Go West Young Man

Howdy. Might I dare say that in 24 very long hours, we will be at our Friday destination?

We hope to get past Columbus, OH tomorrow, and to St. Louis on Saturday. We have a Phillies game to attend on Sunday. I'm excited about that. Three of us will be in Phillies attire.

I guess my break is over, and I should get back to packing.

A World Record??

Gary and I are doing some trip planning. Gary wants to stop at a ghost town. And to my way of thinking, Kansas is a good place to look. There's not much else to see.

During our perusing of the map, Gary found the site of "The World's Largest Ball of Sisal Twine." Now if that's not a reason to pull off the highway, I don't know what is.

Like I said, not much else to look at.

I'd also like to set my eyes on the Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail, a pony express station, and other historic things I might not know about yet. The pony express has always fascinated me ever since the TV show "The Young Riders."

What is Sisal Twine, anyway? Click here to find out.

A man and his Legos and a girl and her bear

Here is my husband with his most favorite toy. My parents, his parents, and I all pitched in and bought him some Legos for his birthday. It is a set called Town Plan, and it's the 50 years anniversary edition.

And here is Ellie, not going to bed. After being rocked and having prayed and being put in bed, she declared, as she does most every night, that she did not want to go to bed. She even went so far as to come up with an 'I have to go poopy to take up more time' excuse, even already having gone potty not 10 minutes before.

I told her to go ahead and to call me when she was done. She whined that she wanted me to stay with her. I told her she had two choices to go back to bed or go potty and call me when she was done to make sure she was cleaned up properly. She whined some more, I told her I wasn't playing this game, and I walked away.

Later when I went up to check on her, I found her like this, asleep, dangling off the top step.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY LOVE!!!

I made our oatmeal too healthy this morning.

I need to work on ratios. Too much flax seed, wheat germ, brewer's yeast, and bran can make for an untasty bowl of oatmeal. Josh and Ellie thought so too. I ended up making a plain bowl of oatmeal and mixing it in to the healthy version. I have enough extra for tomorrow.

This is too much work. Trying to go back and post about what has happened that I didn't post about.

But you still may want to scroll down and see if you missed something.

I will go on about our last camping trip. We went off to the beach. Ocean City. We camped at Frontier Campground. And if you want to know, they require two (2) weeks cancellation notice.

Why you ask do I mention that? Because we changed our reservation only one (1) week prior to our visit. The lady tried to keep our $40.00 even though she said we would get it back and the man I spoke with told me I only needed one (1) week cancellation notice. They shouldn't have been so stiff necked about it, we only changed the reservation, not canceled. And if the store had opened before 10:00 AM (what camp store doesn't open until 10:00 AM, especially near the beach when they sell beach tags) they would have gotten our $10:00 for beach tags.


We did enjoy the campground. We had a very nice site. We were able to set up in the daylight. I had fun organizing my little home for the weekend. Josh and Ellie enjoyed themselves also. And if you are a country music fan, this is the place for you. It plays uninterrupted in the bathhouse. Except for during quite hours. Gary REALLY enjoyed the music.


And if you are into biting flies, it is also the place for you. I have no less than 30 insect bites on my legs from the knees down. My legs already look pitiful from my pregnancy veins, but now they are downright pathetic.

Josh loved to play in the sand. Not so fond of the water. Ellie liked to play in the sand, but would rather it not stick to her. Not so fond of the water, either, unless clinging to a parental unit. But in all fairness, she did stand in the water as long as she was hold my or Gary's hands and jump with the waves. Josh would have none of it. But again in all fairness, it was a toe numbing 58 degrees. Maybe 59 degrees.

The boardwalk was fun. We took it all in at a quicker pace this year. We rented a surrey. It was more fun than I thought. My bottom disagrees.








Aren't they just so cute?












Here we are in our alternate mode of transportation.

Here I sit, eating double peanut butter cookie dough (sorry P) and thinking about my food intake. The former is probably not the best for the later.

P gave me a copy of The Bowel Book, and yes it is about what you think it is. I am actually finding it quite fascinating. And coincidentally, I am doing my reading while in the bathroom. I had previously just read snipits here and there, but then I decided I was going to read it from beginning to end. I am on chapter 3. And amazingly with two preschoolers in the house, I am able to get a bit of reading done each day.

I won't go into much of what I am learning about my bowels, but I should eat more fiber, bran, honey, and garlic. Those who know me would definitely advise the garlic.

I highly recommend that each household should have one of these books in their bathroom.

Note: I plan on recapping the last month and post the blogs where they happened, so go back to the end of May to catch up on the things of my life.

G and I tried to have a third baby.

We decided to try the IVF natural cycle, meaning no shots. Everything was going well. The no shots thing was great. The progesterone suppositories wasn't.

