My husband just asked me what I want for my birthday, which is tomorrow so I gotta give him credit for thinking ahead.
Hmm.... how do I narrow down the list to a more manageable size? I'll just list the things I want most!
1. Disneyland passes. I want annual passes for me and the girls and a parking pass. Total comes to $936. I know, I know, it's a bit much, but that' s Walt's fault.
2. I-Touch. It's such a cool little gadget and I miss my Palm Pilot that I had 10 years ago. I'd love an I-touch.
3. An embroidery machine. Everything is better when it's personalized. As
if, making something isn't personal enough. But wouldn't embroidery be
fun! Yes!
4. More bookshelves. My books are crammed onto the shelves I have now. They're so cluttery looking without any little spaces between the books.
5. Bread machine. I want to bake some yummy cinnamon/raisin bread and make
italian bread. I'm sure there are more delicious breads I could make. We
had a bread machine once and it made wonderful bread. But, it died
after just a few months.
6. A car. My van is showing signs of aging. I want a 2013 Nissan Altima. No particular color, but not blue or green or any Easter egg color.
7. Clothes and shoes. Seriously, I'm a girl.
8. Smart phones. Note that I said phones in the plural form, one for the hubby too! I think we are
the only people left who don't have them and they look so handy-dandy! I
know I could use it for the GPS.
9. Kindle Fire. Of course, only if #2 doesn't pan out because I think you can load books onto an I-touch. Since this is sort of a repeat, I guess I will instead say, a flat screen TV in my sewing area.
10. A new camera. I want a little Canon.
Well, there's the top ten. It's funny, I used to be "ah, I don't want anything, just a nice day" but now I'm all about being pampered with big ticket items. Have fun shopping! I'll just be sitting here waiting for a parade of presents to walk through the door! Don't forget the cake!
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Praise The Lord
I prayed today. Yup. True. I wasn't even in dire straits. I accidentally attended a prayer group at the park this morning. Totally did not see this coming.
Usually I only pray in church (which isn't very often cuz I'm a very bad Catholic), or when I am in extreme distress. For example: when my kid was getting stitches.
I dropped Gracie off at school, and since school just started, it is chaos at the drop off until the new people learn how to do it and stay out of the way of the ebb and flow of the parents who know how. So, I decided to walk her into the school instead of dropping her off in the car-line. Plus, I was bringing a donation for her classroom (a clock) and I wanted to make sure the teacher got it.
So, there I was.
I said "Good Morning" to a mom who I got to know a bit last year. Her child is in a different class than my kid this year. She said "Good morning!" Seeing I had Libby and Charlie with me she added, "I'm headed to a playdate at the park, would you like to join us?" Sure! She told me which park and we headed right over. Gotta do these park playdates in the morning since it's still pretty hot by mid-day.
I met up with her and her friends at the park, they had picnic blankets and they apologized for not having snacks and shade umbrellas. Wow, serious playdate mamas! I told them I usually have picnic blankets and beach towels, but I don't today because I washed them and they are at home. I wasn't really planning to go to the park, but it was such a great idea that I came without snacks and my picnic blanket. We'll get by just fine.
We took care of introductions and the kids made fast friends and ran off to play. Turns out, the other moms are all moms from Gracie's school too. A couple of them have their kids at another campus, and one lady didn't have children but she comes to the playdates as a friend. Ahh, nice to meet you all.
We sat on the picnic blankets and I positioned myself to make sure I could see everything and not lose sight of Charlie. This park has lots of opportunity for running off. The boundaries are not well defined. Had to make sure the bench and the trash can were not blocking my view of the playground. We visited about parenting, sending our children to school, balancing marriage and motherhood, normal conversations among women at the park. Or, was it? One lady was asking rather deep questions and the other ladies were saying, "with the Lord's help" and things like that.
Hey... wait a minute.... they all have leather zip up bible cases... matching. Hmmm.
One lady whips open her book and reads something about Noah's wife and they all start discussing how supportive and strong she must have been. I'm telling ya, if my husband comes home on a normal day and says, "Honey, I'm a gonna build a big arc and save all the animals on the planet from impending doom." Without hesitation, I would assume he went crazy. I would turn around and go about my business completely ignoring his insane plan to save the world. Noah, dude, good thing you didn't marry me!
This is when I realized I was at a church playdate. Ohhhh. Ok. Well, no harm in that.
But then, they wanted to have a closing prayer. They all joined hands and prayed for each other out loud. I found myself included in this circle of women. Lengthy too, really, my palms were getting sweaty and I could see Charlie climbing to the top of the highest play structure. He seems fine, but I wish they'd hurry up with the park praying cuz I felt weird holding hands in a circle at the park. I'm Catholic; we don't take it out of the church.
They all said it was nice to meet me and see you next week! Wait, did I just join the group? Oh boy. I accidentally attended a prayer group at the park and Praised the Lord in public, and now I am a member of the park church too?
It was nice to meet them and they were very supportive to each other. They were not pushy at all! Hard to say that about most religious people that you find in the park. I could feel the empowering positive vibes from their friendships. I'm so glad they invited me and were happy with having me in their little group, but I'm not a pray in the park type so I'm not sure if I will go again. They were such nice people though.
Noah's wife must've been nuts.
Usually I only pray in church (which isn't very often cuz I'm a very bad Catholic), or when I am in extreme distress. For example: when my kid was getting stitches.
I dropped Gracie off at school, and since school just started, it is chaos at the drop off until the new people learn how to do it and stay out of the way of the ebb and flow of the parents who know how. So, I decided to walk her into the school instead of dropping her off in the car-line. Plus, I was bringing a donation for her classroom (a clock) and I wanted to make sure the teacher got it.
So, there I was.
I said "Good Morning" to a mom who I got to know a bit last year. Her child is in a different class than my kid this year. She said "Good morning!" Seeing I had Libby and Charlie with me she added, "I'm headed to a playdate at the park, would you like to join us?" Sure! She told me which park and we headed right over. Gotta do these park playdates in the morning since it's still pretty hot by mid-day.
I met up with her and her friends at the park, they had picnic blankets and they apologized for not having snacks and shade umbrellas. Wow, serious playdate mamas! I told them I usually have picnic blankets and beach towels, but I don't today because I washed them and they are at home. I wasn't really planning to go to the park, but it was such a great idea that I came without snacks and my picnic blanket. We'll get by just fine.
We took care of introductions and the kids made fast friends and ran off to play. Turns out, the other moms are all moms from Gracie's school too. A couple of them have their kids at another campus, and one lady didn't have children but she comes to the playdates as a friend. Ahh, nice to meet you all.
We sat on the picnic blankets and I positioned myself to make sure I could see everything and not lose sight of Charlie. This park has lots of opportunity for running off. The boundaries are not well defined. Had to make sure the bench and the trash can were not blocking my view of the playground. We visited about parenting, sending our children to school, balancing marriage and motherhood, normal conversations among women at the park. Or, was it? One lady was asking rather deep questions and the other ladies were saying, "with the Lord's help" and things like that.
