Berries & Big Nasty Bugs!

We took the kids blackberry picking last night. It was still steaming hot, but we had to get out of this house. Atleast out at the greenway, there was a breeze.
They are so crabby from the heat, and late late bedtimes due to the heat...it made for a very high stressed family outing. Leah threw a fit because Beau had the bucket, then Beau had a fit because Leah had the bucket...on and on, etc. It was becoming very clear we should have stayed at home, and simply sent them to bed for a nap.
We filled each bucket about 1/2 full, and headed back to the car. D stopped to pick a few more berries near the car, and it looked to me from behind that his tag was sticking out of his shirt. I got a bit closer, and I notice a huge preying mantis on his upper back!
Being the kind wife that I am...what did I do?
Well, ofcourse before I could tell him, I had to get close and take a picture, right?
Than, I stepped back, and very calmly stated, "Darrin, you have a preying mantis on your back."
Now, D is a big man. He is 6ft. 2. I never see him get scared of anything, well, there was one time he screamed like a girl in the shower over a spider...
He began hopping around, shaking, and going crazy over getting that thing off of his shirt!
He hollered for me to flick it off, but there is NO way I was gonna risk it getting on ME!
I refused to do so!
So, he kept shaking, turning, hopping a bit, IT WAS HYSTERICAL!
He was so mad at me for not helping him...it finally did fall off, or jump off on it's own.
Afterwards, he said they bite, and from what he's heard, it hurts pretty bad.
Hmmm...had me itching all over for awhile hoping nothing was creeping around my back, or hair.

We got home, and I made some delicious blackberry cobbler...the kids loved it, and D had 2nd's. Nothing like a blackberry cobbler on a hot summer eve.

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What was he thinking???

D took the boy with him to town yesterday to run some errands. He stopped at Joe's, and apparently thought it okay to buy that boy a pocket knife like Daddy, since they were 'on sale!'

I was horrified when I saw that boy come running in with a pocket knife in his hand.

My exact words...to D..."WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, HE'S ONLY 4!!?"

His words..."A boy needs a knife."

A. boy. needs. a. knife.

WHAT?

A 4yo boy NEEDS a knife?

So, here is the look of pride I caught when that boy was holding his new pocket knife.

I told him that it must be kept shut unless Daddy is helping him. He was more than eager to comply if that meant I would let him keep it. I also told him if he cut anyone, they would have to go to the hospital, and that I would take that knife from him forever.

D had it in closed position, the boy wanted to carry it around, and took it on the porch with him. Moments later her comes Drew, running..."MOM! BEAU CUT HIS FINGER WITH THE KNIFE!"

I was panicking...He had figured out how to open the blade, and cut his fingertip, small but bleeding enough to have him hysterical! I put his finger under the faucet quick, and he kept hollering..."I DON'T WANNA GO TO THE HOSPITAL!" After a bandaid, and an ice pack for comfort, I looked at D and asked, again..."WHY DID YOU GET HIM THAT KNIFE?"

D's response..."I told you. It was on sale."...

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Just A LOT of Randomness

As I was sitting waiting for report from the day LN yesterday, I felt the need to pray for the evening to go smoothly, for the strength I needed to perform my job to the fullest...and I tell ya, it's a good thing I did.
I was doing great, we had 3 admissions, but had help with all of them, and got all but one assessment done before 8, started charting, then realized I needed to make a phone call regarding orders that were not recieved.
As I was in the middle of talking to a Doc, I see another LN I was working with leave a post it in front of me...saying, 'Rm#???, fall, head injury'...
And, indeed it was. I got off the phone right away, and found that the injury was more than I could take care of, so started the process of shipping pt. out to ER.
As I was still preparing the paperwork, and E.M.T.'s were arriving, I had another pt. expire.
With a few more mishaps following, I was unable to leave for atleast an extra hour overtime.
It was crazy!

