The Weekend That Was -- Part 2

Saturday morning we had a lovely breakfast of pancakes and bacon. As we were cleaning up one of those dear park rangers strolled through our area. Hubs saw him coming down the hill and requested everyone act normal. We obviously didn't want to draw anymore attention to ourselves than we already had.

After breakfast was cleaned up we headed out for a little fishing. It was a little slow at first and as usual I got my line all tangled up. I'm a trooper though, I was determined to fix it myself (yes, some people refer to this as stubborn), and I did! As a matter of fact I tied all of my own hooks and baited them myself for the rest of the day!! (Okay, if you know me at all, you know there was an ulterior motive to this. I'm trying to show Hubs that if he doesn't take me fishing more often I'll just go by myself.)

We changed locations to have more room for the kids to fish. I am happy to report I caught the first fish of the day! Well sort of ... When Hubs saw I had a fish on he came over to help. He grabbed the net and brought the fish in. I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't the biggest fish I saw on a stringer that day, but I had done pretty well. The kids were super excited and ran over to see. In amongst the brouhaha the fish broke the line and landed on the bank. Being a smart fish it flopped and flopped it's way back into the water and swam away. Me being the smart woman I am and knowing there were A LOT of people around decided not to flail myself at the flopping fish on the bank and end up in the water with it. I was very proud of that split second decision.

Before two long the kids were tired of fishing and we were tired of the kids. We packed up and went to tear down our campsite. As we put everything away we discussed our next camping trip without kids!

After arriving back home we nestled in for a short nap. After reviving ourselves I put a call into my sister who along with her finance were working on flipping a house. They had a lot to do in a short amount of time. My parents were there helping and well, I felt sorry for them so we loaded up and went to help. I spent the evening scrub-brushing floor boards with bleach water so the laminate could be laid next weekend. Eventually we called it a night and went back home.

On Sunday morning we played hooky from church. I went back to help my sister paint the house. I left after about two hours dealing with that pesky migraine. I drove straight home and laid down.

You've heard there is no rest for the weary. Well I think that applied over the weekend. Within what seemed like minutes it was time to go to our small group. Normally we host small group at our house, but on Sunday another family had volunteered to host a bonfire at their place. Needless to say these folks have a perfect place for this type of event. Several acres outside of town, filled with all types of varmints for hunting, plenty of place for the kiddos to explore, and so on.

I'll just tell you that the "bon" really didn't have any "fire"! I don't know what was wrong with their wood, but I'm telling you it would not burn!! I must say I saved the day. I remembered that we had a starter log left from camping in our vehicle. So, we roasted marshmallows over a starter log!

At the end of the evening I started to help clean up. We were gathering the food to take it inside. Mr. Host asked to hand him a paper plate from the other end of the table. There were probably 6 or 7 plates stacked together, laying upside down. These were the nice heavy "Chinet" plates, so you couldn't just grab one off the top. It had to pick up the whole stack and pry one off. No big deal. Standing directly over the plates and trying to hurry, I quickly picked up the stack of plates. When I saw what was underneath I screamed so loud I'm sure people in the next county could hear me! The plates flew across the yard and I jumped, ran, flew, or whatever just about as far away as they landed. Of course, all of our small group members were trying to figure out what all the commotion was for. It was then they stepped over to see the RATTLESNAKE I had found coiled up under the stack of plates!

I couldn't have told you how I would have reacted to that situation, but now I can tell to that there was a little pee that ran down my leg! Keep in mind that all of this happened really fast, so it was within less than minute that everyone (including me) found out it was a real rattlesnake, it was just frozen solid and put there as a joke on me.

Please pray for the rednecks in my small group!

The Weekend That Was -- Part 1

I was so looking forward to the weekend. The weather forecast was PERFECT! The first perfect weather we've had around here since last October!!! It was surely going to be the perfect weekend regardless of whatever circumstances happened.

I go the news on Thursday, JenGi and her family would not be able to accompany us on the camping trip. I'm not gonna lie. I was bummed. I had a pity party for me and her both and went on my way.

I left work early Friday to run some errands and pack for our camping trip. Hubs was suppose to have everything laid out but he didn't. (I wore my "My Husband Rocks" t-shirt anyway.) I had all of our supplies gathered and packed in less than an hour.

Then the migraine hit. I took some drugs and waited for Hubs and A-man to get home.

They arrived and we departed. By the time we arrived at the campground the migraine was allowing me to function. Our friends Hobby Horse and Cow Patty (these are cb handes we came up with years ago. In case you are wondering, mine is Peebles, as in Flintstone.) had been there for awhile and were spending some time fishing. We set up our campsite and started a fire. Before long Hobby Horse and Cow Patty were back with their DD, Munchkin.

Munchkin and A-man are about 6 weeks apart in age. They are great friends and play together like little angels. As always, they played well together, but I'm just gonna tell you right now they were little devils. They wouldn't listen to squat and we spent nearly every second of the trip trying to get through their stubborn little heads. It was exhausting.

