Category: Diary

– not much since i slept from 430-730!
– im just going to start sending incorrect GS registrations back to the leaders rather than always redoing their work for them
– my latest food addiction is a wheat bagel egg sandwich (bagel, bacon, cheese, sunny side egg, bagel top)

– i thought i could leave my toddler alone in his highchair for a minute while i ran to the bathroom. i come back down to lucas calling for more, and abby licking his dinner off the floor
– i love when lucas just runs over and gives me a hug for no reason
– this morning lucas was hand feeding me cheerios
– i need to leave for scouts in about 15 minutes, and im sitting here farming, but so what, im a rock star, i got my rock moves

i’m pasting this here, too

i told my MIL last summer we needed a new roof. the longer you dont fix a roof, the worse it gets. she insisted insurance pays for a new roof. i told her that is just if something happens to it – not just it getting old. so she refused to get us a new roof
well now they came out to inspect the house for renewing her home owners insurance, and they wont renew her policy becayse they said our roof is shit and until she gets a new roof she gets no HO insurance
so first she decides she is sending random neighbor #3 over to our house to take pix of our roof in its current state for who knows what reason
and paul said “no you are not sending random neighbor #3 over at an unstated random time to disturb us”
and that i will do the picture taking
well just now the doorbell rings. this is 30 minutes after i have gotten home from errands and already put lucas to bed and changed into pjs
apparently she randomly sent people over to get an estimate for a new roof for our house that apparently we are supposed to pay for?
fuck that, im not buying a new roof for a house i dont own

lucas just walked all the way down the stairs by himself! he also semi-walked back up them (he was leaning over with his hands on the stairs so it was more of a half-crawl, half-walk)

lucas: “more”
me: wheres the toast i just gave you?
lucas: “ah” (means abby) and runs off pointing at abby who is running away with the whole piece of toast in her mouth

And all through the house,
Every creature was stirring,
Including the mouse.

This year I got a second tree for the family room. I love decorating for Christmas!

Christmas Eve Day Paul, Lucas, Steph, and I had lunch at Dad’s. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to get Lucas home for his nap. we’ve tried to keep him as close to on schedule as possible despite all the festivities. stephanie came back to the house with us and hung out while i cleaned up. mom and ron came over in the evening and we had such fun opening all the presents (mom went overboard as usual). then we put together the roller coaster from dad to lucas. its a little ride-on car that goes down a ramp. funny thing was, ron got lucas a Little People ramp toy so it ended up being lucas getting to push a toy car down a ramp and then push himself down a ramp! he also got these cardboard cubes from mom that he can turn one way and stack and the other way are nesting blocks – which he finds work well as containers for random other objects as well. mom also got him a plastic tball and bat, which he played with at first, but he mostly likes to just carry around the baseball – he really likes balls – must be because of his love of throwing things at mommy. once again he ended up going to bed really late.

christmas day it snowed! my first white christmas ever! only it turns out white christmases arent totally great because it ruins all the plans, so i didnt get to see dad and steph again as planned. we had a really great day tho just the three of us! in the morning i (attempted) to make crepes on the awesome new crepe maker mom got me for christmas. then lucas and i took an afternoon nap. when we got up, i bundled the two of us up in lots of layers and we headed out to play in the snow!

step 1. get out glass

step 2. get out sippy cup

step 3. get out tea and juice

step 4. pour

step 5. hand sippy cup to toddler

step 6. put tea back in fridge

step 7. turn back to counter and notice juice sitting on counter

step 8. take sippy cup away from toddler and look inside – yep, there’s tea in there!

step 9. start over

This weekend I took the Girl Scouts on another camping trip. This one was called Adventure Girls weekend and it had all the ‘adventurous’ types of camp activities. We were in a large cabin that had a kitchen and a bedroom + bathroom on each side. We had one side (12 beds in each room) and another troop had the other side. The other troop had brought campfire equipment, so when we arrived late Friday night, all the girls went out to the little fire ring behind our cabin and made s’mores and hot chocolate.