Before work, I had another apptmt. for therapy. I am so amazed at what they do. I never imagined the type of things they truly do for people. My scarring from cesarians, and my chole are keloid, it is a very nasty scarring, thick, and the therapist I saw yesterday works on breaking some of that up since it attaches to the muscle and will cause problems with your posture. She also worked with my ankle more than my pelvis, and so far, I haven't had any more pain in my ankle. My hip still bothers me a bit. I am very impressed!

This morning the boy was up and dressed bright and early! We headed out to check the flowers, he's been keeping track of the dead ones that need 'cuttin' for me in my flower pots...only he's cutting the live ones. What can I say, he's trying to help Mommy!

We took a peek at the strawberry bushes in the garden, and found quite few red ripe strawberries! He went to work picking all he could see. He insisted we needed to put them in a cup with cream, and make strawberry shortcake. So, we did just that tonight. Strawberry shortcake for all but Daddy, with only strawberries from OUR garden. He was quite proud.

Today I took the kids to the pool, girls took off on thier own, playing basketball in the water with boys. Grace was so dreamy eyed afterward I wanted to vomit! I just simply DO NOT promote, nor look forward to this phase of her life.

I stuck with the tots, dare I say, they are growing so fast, I really need to stop referring to them as 'the babies', 'tots', etc...

Anyway...The boy had a blast, I've said it before, I'll say it again..THAT BOY IS A FISH!
Lulu, she just barely got into it, mostly hung on my leg, and held my hand. But, she did a great job at letting me know when she needed to potty, and did so on the toilet vs. in the pool.

Tomorrow I go sign Beau and Leah up for Preschool through our college co-op, and get Grace registered for Volleyball. Then, I'm on for 2 NOC shifts, with soccer team meetings each night before work for Drew and Beau, gotta find out the coach and practice times.

I am SO not ready for the madness to begin again!!!

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"I. WANT. MY. HIGH. CHAIR!!!"

I was long overdue in tossing out the old highchair. It sat in my dining room like a permanent fixture for the past 5 years. Seems like forever... I enjoyed the availability of it's use for my 3yo Leah whenever I made such dinners as spaghetti, hoping it would deter her from making a much larger mess as would inevitably ensue should I place her at the table on my cream colored table cloth.

However...it was time. I just simply did not expect the reaction that came from that tiny little 3 yo...it was like a monster was unleashed when she realized we were leaving her beloved highchair at Aunt Missy's house. And, it only became worse when I tried to explain to her who was now going to use it. She no longer wanted anything to do with THAT baby.

It looked a little something like this:

Only with a little more UMMPPPH! if you know what I mean. I was surpised she didn't throw herself across the folded up highchair and refuse to leave. There was no trading, or bartering, no convincing her it was needed somewhere other than our home.

Oooohh, the drama I have created in simply trying to keep my babies, babies a bit longer...

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Playing with my Rebel

In viewing some other blogs, I am stockpiling some photo ideas. I recently purchase Photoshop Elements 5.0 on ebay for around $30, but I think I need 6.0 to do what I want to do. I'm watching one with starting bid $10 right now. With XP no longer sticking around, I think I have a great chance of getting 6.0 cheap, new.
I tried some RAW settings on my Rebel last night, and I love how it allows for better editing options.
Here is one I played with last night...Tungsten.

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With the GOOD, always come a little BAD

We left late morning Tuesday to head over to camp. D decided he'd better have the trailer tires checked first, so we stopped on the way through town. Turned out, we had to buy 4 new trailer tires, NOT PLANNED FOR. It took awhile, so I took the kids down the road on foot to feed them, they were 'starving'...like always.
Once we got to camp, we found our trailer batteries were dead. As in, unchargable, DEAD. D ended up having buy 2 new batteries on top of just putting new tires on the trailer. Granted, poor planning, I think we should have gotten these things done last year, or early this summer vs. day of camp trip.

The first evening was beautiful, kids were sooo dirty. I think, the dirtiest all trip. They started building a fort in the trees, Boy was makin' dust with his beloved truck.
At bedtime, Leah had a screaming, 'exorcist' style fit about the dark of night. We had to leave a flashlight on all night for her to sleep. She still woke um-teen times, leaving me a walking zombie the following day.

