Mom, "What does RV stand for?"

This blog will most likely be my longest yet as I want to document our first week long adventure as an "RV Family", so I apologize in advance for I may bore some of you. Before we left on Sunday morning, Leigha was baptized. I was so proud of her. She just beamed like a little ray of sunshine as Solomon took her confession. When she came up out the water she asked me, "Mom, did he get all of me, did he get the top of my head, and is it ok if he didn't?" She is such a special girl and I know God has great things in store for her. Most of our families were in attendance and her grandma Rachel gave her a dainty little cross necklace as a token of remembrance, very sweet. It was an awesome way to start our week. We arrived at the Jellystone Campground in Fremont, IN on Sunday evening 7/20/09. After the ranger took us to our site and we got settled the fun began. We were conveniently located right beside the playground, so the girls spent a lot of time there. In fact, Leigha had already made friends after only having been there a couple hours. We took a bike ride around the grounds to scope the place out. Shortly after returning Austin took off on his bicycle only to return in tears, limping. He'd just had the worst wipe out he'd ever had on his bike. He'd managed to scrap up both knees, almost all his fingers on one hand and a toe. I honestly thought he was going to pass out on me he was in so much pain. His wounds were large enough that even the large band aids in my first aid supplies weren't big enough. I had to go to the camp store and purchase gauze pads and medical tape...Are you kidding me...We've only been on vacation a few hours? We spent 10 minutes, twice a day for the next three days changing bandages. It seemed as if his week might be ruined but he quickly bounced back and only let the injuries keep him down about 24 hrs. Later that evening while Austin was recuperating, I took the girls to the indoor pool swimming and tried to ruin their dinner with ice cream. We ended our first day on just the right note...hot dogs and smores over the campfire. On Monday, I took the girls to the pool and water park while Larry and Austin went exploring (Austin wasn't too interesting in soaking his wounds in the chlorine at this point) After meeting back at the RV for a quick lunch and the boys' stories of the new RV's they had drooled over at the next door sales park, we went to the catch and release pond for a little fishing. I decided after just a few minutes of fishing with my kids the sport should be renamed to "Cast and Reel". Abbie would almost immediately ask after Austin had just cast her line, "Do I reel it in now?" Needless to say the fish weren't biting and the kids were bored pretty quickly. We continued to cruise the grounds on our bikes checking out the multiple playgrounds. However, it paid off as Abbie learned to cross the monkey bars all by herself! Tuesday we split up in the morning again (I say morning, but our schedules were so off that we weren't even up and around until nearly 10 am everyday) I took the girls to the pool again and lunch at the snack bar while the boys rented a boat to try fishing on the lake w/much more success. Austin caught at least five fish, 4 blue gill and a small mouth bass. We ended the night with another campfire, burgers and a board game. Wednesday was our worst weather day so we spent it doing my favorite...shopping! I wanted to catch some deals on summer clearance and school shopping so we headed to the nearby outlet malls. The girls spent all their souvenir money and we had lunch at "Timbuktu's", a little hole in the wall restaurant specializing in their own homemade soups, sauces and desserts...YUM! We started Thursday off with a a big pancake breakfast. Then we were off to another park for some more quality time on the monkey bars. After lunch Leigha and Austin rode the water slides while Abbie enjoyed the pool again. She could touch in about half the pool and thought it was so cool to not have to wear floaties. On Friday we relocated to another campsite about 1 1/2 hrs closer to home near Wolcottville, IN called Indian Lakes Campground. After getting settled we did our usual bike tour of the grounds discovering yet another awesome playground where Abbie would live out most her weekend. That evening we went to the indoor heated pool for a nice relaxing swim before bed. When we arrived we were only five of less than 10 people there, however, that number quickly grew to nearly 45 people with the next 1/2 hour and it became a bit crowded to say the least. We enjoyed it in spite of the crowd then went back to the campsite for our late night campfire, hot dogs and smores. When Saturday came I was already dreading the return of reality counting down the T-minus 48 hrs. and counting that I had to soak up my family. It rained during the night so everything was pretty soggy when we woke up. It took all of us awhile to get motivated but as the day cleared up our energy levels did too. Its amazing what a little sunshine will do. We got out the cornhole and hillbilly golf games and played awhile before lunch. After lunch we decided to rent a canoe and paddle around the lake. Because the canoe wouldn't hold all five of us, Austin, Leigha and I went first. Austin and I didn't make too bad a team after we got the hang of it. We paddled around the whole lake in about an hour collecting some lily pad flowers along the way. Larry and I then took Abbie out in the canoe while Austin and Leigha played on the shore in the sand. We timed our next trip to the pool that evening hoping the campground bingo night would lessen the crowd a bit. We went to bed that evening late planning on possible spending an extra night because we were having such a good time. When we woke up Larry realized he had several things to do on Monday morning before the went into work and we should really all go home Sunday. However, we talked the campground owners into letting us stay until the evening so we could do some more biking, swimming, playing, etc. We just didn't want the week to end. We left the campground around 6 pm, stopped for supper and ice cream on the way home, and arrived in Wabash a little after eight...just in time to see the most beautiful full rainbow I've probably ever seen. It truly was a blessed week and God had just put his mark of approval on it!

