Monday, July 20, 2009

Camping - we made it!

First, and foremost, Steve is doing really, really well. By Saturday a.m. he was feeling good enough to be bummed he wasn't camping with us. He's on a three-week course of antibiotics with a good chance of making a full recovery. We missed him very much, but I'm also glad to report that by mid day on Saturday, I'd already decided our trip was worth the obvious obstacles! We really had a blast.

I took my camera camping, but as you can imagine, I didn't get many photos - you're looking at most of them! I was too busy trying to keep everyone...alive!

But, some highlights:

  • Jumping rope: we went all the way to the Adirondacks to learn that Ben and Ella both love to jump rope - go figure!
  • Pitching a tent in the rain: nothing beats the feeling of arriving at dusk when it is pouring rain and thinking "I wonder if we can sleep in the car...?"
  • Junk Food: Smores, Popcorn, Burgers, candy, chips, dips...mmm...it was all good.
  • Our Hike: We took a mile hike to the Kane Mtn. Fire tower. It must have been The views were spectacular and I got a lot of prayer time climbing that tower, praying that all the kids I was responsible for would make it safely down. Levi rode in the backpack and loved the adventure!
  • My kids were simply amazing: I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.
  • My 11 year old friend, E, had me laughing, crying (in a good way), and sitting back amazed. J & K - you should be very, very proud of your daughter. She made this trip wonderful in every way. You've done a marvelous job - she's a delight.
  • Levi stuffing Mike & Ikes in his mouth: He has a bit of a sweet tooth, and found the box while the rest of us were busy packing up. We'd blocked him into the car to keep him safe, which wasn't hard with the amount of stuff we had packed! When we went to check on him, he'd crawled into his carseat, with the box of mike & Ikes in hand and was stuffing them in before we noticed. We couldn't stop laughing - it was the perfect ending to a wonderful trip.
We missed you Steve, but I think I need to bring E with us every year! And Levi thinks we should always bring Mike & Ikes! :)






Sharing

Sharing (v): What emerges when you only have two popsicles, and three kids.





Care for a Lyme?

I woke up last Wed morning to Steve telling me he'd been awake all night with what seemed like a fever. He had chills and was generally pretty "flu-like". After telling me this he said, "I think I have Lyme's disease." Being the very compassionate wife that I am, I assumed that he was jumping (or leaping, rather) to conclusions. However, I also know that he had a lengthy discussion with someone at our family camp 2 weeks prior - who talked about their daughter's battle with Lyme's disease. Hmm....

By 6 a.m., he got out of bed, turned on the shower and came back a few minutes later to show me a bite on his waist. It looked like a nasty bug bite - and he kept asking me "what does this look like to you?" Too tired to even see strait, I replied (again, my compassion is overwhelming)"I don't know - I'm not a doctor or a nurse!" Steve went on with his morning and headed out of town on business overnight. When I talked to him that evening, things hadn't changed much, and he headed to bed early. To be honest, I didn't think about it much...as I had been feeling a little run down a few days prior and thought we must have had a bug.

Steve came home Thursday night, to a family of kids excited to go camping the next day. I was exhausted from packing, and we still had more to do. (Don't you just love that about camping? Two days away takes 3 days of packing!!) Steve had taken Friday off to go with us to the Adirondacks to meet friends and to camp for the weekend. But when he came home Thursday night and showed me the rash, I became more convinced that maybe Steve really did have Lyme's disease. After calls to the dr., he went on a antibiotic, we packed up the car, and he went to bed. I was convinced that this antibiotic (that came in TWO pills, mind you) would have my husband feeling like a happy camper by morning.

As you've probably guessed, the next morning - Steve felt awful. He took his temperature and was convinced that there was something wrong with the thermometer when it read 103. I knew, very quickly that we'd either be staying home or camping without Steve. We weren't planning on leaving until afternoon, but when I told the kids that daddy was sick - they were immediately concerned that we couldn't go camping. Steve encouraged me to go without him - but could I do it? The kids were desperate for me to say "yes", and in a moment of weakness - I did. At about 8:15 a.m. I put a call into my friend, who has a lovely responsible, 11 year old daughter that is loved by my whole family. I felt like I was a kid again asking if she could "come camping with us." By 10 a.m. - her mom had called back to say that she was willing! I almost cried! Of course my friends who were meeting us were more than willing to help, but they have 3 kids of their own and I thought another pair of hands would be helpful.

And this, my friends, is how I ended up taking 3 kids camping solo (with the support of friends, of course)! More later about how Steve is doing and pitching tents in the rain...

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Overheard

As Ben and Ella played "This little Piggie" with Levi:

"This little Piggie went to the Korean Market.
This little Piggie stayed home.
This little Piggie had Kimchi.
This little Piggie had none.
And this little Piggie went wee-wee-wee all the way to his mommy!"

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Lots of new...


What's new for us you ask??? Let me tell you!

  • Summer's started (or so they tell us - the weather's been terrible!)
  • We were able to go away for a week to Pittsfield, MA to enjoy a "family camp". The kids loved it. Our favorite night was the square dancing. (Pictures at the link below - there were SO many!)
  • I'm dusting off the 'ol resume to do some job searching...I'm just looking to see what is out there. Got one call and doing a "screening" tomorrow. I forgot how awful job searching really is...
  • We are done with baseball and on to swimming and camp. We are having a "groundhogs day" type summer, with usually down time in the a.m. and pond with swimming lessons in the afternoon...(which I suspect the kids really love). When my girlfriend was driving our kids home from VBS she heard her daughter tell Ella that she had a play date. Ella said "Why do you want a play date when you could go home?" Those are the kinds of kids I have... :)
  • Ok...less talk, more photos! Enjoy!