Rain and Bows

Mikayla is still having quite a bit of storm anxiety.  She is especially worried if it gets really windy or rains.  However, I think we've hit a turning point.  All summer since the accident, she's been terrified of storms.  She cries, shakes, goes pale, almost hyper ventilates...it's extremely heart breaking as her parents, for us to not be able to help her and have to see her like that.  We have been teaching her to take deep breaths, snuggle a special blanket or toy (or person), say a prayer asking for help to get through the storm.  It seems to work sometimes, not so much other times.

While camping Labor Day weekend, a quick "storm" blew up on Sunday afternoon.  We were outside and could see the entire cloud, surrounded by sunlight.  It would be here and gone within 10 minutes.  As adults, we knew that.  But we couldn't explain that to Mikayla.  As the first raindrops started to fall, she started crying and ran to the camper.  I was just coming out after preparing dinner and I talked her into sitting under the canopy with everyone else.  She was scared, but she agreed.  We sat there while it rained for about 10 minutes--no wind, no thunder, no lightning.  The whole time, we made a big deal out of how brave she was being and how it was almost over.  Then, the rain stopped and this showed up:

It was perfect!  We could see the entire rainbow, plus the majority of a lighter, double rainbow above it.  Most of us had never seen such a bright rainbow, with colors so vivid we could even make out the purple!  Mikayla was convinced the rainbow was just for her, for being so brave.  We told her that rainbows only come out after the rain, and that there was no other way they could be in the sky.  Only after rain can they shine like that.  It was just what she needed!  Now we hope that the memory remains for the next storm--we haven't had rain in over a week, which for this summer is just a crazy long amount of time.

So Much

I seem to be getting into the habit of not posting for awhile, then writing a catch-up post and posting consistently for about a month, then falling out of posting again.  Rinse, repeat.  I hate that it's been happening but some days I am just so busy.  Other days, I just honestly don't feel like doing anything with the blog.  Other days, like most this recent dry spell, I just don't feel like hashing everything out.   But here goes--here's a recap of the good, bad and ugly that has happened since my last post.  There is just so much.

*In May we had a hail storm that totalled Andy's car, almost totalled the Durango and camper, caused damage to the truck and resulted in us needing a new roof on the house/garage and our shed. 

*2 days after buying Andy's car back from the insurance company, something in the transmission broke.  We decided that at just over 300,000 miles, it was time to just let Rhonda the Honda go.  We retired the old girl and bought a new commuter car for Andy.  Then only a week later, the Durango (which we were only driving sporadically anyway) started having some issues in the rear-end.  Sigh.

*School ended for the girls and we started our summer non-routine of storytime, extra kids, sleeping in, playdates, softball games, 4H functions...

*Alayna attended a week of horse camp through 4H at the fairgrounds.  I went along as an additional adult to help with classes, workshops, food prep...basically whatever was needed.  Alayna and Chloe worked well together and had a great time.  The only downfall was literal--Chloe tripped while Alayna was working with her in the arena and they both went down.  Thankfully, they were okay and got right back up, Alayna got right back on, and they finished their lesson.

*We participated with a group of our friends and their kids in the Kiddie Parade for the local town festival.  The kids got second or third (I honestly don't remember...it seems eons ago) for their entry.  All the kids (22 of them from 9 moms!) were dressed as various farm animals, with strollers and wagons for the younger kids decorated as a barn, tractor, field, etc.  It was so much fun for everyone involved!

*We went to Milwaukee with our good friends for a weekend in late June.  We were just 40 miles from the city when we hit a ridge in the road from construction and broke a motor mount...on Andy's new-to-us car.  The next morning we discussed what to do.  We still had some of our insurance money, since the Durango wasn't worth fixing and Andy could re-roof the house himself, and we'd talked about buying a new SUV this fall or coming spring.  We decided to look for a new vehicle and if we found one, great.  If not, we'd get a rental to drive home since our car wouldn't be ready until Tuesday.  We got a great deal on an Expedition, a steal really for the shape/year/mileage (perfect condition, 2004, 80K miles) and drove that home.  Our friends were staying until Tuesday anyway and drove the car home with them.