The next morning we all got up early and headed to breakfast. The camps all have dining halls that serve food like at a school cafeteria so we don’t have to worry about making food or anything. After breakfast, our first event was archery. For all the events we did, there was only ever like one or two girls in the troop that had ever done the activity ever before, so everything we did was a new experience for everyone. This camp was a *lot* less crowded than the last camp, so all the girls got more time to do all the events. They did well at the archery. Each girl hit the target at least once. I tried it, too. It was harder than I thought it would be to pull the bow taut, but I got all 5 of my arrows into the target. I didn’t get a bullseye, but I came close! One of my girls did get one!

After archery we went canoeing. I had Autumn and Grace in my boat. Both were really scared that we were going to tip over, but I kept paddling us out into the lake. They were freaked out that we were going out into the center of the lake away from shore, so I told them, “Let’s pretend we were shipwrecked on a deserted island, and after a long time we were able to build this canoe out of twigs and now we are trying to make it to land. And oh no, there is a shark chasing us! What is the shark’s name?” and they came up with Sharky Harrison, so we were paddling away from Sharky Harrison. Then we saw a canoe up ahead that had 3 of our other girls in it, and so we became the Sharky Harrison chasing after their canoe. By now the girls completely forgot that they were scared and were paddling as hard as they could to chase down the other canoe going “Duh-dun, duh-dun” (Jaws music).

After lunch and “turtle time” which is nap/ lie around the cabin break time, we had Spa Time. The councilors had set up stations in the main room of our cabin where the girls got to paint their nails funky colors (mine are blue), put on clay face masks, make bath salts and make colored soaps.

Next we hiked out to the rock climbing wall. I wasn’t able to do this one with them both because of a hurt knee and I don’t think I have the upper arm strength to pull myself up it. The girls were scared of it at first, but each turn that they took they went a little bit higher until two of them even made it all the way to the top 50 feet in the air! It looked really hard, especially since some of the hand holds spin on you making it hard to grab on.

Next came the best part – horseback riding!! Only one of the girls had ever really even been on a horse before, so they were all pretty nervous and McKenzie got so scared that she started to cry. But the staff were so amazing and they agreed to lead the horses on foot for the girls that were scared. My horse was Champ and he was probably the best horse I’ve ever ridden. The horses were not what I call “follow the leader” horses that start and stop as a group and don’t obey rider commands. I hate horses like that. These horses both knew when to start and stop as a group so they didn’t require much direction from the girls that didn’t know what they were doing, but they *did* take directions well for people like me that wanted to be in control. It was sooo much fun to go riding, even if it was just walking around since my girls had no riding experience. First we walked around the ring practicing starting and stopping. Then when they got the hang of that we practiced turning. Then they took us on a “trail ride” where we just walked around the paths of the camp. The girls loved it! As with everything else, by the end of the activity all the girls were having fun and forgot that they were afraid.

The day ended with dinner followed by another campfire (this time with the whole camp) for s’mores and singing scout songs. It was such an incredible trip and I am so so proud of my girls for trying all of the activities even though they were scared.

This weekend I took my Girl Scout troop to Camp Timber Ridge for a Halloween/Harry Potter themed camping trip.

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We arrived Friday night and drug all our stuff to the cabins. Our troop had two cabins (each cabin held 8 beds) with Tina in one with 5 of the girls and me in the other with the other 5 girls (Juliana, Nova, McKenzie, Mallory, and Mary Jane). The girls carved pumpkins and Nova’s mom had sent some decorations with her and Nova decorated our cabins. We all went up to the dining hall and got sorted by troop into our houses by the Sorting Hat (a witch’s hat that someone was making “talk” via a microphone system). We got House Gryffindor which made all the girls really excited since it is the one Harry Potter is in. I wanted to be in House Slytherin because they are the bad guys 😛 Then we went trick or treating in our costumes (I was dressed up like Professor McGonagall and everyone kept admiring my costume). When we got back to the cabin from the trick or treating, the girls set up “shops” with their candy and they could view each other’s candies and offer trades. Plus they made donations of anything they didn’t want to me.