We were enjoying a nice dinner of roasted dogs and chips. Suddenly, on an evening too beautiful for words in the middle of a state park, we hear a tornado siren going off! A-man panics! "We've all got to go to the bathroom, right now. The bathroom is always the tornado shelter. Let's go. Hurry! Hurry!" With all the tornadoes that have been in this area lately the schools have been practicing their drills daily ... see he'll listen to them, but not to me!

Well, we quickly realized the siren we heard (which did sound exactly like a tornado siren) was to let the trout fishermen in the park know that it was 8:15 p.m. and fishing hours were over. Everyone could begin fishing again at 6:30 a.m. We just hoped they had a better system to letting everyone know it was time to start!

After it was nice and dark we decide to venture down to the "store" and purchase our fishing tags for the next day. We left our campfire completely unattended. We piled 4 adults and two children in a small SUV type vehicle. No seatbelts, we were just going down the hill and around the bend. Just far enough to be too far to walk in the dark.

We made our purchases and headed back. Just as we entered the loop of road our campsite was on flashing light appeared behind us. Seriously?! We were getting pulled over inside a state park, 50 feet from our campsite.

Oh, crap, our fire! No, we could see it, everything was fine, but we were completely guilty of leaving it unattended.

It must be because the kids are not in booster seats OR buckled in!! We're such terrible parents!

Mr. Park Ranger:
"Excuse me sir, I pulled you over because, you have a headlight out.

Hubs:
"Oh, I do? (Leaning up to look over the hood) Which one is it? I really appreciate you letting me know about that." (I was in the back seat deciding this was not the time to remind him I told him that headlight was out a week and a half ago!)

Mr. Park Ranger:
I'll need to see you license and registration. I'm just gonna write you a warning this time. I'll be right back with this.

The "Barney Fife" of Park Rangers went back to his truck for awhile and came back. If he wrote a warning we didn't get a copy of it. It probably just went on our permanent State Park record.

We proceeded back to our campsite (all 50 feet). Before long we decided to call it a night. We were all tucked away in our tent, when what to our wondering eyes should appear, why flashing lights right outside our tent! Seriously, at this point all the other campers had labeled us as trouble. Hubs unzipped the door as we heard a female voice calling out, "Campground Host, is anybody here?"

She was looking for our camping registration tag that was suppose to be on the post at the edge of our campsite, it was in our vehicle instead. She was nice enough to get it out and pin it up for us.

We all slept pretty well. The air was cool, but not too much. Then it happened.

WWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, they do sound the tornado alarm when it's time to start fishing at 6:30 a.m.!!! And they let it cycle through 3 complete times. 'Cause Heaven forbid anyone miss it the first time!!!

If you want to know more about "The Weekend That Was" come back tomorrow. Trust me, it's just as eventful!

The Right Stuff

I didn't want to come to work today. I wanted to stay home and watch the NKOTB concert on The Today Show!

I really think I remember some of the dance routine my middle school cheer squad did to Hangin' Tough!!! I'm sure after practicing in the privacy of my living room (blinds closed) it would have all come back! 5, 6, 7, 8, left, 2, 3, 4, and spin, 7, 8. Pump left, 3, 4, pump right, 7, 8, again, 2, 3, 4 ... Woohoo!

New Kids were the best thing about that period of life. All 11-14 year-old girls need a musical influence to get them through that awkward stage. Whether it be the boy bands of (gasp) 20 years ago or today's poor width ratio of nostrils to eyes of David Archuleta! I can't believe I just found a purpose for that boy. He drives me batty, but that is another post for another day!

In the mean time, I dug up a little NKOTB for you! So pull the blinds or not and bust a move early 90's style!

I want to break free ...

So here is my deal. For the last 3+ years I have worked in office space that was basically the attic of 100 year old building. It wasn't a scary attic, there were finished walls and a tile floor. But absolutely NO, NONE, ZILCH natural light. I have to say, although I longed for a window the entire time, I coped very well.

Now, I have an office with two floor-to-ceiling windows. It's fabulous! However, there are a few drawbacks that I never would have expected. 1) My body is having to adjust to the increased levels of D. 2) Distractions. (i.e. I just had to pause from typing to watch a rabbit hopping along the side of the building looking for food.) I didn't expect wildlife. I didn't expect the sudden urges to run to the mall to blow the giftcard I received for Mother's Day. (It came in a Care Bears singing card. My son explained that Care Bears are for girls, he was going to get a My Little Pony card because that's for girls too, but he went with the Care Bears. Can you tell I'm the only girl in the house!)

It boils down to the fact that this window allows me to see the beautiful day I never knew existed and I just want to get out there and enjoy it. Plus I'm borderline ADD and well ... oh, it's the bunny rabbit again ...