*While in Milwaukee, we went to the Brewers and Twins game.  They are our 2 favorite teams, one being NL and the other AL.  The only time we don't cheer for the Twins is if they are playing the Brewers, our overall #1 baseball team.  The Brewers whomped the Twins!

*July 1 we were heading out to go camping for Fourth of July weekend.  We left the house at 7, after a severe  thunderstorm warning had expired by 30 mins and not left a drop of rain (it went north of us) or any wind at our house.  We got only 3 miles from home when we saw a wall cloud, and the wind went from nothing to breaking trees.  We got to a T intersection and turned around to head back home, since we knew we were at the front of the storm.  We went about a mile back towards home before the wind caught up to us again.  We attempted to make it to our neighbor's parents' house but the wind actually caught our camper and blew it over while we were driving, pulling the truck over with it.  It was the most awful thing ever, hearing the girls scream like that.  But thank God, we were all buckled up and safe--not a scratch on us.  The dogs were in the back of the truck and were okay, too.  After we waited out the worst of the wind still in the truck, Andy then pulled us all out straight up through the driver's window and we ran to a house across the field.  The next 2 days were spent going through and cleaning up our camper, now with only 1 wall standing.  Obviously, insurance totalled the camper and truck.  Ironically enough, our lawn-mower trailer was hooked to our camper and that never moved--it was on it's wheels and the straps never loosened, the mowers never moved an inch on that trailer.  100+ mph straight line winds swept through the area without any warning, causing severe damage to homes, trees, buildings, and taking the lives of 2 people.  A picture of our truck and camper on their sides was the top picture on the front page of the newspaper that covers our 2 area counties that week.  We never wanted to be on the front page for something like that.

*In the midst of everything, Andy and I celebrated our 30th birthdays.  To us, turning 30 wasn't a big deal like it is to some people.  We didn't have panic attacks or go out and do something that could be construed as an early mid-life crisis.  We just celebrated them low-key and moved on with life.

*Alayna and Lilly have been busy getting things ready for the county fair, which is coming up very quickly.  The are both bringing calves and cookies.  Lilly is also doing a report/poster on birds and a drawing.  Alayna is adding her horse, jewelry, photography, knitting, a pillow, and a bulletin board to her cookies and calves.  It is Alayna's first year as a full 4H member, so she can bring and do a lot more than Lilly, who is a Cloverbud, or junior 4H member.

*We've been dealing with some major storm anxiety with Mikayla.  She's now realized that the little box on the bottom of the tv screen means that somewhere near us, there is severe weather.  She is terrified of storms, where before she liked them, and will shake, break out in a cold sweat and sob if she thinks there is going to be one.  We have been working through it with her and she was getting better, but the other night we were at Andy's parents' house and there was a tornado warning, so we had to seek shelter.  That started her fears again and now she doesn't want to leave the house in the evening, convinced that it means it will storm if we leave.   It's heart-breaking to see her like that.

*The storm that triggered the tornado warning while we were at my in-laws' house caused one of their big pine trees to fall over.  It also produced lightning that hit a different tree in their pasture and killed 9 cattle (5 cows, 2 heifers and 2 calves) who were seeking shelter and shade under the tree.  So sad.

*Alayna is coming home tomorrow from a week at Bible camp with her best friend.  They were so excited to spend the week together, and I can't wait to hear all about it!  We've missed her so much!

*This past week has been the hottest week in a very long time in our area.  Our actual air temps were above 95 for 6 days in a row, with dew points in the 70s and 80s causing 110+ heat indexes.  We broke records for the highest recorded dew point and heat index.  I loathe heat and humidity.

So that's the quick but not so quick recap of everything that's been going on.  Of course, in the middle of it all, I'm still doing daycare, Andy's still working, we're still running here and there for everything under the sun.  Needless to say, I'm done with this summer.  I've had enough and just need things to settle down, cool down and be plain and boring for awhile.