To top it all off, we awoke to a horrible rain/thunder/lightning storm day 2.

Now the dirt there is so dusty, not like sand, but just like fine powder. It flies, it sticks, it is a mess. Add a little rain, it turns into this thick wet paste which stuck to thier shoes like glue. Our trailer got dirty real fast! My anal side was freaking out!

I had to let go, and deal.

Once it all cleared, we took kids down to the lake to swim, play. They loved it!

But, on the way back to camp, we found D's right rear tire was going flat on his truck. He decided to go ahead and drive it to LaPine to get it fixed. Unfortunately, it blew, the ENTIRE THING JUST BLEW. He was stuck. Fortunately for cell phones, he got help and they gave him a temporary spare tire. But, this tire would not get us home the following day with trailer.

D had to make another trip to get the real replacement tire. There went my new washing machine!

Turned out the tire had some sort of recall, and he paid only a fraction of the price. That helps. But, really, how many more things could go wrong in one trip? As D kept saying, "This stuff is supposed to happen to 'bad' people, we aren't bad people." I don't know that that matters.

Kids probably won't even remember the mishaps, and I know they enjoyed every minute of camping. The boy took his 'truck' and drove it everywhere, loving the terrain, bumps, hills, slopes all around us. He heard an eagle, which thrilled him. Saw blue herons, tons of dragon flies, and butterflies. I think the butterflies hatched, as we were driving, there were hundreds, thousands flying about, there was no way to avoid some of them getting splattered on our windshield. It was amazing...Something I would have loved to get video of. They were truly just EVERYWHERE.

We had a little raft, to cross the river in. My sister took Grace over, looked like a breeze. She then took Drew over. Then, I took Beau. BIG MISTAKE. I hate feeling like I'm out of control. I just felt like I could not row well, then once we got over the river to the falls, Beau started freakkin' out, the water being SO clear, you could see everything, he kept hollering, "OH NO! LOOK! THE DROP OFF!" My pulse started racing, I was losing it. He was freaking as I was struggling to turn the raft around. I WILL NEVER DO THAT EVER AGAIN. I would not be one to do any white water rafting...NO WAY!

Through multiple rain/hail/thunder/lightning storms random daily, the kids still had fun. It was beautiful once the storms subsided and gave us a few short hours of amazing sunlight, and warmth. I already miss it.

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Camp Trip Prep

Getting ready to go camping...
D should be back from Montana anytime now, and I am trying to get all the clothing, and linens to the trailer. Still need to mop out the trailer, and make the beds.

The boy had no tennis shoes to fit him for camping. Last pair I bought him was apparently a size 9...so I took him today to get a pair, sale and coupons...HE WEARS A SIZE 12!!! He's only 4 years old!
Holy Cow! I could not beleive it. No wonder he kept telling me his shoes hurt his feet. I swear it hasn't been that long since I bought them though. He had to have a pair for running around camping. Got him a little pair of Avia runners. He picked them out.

Well...off to finish folding last load of laundry, pack my bag, and get busy with finishing duties...
If I'm lucky, we may get to pick up my new dresser today too, if D gets back in minutes.
I found one to match our mission style bed, it was $449, regular $749. I am so stoked to finally have a nice new dresser that I picked out. In the past we have had gimme's. Slowly but surely I am building my own style...

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We went to the Zoo!

My cousin came and stayed the weekend, so we could make a trip to the zoo. It's pretty much an all day thing, we left late, but we got there about 1, had to shuttle over, and didn't leave until around 6:30pm...we closed the zoo down! I have never before done that.
Kids had a blasted time! All Leah wanted to do was see the giraffe...cute!
We checked out the newer Dinosaurs Trail, and that was an absolute hit with all! Boys loved it! The T REX was amazing...so HUGE! The boy had to take a second look to realize it's size.
The thrill ride was incredible, and they loved riding the train. We bought the whole package. Figured, if we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it all!
Only, we did miss one area, not a big deal, though.
Enjoy a couple of my favorites for the day...

Don't mess with the Rex!
Finding Fossils
Brushing a Goat

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