The transfer happened on a Saturday. The following Saturday I was bleeding. After my blood test on Monday, I was pregnant. Woo hoo! But why the bleeding? After my blood test on Wednesday my hormone levels were going down. They aren't suppose to do that when you are pregnant. By the next Monday they were back to zero. I wasn't pregnant anymore.

I was so upset on Saturday with the blood, convinced I wasn't pregnant. G said to wait and see. The positive pregnancy test just made me more confused. I was happy to be pregnant, but worried about bleeding. As the hormone numbers went down, I didn't want to believe that the embryo stopped growing, and I wasn't pregnant anymore. I told myself that maybe both embryos implanted, and one didn't make it, so the numbers went down some. But they just kept going down.

I don't think of myself as having a miscarriage. I wasn't pregnant long enough. But I still don't have my baby.

I wonder if it was a boy or girl. What she would have looked like. What his personality would have been. My little one that was with me for just a moment.

P introduced me to "Doctor Who." I find the show to be quite interesting. We watched 6 episodes, and I liked them all.

We also watched an episode of Stargate SG-1. But when P discovered she had missed watching many of episodes before the one we watched, we stopped watching.

We had a 4th of July picnic today. I made homemade hamburgers and hamburger rolls, Gary husked corn and cooked the burgers, my mom made potato salad, my aunt brought baked beans, P made brownies, and friends Ray and Nannette brought a jello dessert, and my dad showed up to eat it all (he came from work.)

First though, we played games. We had the meal mostly prepped, and games were on P's menu first. Chicken Foot, then when Ray and Nannette arrived, we played Phase Ten. After dinner, games were resumed. I don't remember who won, but I know it wasn't me.

For P's visit this time, Gary and I decided to get her a bed and make a space for a room in the attic. For her last visit, she had a plow up mattress that would stay inflated and the mattress from the pop-up. Not the best of beds, by far. So, we bought a mattress and box spring.

We attempted to take the box spring up the attic steps first. No good. All the shoving we could muster would not get it up the stairs. I think we turned the mattress and tried again. No go. We then tried our hand at the mattress. Much better, went right up. Tried the box spring again. You'd think we'd learn. After many attempts of trying to get it up every which way, Gary sawed through the one side of the box. Two more attempts and no, it still wouldn't go up. He sawed the other side. Bingo. We shoved and heaved and told it it was going up. And finally after 1.5 hours, it did.

When we ever move, the new owners get a bed.

So, back to the room. When P arrived, she was taken aback and overwhelmed. She had her own room, complete with a bed off the floor, a chair, a space for her clothes bag, a space for Kashi's bed and Fancy's cage, table space for her, a green tissue box, a green power strip, fresh flowers, a bed side "table," a trash can, a hand rail, stair treads, a fan, and most importantly a AC vent right over her head.

She has a place in our house.

Gary decided that he was going to take the train down to pick up P for this visit. He sure does like his trains.

It works out really, because than I have the chance to work on P's room. I want it to be perfect.

The children and I will not be heading to Pottstown today. Yes, Pottstown, not Norristown. The place in Norristown is not, from what I deduced from the lady I spoke with, an actual collection location. She didn't seem to know what I was talking about when I told her what I was trying to do. While she was trying to be helpful, she was not.

So I went to the plan of going to Pottstown. But there in lies my next issue. I thought I'd take a gander at the website of the recycling place in Pottstown. http://www.recyclingservices.org/

Want to take a guess as to when they have public recycling hours? Tuesdays (yesterday) and Saturdays.

Although I am slightly annoyed that I missed the drop off yesterday, I am very glad I didn't drive over there to learn they are closed today.

Needless to say we are not going to Pottstown today, the stuff will remain in the car for three more days, and dad is picking up Hunter.

I am trying to be good steward and recycle everything I can. But when you have to drive 45 min. to do so, and use a fair spot of gas in the process, one might wonder if it's worth it.

I am going to scour my house for all things recyclable that we don't need or want. This place in Pottstown does take most anything. If you are searching for something to read, try going to their website (see above). They have quite the list of instructions on recycling.

We did enjoyed ourselves the rest of the weekend, though it wasn't perfect.

We went the pool, went boating, E made G a Father's Day present, forgot G's coffee pot and our slow cooker for dinner, J got to put stones in any container he could find, ran out of propane, had some campfires even though it was hot and humid, drove into a town and bought a new slow cooker and a used coffee percolator, E bought more candy than a 3.5 year old should have, played on playgrounds, and forgot our refrigerator when we left and had to go back for it.

Doesn't that sound like a splendid time?

We went camping this weekend to Camp Swatara. We were smart and decided to go an extra day. We left Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday.

The plan was to leave soon after G returned from work. He even came home early for the occasion. In past years, we have gotten up there so late on Friday that it's dark, and we've missed the group dessert time with all the other families from church.

But not so this year. We got smart. We went a day early. Planned to eat when we got there after we set up.

Well, what do you think happened? Yep, we set up in the dark sometime between 7:00 and 10:00 PM, having eaten on the drive out.