Camping Kick-off 2011

This past weekend was our first camping weekend of 2011, and our first camping weekend with our new camper!  We were all so excited to get out there and play, relax, hang out...just have fun.  I was especially excited to be able to pack as the week went, slowing bringing things out to the camper and putting them in their place vs the huge pile that would sit in my living room, then be crammed around people, pets and lawnmowers to get to where we were going.

This Memorial Day weekend, we didn't go to our normal spot because Andy's cousin Bob had to work.  So all the usuals headed to his other cousin Chris's land to camp.  We laughed, we ate, we played, we rode mowers, we got rained on, we missed Bob and Shannon, we rode the zip-line...it was a great weekend.  And that camper lived up to it's promise!  I loved having a place for everything and plenty of room for us and our stuff.

The only time I remembered to take my camera out of the camper?  When we all were taking turns on the zip-line that Chris, Will, Andy and Kurt put up in the woods.  The kids had so much fun playing on it and flying from one end to the other (and maybe us adults did, too...)

 

Let's go camping!

This spring, we were able to pay off several bills and what's better to do when you pay something off than buy something new?!  I know, not the best strategy, but it's what we did.  Thankfully, our new payment is going to be less than what we were paying for the others combined.  So we're still ahead, and with a new toy, too.

We bought a camper.  We've been wanting one for awhile and finally took the plunge.  I love to tent camp, but Andy's not a fan of it.  And during horse camp and the fair, we stay at the fairgrounds and have had to borrow a camper from family for those 2 weeks.  So it's something that has been on our minds for years.  This spring, when we paid off those bills, we started to look at campers.  Since it wasn't something we needed, we were willing to wait until we found just what we wanted.  Andy insisted on it being a 5th wheel, I insisted it have bunks for the kids so we didn't have to mess around with converting tables and couches several times a day.  We found our ideal camper, in our price range, on about day 2.  Seriously.  We hemmed and hawed, looked at a bunch more on-line, and kept going back to this particular model.  It was ours a week later.

The whole time, we didn't tell the girls anything.  My parents had taken them overnight for a visit with family friends, so that day Andy and I went to see the camper in person and put down our deposit.  When he pulled in the driveway with it a few days later, the girls were so excited. "Is that a camper?  Whose is it? Is it OURS?  Do we have a CAMPER?!"  It was a school night, so they were disappointed we couldn't sleep in it right away.  But that weekend (after the play on Saturday night) we stayed in the camper for the first time.  So far, we love it.

(I don't know why this won't rotate)

Camping Etiquette 101

We went camping with our very good friends this weekend. It was a lot of fun, even with the storms at night and incredibly annoying neighbors. We spent our time eating, hiking, riding bike, swimming, playing cards and super-heroes, and complaining about our camp neighbors. It was a good time that prompted this post in my head. I give you...Camping Etiquette 101

1) When park quiet hours start at 11 pm, please don't drive in at 1 am with your radio blaring rap-crap, windows open, talking above the radio. I'll just say that it's a good thing it only woke me, not the kids.

2) I know I'm going to sound like an old fuddy-duddy when I say this BUT...quiet hours start at 11 pm. That does not mean that you can still party and swear--loudly--as long as you stay at your campsite. That means that the radio is turned down, the voices stay at a talk or quieter, and you try to keep noise to a minimum. I do not care to know that your friend is a "#$@#(*& idiot for taking back her boyfriend."

3) When you are leaving the park at 5 am (we're assuming to sneak out before the ranger finds out you stayed with friends without paying--maybe the car that came in so late perhaps?) please know how to drive a manual transmission if that is your vehicle of choice. Revving the engine to the point of waking myself, my husband (which is like waking the dead!) and our middle daughter, then killing it, then revving again and taking off in the wrong direction on a one-way street is not cool or funny or quiet.

