lists are in front of me.

To do
Packing for me
Packing for kids
Last minute errands

Along the way, I’ll try to snap some pictures of the Rowan family wreaking havoc across the Canadian prairies. If you want to see bits and pieces of the ~~gong show~~ fun, keep your eyes on my Facebook page.

While I’m away, I have a bunch of fabulous guest posts to share with you, written by eight amazing women – both bloggers and non-bloggers. Please help me show appreciation to them by leaving lots of comment love.

See you soon! (Sooner if you visit my FB page and click “like.” *wink*)

Filed Under: just because, vacation August 5, 2011 By Tyler Rowan 1 Comment

Preventing Road-Trip Rage

If you have small children and have attempted to journey any farther than a couple hours in your vehicle, you know the definition of road trip rage.

When will we be there?

Stop looking at me!

Mooooom, she’s on my half!

How much longer?

The DVD player’s dead!

He’s not sharing the markers!

Are we there yet?

Moooooom, he keeps breathing on me!

You try counting… 1 -2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6- 7- 8 – 9 – 10… But all that does is give you more time to think about what to say as you lecture/yell/scowl/threaten the little beings in the back seat (or in my case, back seats).

A couple years ago, we tried something that has forever changed how we approach road trips. (Which is good, because we can’t afford to fly seven people next door, let alone anywhere fun. Which means road trips are likely to be our means of transportation for a long, long time.)

We began our road trip by handing each child a roll of quarters in a Ziploc baggie. They were informed that they each had $10 in their hands, and it was theirs to use for buying a souvenir once we reached our destination. They were also informed that we would “match” their $10, ultimately giving each kid $20 for a keepsake (because we all now how far ten bucks goes at Disneyland).

However, they were warned that their souvenir fund would be reduced, one quarter at a time, for bad behavior. I listed some example behaviors that they’d have to pay me for: whining, arguing, disobedience, asking the same question every 10 minutes, etc. For any behavior that was out-of-line, they’d have to pay Mom. With the exception of being unkind to a sibling – then they’d have to pay that sibling.

Within the first hour or two on the road, each kid had probably lost a dollar. But for some of them, that was all they lost.

As I collected more money, I also began discreetly paying out quarters. If I saw kind, unselfish behavior toward a sibling, I slipped a coin into that child’s Ziploc baggie.

When we arrived at our destination, one child was able to purchase a memento that cost $20. Another child had to search high and low to find a trinket that cost about $9. The child with $9 whined about the unfairness of it all, until I collected another quarter AND took back one of mine, leaving only $8.50.

Can you believe that a Mini Mouse on a key chain (two inches tall) cost over $8?!

If you don’t want to rage while you’re on a road trip, try it out! You’ll be surprised how easy it is to keep your cool (even when the kids aren’t). And if the kids are particularly bratty, that’s more money back in your purse. It’s win-win.

Want to find other handy tips? Visit Works-for-me Wednesday.

Filed Under: parenting, real life, vacation, WFMW July 13, 2011 By Tyler Rowan 3 Comments

Grit and Determination

While we were visiting our friends in Louisiana, Pat and I got comfy in their living room and shared in the watching of an NFL game. Now, we’ve never really been NFL fans (nor CFL, for that matter). Hockey is more our (by our, I mean Pat’s) sport of choice. But this game was a big deal – the winner was going to the Superbowl. As it turned out, for the first time in nearly a zillion years, the New Orleans Saints had made it to the big game.

It’s funny how that little piece of relationship made such a difference for us. We (by we, I mean Pat) were glued to the TV set yesterday afternoon. There was a little bit of hootin’ and hollerin’ going on in our living room. Shouts of, “Who Dat?!” (The NO Saints have a whole song based on that little phrase.) Our whole family was so intent at watching the game that we completely forgot to don our Who Dat t-shirts last night. Don’t worry, we’ll all wear them today to rub it in just a little bit.

Those of you who were watching probably saw video footage of the French Quarter after the game. Can I just express my great relief that we visited two weeks ago when everything was MUCH quieter around there? But here’s something I bet you didn’t know – the celebration is by no means limited to the city of New Orleans. From what I hear, most of the state is having a 24-hour long statuatory holiday in honour of the Saints’ win. Businesses all over the place are shutting down so their employees can spend the day paying homage to their champions.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we celebrated God’s victories in our lives with a day-long party? I think we need to start a new tradition, one where we buy cake, wear beads, and pop the champagne open when God does something awesome. We can even run around shouting, “Who Dat?!” to everyone we see for the next several days (or weeks).

In the meantime, though, I will also celebrate with my friends. Because I watched portions of that game, between bits of housework and parental refereeing, and ~~their~~ our team worked hard for that victory!

Another little spiritual parallel comes to mind… Our victories in life, over our sin and struggles, are also won with hard work. Tenacity in seeking after God, perseverance in our time with God, fortitude in choosing to resist temptation, commitment to prayer. The things worth having in this life – like Superbowl rings and victory over the enemy – are won only through grit and dedication.

Now, without further ado, let’s celebrate!

Filed Under: just because, vacation, watching, writing February 8, 2010 By Tyler Rowan 3 Comments

You know you’re having too much fun when…

…you completely forget about blogging for three whole days! (My bad.)

Here are a few fun facts for ya.