Hey... wait a minute.... they all have leather zip up bible cases... matching. Hmmm.
One lady whips open her book and reads something about Noah's wife and they all start discussing how supportive and strong she must have been. I'm telling ya, if my husband comes home on a normal day and says, "Honey, I'm a gonna build a big arc and save all the animals on the planet from impending doom." Without hesitation, I would assume he went crazy. I would turn around and go about my business completely ignoring his insane plan to save the world. Noah, dude, good thing you didn't marry me!
This is when I realized I was at a church playdate. Ohhhh. Ok. Well, no harm in that.
But then, they wanted to have a closing prayer. They all joined hands and prayed for each other out loud. I found myself included in this circle of women. Lengthy too, really, my palms were getting sweaty and I could see Charlie climbing to the top of the highest play structure. He seems fine, but I wish they'd hurry up with the park praying cuz I felt weird holding hands in a circle at the park. I'm Catholic; we don't take it out of the church.
They all said it was nice to meet me and see you next week! Wait, did I just join the group? Oh boy. I accidentally attended a prayer group at the park and Praised the Lord in public, and now I am a member of the park church too?
It was nice to meet them and they were very supportive to each other. They were not pushy at all! Hard to say that about most religious people that you find in the park. I could feel the empowering positive vibes from their friendships. I'm so glad they invited me and were happy with having me in their little group, but I'm not a pray in the park type so I'm not sure if I will go again. They were such nice people though.
Noah's wife must've been nuts.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Another Epic Roadtrip
All of our roadtrips are epic. You know what they say, "Go Big or Go Home." We "Go Big"!
We were gone for two weeks, so I think I will have to blog about our adventures in several posts. Every day was blog-worthy, but I cannot blog while away from my laptop which means I am going to be playing catch-up.
Here is a general overview so you know what sort of reading you have in store for you:
We drove 3,000 miles, attended a birthday bash/family reunion, a cowboy wedding, another family reunion, camped, had a very sick kid and we baked in the summer heat. Very adventurous indeed! A few of the things we planned were scrapped from the itinerary, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of sight seeing and visiting. We had a great time. Luckily, no mechanical problems with the van. I like it when we avoid car repairs on the road!
We did get a rock chip in a construction zone in Wyoming. It hit the edge of the windshield and then the chip grew and grew. By the time we got home, it had snaked it's way across to the middle. We called the Glass Dr and we have a new windshield already!
Since we drove, we always drive, we can take whatever we need. We try not to over-pack, but we do try not to forget anything. This trip, we forgot all kinds of things! Apparently, we did not over-pack! Keith and I forgot our sleeping bags, which made camping a little more interesting. We left our frying pan in Wyoming, just forgot it along the way. We thought of all kinds of little things that we forgot: extra SD camera cards, flashlights, stuff like that.
We did take over 300 beer glasses with us. Yes, you read that right: beer glasses. Keith designed a couple of logos and had them custom printed on beer glasses and delivered to the house. Then he took them to the Schumacher Family reunion and sold them to family members for cost. He and his brothers have been brewing their own beers and the glasses are very nice, perfect for the home brewed beverages. Traveling with a van full of glass, kids and a dog was a fun experience.
Luckily, we're flexible with our vacation schedule. That worked well for us because we had a very sick little girl and we had to cancel some of our plans and hunker down for a few days to let her rest and get better. We ended up taking her to the doctor and getting some medication for her, but it was great to be able to get off the road while she was sick. We don't know why she got sick, it didn't seem to be carsickness or food poisoning, but if it was a virus she kept it to herself. Who knows, it was just one of those fluke things. Poor kid.
It was one of the best road trips we've ever had (except for the puking kid), but we missed little Charlie every day. We thought about taking Lexie and Charlie, but she had things to do and Charlie is the type of toddler who likes to be on the move, not strapped into a carseat all day long. We put in some very long days in the van and spent a lot of time in places that are not safe for an active curious toddler. But, we did go to some places that he would have had a ton of fun so we'll be sure to take him when he's a little older and can better handle the long drive. Sure was nice to get home to see him again. We missed our little grandson Henry too, but we often go 2 to 3 weeks without seeing him so we are used to the gaps between Henry visits but the kids especially missed each other and were happy to be together again once we got home.
I will catch up with the blogging and stories from the roadtrip and the rest of the summer. But for now, my brain is mush. It's so hot out that I'm just not feeling much like doing anything. Even blogging sounds like too much work.
We were gone for two weeks, so I think I will have to blog about our adventures in several posts. Every day was blog-worthy, but I cannot blog while away from my laptop which means I am going to be playing catch-up.
Here is a general overview so you know what sort of reading you have in store for you:
We drove 3,000 miles, attended a birthday bash/family reunion, a cowboy wedding, another family reunion, camped, had a very sick kid and we baked in the summer heat. Very adventurous indeed! A few of the things we planned were scrapped from the itinerary, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of sight seeing and visiting. We had a great time. Luckily, no mechanical problems with the van. I like it when we avoid car repairs on the road!
We did get a rock chip in a construction zone in Wyoming. It hit the edge of the windshield and then the chip grew and grew. By the time we got home, it had snaked it's way across to the middle. We called the Glass Dr and we have a new windshield already!
Since we drove, we always drive, we can take whatever we need. We try not to over-pack, but we do try not to forget anything. This trip, we forgot all kinds of things! Apparently, we did not over-pack! Keith and I forgot our sleeping bags, which made camping a little more interesting. We left our frying pan in Wyoming, just forgot it along the way. We thought of all kinds of little things that we forgot: extra SD camera cards, flashlights, stuff like that.
We did take over 300 beer glasses with us. Yes, you read that right: beer glasses. Keith designed a couple of logos and had them custom printed on beer glasses and delivered to the house. Then he took them to the Schumacher Family reunion and sold them to family members for cost. He and his brothers have been brewing their own beers and the glasses are very nice, perfect for the home brewed beverages. Traveling with a van full of glass, kids and a dog was a fun experience.
Luckily, we're flexible with our vacation schedule. That worked well for us because we had a very sick little girl and we had to cancel some of our plans and hunker down for a few days to let her rest and get better. We ended up taking her to the doctor and getting some medication for her, but it was great to be able to get off the road while she was sick. We don't know why she got sick, it didn't seem to be carsickness or food poisoning, but if it was a virus she kept it to herself. Who knows, it was just one of those fluke things. Poor kid.
It was one of the best road trips we've ever had (except for the puking kid), but we missed little Charlie every day. We thought about taking Lexie and Charlie, but she had things to do and Charlie is the type of toddler who likes to be on the move, not strapped into a carseat all day long. We put in some very long days in the van and spent a lot of time in places that are not safe for an active curious toddler. But, we did go to some places that he would have had a ton of fun so we'll be sure to take him when he's a little older and can better handle the long drive. Sure was nice to get home to see him again. We missed our little grandson Henry too, but we often go 2 to 3 weeks without seeing him so we are used to the gaps between Henry visits but the kids especially missed each other and were happy to be together again once we got home.