We are pretty sure 1-3 apply to a group of college-aged kids a few sites down from us. I know, I sound like such a prude but honestly. The next few pointers are for the people directly behind us. Here is a little map for your viewing pleasure. It's crude, but gets the point across. We are in site X, they are in site Y, restrooms are R, TT means some trees, and __ is the street, which looped around in a 1-lane, 1-way circle.

__ Y TT X __ R

4) If you have to go to the bathroom and it's across another site that does not belong to you for the weekend, please at least walk to the edge of the site to get to the restrooms. It is not appropriate to walk directly through the middle of someone else's site, when 10' to the right will take you only 1 second longer and around the edge of our site and behind our vehicles. The invisible tripping rope almost got erected for the weekend.

4 (b) Pertaining to #4, when your child has to go to the restroom at 5:30 am...take them. Do not come halfway into another site (ours) and then stand a few feet from the tent door to watch your child walk across the street, then yell at her to not have an accident and to hurry up because she's hesitating going to pit toilets by herself in the semi-darkness at 4 years old. I'm 29 years old and I don't like going by myself to pit toilets in the semi-darkness.

5) If you have a small child that does nothing but cry (and by that, I mean scream) you may want to consider a sound-proof camper vs a tent, or not camping until the child is older and able to properly vent and relate his frustrations. Trust me, it's better for everyone.

6) If said small child needs a nap, please don't just throw him in the pack-n-play in the tent and walk away. I understand that sometimes they just need to cry it out. I get it, I've been there. But never in a million years would I subject an entire campground of mostly tents to my child's blood-curdling screams for 10-15 mins each at every nap (2 a day) and a good 30 min at bedtime. At least sit in the tent with him or something. And if you can't do that, maybe wait until baby has gotten the hang of going to sleep on his own before you go camping. Just saying.

7) Please be considerate of general situations around you. If your entire family is awake at 6:00 am but you see no one else in the campground moving about, please do what you can to keep quiet. I understand with kids it's sometimes hard. But honestly, besides Baby Screamy McScreamerson, the person I heard the most all weekend was Mommy Talks with a Bullhorn. She either has a severe hearing problem or has been struck with the spell from Harry Potter to amplify your voice for Quidditch matches.

I am very proud of myself that I didn't make a scene or even say something to this family. I probably should have, but I knew if I started I wouldn't have stopped until the rangers were called and people were crying and we were all banned from the State Park system for a few years. So I kept quiet. But, if you ever find yourself camping next to a family with a blue Caravan and three children named Kenzie, Ben and Adam...RUN!!! Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Just get the heck out of Dodge.

Farewell to Summer

We go camping every Memorial, July 4th and Labor Day weekend, as most of you know. This past weekend was the last planned family camp of the season. We have a blast and always look forward to every weekend, so Labor Day is always bittersweet. It signifies the end of summer, the end of camping, the end of these planned get-togethers for quite some time.

Now, I'm not the neatest person ever. My house gets messy, my floors sometimes go a day or two without being swept, and my laundry has been known to sit folded on the living room couch for days. But one thing that drives me nuts is when my kids get super nasty dirty. Well, if you read the paragraph above, it's hard to combine camping with clean kids. But I try. And sometimes, I fail or I just give up and let them be kids.

The other afternoon, we did s'mores with the kids. Mikayla was so excited and chowed into hers like there was no tomorrow. My neat-kid side was screaming, but I let her be and allowed her to just enjoy it. After the first s'more was eaten by a misunderstanding lug of a puppy, who thought Mikayla was offering her the s'more instead of just showing it to her, I even made her another and let her go to town. It almost killed me, but she just loves her s'mores and I just love how happy they make her. And it makes for a cute picture, too...

Today is Tuesday and Emily over at Chatting at the Sky has restarted Tuesdays Unwrapped, which are all about being and seeing the bigger picture of things, or maybe the tiniest moment of peace in a stressful day, or letting something go that's not that important anyway. If you'd like, please visit her blog. She rocks.