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Saturday morning we got up and drug ourselves to breakfast ( I say drug because getting these girls to get up at 730am was a challenge.) After breakfast we had out first class – Divinations. Here we swirled tea leaves in a cup of water to see what shapes it made and then translated the shapes into a glimpse of the future. There was palm reading and arithmancy (your horoscope predicted through the letters in your name). Next came Potions class where the girls made red slime from Dragon’s Blood and Basilisk Venom. We had to confiscate the slime since it was a gooey mess. Then they made a sleeping death drought by mixing lizard guts, brains, and other miscellaneous animal parts into a beverage.  (It was really various fruit juices they were mixing and the results were unique and some quite yummy). We also got a drink of Butterbeer – a Hogwarts favorite drink (butterscotch + something like ginger ale or something).

After lunch we had Hogwarts Cooking School where the girls made candies and and some oreo/chocolate pudding dessert. Then we went to Diagon Alley to get our wands. They had a bunch of craft tables here to make jewelry and button pins and things but I stayed at the wand decorating table the whole time. They actually ended up looking like fairy wands rather than wizard wants, but it was fun.

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We had a break in our classes and the girls finished carving their pumpkins while I lay in bed and read my book. Our last class of the day was flying lessons. This involved two girls strapping into a harness around their waists and the harnesses were attached to a long rope on a pulley. All the other girls grabbed the rope and pulled it down the hill, pulling the two girls all the way up to the top of a tree! Then the rope holders let go, dropping the girls attached and they went flying down on the end of the rope which then swung them back and forth. It looked really scary but they all loved it. Unfortunately it took a really long time and we ended up late for dinner and had to miss submitting our pumpkins into the carving contest.

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After dinner there was a talent show. My girls had decided not to do it so we hadn’t prepared anything, but at the last minute they all decided to go up there and sing the Gryffindor song that Madison had made up and they had been singing around camp all weekend. Then Cayleigh made up a little improv skit about werewolves that was quite funny (albeit a tad morbid). Some of the other trips had prepared skits ahead of time and they were *really* funny. I was impressed with everyone. We also got to make s’mores during the talent show.

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Next we headed up to the carnival. This mostly consisted of bean bag toss games with candy prizes. My girls had more fun manning the booths than actually playing the games.

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The final event of the night was a hayride to the haunted house. 4 girls wanted to go in and 6 didn’t, so I took the 6 that didn’t want to go in the haunted house back to the cabins to go to bed while Tina took the other 4 through.

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Sunday morning we just had breakfast and then packed up to go home. All the girls did really well on the trip (at least my cabin did and Tina didn’t mention any problems in hers). McKenzie who always freaks out about sleeping in a strange place didn’t cry this time, and didn’t even have to call her mom on the second night – she was totally fine. Mallory claimed she wanted to go home Saturday morning after having only spent the night and not really done anything yet, but I wouldn’t let her (long story, but she was fine and didn’t need to go home). Mary Jane was her usual troublesome self and there were a couple of times I considered throwing her in the lake, but she always makes up for her wild ways by then going and doing something really sweet.

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It was a really great weekend and I’m glad we did it. We actually have *another* camping trip in three weeks (I didn’t realize when I signed up how close together they were). So now that I know what to expect, I think the next one will be even better!

hmm let’s see where to begin.

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diet – still doing great on the dieting despite Europe’s best attempt at derailing me with it’s delicious new foods. having more trouble with the exercise thing because a) i didn’t work out for over a week after i got back for various reasons b)i don’t have my 1500 step mountain as a goal anymore – that was such a more specific goal to work towards than just the “oh this helps me lose weight overall goal”. i love crystal light – i drink a ton of water every day now because it tastes like pink goodness. so now i have only 2 more lbs to lose to drop from the “obese” category to the “overweight” category in the BMI thing. 9 more lbs and i will be at my half-way point. so hopefully by thanksgiving i will be hitting my half-way marker.

