Home away from home

This is our new home away from home. 168 square feet of camping bliss.
eight foot ceilings.
hinged door.
light in the ceiling.
self rolling windows.
when we saw it put together at sam's club it was bigger than we thought.
when we came home and set it up in our backyard we knew we would probably be laughed out of every campground we go to.
but we don't care.
it fits all of us, all of our stuff and, short of a sink and toilet, has everything we need.

For Today

Outside my window...the sun is finally shining

I am thinking...about our great weekend with friends.

I am thankful for...being warm and dry this morning.

From the kitchen...there are sloppy joes waiting for dinner.

I am wearing...jammies. brown capris and my green boston t shirt.

I am creating...a colorful quilt.

I am going...to be unpacking camping stuff and drying it out all day.

I am reading...several books and magazines.

Around the house...it's pretty clean. i always like to come home to a clean house so i picked up and cleaned before we left.

One of my favorite things...when a smell brings back a memory.

A few plans for the rest of the week...rob is off so we don't have any big plans. relaxing and maybe the water park.

A picture to share...

Behind on summer blogging

I've had my birthday since being on here last. The big 3-3. Oh geez. Rob got me Krispy Kremes to start the day then he took me to Marsing to pick up five 'new to me' chairs. The other four don't have arms but I love them. And I love Craig's list. They need to be repainted and recovered, along with my other two. I can't wait.

Speaking of repainted, I am going to repaint my living/dining rooms and kitchen. I need to brighten things up a little. The darker colors are bringing me down. I want a light tan color that will go with anything. I think. I have four paint chips up on my wall that I am contemplating but if you have any great paint colors let me know.

I also need to get Emily's room repainted so I can get her room decorated.

I found this adorable headboard while I was antiquing yesterday. I love it!!! It will look lovely on one of my walls just as soon as I can get them painted...

This is a quilt I am working on. So colorful.

Rob took the boys on a dirt bike/camping adventure. They rode till they were tired, found a spot to set up a tent, slept, then rode some more. And geocached. My garden is coming along nicely. Things are sprouting and bugs are eating. We have to take a trip to Zamzows and find out what we can spray so my plants actually have leaves.

I went over to Lori's on Thursday to help her pack up. I didn't have a set time to go or leave I just went and planned to stay as long as she needed help. Well 10 hours, multiple boxes, lots of talking and laughing, a few tears, some good ole fashion dust bunnies and a dog bite later we said goodbye.
I think that about catches me up for now. We are going camping this weekend with the Duggan's and the Hamilton's so I should have plenty of stories to share when we come home.

7 kids

6 parents

3 families

1 weekend

Baumgartner here we come.

what's going on

*i had a FaBuLoUs time at a slumber party in honor of lori. we stayed up too late, ate way too much mexican food, laughed till our stomachs hurt and talked about every subject imaginable before dawn. it was a perfect goodbye. i'm gonna miss that girl.
*i only got about 4 hours of sleep so i was a little on the dazed side all day saturday and of little use around the house.
*after church we were joined by the duggan's, rich, steph, rykon and my cousin becca and her son deegan at the greek food festival. we ate lots of yummy food, got some more talking in and watched the greek dancers. every time we go there i wish i were greek. such tradition.
*sunday we were supposed to go fishing with jim, theresa and the kids. we all ended up going fishing, only there was a miscommunication and we ended up at different lakes. we weren't having much luck so we went geocaching instead. the thing i have found about that activity is it's fun for whoever is holding the gps and not fun for the people who have to trudge behind you blindly. i did a lot of trudging behind with a less than positive attitude. i will let you know, next time we go, if it was because of my lack of sleep or because it stinks following behind and not knowing where i'm going. i think it might be a little of both.
*today rob took the boys riding up by blacks creek. they are spending the night and coming home tomorrow so it's just me and the girl today.
*i got in the car today to run some errands and when i put my sunglasses on they were mysteriously broken. Not me and I don't know must have been rummaging through the car last night.

282 Days Later

Today

I turned these

into this.

And, man, is it good.

inquiring minds want to know...

what i got the other day. here they are.

i finally found a couple of dining room chairs. they will have to be repainted and recovered but that's easy. i also got this picket fence piece to put up in emily's room.

This is an old fishing rod holder. i'm going to use it to throw the boys quilts over.
These sconces are for em's room too. only $3 for the pair!

I bought these things for no other reason than i thought they were cute. love the glasses and i couldn't pass up this retro creamer and sugar bowl.

Art and Homework

Emily

The kids all have visual art once a week. I help in her class every other Tuesday which is the day they go to art so I was able to see most of her pieces made. All of the kids did a fantastic job on their art work. Their teacher gets them to do things as kindergartners that I don't know if I could do as an adult. These are the pieces that Emily has brought home so far.

'Mona Lisa'

'Little Miss Dance'

They made up their own characters reminiscent of these books.

'Sunflower'

'Flowers in oil pastels'

Taylor

These are a couple Taylor has brought home this year.

This one came with a poem

Footsteps glistening

Deer running to its warm home

dancing, dancing deer

Monday night we were eating dinner out on the back patio and we remembered that Em had a couple pages of homework to get done. She worked so diligently and I thought she was just too cute sitting out there and working so hard.

While we were enjoying the warm weather last night this is what Em was doing. Rollerblading with giant sunglasses. Love it!

So happy I captured this. I love that it includes not only the drawing but my heels that she was wearing and her scooter that she was probably riding with my heels on. Never a dull moment.

