Someone's in the Kitchen with Lucy

Lucy helped me whip up some banana bread yesterday.



I have to say, that is the biggest mess I have ever made baking!

Silly Girl

Karianne was with me in the car when I was stopped at a busy intersection. She saw birds on the wires above us and wanted me to honk to scare them away. I said I couldn't honk at them because I was at an intersection and everyone would think I was honking at them. She said, "Mom, just stick your head out the window and say, 'hey I'm not honking at you I'm honking at the birds'."

Yeah, that'll work.

Twilight Zone

It's just a little disturbing to find that this doll seems to have strong feeling about being thrown under the kitchen table and left there.

Camping in a pop up- take 2

Well, we thought we'd try the camping thing again. Some very nice friends gave us 5 Silver Dollar City passes that needed to be used by the end of September. Brent and I were determined to have a good experience with the pop up that we bought, so we went. I DID make a list this time. That seemed to work out better.

It has been raining here for 2 weeks. When Brent and I started to push the camper out of the backyard to hook it up to the car, water started draining out of the door of the camper. I said, "that doesn't look good." Brent said, "It'll be fine, don't worry about it!" So we went.


We got to Branson around 7 at night and had just enough daylight to set up our camper. As Brent rolled it up, more water came out. Once it was set up, of course, Brent couldn't deny anymore that the inside was soaked. We pulled the soaking wet cushions outside to drain and dry. Since I had made a handy list this time, I had a vinyl tablecloth. I layed it down on the wet wood on one of the bunks and put the girls' sleeping bags on top of it to keep them dry. Lucy, bedded down on the floor in her sleeping bag. The old camper got a couple rips in it when we set it up, but since I was prepared this time, I had saftey pins and pinned the rips together. Thankfully it was cool enough for bugs to stay in their beds that night.

The next day, we spent the entire day at Silver Dollar City and had a great time. Karianne was tall enough to ride anything she wanted and actually road a BIG roller coaster that I didn't have the guts to ride. I rode one big ride having forgotten that I don't like them until it was to late to get off. It was one of those big swings that swings back and forth and turns you upside down. The girls and Brent stood down on the ground waving and smiling at me- so I was told, I had my eyes tightly shut, tears streaming and shaking from head to toe trying not to vomit. After that, I stuck to the kiddie rides. :-) Amy is my girl, she had the same reaction to a kiddie ride that did the same thing on a smaller scale. She wasn't as mature as me of course, she screamed and howled and cried until they let her off.

When we got back to our campground, our cushions had dried, so we brought them all back in and had a better sleep that night.

The next morning, we woke up to rain. It was a light rain but it wouldn't stop. We were planning to leave that morning anyway, but we couldn't wait out the rain since we had a check out time. So we had to put the camper down- wet.

It's about a 4 hour drive back to our house, we expected to be home for a late lunch. We were a little more than a half hour from home outside of Claremore, OK when the camper got a flat tire on the toll road. We pulled over. Now to fix the tire, Brent had to pop up the camper to get to the spare tire that was stored under one of the seats in the camper. He popped up the camper on the side of the road and got out the tire. I was pretty amused. Felt like I needed a sign that said, "fresh watermelons for sale" or something. Then he realized he did not have anything to get the bolts off tire, and the spare was almost as bald as the one that blew out. We decided to leave our camper on the side of the road, and go into Claremore to buy the tool he needed as well as a tire. That little plan took almost 3 hours as we went from store to store, looking for all the pieces we needed. We then paid our toll to get back on the toll road, got off and paid another toll after we passed our camper going east bound, got back on-paying another toll, to get back on the westbound side of the road to get back to our camper. Brent gets out and starts to finally change our tire. Just then a trooper pulls up behind Brent to see if he needs any help. The girls we all excited to see a policeman. He watched Brent for a minute and listened to his story. Then the trooper pointed to the back of the trailer and asked, "what's wrong with the spare tire mounted on the back here?" Oh. um...

I could not stop laughing. Might have had something to do with the 44oz, Mountain Dew Brent bought for me - but I don't think so.


All in all, we did have a better trip than the maiden voyage of our camper a few weeks ago. We even brought home a special souvenir. Someone was giving away puppies at the Branson West Walmart. The poor little guy really needed to be rescued. His momma is a Westie and daddy is a ?? I don't see much Westie in him but maybe Corgi?? His momma was kept outside and he was covered in fleas and had tick scabs. He's cute though. Brent said I could have him if I let him name the puppy. Brent has named him Howie the Ozark Hillbilly from Walmart.

Zingers

The girls had a bunch of one liners that kept me in stitches today.

Angie told Amy before church, "Amy you're a princess, don't show anyone your underwear!"

On the way to church, Amy and Angie were in the back row singing at the top of their lungs. Karianne kept calling them and they wouldn't answer. Karianne beseeched me to help her get their attention. I asked them to be nice and answer their sister. Angie called back to my, "Aw, she's just going to say the same thing again!" Karianne told them quickly before she lost their attention again that she was the boss musketeer. Angie and Amy went back to singing and Karianne pouted again that they were ignoring her. I said, "well maybe they don't want you to be the boss." She said with very hurt feelings, "I was just pretending to be the boss!"