I will catch up with the blogging and stories from the roadtrip and the rest of the summer. But for now, my brain is mush. It's so hot out that I'm just not feeling much like doing anything. Even blogging sounds like too much work.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Girl Scout Drama Club - No Thanks
I inquired about Girl Scouts a year ago when my daughter entered kindergarten, but was told all troops were full and she could sit on a waiting list. Sure, that's fine. Ok.
A year passes...
I got an email from a lady who was starting a new troop of Daisy Girl Scouts. She was starting a new group of girls from the waiting list and sent several emails begging for a co-leader. The lady didn't spell anything correctly, no capital letters at the beginning of her sentences, and barely any punctuation. After three poorly written emails requesting all sorts of help in all ways to lead the group, I politely declined. I will not lead a troop.
Soon after, another mom in Gracie's class said her daughter was in Girl Scouts so I asked her about it and she said she'd tell her leader that Gracie was waiting for a group. The next day a troop leader called and had space for Gracie in a new troop. This lady seems to be able to speak and write in full sentences so I thought, "Yay!"
I met her for lunch and filled out all sorts of registration forms, read through the expectations, welcome packet, looked at her books, etc. She had so much paperwork it was astounding. I didn't have the $24 registration fee with me in cash and she said she'd allow me to drop it at her house or mail it or pay at the Girl Scout office. Ok, I can do that. In the meantime, Gracie is a member and it will be official when I pay her registration. Sounds great!
In between all of the business that we always have going on in this house, I did drop by her house to pay the registration fee. Nobody home. No mailbox out front because they have one of those group mailbox things in their neighborhood. Oh well, I'll try again later.
She called me several times to make sure I was going to pay it and kept telling me to hurry up. I told her I'd just put it in the mail then so she'd get it quicker because I was busy and didn't have time to run around town (true). She said ok, but then called again and said not to mail it because she needed it and was afraid it would be lost in the mail.
Ok, fine, then she has to wait until after Fenna leaves and I have time. I told her it would have to wait until the end of June because I was swamped with family activity. That was fine, I could just give it to her at the Girl Scout event that they were having. Oh, easier. That's great.
Event... it was a special showing of the movie Brave just for the Girl Scouts. Sort of. Ok, it was changed to just the Girl Scouts going to the movie at an already scheduled time, no special pricing, whatever, not a special showing just for them, totally not a big deal. Another event change: Pizza after the movie and she chose the 8:00am show. Hold on, a movie at 8am and pizza at 9:30am? Oy. Ok.... Event change: No other family members allowed to come to the movie. Only the girl scout and one parent. Wait one minute, I can't bring my other kid to a public showing and pay the ticket price for her? Girl Scouts isn't paying for the kids and adults anyway so why should it matter if people bring their families? I politely declined. We wanted to see the movie together. We went together and it was great fun! Plus, it was the last fun thing we did with Fenna and I think that was more important to the girls.
Another change to the event: Pizza day was moved to July 21st. I had to decline that one too because we'll be on vacation that day.
I still had to pay the lady though! Went to her house again and rang the bell with check in hand. Nobody home. Arg! I have such bad timing! Drove straight to the Girl Scout office instead. They had a big sign on their door that said closed but I could see someone in there. Got the kids out and we tried the door, it was open. Small print under the Closed sign had some date in the future, good thing I saw the gal through the window.
I tried to pay her but she said that I should pay the leader, or I have to fill out the registration forms again. Oh joy. She said there was no hurry though, it's the beginning of July and fees do not have to be paid until mid-September. Hmm, cool. I was under the impression that the leader was in immediate need of the cash, but that isn't the case. I told the lady in the office I'd pay her promptly anyway because she's been pressuring me for it. We looked at the Daisy uniforms and bought the Daisy Guide book.
Then I went to the fabric store and got fabric to make a Daisy uniform instead of paying $17 for a little vest, I paid $3 for a yard of the same colored fabric.
Two days later, I get an email that the leader quit because she is moving due to a job change and the group is being taken over by another mom. I'm starting to wonder if this is going to be worth it with all of the changes and mixed messages so far, and we're just in the sign-up stage.
I posted on Facebook: "Hmmm.... Put Gracie in Girl Scouts or Soccer for her 1st grade year? So far both are appealing to her and neither are appealing to me. :/" I got 29 varied responses. The timing was hilarious because minutes later...
New email from the new leader:
"Hello,
I was just going over all the paper work to make sure everything has been completed. And unfortunately we will have to be dropping Gracie from the troop. We have not received payment and she has not been registered. I know there have been several attempts to complete her regestration with no success. There are over 300 girls eager to be on a troop and we can no longer hold her spot."
Seriously? Did we just get kicked out of Girl Scouts? Payment isn't due for two months and that's not good enough? Maybe new the new leader just doesn't know that I've tried to pay but I've been really busy and this is just a poorly worded request for payment.
My reply:
I apologize that I did not have my checkbook the day I met up
with [past leader] and filled in all the paperwork. I did offer to mail the check but
she said not to, and later got a message saying she was watching for it in the
mail so I was confused about mailing it in and opted not to since that was
safer. I tried to drop it at her house one time but must have been ringing her
bell when she wasn’t home, there was a car in the driveway so I figured someone
would be there, but I didn’t want to leave it on the step. I also stopped
in the office and tried to pay there, but they wanted me to fill out all the
paperwork again and my 3 yr old needed go to potty, so I didn’t have time.
Always something. I did buy the Daisy Guide book. The office told me
there was no hurry and I had plenty of time, until Sept. Since you are in more
of a hurry, I will stop at the office again and re-file the paperwork and pay
there. Thank you for your attempts to keep us in the group, but we have
had a lot of things going on at home in our family and I honestly haven’t had
any spare time. We could not make it to the Brave movie event because we
wanted to see it together as a family and the pizza event is happening while we
are on vacation. It’s not that we are not interested, but I understand
you have no way of knowing that.
Mary Schumacher
Gracie’s Mom
Cell:xxx-xxxxShe zips one back:
Mary,
I wasn't present for the conversations between you and [past leader] so I am not sure of what was said, or where the disconnect came from. I understand about being busy and have a lot of going on as I have 2 small kids, a husband and a full time job. The Daisy guide book was optional as me and Kristy did not feel it was necessarily for was child to have one, as stated in the welcome packet. I am sure you will be able to return it. It is not that I am in a large hurry, it is that there have been lots of girls begging to join a troop. Again I apologize for the confusion but we have already let another girl know that we have an available spot. Girl Scouts is a huge commitment and maybe with all that you already have going on, it will be too much of a commitment for you guys. I am sorry that it did not work out. If we have a spot become available I can let you know, if you are still interested.
