...but the days are getting long.
Hubby has hit the middle of his marathon training session on the east coast and I'm at the tail end of single parent for a month status. Yay.
Busy and bored all at once.
The camper finally finished. The kids and I took it for a trial run to a nearby state park last week for a couple of days before the big heat wave hit. Everything went well except for backing it into the spot and a nice guy at the next campsite took pity on me and parked the trailer for me. I did run into a spot of trouble with the tongue jack which broke on me as I was trying to hitch up at home. I did some jerry-rigging and carried some jack stands along, and used the jack out of my mini-van to get the trailer set up and leveled. A little more hassle than it normally would have been but it worked. I tell you having a camper is like sleeping at the Ritz compared to tent camping. I was even able to take something resembling a shower AND scrub the kids before bed and that was without water hookups. It rocks. The only downside I see to the whole thing is that I can almost see the gas gauge on the van drop as we go down the road.
I finally joined the new "smart phone revolution" and got a droid phone. It's cool. My favorite Ap so far is one called "Out of Milk" which keeps a grocery list and a to-do list for you. The best part of the grocery list is that it will automatically enter the item by scanning the barcode. There may be a way to share this list with hubby, we'll figure out our synching techniques with calendars and the like when he gets home.
I have cool pictures and video, but of course got to figure that out. Honestly even this post is alot for me. By the time the kids are in bed I'm wiped and stringing two sentences together is harder than algebra for a third grader.
Kids are doing well. Sonny Boy is a little stressed and believes I'm picking on him and is overly sensitive. Igor is being being defiant and testing boundries and often gets "counted down" into compliance. Makes the days long. The kids aren't really being bad, just kids. I just don't have a break and simple errands like the grocery store turn stressful as I go through as fast as possible, missing half the stuff I planned on buying and therefore requiring two or three trips a week and upping that stress factor again. You see the snowball effect happening here?
Baseball season has officially ended and football will start in a few weeks. The football league called me and moved Sonny Boy up a level as he was on the border for size and they needed space in the smaller group. I hope the kids aren't too much bigger than him, he's a little bruiser though so he probably won't notice. Baseball season didn't go too well. The team did win a few games but I think he needed a more focused coaching crew. Three of the coaches were city cops with rotating schedules so often one or more were not there for games or practices. I also think they didn't practice enough for the boys to really get the hang of the game. Some of the teams we played looked like much more experienced players than they really were. Sonny Boy declares next year he wants to play "minors" which require a try-out. I worry about this as Sonny Boy's batting skills are probably above average, his throwing and fielding skills stink. We'll see, that's in the spring, I hope he changes his mind by then. Baseball is taken WAY too seriously here and they are nursing a little league world series team along making national airtime on ESPN last year and won some big tourney that puts them on the same route again this year. Good for the kids, but I'm not really ready for that much seriousness in kid's sports, especially when my child is not the most athlectically gifted.
The painters are supposed to start on the house on Monday. I'm really stressed about this as my neighbor had a horrible experience with the last painters he hired. Of course I did not hire the same people but I don't want that slap-dash job done on my house. To add to the stress of that I have a camping trip planned with my MIL and nephew (and the kids of course) next week so I won't be here to supervise and pick at what they are doing. I know the check will not be written until I'm satisfied the job is done correctly. We did decide on a color scheme and painted a section on the street side of the house. I've had many good comments on it so I think it will look nice. It be good to leave the blue and yellow french provencial colors behind for something a little more soothing. Basically a couple hues of tan with some reddish brown accents here and there. From all I've read a little more historically accurate than the pastels that now grace the house. I'm not one of those historically accurate crazy people, but do think houses tend to look best in the color scheme that was prevalent at the time they were built. (at least on the exterior, we all agree avocado and orange shag carpet must go far far away)
Well that's about all. I'm going to play with the phone for a minute while I'm still upright and add some pics. Of course they are gonna be in crazy order and in the previous post but hey you get to see them.
Sonny Boy had a birthday too. His main present was a trip to Six Flags, but of course mom made him a cake. Not top quality but that was my first time trying that technique. Anybody have a guess as to who the figure on the cake is? It says " May the Birthday Force be With You" The kid is REALLY into Star Wars lately.
Of course you can't go camping without roasting marshmallows.
This is my new toy. Not some monster travel rig for around the country but will get us around the state and be drier and more comfortable than a tent. Cooler and warmer if we ever end up at a sight with electric.