In an effort to alleviate any possible injuries that you might have when moving furniture, setting up tents or washing cars I made a list of a few things that I was able to learn this weekend.

1. Dollies should always be required for moving heavy furniture in a box. Lift with the dolly, not your back or legs.
2. Just because there is empty space in the minivan doesn’t mean there is room for more weight.
3. Lowes loves to take huge return orders, but only when you called the day before and spoke to another manger who knew he would be off duty when the return arrived.
4. It’s always better to have an engineer available when setting up a new tent for the first time, especially when the directions were created in a foreign country in a language that resembles English. It helps even more if the engineer owns one of these tents.
5. Always look at the front of the box to see what the final tent should look like before joining pieces together.
6. Three sodas and three hours of jumping in a bouncy blowup tiger do not cancel each other out, but will cause a four year old to miss a nap and have a twitch for the rest of the day
7. Drinking a soda to wash down a hot dog is OK for the first one but after the 3^rd hot dog there will be a price to pay later.
8. Snow cones melt, and the paper cup cone that holds the snow cone falls apart at the same rate of speed as the ice melts.
9. When you see a bottle of sun screen, put it on. Clouds do not offer good protection from sun burn, they might keep you cool but your skin will be hot later.
10. Always volunteer to dry the cars when you have a choice, unless you enjoy getting soaked all the way to the bone. If washing, make sure you are in control of the hose.
11. If you have a choice between carrying chairs up the stairs or using the elevator, use the elevator. It will take longer but your back and legs will thank you for it.