Hmmph. We got the boot! My freshly kicked ass replied with:
I’m astonished that we were given no warning of removal
and no second chance to be involved. If that is how things are done in the
troop then it is best to not be involved. I will have to explain to my daughter
that you do not want her in the troop; I’m sure we will find a more welcoming
activity.
Yup, I really sent it!
Same day, new email. I don't even want to open it, but I did:
"Hi, my name is [4th leader in this mini-drama]. I will be starting a Daisy Girl Scout Troop this October,
along with [another name], in the local area. This will be the
first year for this troop. Girls going into Kindergarten and 1st grade
can become Daisy Scouts."
No freaking way. In less than a month, my daughter was offered to join three troops now and it's been nothing but paperwork, mixed messages, missed calls, miscommunication, changes here, changes there, inclusion/exclusion games and a fun little ride on someone's power trip. I'm not going to do this for a full year. We are going to the Girl Scout office and return the Daisy book.
Soccer suddenly sounds like a fabulous idea! But the 100 degree fall heat is not one bit appealing. So, I've decided to look and see what City Recreation offers and we'll go with whatever they have. We've had very good luck with their swim lessons, gymnastics and ballet classes.
Can't believe we almost got sucked into the drama club. That would have been one headache after another. So relieved we discovered the trouble before it even started! I admit, some of it was my fault for not paying fast enough, but I tried and can't help but think fate stepped in the way for me.
I think we earned a cookie.
* I've left out all of the real names of the Girl Scout leaders. While I'm not happy with any of them and their quest to fill my life with catty drama, I do respect their willingness to volunteer and for that I'm not going to post their real names. I will eat another cookie in honor of my last teeny bit of honor and respect that I've been able to salvage after this experience.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Moonlight sewing
Yesterday I got a thread clogged up in the bobbin case of my sewing machine so I had to take it all out, then I thought, hmm, I should unscrew this part and clean under it and oil, oh... and that part under there too...
I took out 6 screws and a bunch of odd looking metal parts and it was a jigsaw puzzle from hell trying to get them to fit again! What was I thinking? I had a 3 piece puzzle and I totally could not do it. I spent a couple of hours looming over the machine trying to get it back together, but it wouldn't fit right and it wouldn't work. How on earth did this fit earlier?
My husband came to see what I was up to, and he said "Do you need to concentrate or do you need to take a break and come back to it later?" Yes, the latter. I stepped away for the rest of the day.
Last night I thought I'd look at it one more time before going to bed and of course figured it out and fit it all back together in no time. Yay. Why couldn't I do that earlier? I had visions of it never working again. Funny, I was starting off with the first piece upside down and then the other pieces wouldn't fit. In any case, I got things put together properly and decided a screwdriver is a dangerous tool in my hands!
Since it was working, I just had to run something through it. Then another seam, just a little more.
I finished two summer dresses, changed the thread in both machines and almost completed two more sun-dresses!
Just after 1am I looked at the clock. Shock! How did that happen? I never stay up that late; I have trouble staying awake after 11:00. Seeing the time made me lose my groove, and I shut it all off. Great, can't sleep because I was laying there worrying about oversleeping since I stayed up too late.
No worries, I woke up just fine thanks to a three-year-old alarm clock. And I made great progress on my dress collection which makes me very happy. I want to set up shop and sell the dresses online to support my sewing habit (and pay a professional to take my machines apart and put them back together properly). I think I will launch the shop in August or September, just in time for Halloween.
In the meantime, I am enjoying my sewing time even if it means a sacrifice of sleep time. Although, I will be paying for it this afternoon when the wall of fatigue smacks me down.
I took out 6 screws and a bunch of odd looking metal parts and it was a jigsaw puzzle from hell trying to get them to fit again! What was I thinking? I had a 3 piece puzzle and I totally could not do it. I spent a couple of hours looming over the machine trying to get it back together, but it wouldn't fit right and it wouldn't work. How on earth did this fit earlier?
My husband came to see what I was up to, and he said "Do you need to concentrate or do you need to take a break and come back to it later?" Yes, the latter. I stepped away for the rest of the day.
Last night I thought I'd look at it one more time before going to bed and of course figured it out and fit it all back together in no time. Yay. Why couldn't I do that earlier? I had visions of it never working again. Funny, I was starting off with the first piece upside down and then the other pieces wouldn't fit. In any case, I got things put together properly and decided a screwdriver is a dangerous tool in my hands!
Since it was working, I just had to run something through it. Then another seam, just a little more.
I finished two summer dresses, changed the thread in both machines and almost completed two more sun-dresses!
Just after 1am I looked at the clock. Shock! How did that happen? I never stay up that late; I have trouble staying awake after 11:00. Seeing the time made me lose my groove, and I shut it all off. Great, can't sleep because I was laying there worrying about oversleeping since I stayed up too late.
No worries, I woke up just fine thanks to a three-year-old alarm clock. And I made great progress on my dress collection which makes me very happy. I want to set up shop and sell the dresses online to support my sewing habit (and pay a professional to take my machines apart and put them back together properly). I think I will launch the shop in August or September, just in time for Halloween.
In the meantime, I am enjoying my sewing time even if it means a sacrifice of sleep time. Although, I will be paying for it this afternoon when the wall of fatigue smacks me down.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
It's Mid-June? How did that happen?
Slow down, Calendar! Where are you going so fast? June 15th already, sheesh. Well, must be time for a mish-mash blog post about little things just to catch up. Every paragraph is totally unrelated to any of the others, thus making this a multi-post blog post! I'm catching up! You'd better sit down for this one with a full cup of coffee, you're going to be here a while.
School is over for the year. Keith finished his middle-school year at the end of May and I was completely caught off-guard. I thought it was over at the end of June. I forgot that they adjusted the school calendar. So nice to have him home! I love it! I'm pretty sure he does too. He's still teaching evening classes at APU. Fenna was done on June 1st. Her last week of school was kind of strange; it was all half-days and she didn't have to go for every class so some days she only had one hour or nothing at all. But, her high school exchange year came to an end albeit a fizzled out finish. I think she had a good year and I'm proud of her for all of the hurdles she encountered and all of the good things she squeezed into her one school year. I think she enjoyed it and learned more than she thinks; the classes were fairly typical American and the school structure was very typical. She had a lot of friends in school and I'm sure she will miss them all very much. Gracie's school ended June 7th. On the 6th she got to have lunch with her future 1st grade teacher and some of the kids from that class. She's excited and she already made a new friend who has the same birthday. Her teacher is tall and as Gracie said, "She looks like she is 23 years old." Hmm, well, I have no idea actually. Age is so important when you are six. On the 7th, the kindergarten class had a picnic at the park. The kids all played together for 3 hours! They had a blast! It was nice too. So, that's it, no more school.
Libby is reading. School is out and she decided to have a burst of brain growth. She can read small words and we practice the same ones over and over so that she'll have them memorized with ease. I'm going to go ahead and keep working with her on reading small words since she seems to love it so much.
