The Party's Over

Back to work for me already! Wow, I blogged on the last day of school for Pal, and now he is going back to school on Tuesday. 7th grade. Holy crap.

Summer has been good, at times I was a little bored staying home but cured myself of that quickly by making lots (and lots) of plans for us to get out of the house. Therefore, I never got any projects done at home before returning to work this past Monday! There's the rub.

With Summer dwindling down and Fall on the horizon, we will once again walk as a family in the Alzheimer's Walk in Boston. Our team seems to change every year, with last year's team being our largest. My cousins walked with us, because their Mom who is my Mom's sister, also has Alzheimer's. Aunt M is in the stage that my Mom was in when we started to realize she couldn't stay alone at all. We started looking at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, but my cousins and Uncle are not quite there yet.



The walk is on Sunday, September 25. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers. I miss my Mom so much sometimes it hurts. Other times, I feel like I lost her a looooong time ago. That's what sucks about Alzheimer's - it robs you of your loved ones long before they're gone.

Update on my health and weight loss - I am down 47 pounds! Still going at it, slowly but surely. Summer was harder, but now that I am back at work and on a schedule, I hope to continue in that direction. It was nice to go "back-to-work" shopping for myself and realize what size jeans I can fit into again!!

We are going camping in the pop-up for Labor Day weekend with 3 other families. We've done this a few times now and it is always a good time. I can't wait. Pal turns 12 next week - I can't believe it. He is getting to that age where it's hard to buy gifts for him, because he doesn't want toys anymore, but what he wants for electronics cost a fortune! He ended up asking most people for money so he can buy what he wants. Happy Birthday to my precious little man. He'll be a big man before I blink.

Enjoy the rest of the Summer and bring on the Fall!
-G

3 + 4 =...I need to blog more

I almost choked when I looked at the date of my last blog entry - MARCH? Are you kidding me??? Wow. Time flew and I wasn't having a LOT of fun!!!

An update on the last post: My dog is still alive, my FIL's leukemia is still under control and he is doing well, and my septic system SUCKS. In plain english. I won't bore you with the gory details, but put it this way: I now know how much it will cost to r.e.p.l.a.c.e. my septic system. Grrrrrrrrr.....

So, where have I been and what have I been up to since March 28th? We went on a family vacation to California over April school break. That was fun, but it was chilly in CA! I didn't mind it, but when you think of Cali you think of warmth and sun and beaches. We did have one nice day that we sat on the pier at Santa Monica. It was beautiful there. We did the typical southern Cali trip - Disneyland, where we stayed in a motel directly across the street from the entrance! Lego Land, which Pal was a little to old for, and the San Diego Zoo. Now THAT is a zoo! I can never again go to our local zoo, it will never live up to that!!

Pal has continued with Boy Scouts, much to his father's delight. He really seems to like it, and I know he is a bit in awe of the "older" kids. But they scare ME. Long hair and skinny jeans....UGH. We went camping in Maine over Memorial Day with our pop-up and Pal's friends family. Pal played in his Advanced Band concert and that was cool to see how much they've improved since last year. I also finished up work at the end of May and thoroughly enjoyed 3 weeks of "me time" while Pal was finishing up 5th grade! Can't believe he's going to Middle School next year. Another thing that scares ME!

4th of July weekend was fun, we went to the camper and our campground had awesome fireworks. Then we went to the annual Balloon Festival. It was fun, but I am definitely getting to the point where I am over it. I love the balloons going up but the whole weekend itself has become a chore. I don't need more chores!

So that brings me to today. On Sunday, Pal and Hubby will head off to Boy Scout Camp. For a whole week. Without me. YAAAAAAHHHOOOOOOOo!!! Oh, I mean, I'll really miss them. My living room looks like a camping store threw up, and there are two 45-gallon tubs in there collecting it all. The next few days will be a lot of work to get them both everything they need, but it will be worth it. For them. Oh, and if I happen to enjoy it a little bit, that will just be a bonus. =)

Sorry for being a neglectful blogger...I'll try harder in the future!

Happy Summer!
- G

One Year Blogiversary

On April 18th it will be officially one year ago that I started this blog. I've written 53 posts, and since I started tracking the site visitors I have had 1,375 page visits. That's pretty cool. Since I will be getting on a Caribbean Cruise on my actual Blogiversary I thought I would post this today and say "Bon Voyage" until I get back!

I am really enjoying blogging, when I have the time. Sometimes I feel like I could write 1,000 posts and other times I feel like it's a chore. It's funny how in such a short amount of time I have become one of those people that looks at every story, every picture, every good or bad event in my life as blog fodder! I also am fascinated that people I would never had dreamed would be reading my blog are always commenting (either live or on the message board) on my posts. I've been inspired by other people's blogs, and even gotten to know complete strangers who I feel so connected to through their blogs. It's pretty bad when I go to tell my Hubby a story about a post I read on someone's blog and I start by saying "This person I know...well, I don't really KNOW them, but I read their blog...." It makes me sound like I sit in front of my computer all day long and live vicariously through other people's blogs, but I can assure you that is NOT the case.