You can get really expensive hotels for ridiculously low prices (USA only) by bidding on priceline. Seriously. We stayed at a fay-an-cee Hilton in Houston for only $60 per night (regular price $179) – which is about the same price as staying at the Super 8! Over the course of four nights in hotels, we have saved a good $400. Or you could look at it this way – we’ve spent no more than we were willing to spend but got to stay in a bunch of 4 star hotels.

There are two main differences between cheap hotels and fancy ones. First – space. In fancy hotels you actually have room to walk around the bed. Second – service. In cheap hotels, if the front desk staff are feeling lazy, they will just tell you, “no, we don’t have extra pillows here.”

Good service costs. At least in America. The good people who help out with a friendly smile are working hard to earn their tips.

Okay, enough about hotels…

One of the most fascinating things we’ve done so far is to go on a Katrina tour. It is heartbreaking to see the number of abandoned houses that are just sitting there and falling apart. Many homes still bear the “Katrina tattoo,” which is a spray painted “X” with letter and numbers in each of the 4 sections. The letters show who checked the house (NS – National Security, NOPD – New Orleans Police Department, etc.); some numbers indicate the date; other numbers the number of people found; and still other numbers to show how many were alive and how many dead.

Another devastating fact was to learn that the government has spent millions (or was it billions) on repairing certain things in the city – such as City Park, while neglecting to do anything to repair and restore a single one of the hospitals that was shut down by Katrina’s damage. In our tour alone we saw three massive hospitals, all completely abandoned and vacant.

So sad. It just made me think about Haiti…

On another note, have you ever seen a 26 mile long bridge? We drove on one between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Wild, eh?! It’s all swamp, so the only way to get people across it is for them to go over it.

And to complete the blog post of all sorts of things you never knew and many you never wanted to know… I would like to offer a public service announcement to all those considering eating nothing but rich, fried food for a week – this is a bad idea! You digestive system will never forgive you. Neither will your pants.

Filed Under: just because, vacation January 28, 2010 By Tyler Rowan Leave a Comment

MIRL

M – meet
I – in
R – real
L – life

This handy little blogger term is used when you get to meet someone face-to-face whom you’ve only known through blogging/ email/ etc.

You may have noticed that I got to MIRL Beth Moore this weekend. And yes, that was in Houston right at her very own home church. For the past year, a bunch of girls who follow the LPM blog have been memorizing Scripture. This past weekend was our celebration event. I even got to meet some new friends. (Pictures coming someday soon…maybe.)

But there was an event this week that had me even more excited than Beth… After more than a year of correspondence via email, I had the opportunity to meet my dear blog friend (and book editor), Bobbie! Not only did we meet and hang out a bit, she and her hubby (and their dog) opened up their home to us. They took yesterday off work to play tour guide (read: that’s why I was way too busy to blog yesterday). And they have been feeding us some of the most delicious, most fattening, most amazing food known to man!

So, without further ado, a picture of us girls having fun… (So sorry if you can’t really see our faces, but it was the most gorgeous, sun-shiney day out and hardly any pictures turned out. But who cares – too much fun was had! I got to visit the antique district, see the levy, eat at Cane’s Chicken, visit a plantation, drive around all day talking to a good friend, eat more deep-fried goodness for dinner, and sleep in the most comfy bed with the friendliest guard dog.)

This is us at the Rosedown Plantation. I cannot wrap my head around the rich history of the south. (FYI, we’re no longer in Houston – I say we because Pat is actually with me, even though I forgot to mention that fact earlier – but are in the bayou of Louisiana. Today, we are on our way to a little overnighter in New Orleans. Or N’Orlens, as the locals say it.)

See ya’ll later!

Filed Under: Beth Moore, friendship, vacation January 26, 2010 By Tyler Rowan 3 Comments

Saturday Morning Visit – 01/23/10

My friend Bobbie (who blogs at 40 Shades of Pink) ran across a fun idea for Saturday mornings, inspired by the Nie and You blog. Okay, I confess, we completely stole the idea!

I will post a picture of a typical Saturday morning here in Alberta. Bobbie will post one of her Saturday morning in Louisiana. Maybe you’d like to join us? (If you do, stick a link in our comments so we can come visit you.)

Vacation Edition:
Houston, Texas; 6:48am
from the hotel balcony

And a couple shots from Friday night…

Amanda…

Melissa…

Beth…

Filed Under: Beth Moore, just because, Saturday morning visit, vacation January 23, 2010 By Tyler Rowan 5 Comments

Top Ten Moments

From our trip…

#10 – The night we realized that it was much better for our sanity to splurge and get two adjoining hotel rooms.

#9 – Arriving at our condo in Anaheim.

#8 – Cooking (and eating) spaghetti at the condo.

#7 – Choosing valet parking at Universal Studios and receiving a free car wash and vacuum while we were in the park.

#8 – Discovering the unusual abundance of snails in the grass behind our condo, and watching Kai pick one up and toss it like a ball. (Don’t worry, the snail survived.)

#7 – The Shamu show.

#6 – The “It’s a Small World Ride,” which was both fantastic and annoying.

#5 – Discovering the Coral Pink Sand Dunes National Park.

#4 – Mickey Mouse ears.

#3 – Getting zillions of autographs from all our favourite characters.

#2 – The Disney Dance Party (it’s the new parade).

#1 – Playing in the fantastically warm outdoor pool of our hotel in San Diego.