Both girls have a reading poster in their rooms now. It is just a sheet of poster board and we are putting nametag stickers on the poster for each book they read. Gracie has to read a book and Libby has to listen to one. When they get a million stickers (this rule will likely change as we approach vacation time and they need a new toy for the roadtrip), they will each get a Merida doll. It's a very good incentive! Right now, I'm telling them 50 stickers, which is doable in 10 weeks of summer. Plus, they want those dolls!
We went camping. It was awful but we made the best of it. We planned a two night tent camping adventure and it deserves it's own blog post. You can read all about our interesting camping adventure HERE.
Fenna is packing. Ugh. I don't like the idea of letting her go. She's having a hard time trying to squeeze it all back into one suitcase and one carry-on. I told her to take another suitcase home or ship some boxes, but she wants to minimize how much stuff she takes home and not have the added expense of extra things. She said she'll get rid of some of her clothes and things and I asked her if she would like to donate some of it. Also, if she has some clothes that she will be saying goodbye to, I'd like to make dresses out of them for Gracie and Libby so that they'll have their own "Fenna Dresses" and they can get Fenna hugs when they feel sad for her. She loved that idea. We've been running errands and trying to tie up loose ends. We went to La Jolla for her final doctor appointment. Got her gym membership cancelled. We have to send in for reimbursement from her insurance company for the meds we paid for, and we have to settle up her Fed-Ex bills for the tariffs on the boxes she received, just business. We have a little list of places to go, favorite foods to eat and things to shop for. And we have a lot of things done that needed to be done. She took her piggy bank to the bank and cashed in her coins. She didn't think she had much, but it counted out to over $37. Pretty good! I'm glad YFU let her know when she leaves and got her e-ticket to her in a timely manner. When she arrived, they gave us barely any notice of her arrival date and time (luckily, we talked to Fenna and didn't wait for YFU to notify us!). We'll get things done soon and next thing you know it will be time to decide what to do with her empty bedroom. Ho hum.
My camera has dust or sand in it again. I want to throw it in the ocean, or run over it with the van. That wouldn't get me anywhere would it? Sigh. It just isn't as nice as the Canon powershot cameras that I had, the pictures are not as clean and clear and it has trouble focusing. Plus, it gets crap inside the lens all too often. I'm noticing people aren't using cameras anymore unless they are using a big elephant professional camera. People are using smart phones as cameras now. I'm not going to get a smart phone, they are just too expensive for what I would use it for. But, I would love to get back to using a Canon Powershot.
Charlie has a new game. He loves to take his diaper off and run around half naked. He can shed his jeans and diaper before you can blink. Streaking in the back yard is his favorite.
Speaking of the back yard, the neighbors just spread fertilizer and now we can't open our windows. The kids can't play outside and we have to hold our breath between the van and the door to the house. Isn't there a law against stinking up the whole neighborhood? Why don't Californians put straw down over the manure? Ugh. It just stinks!
Another back yard item to note: Keith cut down another tree. It was huge. Luckily, he got it down before the neighborhood started to smell like crap. This tree was ripping up the fenceline and the neighbors were more than happy to see it come down. He's taken 11 trees out of our yard since we moved in. We still have plenty left too. Who planted that many trees anyway? Wow.
We went to Scout's graduation party. I'm probably not supposed to mention this online, because the invite list was secret but now you know. Don't tell anyone. Her parents are both teachers at the same school where my husband works, and there is so much drama among the teachers and staff there so the invite list was to remain hushed to avoid hurt feelings. I'm glad they invited us, the family is such a wonderful family I can't get over it. Amazing teachers who have amazing kids! They are sending Scout to college in Switzerland. I googled the college; it looks amazing! Of course. It's an accredited American college in the middle of Europe. Perfect! I wish I would have had clear cut goals and objectives when I graduated from high school. Of course, my life would have been completely different and I probably would have skipped that whole living-in-a-trailer-house-while-collecting-food-stamps stage, so it's probably best that my life went the way it did. I am blessed and I'm happy for Scout and her family for her opportunity to start her adult life with this great adventure.
We took Henry to the graduation party. He loved it and made a new friend. George was especially happy to see Henry since he married Henry's parents. Hard to believe it has been three years ago that Katie and Andrew were married.
Lexie quit her job at Shakey's. Yes, again. But this time I think she's really done and never going back. She was so stressed out this last month and her schedule was crazy. I was on her case too, mostly because Charlie was spending the night too often and when he spends the night, she goes home and sleeps in while I have early morning babysitting duty. So, I told her that if he spends the night she has to spend the night too. Between that and the stress of the craziness at work, she decided to just leave Shakey's. She'd been through enough. She seems happier now and she's enjoying her time with Charlie. She's going to run out of money though. But, she is launching a new photography business and I know she will do well! Starting a profitable business is always a slow process, but she is off to a great start already! And she has a natural talent for the art of photography.
The other day we had spaghetti for dinner and we all ate too much. So, we went for a short walk. Keith, Fenna and I took Libby and the dog. Libby rode her big wheel. It was so nice, we walked an extra block or two and then decided to take a hilly walking trail behind the elementary school. I've never taken it before since I am usually pushing a stroller, so we went exploring. Up on top of the hill was a big rock that stood alone. Keith told Fenna to climb up on top and she wasn't sure she could climb it. I thought I could do it, so I kicked off my flip flops and climbed up. I'm like a squirrel! Getting down was another problem. We made it though. It was hilarious! Keith took some pictures which turned out to look a bit deceiving. It's hard to tell that the rock was hard to scale. A walk around the block turned into a fun little adventure.
A friend of mine is pregnant with twins. I am sewing receiving blankets for her and she asked me for burp cloths. I made 20 burp cloths out of plain white handtowels. I bought a package of 12 white bar towels at Sams Club years ago thinking they would make great bibs, but I never did use them. So, I cut a few of them into fours and serged up the cut edges. They look like washcloths now, but they'll be really handy I'm sure. I have time to put some cute appliques or trim on them. I want to sew princess dresses and kick off a little boutique, but it isn't happening with all the other sewing I seem to have. I'm storing up a lot of ideas though!
Father's Day is coming up soon. The girls and I picked out a gift for Keith and it's been hiding in the van for a while now. Libby picked out a card a couple of weeks ago to mail to her new Grandpa and it's still just sitting here. Now it will be late. Darn. The Mother's Day cards are still sitting here too. I won't be winning any awards for being a good post-office patron, but the sentiment is there. The cards are here. Maybe I'll make it my New Year's Resolution to be better about honoring Mother's and Father's Days next year. Yeah... next year. :)
I don't know why June feels like it went so fast already. Probably because it did. I just don't think we did much though. The days have just been going along rather quickly without any outings to speak of (except for the doctor appointment and the camping trip).
Your cup of coffee should be gone by now, this was a long catch-up blog post!