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lucas – yesterday was really gross. i guess it’s a parent right-of-passage since id heard stories about it from other parents but yesterday it happened to us. i was sitting at the computer being a good mom and playing farmville while my son ran around in the background. i noticed the room smelled stinky so i turned around to find my son smearing his poop around on the floor. both his arms and his left leg were also covered in it. grabbing him under the armpits and holding him a foot out in front of me i rush him upstairs and tell paul we have an incident. paul is occupying the shower which i consider the best way to deal with the mess, so i put lucas, clothes and all, into the shower with paul to deal with while i went downstairs to clean up all the poop off the floor.

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girl scouts –is totally stressing me out. i wish i hadn’t volunteered for the service unit positions because they are sooo much more work than i’d expected. typically every school as it’s own recruiter, but i’m the recruiter for all the schools in our service unit (4 main ones) plus the registrar plus the leader of my troop, so in a way that is 6 positions. it takes a lot of time mostly because i can’t just sit down with my huge stack of paperwork and just process it, because at least 50% of them are always done wrong. so that means i have to set them aside and contact each parent of a messed up form and ask them to send me the missing information. which usually means it sits in a stack untouched for awhile building up. then i get impatient or even nasty emails from moms wanting to know why their daughter hasn’t been instantaneously been put into a new troop. i’ll tell you why – none of you parents are signing up to be leaders! they all want this fabulous program for their kids but no one wants to do the work to make it happen…which is why i currently hold 6 positions. ugh.

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on a brighter note, tomorrow is Hogwarts weekend. I actually hadn’t even realized it was tomorrow until i just typed that. but today is already Thursday which makes tomorrow Friday. i’m really excited about that – i think it’s going to be really fun. any regular camping is fun, but this is camping with a theme. a cool theme. i can’t wait to have kids and be able to do all this Halloween stuff with them.

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Leisure- as previously stated, i’ve just been too darn busy to have the free time to deal with Europe pix and stuff much. when i do get my leisure time, i’ve been reading my new books or attempting to watch all my shows. since i’ve been back, i’ve steadily only had about 12% space left on my tivo. i keep watching shows and new ones  keep recording so i haven’t even begun to catch up on all my shows and if i don’t hurry up and do so i’m going to start losing shows. i’ve mostly just wanted to lie in bed and read my books until i pass out around 9 or 10pm. i did run to michaels yesterday and buy a paper pack and i’m half way thru about 3 pages. this is going to be one big book based on the amount of stuff im including. i plan to post stuff about europe as i work on each page so it will just be a little bit at a time. i did finally get all the pix transferred to a portable hard drive and paul mailed it off to stephanie yesterday so she will finally have all the pix as well and will start posting some up.

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activities -well on saturday paul and i took lucas to marietta square for their fall craft fair thingy. they had a row of booths of people selling cute stuff. i must be getting old because there was a ton of stuff that i wanted but just wasn’t interested in wasting money on buying “stuff.” by the fountain a man had a st bernard. she was HUGE. i dont think id seen a st bernard in real life before. great danes and mastiffs, sure, but her humongous fluffiness was awe-inspiring. i want one. i would name it Mozart. lucas picked out a mini-pumpkin and decorated it with markers and played on the slide (i have some great pix of that one!)

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then on sunday paul and i took him to the apple orchard in Ellijay to take him to the petting zoo. He kept calling the mini-goats dogs (“ah” as in “abby” is apparently the word for dog). he also had fun chasing chickens, which he was calling “duh” which means duck. then he lost interest in the animals and thought the wooden play structures were more interesting so he climbed all over those. the rest of the activities they have there he was too little for and i was too big for (pony rides, balloon bounce, some kind of peddle cart) so we just hung out at the petting zoo the whole time.

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weds was gymnastics. he is getting really good at them. he stays fairly on track as he goes through the course and he let Miss Peggy swing him from the high bar. he really enjoys that stuff, especially rolls, which he kept having me do fwd and backwards rolls in the bed last night. we will be starting him in soccertots on sunday to see how he likes that.