Before the trip

Powdered Coffee creamer. I never thought I'd use it, but after weight watchers started I learned to use alot of things I never thoght I'd like. Now sugar free vanilla coffee creamer is THE BOMB to me. It is the spring in my step in my lil cuppa coffee in the mornings. Especially when those mornings do not include a run to starbucks for my sugar free vanilla non fat latte...VENTI...always venti.



So today I decided to go grocery shopping, with the kids, for two weeks worth of groceries. Why you ask? Well the alternative was this...leave Greg the grocery money and let him go to the store this weekend, because I WILL NOT BE HERE!!! Can I get a YEE HAW??? I am going out of town to Louisville, my hometown, to spend the whole weekend uninterrupted by children, with my friends!



How did I get this fortunate? Well, it's like this. Hunting season is comming up...three months of hunting season, and during this time my dear hubby will be gone every single chance he gets. So I get ONE weekend away before this atrocity begins. Now back to the shopping trip...yes, I said two weeks worth of groceries in 1 trip with three kid in tow.



First let me just say the phrases 'Boy , three boys, wow, are they twins? Man, you sure have your hands full!" get sooo old after the first twenty people you pass. Now to get groceries it takes two carts. One for the kids, and one for the groceries. Andy, my little independant kiddo likes to ride all alone, and stack the groceries. so he goes into one and Alex and Nathan ride in the other.



Now I have to admit, this is a little anti-climatic, but on this particular trip my kids were actually very well behaved. Alex only knocked 1 item off the shelf and Nathan only asked for 400 things as opposed to his normal 4000. SO we get the groceries, along with three new movies, three new toys, and three chocolate bars, all of which cost 1.00 or less.



After checking out off we go to load it all up and get it all home. Now this is also a feat because you have to now watch two full carts and make sure no one hits you or the carts on the trek through the parking lot, and also once you get to the car that your carts stay put and don't run into any other cars while you are loading kids nto the car. Once this feat is done we are on the way home. Now powdered coffe creamer you ask...what exactly did you mean by that? Oh I'm getting there, just give me time!

Ok home, groceries unloaded, getting packed up for my weekend away. Kids are hungry, well, hey, aren't they ALWAYS hungry? So Into the oven goes a magnifcent dinner of mini corndogs and french fries. I must say here that I have never bought mini corndogs for my kids, this is a first time junk food treat for them. So in the bedroom packing clothes, and crafting goodies for my weekend away, did I mention there was a weekend with NO KIDS? Hmmm, those corndogs smell so sweet. Sorta like vanilla. Yep, JUST like vanilla. STrange, I didn't think vanilla would be in corndogs. O.K. Better go check this out.

Oven door opens and what do my wondering eyes see? You guessed it. A brand spanking new container of powdered vanill coffee creamer. I guess the twins thought I needed that heated up with the corndogs and fries.

Now let me explain what happens to a plastic container of powdered coffee creamer when it is baked in the oven. The plastic container expands...I mean it grows like one of those spongy gets up to 400 times the original size toys you had as a kid kind of big. And the plastic begins then to melt onto the oven rack. To remove this you need two potolders, one ofr the top and one for the bottom. When you begin to remove the container it tends to burst into flames, mind you, so don't expect to come away unscathed. Imagine singed arm hair. Yep, you're getting the picture. Now once the flaming mass of plastic has been extracted, you still have the powdered coffee creamer that spilled into the oven that is baking, toasting to a nice light golden brown color on the bottom of the oven. Of course you can't remove that while the oven is hot, so it continues to bake until the oven cools off.

So this is the fun day of shopping and learning I've spent with my kids. I mean, who doesn't need to know how to toast powdered coffee creamer???