After church Amy had a little boo boo next to her eye. She anounced that her eye hurt when someone stepped on her. I said, "why did your eye hurt when someone stepped on you?" She said, "Because I was laying down!"

OOOOOhhhhh...

Orphan alert

Wednesday's Child

Ho Y-T is a smart, well-mannered boy who needs a home and wants a family. He is looking forward to being a good son but needs someone to come forward and give him the chance. He studies hard so he will be prepared to join his new family and is even studying English so the transition will be easier.

If you could be his family just CLICK HERE to request more information about him. Simply log in and then click on his name in the list of children.

He would really like to have a mom and dad so he can be the good son he knows he can be.

Hiking

We did some hiking today. The girls did great! We hiked for about an hour and a half in some petty rugged terrain. We loved the rocks and caves. Karianne marched in front with her binoculars helping us stay on the path. Amy and I for the most part stayed in the back. Lucy stayed on Brent's shoulders for most of the hike. She enjoyed hitting him on the head with a stick and a rock and chewing on his hat. She did do some walking but not much. Angie had two sticks and whacked everything she passed the entire time. Right up her alley.

smarter than the average bear I am!

Lucy eats everything. EVERYTHING. We have found marbles, toys, plastic lizards, and peanuts in her diapers. And that's just the stuff that didn't digest! If it tastes bad she doesn't learn her lesson she goes right back to it. Earlier this week, we were blowing bubbles in the back yard. the moment I let Lucy have a try, she blew a bubble, then turned up the bottle and chugged the bubble juice. She really didn't like it and kept spitting, gagging and blowing bubbles out of her mouth. I thought that may teach her a lesson. Ha! Not really. The next night we were all blowing bubbles in the yard again. Lucy begged for her own bottle again and I gave it to her. She looked at me sideways, smiled then turned up the bottle and chugged it dry. But see, I'm a smart momma and even if she doesn't learn, I do. Before I have her the bottle of bubbles, I took an empty bubble bottle and filled it with water and handed it to her. HA!

What we need here is a little organization

Brent and I aren't great planners. I mean look at our family, 3 kids the same age- who plans that? We talk about it, agree it's a good idea and we do it. We work out the details as we go along. This summer we went on vacation, we didn't really have any concrete plans, we just knew we needed to get away for a while. We ended up being gone for 2 weeks, dropped in on family in 3 different states and we went to Disneyworld because we were in the area. I know, who does that? People plan for years to go to Disney.

This week we decided to go camping in our new-to-us 1988 Coleman Pop Up Camper. We packed up the girls and went. When we got to the camp site There was a creepy face carved into a tree that greeted us- it was an omen!

Brent and I set about setting up the camper and realized that the door was locked and we weren't given a key from the previous owner. Didn't pack any tools so we went to the park office and borrowed a hammer and busted the lock off.

We were all hot so the girls and I went swimming. That's when I realized Karianne didn't pack any sandals just the pair of tennis shoes and one pair of socks on her feet. I really wish I had water socks for the girls since that was the most suspicious looking water I've ever let them swim in. It had bubbles rising from the bottom like a swamp the whole time we were in the water- which wasn't very long! There were no trash cans at the site or the lake so there was plenty of trash on the ground and in the lake. After swimming, we wanted dinner. At home I had made the huge mistake of letting Brent pack the kitchen items and food. Brent and I had hotdogs. Just hot dogs, not buns, no condiments. No plates, no silverware. The girls ate peanutbutter tortillas spread on with the one fork that Brent had packed to eat his sardines with. There was no ice in the cooler either. He had put a few ice packs in to keep our food cool. It was when the girls got ready for bed that I realized Karianne had not packed anything except toys in her backpack. No clothes.
















I tried to get Lucy asleep in the camper while Brent and the girls were having smores after dark. I crawled into one of the beds with Lucy and screamed as the whole camper tilted like a giant teeter totter. I grabbed Lucy and climbed uphill to the other side of the camper and with much creaking and scraping metal sounds the camper thudded back into an upright position. Brent said he had no idea why that happened. Later, I put the rest of the girls in the same bed with Lucy. Again, "Creeeeak, Thud!" The camper tilted and about spilled the girls out the back. We all screamed and Brent and I ran to the other bunk to set the camper aright again. After I finally got all the girls to bed with Brent balancing us by staying on the other side of the camper, Brent suddenly remembered that he hadn't set the jack on the camper that's why were experiencing motion sickness. Oops.

The next day, Brent and I had decided we were leaving after breakfast. I had a headache, and we were grouchy. We really didn't have anything to eat, and the milk was warm. The girls played while Brent and I put down the camper. He played some music plugged into the car. The music drained the car battery and we called the park office again and asked them to jump start our car. Good Times! Next time I'll try the list thingy that I've heard so much about.

D'oh!

Angie was trying to talk to me from the back seat of the car during a storm. I kept telling her to be louder because I couldn't hear her. After several attempts to make herself heard, I saw her smack her hand on her forehead in the rear view mirror. I told her to try one more time. She said, "I'm done with this!"