School is over for the year. Keith finished his middle-school year at the end of May and I was completely caught off-guard. I thought it was over at the end of June. I forgot that they adjusted the school calendar. So nice to have him home! I love it! I'm pretty sure he does too. He's still teaching evening classes at APU. Fenna was done on June 1st. Her last week of school was kind of strange; it was all half-days and she didn't have to go for every class so some days she only had one hour or nothing at all. But, her high school exchange year came to an end albeit a fizzled out finish. I think she had a good year and I'm proud of her for all of the hurdles she encountered and all of the good things she squeezed into her one school year. I think she enjoyed it and learned more than she thinks; the classes were fairly typical American and the school structure was very typical. She had a lot of friends in school and I'm sure she will miss them all very much. Gracie's school ended June 7th. On the 6th she got to have lunch with her future 1st grade teacher and some of the kids from that class. She's excited and she already made a new friend who has the same birthday. Her teacher is tall and as Gracie said, "She looks like she is 23 years old." Hmm, well, I have no idea actually. Age is so important when you are six. On the 7th, the kindergarten class had a picnic at the park. The kids all played together for 3 hours! They had a blast! It was nice too. So, that's it, no more school.
Libby is reading. School is out and she decided to have a burst of brain growth. She can read small words and we practice the same ones over and over so that she'll have them memorized with ease. I'm going to go ahead and keep working with her on reading small words since she seems to love it so much.
Both girls have a reading poster in their rooms now. It is just a sheet of poster board and we are putting nametag stickers on the poster for each book they read. Gracie has to read a book and Libby has to listen to one. When they get a million stickers (this rule will likely change as we approach vacation time and they need a new toy for the roadtrip), they will each get a Merida doll. It's a very good incentive! Right now, I'm telling them 50 stickers, which is doable in 10 weeks of summer. Plus, they want those dolls!
We went camping. It was awful but we made the best of it. We planned a two night tent camping adventure and it deserves it's own blog post. You can read all about our interesting camping adventure HERE.
Fenna is packing. Ugh. I don't like the idea of letting her go. She's having a hard time trying to squeeze it all back into one suitcase and one carry-on. I told her to take another suitcase home or ship some boxes, but she wants to minimize how much stuff she takes home and not have the added expense of extra things. She said she'll get rid of some of her clothes and things and I asked her if she would like to donate some of it. Also, if she has some clothes that she will be saying goodbye to, I'd like to make dresses out of them for Gracie and Libby so that they'll have their own "Fenna Dresses" and they can get Fenna hugs when they feel sad for her. She loved that idea. We've been running errands and trying to tie up loose ends. We went to La Jolla for her final doctor appointment. Got her gym membership cancelled. We have to send in for reimbursement from her insurance company for the meds we paid for, and we have to settle up her Fed-Ex bills for the tariffs on the boxes she received, just business. We have a little list of places to go, favorite foods to eat and things to shop for. And we have a lot of things done that needed to be done. She took her piggy bank to the bank and cashed in her coins. She didn't think she had much, but it counted out to over $37. Pretty good! I'm glad YFU let her know when she leaves and got her e-ticket to her in a timely manner. When she arrived, they gave us barely any notice of her arrival date and time (luckily, we talked to Fenna and didn't wait for YFU to notify us!). We'll get things done soon and next thing you know it will be time to decide what to do with her empty bedroom. Ho hum.
My camera has dust or sand in it again. I want to throw it in the ocean, or run over it with the van. That wouldn't get me anywhere would it? Sigh. It just isn't as nice as the Canon powershot cameras that I had, the pictures are not as clean and clear and it has trouble focusing. Plus, it gets crap inside the lens all too often. I'm noticing people aren't using cameras anymore unless they are using a big elephant professional camera. People are using smart phones as cameras now. I'm not going to get a smart phone, they are just too expensive for what I would use it for. But, I would love to get back to using a Canon Powershot.
Charlie has a new game. He loves to take his diaper off and run around half naked. He can shed his jeans and diaper before you can blink. Streaking in the back yard is his favorite.
Speaking of the back yard, the neighbors just spread fertilizer and now we can't open our windows. The kids can't play outside and we have to hold our breath between the van and the door to the house. Isn't there a law against stinking up the whole neighborhood? Why don't Californians put straw down over the manure? Ugh. It just stinks!
Another back yard item to note: Keith cut down another tree. It was huge. Luckily, he got it down before the neighborhood started to smell like crap. This tree was ripping up the fenceline and the neighbors were more than happy to see it come down. He's taken 11 trees out of our yard since we moved in. We still have plenty left too. Who planted that many trees anyway? Wow.
We went to Scout's graduation party. I'm probably not supposed to mention this online, because the invite list was secret but now you know. Don't tell anyone. Her parents are both teachers at the same school where my husband works, and there is so much drama among the teachers and staff there so the invite list was to remain hushed to avoid hurt feelings. I'm glad they invited us, the family is such a wonderful family I can't get over it. Amazing teachers who have amazing kids! They are sending Scout to college in Switzerland. I googled the college; it looks amazing! Of course. It's an accredited American college in the middle of Europe. Perfect! I wish I would have had clear cut goals and objectives when I graduated from high school. Of course, my life would have been completely different and I probably would have skipped that whole living-in-a-trailer-house-while-collecting-food-stamps stage, so it's probably best that my life went the way it did. I am blessed and I'm happy for Scout and her family for her opportunity to start her adult life with this great adventure.
We took Henry to the graduation party. He loved it and made a new friend. George was especially happy to see Henry since he married Henry's parents. Hard to believe it has been three years ago that Katie and Andrew were married.
Lexie quit her job at Shakey's. Yes, again. But this time I think she's really done and never going back. She was so stressed out this last month and her schedule was crazy. I was on her case too, mostly because Charlie was spending the night too often and when he spends the night, she goes home and sleeps in while I have early morning babysitting duty. So, I told her that if he spends the night she has to spend the night too. Between that and the stress of the craziness at work, she decided to just leave Shakey's. She'd been through enough. She seems happier now and she's enjoying her time with Charlie. She's going to run out of money though. But, she is launching a new photography business and I know she will do well! Starting a profitable business is always a slow process, but she is off to a great start already! And she has a natural talent for the art of photography.
The other day we had spaghetti for dinner and we all ate too much. So, we went for a short walk. Keith, Fenna and I took Libby and the dog. Libby rode her big wheel. It was so nice, we walked an extra block or two and then decided to take a hilly walking trail behind the elementary school. I've never taken it before since I am usually pushing a stroller, so we went exploring. Up on top of the hill was a big rock that stood alone. Keith told Fenna to climb up on top and she wasn't sure she could climb it. I thought I could do it, so I kicked off my flip flops and climbed up. I'm like a squirrel! Getting down was another problem. We made it though. It was hilarious! Keith took some pictures which turned out to look a bit deceiving. It's hard to tell that the rock was hard to scale. A walk around the block turned into a fun little adventure.
