I thought vacations were suppose to be relaxing!

[i_forget]

Just got home from what has got to have been the most stressful vacation ever.

The kids and I love camping...we look forward to it every year.
This year I thought it would be nice to take my nephew and allow DD to bring one of her friends. What a mistake.

Because I knew my brother would not have the necessary supplies for my nephew to camp, I told my brother I wanted money. He agreed and gave me $100 for the 10 days I would have my nephew. A couple hours after I picked him up I noticed he had head lice. Great. It cost me over $70 to buy lice shampoo and a lice comb and scissors. Took over 4 hours to wash everyones hair and then give the boys buzz cuts and DD a nice short pixie. Not impressed at all. Then I got to start on washing all of the bedding and my nephews clothes, as well as all the laundry I needed to do to get ready for camping.

We all set off for camping and things seem to be going well.
I set up the kids tent and there is a huge rip in the fabric and floor, no rain in the forecast, they can suffer.
I set up my picnic shelter, and what do I see? Ants. Thousands and thousands of ants. My camp site is conveniently located beside a sand dune/ant colony and there is nothing I can do about it.

Kids are having fun, I was relaxing, then I go to use my phone and it is not working. Someone dropped it and stepped on it. Data does not work, I did get a phone call, but that is not working now either. All that works is my wifi.

So, I did manage to get a phone call on my now garbage cell phone. Who is it from? My mother. First thing out of her mouth was: "Sit down, I just want you to know that it could be worse. The cats are all alive and there is not too much damage." So, as it turns out, I left a laundry basket on my glass top stove before we left. Somehow the back burner on my stove turned on to low and over the course of 3 days my laundry basket heated up and melted on my stove. It did not catch fire, thankfully, but now I have to replace my 1.5 year old ceramic top self cleaning stainless steel stove. I LOVED that thing.

The next morning I went to get my nephew his meds. He has Adhd. My wonderful (insert sarcastic tone of voice) brother did not pack him enough of his medication, so now I have the fun of dealing with a bouncing off the walls kid who has no social skills and has no idea how to play. Sorry, he does know how to play. He had no problems jumping all over the air mattresses and popping 3 of them.

Then my daughters friend wakes up. She had an accident (she is 8) and it is all over the side of the tent.
So, the kids tent is now officially ruined. Can things get worse? Oh yes!

My nephew and dd's friend want to go home. She is homesick and he is videogame sick. No problem, I will bring them home. I manage to get some wifi and message my brother that I am bringing his kid back early because he is home sick. My brother gets really mad and goes "I paid you". Wow. I have had his kid for 8 days. You gave me $100 and I spent that on getting rid of the lice you sent him with. An argument happened and I was sooooo mad. Lucky for him my grandmother turned up to visit the kids and I did not have enough time after to make the trip.

So, Friday I brought the extra kids home and was finally hoping for some relaxation to de-stress.
I swam, did some studying for my final tomorrow and had a relaxing evening by the fire.

I was hoping for a nice day Saturday, and it started off that way, until I laid down on a towel on the beach and fell asleep. Now the back of both of my legs are burnt red like a lobster. My own fault but ouch!!

So, today was packing up and leaving day. I have everything cleaned up, car loaded and kids in their seat belts. We leave and the drive is going well. As I am driving down the highway, someone cuts me off and I have to slam on the brakes. Everyone is fine, however my load in the back shifted and I cannot see out my blind spots. I make it into a town, pull into a parking lot and start moving things around. Doors are wide open and I have things out on the ground in the parking spot beside me. I am standing back, looking and trying to think about how I am going to fix it and some a$$hole pulls into the spot that I am standing in (even through there are a half dozen or more empty in the immediate area) and honks his horn at me to move. Needless to say, the only movement I did was to raise my right hand in the air and fold down all fingers but my middle one. He got the hint.

Home now. Everything is unpacked, laundry is on, I have had a nice bath and feel a lot better after that rant. Fml.

[bargain_hunter_lola]

Oh my gosh. What a vacation. Sorry you had to go through all that!

Hoping you get some much needed R&R!


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[walkonby]

i_forget this seems to have all started because you are obviously a very kind person. The kind that gets taken advantage of. How dare your own brother send his kid off with head lice?? C'mon he must have known.
Oh I am heartsick about your stove top, that would have been enough to send me bawling. I am so glad there was no house fire, small blessings I suppose. Next vacation I'll bet you will shorten the traveler's list to just your own brood. Isn't that the way when you were just trying to be accommodating?
.

[GoJays]

You need a hug

[JadeAngel]

I feel your pain! Vacations are also VERY stressful for us!

[tiffy1324]

Oh that sounds terrible it sucks when you try and do something nice for others and you end up getting burned. enjoy some R&R, you deserve it!

[angel_2011]

o..m..g sounds like u need a vacation from the vacation!

[francine1985]

I can relate to a horrible vacation. I won't go into details as this is your rant. But our last vacation we stayed at dh parents place and things were going mostly well until the night before we were supposed to go home. (And the bad had nothing to do with the inlaws they were actually a big help). The night before we were supposed to go home some monster went on a shooting rampage and he wasn't caught the next morning when we were supposed to go home. Dh family kept us there longer (which was amazing since they paid our travel, groceries, and bought us a few extras) the morning after we were supposed to go home (ds2 birthday) we found out he was caught but we were too exhausted to go home on the early bus and the late bus was too late to be traveling with the kids. So we went home the day after that (my birthday) and then we had to rush to get a birthday party ready (ds2 wasn't having his party cancelled but it had to be rescheduled by 2 days and rushed)... And that's just the very basic story I left out the details since I didn't want to steal your rant.

I hope you can at least rest a bit now. And you did a great thing for your nephew as it seems if you hadn't taken him his parents would have left the lice untreated. They couldn't even be bothered to send the right amount of medication for him that is sooo messed up. It sucks what you had to put up with but remember your daughters hair will grow back (and summer is the best time for a short haircut at least) and your nephew will probably remember what you've done for him. And also it's probably better that she had an accident in the ripped tent. As far as your brother saying he paid you I would comment that due to his negligence (inadequate amount of a necessary medication and leaving the lice untreated without so much as a warning to you) he owes you the coat of the medication/other lice supplies, 3 air mattresses, and the cost of getting your daughters hair professionally cut to work with the short hair she hair to get as a result of his sons untreated lice.

[CrazyQT]

Good grief. I am sorry you had a crappy vacation.

[DianneS]

Oh, wow....you need a vacation to recover from your vacation. This is living proof that the saying "no good deed goes unpunished" is sometimes true.

You deserve at least a week-end all to yourself with no kids, no demands.

[heartgirl99]

omg, i_forget!

can't believe your brother sent his kid with head lice.
sounds like you need a vacation to recover!

[TooCouponCrazy]

Oh goodness. You needed to come home to have a vacation after your vacation. Sorry to hear it was so stressful. Hope you have a nice relaxing evening.

[22hicks]

i_forget, that sounds just horrible !!! I'm so sorry you had to endure all that.
How mean of your brother. Head lice, come on, he had to have known.
Like the others said, you do need a vacation. I hope you take some time for yourself, some r & r, a day @ the spa, whatever. Maybe just go & lay on the beach for awhile.
Take care of yourself.

[i_forget]

Thank you everyone. Feeling much better now.

Not going to be taking other kids with me again for a while.
And my brother has been informed that he is to pay me back. He better or I will never do anything for him again.

[22hicks]

I'm glad, & hope he realizes how much he really owes you.