And so it begins

The summer camping season! We always go camping on Memorial Weekend and it's a great way to start out the summer. We love where we go, what we do and mostly, the people we go with. We all get along so well and have such a blast together. What more could one ask for?

This year, we had some fun and some not-so-fun times. We played games, ate good food, loved some ROCKIN' hair-dos, laughed really hard, rode some lawn-mowers, and enjoyed great company. We also dealt with a swollen shut eye, some tantrums from being over-tired and a little girl who was so busy playing that she forgot about potty a few times. But all in all, nothing serious!

Gladiator Mikayla

Alayna

Chris

Will

Andy

Brady (I didn't get individual pics of Kurt & Bob)

Nice hair, guys. Us women are sooo lucky...

Profile shots, check out that hair!

Lilly when she woke up Saturday morning. No idea, but assuming a bite of some sort

Lilly's eye Sunday morning, fully swollen shut

4 of the 6 dogs that were there. They all got along quite well!
Riding the Gator

Kaitlin, Lilly & Mikayla in the trailer

Alayna riding "Silver-member"

Alayna and Andy

It was super dry, so we wore safety glasses to help with the dust.

It was pretty cold once the sun started down, so sweatshirts were a must!

Everyone headed back to the campsite on our mowers

A Camping Farewell

This past weekend was the Real End of Summer. We did our last planned family camping weekend of the summer. As most of you know, we go camping with Andy's cousin and his family at their land at least the 3 major holiday weekends of the summer. Friends join us all and we always have a lot of fun. Remember how I tried to take pictures over Fourth of July, but my camera broke? Well, this time I made up for it and took lots of pictures. So have a cup of tea or coffee or whatever it is you want, sit back and take a journey to Northern Wisconsin with me...


We spend lots of time sitting around the campfire telling stories, jokes, reading our books and, of course, eating. We all eat so much when we camp that it's ridiculous. We often comment that it's a good thing we don't camp every weekend. We'd be huge. Brownies, bars, rich salads, pickle wraps, candy, licorice...Here's a picture of Alayna enjoying some sunflower seeds.





Since we're camping in the woods in the middle of nowhere, we often encounter wildlife. We'll see deer and other less harmful animals, but we'll see plenty of evidence of other animals. Like the big muddy bear paw-print on the cabin window one weekend when we arrived. Here's Alayna's own filthy paw, holding a frequent prize of the kids over the days.




And camping isn't all fun and games. It can be VERY exhausting for young and old. Naps are a must for most of us.


Then, of course, there are the lawn mowers. We have been attempting to come up with another name for them, as they obviously aren't used for mowing any more. They don't even have mower decks on them. Safety first. These rides are pimped and primped and jacked and all sorts of stuff. The tires are grooved for better traction, the pulleys are changed for faster rides. Some have nice paint jobs, others are held together by duct tape. But they all used to be honest-to-goodness riding lawn mowers. Redneck? Maybe. Fun? Oh yeah.

That's my baby, right above here. She's never broken down and runs like a charm. I put her into 3rd gear for the first time ever this weekend when we rode to the dirt road. It was smooth and freshly grated, so I let her rip. I know, 3rd gear isn't much, right? Well, it only has 3 gears and in 3rd it goes about 20 mph. On a lawn mower. I told you we don't mess around.

Sunday afternoon we did a "group ride." See, we usually don't take the mowers out until the kids are all tucked in bed and dreaming of sugar plums and whatever else. Then the adults sit by the fire, talk, have some snacks and maybe a few drinks, all the while making sure no one is going to come out and that everyone is fully asleep. Then we ride. We take the mowers on trails around camp (yes, an adult is usually back at the campsite and someone goes back every few minutes to make sure all is still quiet) Well, this weekend we decided to do a group ride with everyone during the day. The guys had every mower running (we have spares, because breakdowns are inevitable) so all the adults and kids had their own. It was hysterical. That's the chaos below. Alayna is the silver blur flying by...

After everyone got situated and familiar with their mowers, we went on the trails. The kids had a blast being able to go on the rides just like us! Lilly, of course, rode with Daddy while Mikayla rode with me. Then we switched halfway through.