A friend of mine is pregnant with twins. I am sewing receiving blankets for her and she asked me for burp cloths. I made 20 burp cloths out of plain white handtowels. I bought a package of 12 white bar towels at Sams Club years ago thinking they would make great bibs, but I never did use them. So, I cut a few of them into fours and serged up the cut edges. They look like washcloths now, but they'll be really handy I'm sure. I have time to put some cute appliques or trim on them. I want to sew princess dresses and kick off a little boutique, but it isn't happening with all the other sewing I seem to have. I'm storing up a lot of ideas though!
Father's Day is coming up soon. The girls and I picked out a gift for Keith and it's been hiding in the van for a while now. Libby picked out a card a couple of weeks ago to mail to her new Grandpa and it's still just sitting here. Now it will be late. Darn. The Mother's Day cards are still sitting here too. I won't be winning any awards for being a good post-office patron, but the sentiment is there. The cards are here. Maybe I'll make it my New Year's Resolution to be better about honoring Mother's and Father's Days next year. Yeah... next year. :)
I don't know why June feels like it went so fast already. Probably because it did. I just don't think we did much though. The days have just been going along rather quickly without any outings to speak of (except for the doctor appointment and the camping trip).
Your cup of coffee should be gone by now, this was a long catch-up blog post!
Friday, June 15, 2012
An Interesting Camping Adventure
Fenna called it. She said "going camping is going to be interesting". But, she really wanted to go so Keith planned out a two night trip and we packed up and went. Keith and I both promised that yes indeed, it would be interesting. I believe we were true to our word on that.
We planned a two night tent camping adventure on Mount Palomar just two miles from the observatory. It is a nice beautiful pine tree covered mountain. Lovely!
We drove up there and the flies were so terrible that we were all frantically waving our arms around our heads after a minute. We walked around a bit and decided that we wouldn't be able to cook or enjoy ourselves with the fly population so hungry for us. They acted like we were the biggest and best turds who ever set foot on the mountain! After 10 minutes, we were done and headed back down the mountain to a campground closer to town near a lake.
We were going camping with our friends, the Block family and their dogs and when they called and said there were too many flies in the campground I thought, "oh he's exaggerating." Unbelievable!
We ended up at Lake Skinner, a nice lake that you cannot touch. It is illegal to touch the water because the pollution from your human body might be harmful to the fish. The fish have the same view of us that the flies do. This is the event site of the Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival, and the site of the new splash pad where I took the kids a few weeks ago. This might be good.
This campground is only 20 miles from town. It took us over 3 hours to get there after going up to Palomar Mountain, back down, stuck in traffic on the freeway, across town and out the other side. The kids were sick to death of being in their carseats. They sensed it was taking way too long to get to our campsite. These kids of mine are geniuses!
The original plan was that we would leave the house at 1pm, go set up camp and then I would bring the girls back to town for their swimming lesson class and head back up. Well.... that didn't happen. We left around 2:30 and arrived at our campsite at nearly 6pm. Swim lessons were pretty much over by then. They missed the first lesson of this new session, oh well.
Lake Skinner campground is nice enough, but they don't have tent spaces. The camping spots are designed for RVs and it's set up like a parking lot. There were other tent campers there too, but like us, they had to set up on a hard packed dirt pad.
We set up our campsite on the tiny pad that was our assigned camp spot and got to work with cooking dinner. Things were looking up! As long as there is food, there will be happiness, right? Right! I made Dollywood Potatoes over the propane burner.
Fenna was very worried about the size of the tent. She mentioned it a million times and we kept telling her that it was a 4-person tent but it would hold all of us and the dog fairly comfortably. She knew that if it was a 4-person tent, it was really a 2 or 3 person tent. She was pleasantly surprised when we popped it up! We set up the little girls' tent too, just for fun (and elbow room since Fenna sleeps like a starfish).
The tent campers in the next parking, er, camping row were loud. We got to hear some very colorful language and dogs barking all evening and into the wee hours of the morning. At least they were happy people. Loud happy inebriated campers.
Our friends camped in their luxurious hotel on wheels. They had a bathroom, running hot water, electricity, tv and internet. The probably slept great too.
I couldn't sleep. We finally laid down in our tent around midnight. We kept waiting for the campground to settle down and become somewhat quiet, but that wasn't happening so we caved and tried to sleep through the racket. Finally, around 2am, a little Spanish lady yelled "Would you please be quiet! Thank you!" There is something about the voice of a little Spanish lady that scares people. It worked too, the entire campground was dead silent after that. Lady, I thank you.
Keith and Fenna slept great. Sandy slept with us in our tent but she was all over me, laying on my legs, then pushing up against me, stealing my blanket, and then she ended the night by sleeping on my pillow. She's going into the pink tent next time!
At one point, I forgot who was sleeping where and I thought Fenna was Keith, but she was in her own sleeping bag so I was very confused. I thought I stole all the blankets off of him so I patted her down thinking she was Keith, and I just wanted to know if he was cold laying there without any blankets. Then I was grabbing her wrist to see his watch to find out what time it was. She wasn't cold, had no watch on, and wasn't Keith. She let me know it too. Whoops.
I wasn't comfortable at all. I tried and tried to sleep and I was dead tired, but I just laid there on the hard ground with my eyes wide open. I slept on and off from 2ish until nearly 5am and then I was awake for the day. I think I got 3 hours of sleep with 23 wakings in there, it was ridiculous! Around 5:30, I decided to quit trying and I just got up.
Gracie woke up a little before 5am and she said, "I wish I had some tape so I could tape up those birds." Keith was making gun noises while looking at the door of the tent. She is her father's daughter.
After heating up the tea kettle for some instant coffee.. I wandered the campground and my husband took some great photos while I snapped some sand-spotted pictures to start the day. We were going to need some decent photos to pretend the camping trip wasn't a complete failure.
It was great to wake up so early and see hot air balloons! (Can I say I woke up if I never really slept?) They were off in the distance but we were able to see them well enough, even through the morning fog. It was a lovely way to start the day! We saw three balloons in the sky. Very pretty. Keith saw a chicken hawk too. He thinks that's why the birds were going crazy around 4am; the chicken hawk had breakfast.
The kids had a lot of fun playing in their pajamas on their scooters and on the playground. Then we went for a walk to the untouchable lake. The water is used as a public water source, so fish and waterfowl can poop in it but we can't dip our toes in. Libby's feet stunk so bad she would have killed the fish anyway. Those polka-dot shoes are almost 2 years old and she loves them, but they smell horrid.
The walk to the lake was nice. The fog lifted and the sun came out and heated things up pretty quickly. It was still fairly early so the splash pad was not operating yet, which was fine by me. The kids were disappointed though. I promised them we'd come back another day when it's working. I didn't bother to inform them that the water turns on at 10am. They don't need to know everything.