Thousand Springs

Well this 'everyday in may' thing isn't working out too well is it? It's turned into 'every day i have time in may'. That works too I guess. I'm already a week behind in documenting life around here. Last weekend we packed up the car and headed to Thousand Springs. We tried doing this last year with Rich and Steph but ended up never being able to find the right place. This time, even though it took a while and we had to stop twice and ask for directions, we found it. Niagara Springs is the name of the park we like to go to. It has beautiful natural springs coming right out of the snake river canyon walls. Quite a sight.

Cole did not have a fishing pole and wasn't too happy about it so Matt made him one out of a stick and some string. Worked like a charm.

This is just like my girl. Fishing in a dress. She was frustrated becuase she thought as soon as she put her pole in the water a fish should just jump on it.

Although there are several springs at this park this is Niagara Springs. Look how blue the water is. Just gorgeous.

Oklahoma

I left for Oklahoma a day before my mom and aunt so it was just me and Renee for the first day. I flew in at noon, we had lunch, went to the mall, ran a few other errands that she needed to then drove the two hours home to relax. We had waffles for dinner, watched Waitress and then I zonked. I don't think I moved one time in the night.

Friday we drove two hours back to the city, made another mall run and got pedicures before we picked up our moms. My pedicure reminded me of this skit. I couldn't find a button on my massage chair and when I finally did I know they were talking about me. When everyone had touched down we decided to go to dinner and invited Jared to come along. This is Jared.

Everyone say "hi Jared!". He is a hoot and a half. We talked and laughed and stuffed our faces for I don't know how long. All too soon, though, it was time for another two hour drive home. Graduation day is tomorrow.

Wouldn't you know that everywhere I go I take cold weather with me. It really stinks. It was 90 when I got there on Thursday and by Saturday at her outdoor graduation it was 64, cloudy and windy. Yay us. We made it through(barely) and were ready to party. Renee and Jeremy were having a barbecue at their house to celebrate but before everyone got there we had to head out to the goat farm. Yep, that's right. Jeremy's family raises goats and the two of them are right in the middle of it. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Renee would be caught dead herding goats but there, right before my eyes, were the two of them trying to get this goat. We wanted to hold one because they are so darn cute in teh pen but man are they loud. And they move a lot. Not quite as cute in your arms. You really have to grab a hold and hang on to them. This one looks like it's being good but it wasn't.My turn. Stupid thing was trying to get away.And then comes the loud bleating or whatever it is they do. So we get back to the house and I just have to say that you know you are in Oklahoma when you have one of these in your back yard.

We were getting ready for the barbecue but before I could concentrate on that I wanted to go down just to see what it looks like inside. I tried to go in it last time I was back there but there were spiders all over the ceiling and I just couldn't make myself. She said they sprayed for spiders so it should be good. I arm myself with a flashlight and bug spray just in case. Again, there are spiders everywhere. As I begin to spray the heck out of them I realize they are all dead and hanging there but I spray anyway just to make sure.

I think I can...

I think I can...I think I can...Screw it...I can't. I just couldn't bring myself to go under them. They were all dead but what if one fell on me?! So I am now 0/2 on the 'try to see the inside of a storm cellar' score board. Maybe next time.

Sunday we left for Roswell, New Mexico to see my grandparents. I haven't seen them since I was pregnant with Taylor. It's been way too long. My grandpa has Parkinson's and a couple months ago he got pneumonia and we didn't think he was going to make it. He pulled through and we knew it was time to make a trip. We piled in the car on Sunday morning and headed across Texas into New Mexico and up their driveway.

It was so good to see them.

It was not so good to see this. Everyone kept saying "it's just a baby" but guess what.

I. Don't. Care.

It was a tarantula right by their front door.

Anyway, we only had two days to visit before we headed back so we had to make it good. We visited with them for a while then headed to Jim and Catherine's (my aunt and uncle) for dinner. I haven't seen them in 20+ years so we had a lot of catching up. Jim was recently diagnosed with cancer and told he only has 6-12 months but he is still looking good and working at the bike shop they own so we'll see how long the Lord leaves him here. Monday Renee helped Grandma make her famous meatloaf. Yum-o! Pair it with mashed potatoes that are loaded with butter and cream and we were happy campers. We did more visiting and reminiscing about the good ol' days when they lived in Wimer. What a magical place that was. We used to spend summers there walking across the covered bridge to get to the ice house where my grandpa would buy me my favorite blue nehi soda, then tell me it looked like battery acid. Those were the days. These are my grandparents. She still calls him sweetie and darlin'(she's from Texas) and he's just like I remember him, just thinner and not as vocal. It's hard watching people age.

We got a few pictures then had to be on our way. Parting is always hard, especially since I may not see them again on this earth, but thank God we will spend eternity together. Oh what a happy day that will be!

So we were off again traipsing back across New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. Our six hour drive turned into nine hours after making gas, bathroom, shopping and food stops. Good thing we weren't in a hurry. We decided to barbecue for dinner so I went out to turn it on. The sky was looking mighty weird and I started thinking that maybe, just maybe I would get to see a tornado. That may sound weird but how cool would it be to say you saw one? My aunt brushed it off until my uncle said we were under a tornado watch until 11 that night. I got so excited I could hardly stand it. First came the lightening, then the thunder. What a light show. We sat out on the front porch in awe of the storm. Then we came in to look a teh radar and wouldn't you know the storm splits, goes completely around Sentinel on both sides, and comes back together on the other side of town. What?! It was not to be on this trip. Maybe my next? Of course it would mean going in teh storm cellar but I would've been prepared with a blanket for my head.

Wednesday our trip had finally come to an end. We had so much fun and put many miles of highway beneath us but I wouldn't trade those days for anything. We had lots of laughs and made lots of memories and I can't wait till the four of us can do it again.