Greater things are yet to come

What a week it's been already! It's almost scary when a week starts out as good as this one has for me (aside from the fact that Mr. Walker's funeral is this am but we know he's with Jesus and would want us celebrating about that) Yesterday I was able to work in the am and spend the afternoon with my sister, my niece and nephew, and my kids at the Eads' pond. What a beautiful afternoon. The sun and temperature were great therapy. That evening I then met my sis to take in the movie, "My Sister's Keeper". What an awesome, thought provoking film. We both thoroughly enjoyed it and spent the evening doing my two favorite things, laughing and crying at the same time. Sisters are truly fantastic! Then this morning Leigha and I went to church to meet with Dave and Mandy(our youth pastor and wife) to schedule Leigha's baptism. I am so excited for and proud of her. She has been inquiring for a few years about what it means to be baptized and I think she is going to be a great witness to the love of Jesus. She than asked if we could "celebrate" with breakfast and ice cream (at 10 am) from McDonalds. Let's pray the week continues on this course. It's pretty busy with us getting ready to leave on vacation next week so I'm sure the devil will do his best to bring me down. I'm praying I can stay strong in the Lord for he is sooooo GOOD to me! Thank you God for an awesome beginning to my week!

Decision, Decisions

Have spent most of the evening contemplating what online university to attend for my BA. I am not a decisive person, on the contrary, I am a very indecisive person so much in fact that I typically have trouble deciding what kind of lunch to have each day? I wish someone would say to me..."The money is no object and this course suits your needs best" and then just sign me up and tell me when I start. UGH! I want to make my mind up soon b/c I'm not getting any younger you know...did I mention I'll have a teenager by years end. Oh well, speaking of my children in general (b/c how much I love them is one thing I'm sure about) we had a fabulous weekend in our new camper (it's really like a 1985, but new to us) Larry got an incredible deal on it from a gal at work so we've deciding to be an RV family. I was a little anxious about getting into camping again because we haven't done it since Austin was a baby, but it only took one afternoon of relaxation and literally forgetting what time it was for me to know we'd made the right decision. We spent the 4th of July weekend at a small campground in Chur0busco, IN called Camp Blue Lake. We enjoyed activities each day scheduled by the campground like bingo, tye dying t-shirts, karaoke (not me, Leigha) and a watching a hula hoop contest where the contestants finally quit unanimously after 35 straight minutes...pretty impressive. We also rented a row boat and boated around the lake one afternoon. It was slightly scary with 5 of us in a row boat but peaceful too. A few minutes into the boat trip Abbie says "This is not fun at all" b/c she was scared...then she fell asleep. Some of our family came up and had lunch with us on the holiday and we enjoyed some corn hole competition and the fireworks. Talk about an awesome sight. The fireworks where virtually a 360 degree panoramic view around the entire lake. Beautiful to see. My dad just kept repeating, "If I only had half of the money going up in smoke right now." We may even go back next year we had such a great time. I told the girls at work I began mourning they return of reality two days before it actually got here.

Good day for a Tanburn?

My sister and I took all of the kids to the Mississinewa beach for the day, including a couple extras. One should be surprised that we could have such a good day when the adult to child ratio is over 3 to 1, but we did. The kids enjoyed the sand as much as the sun, while us moms got to catch up. We fought the wind a little bit and gave way to a little pollution as some of our trash simply blew out of our reach, but all in all it was fun for everyone. Despite all the use of sunblock some of us came home with a little too much sun here and there. Abbie especially on her back. She was happy to let me treat her "tanburn" before bed so it wouldn't hurt. Thank you God for the wonderful weather today and memories made with family and friends..and even our "tanburns".