Now that it was nearly 10am, we'd come to a unanimous decision that we were done camping. We had lunch (hey, breakfast was 5 hours earlier), took down the tents, packed up the gear and drove the short distance home. We were home at 11:15am. So much for our planned two nights of camping, we camped for 16 hours.
After such a short campout, there is still a ton of cleanup to do after arriving home! The van doors were open most of the time in the evening, and the smoke from the fire went into the van stinking up the whole works. I have to rug dr the interior now. Joy. Camping in dirt makes everything dirty. I'm still cleaning from our little excursion.
The first thing we all did when we got home was to ask ourselves, "Am I more tired then dirty or more dirty than tired?" We all decided we were filthy but more tired, so we slept. Everyone slept four or five hours. Apparently I wasn't the only one who didn't sleep well in our parking spot!
Now that this interesting camping adventure is over, I can honestly say that I have RV envy.
We planned a two night tent camping adventure on Mount Palomar just two miles from the observatory. It is a nice beautiful pine tree covered mountain. Lovely!
We drove up there and the flies were so terrible that we were all frantically waving our arms around our heads after a minute. We walked around a bit and decided that we wouldn't be able to cook or enjoy ourselves with the fly population so hungry for us. They acted like we were the biggest and best turds who ever set foot on the mountain! After 10 minutes, we were done and headed back down the mountain to a campground closer to town near a lake.
We were going camping with our friends, the Block family and their dogs and when they called and said there were too many flies in the campground I thought, "oh he's exaggerating." Unbelievable!
We ended up at Lake Skinner, a nice lake that you cannot touch. It is illegal to touch the water because the pollution from your human body might be harmful to the fish. The fish have the same view of us that the flies do. This is the event site of the Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival, and the site of the new splash pad where I took the kids a few weeks ago. This might be good.
This campground is only 20 miles from town. It took us over 3 hours to get there after going up to Palomar Mountain, back down, stuck in traffic on the freeway, across town and out the other side. The kids were sick to death of being in their carseats. They sensed it was taking way too long to get to our campsite. These kids of mine are geniuses!
The original plan was that we would leave the house at 1pm, go set up camp and then I would bring the girls back to town for their swimming lesson class and head back up. Well.... that didn't happen. We left around 2:30 and arrived at our campsite at nearly 6pm. Swim lessons were pretty much over by then. They missed the first lesson of this new session, oh well.
Lake Skinner campground is nice enough, but they don't have tent spaces. The camping spots are designed for RVs and it's set up like a parking lot. There were other tent campers there too, but like us, they had to set up on a hard packed dirt pad.
We set up our campsite on the tiny pad that was our assigned camp spot and got to work with cooking dinner. Things were looking up! As long as there is food, there will be happiness, right? Right! I made Dollywood Potatoes over the propane burner.
Fenna was very worried about the size of the tent. She mentioned it a million times and we kept telling her that it was a 4-person tent but it would hold all of us and the dog fairly comfortably. She knew that if it was a 4-person tent, it was really a 2 or 3 person tent. She was pleasantly surprised when we popped it up! We set up the little girls' tent too, just for fun (and elbow room since Fenna sleeps like a starfish).
The tent campers in the next parking, er, camping row were loud. We got to hear some very colorful language and dogs barking all evening and into the wee hours of the morning. At least they were happy people. Loud happy inebriated campers.
Our friends camped in their luxurious hotel on wheels. They had a bathroom, running hot water, electricity, tv and internet. The probably slept great too.
I couldn't sleep. We finally laid down in our tent around midnight. We kept waiting for the campground to settle down and become somewhat quiet, but that wasn't happening so we caved and tried to sleep through the racket. Finally, around 2am, a little Spanish lady yelled "Would you please be quiet! Thank you!" There is something about the voice of a little Spanish lady that scares people. It worked too, the entire campground was dead silent after that. Lady, I thank you.
Keith and Fenna slept great. Sandy slept with us in our tent but she was all over me, laying on my legs, then pushing up against me, stealing my blanket, and then she ended the night by sleeping on my pillow. She's going into the pink tent next time!
At one point, I forgot who was sleeping where and I thought Fenna was Keith, but she was in her own sleeping bag so I was very confused. I thought I stole all the blankets off of him so I patted her down thinking she was Keith, and I just wanted to know if he was cold laying there without any blankets. Then I was grabbing her wrist to see his watch to find out what time it was. She wasn't cold, had no watch on, and wasn't Keith. She let me know it too. Whoops.
I wasn't comfortable at all. I tried and tried to sleep and I was dead tired, but I just laid there on the hard ground with my eyes wide open. I slept on and off from 2ish until nearly 5am and then I was awake for the day. I think I got 3 hours of sleep with 23 wakings in there, it was ridiculous! Around 5:30, I decided to quit trying and I just got up.
Gracie woke up a little before 5am and she said, "I wish I had some tape so I could tape up those birds." Keith was making gun noises while looking at the door of the tent. She is her father's daughter.
After heating up the tea kettle for some instant coffee.. I wandered the campground and my husband took some great photos while I snapped some sand-spotted pictures to start the day. We were going to need some decent photos to pretend the camping trip wasn't a complete failure.
It was great to wake up so early and see hot air balloons! (Can I say I woke up if I never really slept?) They were off in the distance but we were able to see them well enough, even through the morning fog. It was a lovely way to start the day! We saw three balloons in the sky. Very pretty. Keith saw a chicken hawk too. He thinks that's why the birds were going crazy around 4am; the chicken hawk had breakfast.
The kids had a lot of fun playing in their pajamas on their scooters and on the playground. Then we went for a walk to the untouchable lake. The water is used as a public water source, so fish and waterfowl can poop in it but we can't dip our toes in. Libby's feet stunk so bad she would have killed the fish anyway. Those polka-dot shoes are almost 2 years old and she loves them, but they smell horrid.
The walk to the lake was nice. The fog lifted and the sun came out and heated things up pretty quickly. It was still fairly early so the splash pad was not operating yet, which was fine by me. The kids were disappointed though. I promised them we'd come back another day when it's working. I didn't bother to inform them that the water turns on at 10am. They don't need to know everything.
Now that it was nearly 10am, we'd come to a unanimous decision that we were done camping. We had lunch (hey, breakfast was 5 hours earlier), took down the tents, packed up the gear and drove the short distance home. We were home at 11:15am. So much for our planned two nights of camping, we camped for 16 hours.
After such a short campout, there is still a ton of cleanup to do after arriving home! The van doors were open most of the time in the evening, and the smoke from the fire went into the van stinking up the whole works. I have to rug dr the interior now. Joy. Camping in dirt makes everything dirty. I'm still cleaning from our little excursion.
The first thing we all did when we got home was to ask ourselves, "Am I more tired then dirty or more dirty than tired?" We all decided we were filthy but more tired, so we slept. Everyone slept four or five hours. Apparently I wasn't the only one who didn't sleep well in our parking spot!
Now that this interesting camping adventure is over, I can honestly say that I have RV envy.
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