In addition to our Caribbean Cruise, I am excited to say that we just purchased a used pop-up camper (in addition to the 40ft. travel trailer we bought last Fall to put in our campground). We are looking forward to moving around in the pop-up and experiencing new places. Buying the used pop-up and the new travel trailer was a nice compromise between Hubby and I. Hubby was getting tired of being in the same campground for 18 years and wants to experience other campgrounds and other places around the New England area. But Pal and I were more reluctant to give it up, and since Pal will probably be the one to put a stop to our camping altogether when he's a teenager and get's a "life" (at least that's what most other parents tell us happens when their kids reach the teen years...), we figured we'd compromise and get a used pop-up. The one we found was perfect - we had been looking at a lot of them and this one was spotless and had the perfect layout. We will be much more comfortable than in a tent, that's for sure! Here are pictures of both new campers:




So, I want to say thanks to anyone who has been my blog follower for this past year. It's nice to know there is a place that I can post my innermost thoughts and feelings, and that there are people are out there that care enough to read it. It's been very therapeutic, cathartic, curative, medicinal and salutary for me.

Yes, I've been reading the dictionary again.

Happy Blogiversary, and I'll be sure to post after I done being the Caribbean Queen!

-G

You can't BUY this kind of entertainment....

Our weekend in the White Mountains in a Pop-Up was both fun and wet.
We arrived at the campground around 1:30 and started setting up the pop-up, and around 4:30 our friends arrived with their pop-up. And it started to rain. Hard. So hard that we couldn't even think about setting up a grill to cook dinner, and we had a LOT of food to cook. But there was just no way with the rain pelting us from all sides of the little canopy our friends brought. So we decided to head to the little Italian restaurant near the campground. It was right on the Lost River, which is very swollen due to all the rain we've had this Spring and Summer. The food was good and at least we were dry. It had stopped pouring by the time we got back, it was still drizzling but at least the heavy rain had ceased. But, by this time, everything was pretty damp inside the pop-up.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, the rain was ending and the sun was peaking through the clouds. We decided to head to the Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves. This was very cool - you walk down inside the gorge on a wooden staircase, which consists of 1000 steps. Yikes, was I tired after that!!! The kids absolutely loved this - all kinds of rocks to throw and caves to climb around in.



That same day, after a rest and some dinner, we decided to head to Clark's Trading Post and Trained Bears. This turned out to be a great decision because we had the place (almost) to ourselves. In 3 hours we accomplished everything in the park, and the kids got to do the bumper boats for as long as they wanted. The trained bears were nothing short of amazing - they are so cute, but I wouldn't want to find them outside my pop-up, that's for sure!!!!



On Sunday, it was promising to be sunny and warm so we headed up to Six Gun City in Jefferson, NH. This is an "old west" town with a water park inside. The kids really liked this place but the adults were thinking it was a rip-off. Despite the ominous clouds moving in, we enjoyed ourselves and the kids loved the water slides.





Unfortunately, this is what was waiting for us on our ride home:



It rained for the rest of the time we were there, although this time we were prepared to cook in the rain! I have to say, packing up wet, muddy camping equipment IN.THE.RAIN.IS.NOT.MY.IDEA.OF.FUN. But, we made the best of it and enjoyed camping with another family. We had a lot of laughs and burned a lot of wood in the fire pit. The kids had a blast, and really, that was the most important thing. This beats TV and Wii by a MILE:





Let's just thank the heavens we didn't go BUY a pop-up before renting one. We're now more appreciative of the RV we own and that stays in one spot!


Happy campers - going home. Notice the rain drops on the lens.

G

Camping...like it or not?

We are going camping this coming weekend with some friends of ours and their family. It's actually Pal's best buddy and his parents and little sister and little brother. Yes - the same people whose house the police had to come to looking for the "victim" (see older post "Good Cop, Bad Cop").

I am NOT a camper. Let's get that straight. I have been camping for 17 years now, but in a camper something like this one:




This is MY idea of camping. I have air conditioning, heat, full bathroom, microwave, queen sized bed, a screened in porch, and a beach on a lake that is a short foot path away from our site. When my husband and I were very first dating, which was the early Spring of 1991, he asked me if I like to camp. "Uh, NO." was my immediate answer. I don't DO bugs. I don't DO tents. But I did it for him. We started out with a tiny trailer that someone had given him in lieu of payment for electrical work! And because we camped with his sister and another mutual friend of ours (who are now married, to each other, and have 2 little boys!), we couldn't ALL sleep inside the tiny camper. So, we bought a huge tent and a huge air mattress, and we alternated weekends sleeping inside or outside. All for love. Yikes.

Now, here we are 17 years later, and we are renting THIS (or something like it) for the weekend:




And it's supposed to rain.all.weekend. Shoot me now! It should be fun, and all kidding aside, I am actually looking forward to it. After the weekend is over and we see how Mother Nature and her friend New England have treated those of us stuck in a pop-up for 3 nights.....stay tuned.....this could get ugly.