Faith and Fear

Yesterday I decided to attend Leigha's Sunday School class with her and found myself very enlightened. We had a really good time singing and dancing to their worship songs and then learning about Peter. As most reading this know, Peter is well known for walking on the water with Jesus for a moment until he lost faith and started sinking. Therefore our lesson was for the kids to understand what faith is and to trust when we fear. The kids were then asked to privately write down their fears and there's where my enlightenment, and some remorse, came. Leigha began writing about fears that seemed more suitable for an adult than a nine year old. Things like being killed in a bad storm, being murdered and being kidnapped. What...why isn't she writing about the same things her best friend wrote, losing her kitty cat, not getting a bunny? Our media is making our children grow up way before their time. And for a worry wart like my Leigha, I'm thinking we need a lot less media.

"I won't carry them mom!"

Last night after packing all of our camp necessities (sleeping bag, deodorant, plenty of clothes we can bring home to mom filthy) Austin asked if he could use the last two fireworks I'd let him buy a few weeks ago. They were the small "fountain" style, pretty harmless so I thought, for his first fireworks beyond sparklers. His next words are were too cute and ones you wouldn't naturally want to hear about fireworks. "Mom, I won't carry them, I promise!" He felt the need to tell me this because of an incident we'd had last week. His dad had pealed the paper back and handed him the firework. He laid it on the ground, lit it and nothing. He picked it up and started carrying it to us because he thought it was a dud. We started yelling at the same time he discovered...it wasn't a dud. He threw the firework, thankfully missing anything in its path and hopefully learning a valuable lesson. Thence the reason he asks first then promises next,"Mom, I work carry them!"

Off to Camp...Again?

Just dropped another child off at church camp and miss him already. Austin is going to staying at the Jungle Huts at Rainbow Christian Camp until Friday afternoon. The Jungle Huts are a little different than he's stayed in before. They are raised off the ground, open air, and in the middle of the woods. I can't wait to hear how sleeping was in the huts. He seemed really excited when we were packing last night but was a little apprehensive today. He didn't know any of his cabin mates and is a little shy when it comes to making new friends. Hope he has a great week and grows closer to God along the way. I pray often that I can raise him to be a God loving, God fearing, God following young man. I know some of my best childhood memories are from attending my own church camp and I hope someday my children can say the same.

Miss me a little?

Today was another milestone for my baby girl (ok maybe she's not the baby but she'll always be my baby.) I took Leigha to the church today to drop her off for church camp. She was so excited! She literally counted down the days when she'd be spending (3) nights away from home with her best friend, Shelby. It was a multitude of emotions as we gathered together in prayer before they boarded the bus. I was excited for her because I have wonderful memories of my weeks spent at church camp as a child but she'd never been away from me for this long unless it was to grandma's. I was diligent to go over with her all of the things she'd have to do by herself that I'm so used to helping her with. I'm sure she probably thought, "Ok mom enough already," several times. When our prayer circle closed, Abbie and I got one last hug and kiss goodbye. Then she clasped Shelby's hand and off they strolled to the bus. I only cried a little but little sister had a small meltdown. Abbie will definitely be happy when Thursday gets here. I can't wait til she gets home either, bubbling over with all her stories. Until then I'll pray she's safe, learning to love and trust God, and missing me... at least a little.

Back to School

Just attended my informational meeting at IWU to enroll for my BA. Seems pretty strange to contemplate going back to school at age 34. Evidently it seemed even stranger to my 9 year old when she found out. Her comment was, "going back to school at 34" as if it were actually 84! Children do say the darnedest things. I am very excited at the prospect of righting a wrong that I've felt so strongly about for so long. It finally occurred to me a few months ago when I told someone that having not gotten my four year degree was the biggest mistake of my life. Their response was, "Then why don't you rectify it?" I really didn't have a reason why I shouldn't so I started investigating the possibility. I've always told the kids that it wasn't a matter of if they were going to college it was where...so why not mom? IWU has a great program for working adults and hopefully this time two years from now I'll be blogging about my graduation with a BA in Business Management. That has such a nice ring to it!