I will start by saying we do get credit for arriving before it actually got dark. It just took us forever to get the camper set up.

First. We got the camper where we wanted it in the site. Forward and back. Forward and back. Forward and back. And maybe another forward and back.

Second. We set to unhitching the camper from the car. But the handle to the wheel jack, what raises and lowers the tongue of the camper, was too close to the spare tire on the CRV. So we couldn't lower the wheel enough to raise the camper to get it off the hitch. We did know this could be a problem depending on the alignment of the camper and car. It's a very annoying problem. G used the car jack to raise and unhitch the camper.

Third. We needed to level the camper. What fun that turned out to be. To avoid some rocks and gullys in our site we had the camper on a slight incline. To get it level, the front stabilizer jacks would need to be open too far to really stabilize the camper well. After consulting with a neighbor camper from our church who also came a day earlier, but actually during the day, G decided to rehitch (remember - not as simple as the word sounds) the camper and move it over some to a flatter section of the site and unavoidably closer to the rocks and gully. (Which turned out to be not that bad.)

Fourth. After about the thirtieth time he moved the camper forward and backward, G got it to a better spot.

Fifth. Unhitching. It think it went better this time.

Sixth. Raising the roof. After unhooking the hooks, the top goes up, the sinks flips up, the door comes down, a bed transforms into a table and benches, B organizes stuff and makes the beds, and children (who behaved rather well stuck in their seats the whole time) finally go to bed. Parents follow shortly after.

Yesterday I went to get my son after his nap. He was in his crib crying. I walked in and saw a patch of orange on the floor. This alarmed me, becasue I had put him to nap wearing an orange cloth diaper. When I checked his bottom, sure enough the diaper was missing. It is a velco one, which Josh has apparently figured out how to work. Amazingly the diaper, his crib, and surrounding areas were not wet.

He is again wearing the orange cloth diaper.

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It's finally gone. She finally ate it. E was served a leftover twice baked potato for Saturday's dinner. After being served it at least five more times, it's gone, in her belly. Today, it's all she was served. If she wanted food, she got a bowl of potatoes. And since eating it, she has also partaken of her quesadilla (half of one) she didn't get Sunday night, and her mini shredded wheat (biscuits) she wanted for breakfast. Frankly, she's eaten more for lunch today than in the past two days. And get this, she just asked for more biscuits, because she's still hungry.

She is a wonder.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, P!

Today we went to a different church with P. It was too warm in the sanctuary for her. We didn't leave in time. She spent may moments on our couch cooling down.

Though she might have waited a little longer to get up. The stairs were not her friend this visit.

We were concerned about P driving home, but she decided to try it and did make it home alright.
I think that I won most of the games we played. (I don't really remember, but I am choosing to remember that I won.) Unfortunately I do remember that she just slaughtered my mom, aunt and I at Chicken Foot. It was embarrassing how badly I did. I think I lost by over 200 points. Disgusting.

I love my visits with P. She is always willing to lend a hand, change a diaper, do the dishes. Even when it hurts. Literally. She also gives much needed advice to G and I about parenting E and J. I also love to hear her opinions on things.

She does have this one flaw, though. She absolutely loves to win and hates to lose. I think she should work on that. And lose more. :)

Today P, my mom, and I went out.

First P treated us to Applebee's fare. I think we tried one of everything.

We then stopped by Wal-Mart. It sucked us in for many a minute, as it always does. We bought what wasn't on our list and forgot what was.

Our next stop was pedicures. There was only one lady working, so it was a longer time than I thought it would be. I had envisioned us sitting three in a row in the relaxing chairs, our toes dipped in the teeny whirlpools, chatting about anything that came to mind, while our toes, feet and legs were massaged, rubbed, cleansed, trimmed, and painted.

I didn't quite happen that way.

But we did all walk out with beautiful feet. And P was sporting her new fabulous flip flops. And bare naked feet. (A thing that never happens.)

Our next stop should have been home, but since we forgot the AC filters at Wal-Mart, we stopped off at the local hardware store.

Earlier this week I hypothetically had asked P that if a cake was made, what kind she might like. And if a few people stopped by for dinner, if she'd be OK with that.

Hypothetically she said she'd be OK with people over for dinner and that she WANTED A CAKE!
So party preparations began for P's Birthday Party.

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I was a lovely evening filled with family and friends all joined to wish my dear friend P a wonderful birthday.

We had kabobs, twice baked potatoes (which P made because there was poor planing on my part,) baked beans, and for dessert yellow cake (which although the batter tasted scrumptiously like yellow cake, the batter tasted more like white cake) with milk chocolate icing.

P bested my mom, aunt, and I with a game of dominoes chicken foot, which consists of ten rounds. She won most of them and I had many many points nearly every round. I didn't have as much fun as she did. But that's OK, for it was her birthday.

I think she went to bed happy with her day.