Can I just say how much I am enjoying my new camera? It has an image stabilization feature to prevent the picture from blurring due to slight hand movement. Well, apparently it also works for bumping along a lot more than slightly. I was all over the place on the shots above, and the pics are as clear as can be. Besides the dust. It's great. I took all of the trail shots above while moving. Some were shot in front of me, while others I just pointed the camera behind my head and clicked. With my old camera, they all would have been pure blur.

We finished off the weekend with a big group shot. There are 18 of us in the picture. (Gotta love the self-timer feature!) The funny part is that we did this picture on Sunday afternoon...after 7 people had already left. There would have been 4 more adults and 3 more children in that picture had we thought to do it sooner. Oh well. It was a lot of fun. Until next year!

The Olympics

I have something to confess...I'm a HUGE fan of the Olympics. I love watching all the different sports and how so many countries are represented and can come together, hopefully putting aside their differences, for these 16 days or however long it is.

My favorite event in the Summer Olympics is Equestrian, of course. There is nothing like watching a gorgeous horse at the absolute peak of physical and mental condition, working through difficult dressage routine or jumping insanely high fences. It's just amazing. Unfortunately, these events aren't as widely appreciated as most, so I need to find them on obscure channels at odd times. But that's fine by me. I make do.

I also love to watch the gymnastics, swimming, diving, track and field...I'll watch any and/or all of it. I really don't care what the event is that's on at the time. And I'm as equally unprejudiced during the Winter Olympics, too. There's just something about the games in general that I really enjoy. I know it's not for everyone, but for me...it is.

I = TIRED!!!

Like usual, we went camping this past weekend. It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect! Camping in northern WI over the Fourth is often hot, humid and accompanied by at least one good storm to send us running for cover. Not this weekend. The temps were in the low 80s and there was no humidity until yesterday, when we started packing up. Then it reached 88 and 70 degree dewpoints. But all weekend long the sun was shining, the breeze was light but just right, the nights were cool enough for a sweatshirt...it was about perfect camping weather.

So why am I so tired if I'm not exhausted from the heat? It's from those "relaxing" nights of staying up until 2 am or later. Seriously, I'm too old for this! HA! We just all have so much fun and lose complete track of time after the kids go to bed. Of course, when it doesn't get dark until 9:30, that messes with you, too. The adults stay up and we play badminton, horse-shoes, bean bag toss, rodeo golf (walla-walla balls) whatever. Then we get out the "mowers" and go for rides through the woods. It's just too much fun.

Then where are my pictures, right? They are in my mind and our friend Amy's camera. Why? Because when I took my camera out to take some pics, it wouldn't turn on. I tried 2 different sets of batteries and nothing worked, so I think it's done for. I hope not, but it has lasted us 5 years and about 3,000 pictures. We shall see.

Hope you all had a great and safe Independence Day!

Recent pictures

When I uploaded the pictures for the post below (be sure to check it out, I've posted twice today) I found these gems that I'd taken recently but haven't shared with anyone. So, I'll just do a little picture post and share them all at once!

You know it's been a long day when you fall asleep while eating...

This is what your hair looks like after you've eaten Mac-n-Cheese and rubbed your hands through your hair before Mommy gets a chance to wash your hands. Who needs AquaNet? Just get some Blue Box, please!

I thought this was just too cute. Here are all our rubber boots lined up in the camper this weekend.

When we go camping, we have a blast. We also are a little odd. Our idea of fun is taking old lawnmowers, removing the mower decks, souping them up and riding them through the trails after dark. It's crazy fun and totally redneck, but who cares? Here's the load that somehow all came to our house first...

My resourceful husband went into town to get ice and came back with another lawnmower from a garage sale. Shhh, don't tell his parents how he used their van!

Does it get any cuter than a baby brushing her teeth in nature?

It's been a long day...
Mmmm, icees when it's only 60 degrees outside. How do kids stand it?