Little House On The Mountain

Okay, imagine this, you turn on your television flip channels for a few seconds when your attention is caught by the image of a dirt road that curves through a field, where several deer are grazing. They stop and look up, but do not run away. The picture then rolls along following the road which continues across the field to where it enters the woods. It's darker in here, but still beautiful, with trees that seem to reach the sky, and the camera continues to follow the road which begins to climb a hill. Soon, the camera turns a corner and begins to climb another, steeper stretch of road. Finally you come to a place with a bit of a clearing from the trees, and at the top of another hill sits a beautiful 30 foot trailer. The door is open, and through the screen door you see two beautiful children, a boy of about ten years old and a girl of about three and a half, smiling a greeting through the door. They open the door, and the show begins.

Alright, alright, so it's not the opening sequence for one of the shows in the new fall television line up, but it sounds like it'd be a good one. What it is, however is a description of the road from the entrance to our campgrounds to our site, which now boasts our new trailer. I have to say, it really is so wonderful to have so much space, and it's so beautiful inside. I admit, it felt a little like staying in a hotel, something that you enjoy, but it still feels a little strange because it's not a place your used to being, but that feeling will go away, I'm sure, as we get used to it. I mean, so far the kids and I have only spent one night in it, for Heaven's sakes. But we really had a great time last week, I can't get over how easy everything is. I mean, closing up for the week used to be such a chore, but now, with this trailer, it's a matter of turning off the water connection (I know how to do that now heheheheh), turning off the water heater, turning off the lights and locking the door.

Which means, opening it for the weekend is that easy too, just reverse those processes. The fan, heat, and A/C controls are on a panel on the wall. I have a double sink in the kitchen which makes doing dishes a lot easier, and a stove with an oven inside the trailer, which opens a whole realm of possibilities for meals and desserts. I know I mentioned the amount of space already, but I put so much stuff away on Saturday, and there's still a ton of space left over. That's quite a treat for a mom who's family has outgrown their house and who has trouble at home finding a place to put things, simply because there's just no more room.


With this trailer we also have more sleeping space, which means, there's room for an occasional overnight guest. My mom is actually joining us this weekend, and she's never stayed over night before. I think the pop-up was too much like a tent for her, and Mom is definitely not a camper. The kids are real excited that she'll be joining us.


I'm so sorry it took so long to get this post up. I've had a crazy week, my house is a wreck, and I think my DH is reaching the point of getting mad when I blog when the house is a wreck. And honestly, I could go on about the trailer all day, so to keep from boring you, I'll stop myself now. I wanted to get the pictures posted, as promised, before Spanky calls and yells at me again to get them posted.

Before I go though I want to thank everyone who contributed original haiku's to the comments on the "poetry" post. Such wonderful, poetic, strolls down memory lane. Keep them coming, I love them.

Anyway, your all welcome to come see our new digs sometime soon. ;)

AvaKimmy Isn't Sad Anymore

We're officially on our way. I'll be posting pictures of our new digs later!!!!!

TTFN

I'm surrounded by poets!!!

As you can see from AvaKimmy's facial expression, attire and surroundings, I'm not overly happy to be at home this evening. I'd much prefer to be up at camp right now, but I have to work tomorrow, and gas prices being what they are, I felt it was better to stay home tonight and go up right after I get done tomorrow, rather than to drive back and forth again. So AvaKimmy is a bit sad tonight, but she'll be fine tomorrow afternoon, so don't worry about her.

Anyway, for your reading enjoyment, I was originally going to post the text to my ABC book for K, but decided against that. Maybe later, after it's all put together, but not yet. For now, though, it's been so much fun remembering times during our childhood, especially things that Jenny and my brother have brought up lately, and since I've been inspired by their poetry, Here are a couple of my own. The first is by special request of my brother, who came up with the idea to go on a camping trip years and years ago, and G and I, though a bit unsure of what we were doing or whether we'd like it, followed along and the three of us went on an excursion to the sporting goods store and spent I don't' even know how much money on camping supplies. So, this tribute Haiku is for my brother, who started it all.

"Let us camp," he said
"We'll have fun among nature"
So we bought a tent

Many years later
We're eternally grateful
For his suggestion

I'm not sure if that is everything a Haiku should be, but it does follow the 5-7-5 rule.

Okay, here's another, for all of you who mean so much to me

Fond memories shared
With friends who are family
Bring back childhood's joy

And now one final one

Off and running now
A busy day awaits me
At it's end, away

No more poems now
Must finish packing, then, teach
The new trailer waits

~Hugs ;)

Changes On The Wind

This past weekend, some noticeable changes began up at our Mountain Paradise, and I'm not strictly referring to the colors of the leaves. Also, it was an extremely busy weekend, filled with packing up, taking out, cleaning up and breaking down the trailer. Maybe it seems a bit early for that, seeing as the season doesn't end till nearly the end of next month, however, it really isn't early, because...

WE BOUGHT A NEW TRAILER!!!!!!
Okay, so it's not really a new one, it's used, a 2003 model, but it's new to us. I'll wait for next Monday to show it off to you, because it is being delivered to the campsite on Wednesday, and believe me I'll be taking lots of shots of it when we go up on Saturday. I really can't tell you how excited we all are. As I said above, it was really an exhaustingly busy weekend, but we got alot done, and got the pop-up cleaned out and towed out and dropped it off at the dealer last night. So our site went through some big changes. On Saturday, I helped G take down the carport we had covering the pop-up to give us added protection from the rain then took the kids out to lunch and shopping for a couple hours while he carefully disassembled our deck (so he can build a new one using the same boards)then cleaned the outside of the pop-up so it would be all shiny and nice.

Then, on Sunday, I had the pleasure of emptying out and cleaning the inside of the trailer. The emptying part wasn't too bad, although it would've gone more smoothly if my boy would've been a little more helpful, but what can you do. I guess it means he's a nearly ten years old. Cleaning was abominable, because it was hot inside the trailer, and it was just such a lot of work to do. I had to vaccuum down the whole trailer, the bunks, the insides of cabinets, everything. The vaccuum cleaner tore a hole in the mattress cover on the kids' bunk, and then when I had it on top of the counter top to help me reach the rest of their mattress, it fell off onto my leg and the brush gave me a horrible rug burn type thing on my leg that was all seeping and oozing and all that gross stuff (like a big blister with the top ripped off of it). At that point I broke down in tears, because the hole in the mattress cover (and G's reaction to it) and the hole in my leg happened within 10 minutes of each other, and I just couldn't handle it. I just said "I just don't know what I'm doing!" and broke down crying. At that moment, my darling friend Lisa from across the road came into the trailer. She saw I was crying and just said "What happend?" So, I swallowed back my tears and told her about the hole in the mattress cover and that G was upset (he didn't yell or anything, but I knew he was upset) and I told her about the vaccuum shredding me up and I showed it to her. So, she took charge of things. She told me not to worry about the rip in the mattress cover, because the dealer would probably be replacing that anyway. Then she very calmly told my son to go find the first aid kit, and she sat there and fixed up my injured leg as if I was four years old, which, at that moment, was exactly what I needed someone to do. She even blew on it when she cleaned it out so it wouldn't sting. Then she showed me the reason she'd stopped by. She had bought me some beautiful Jolee's stickers of trailers, one of which looks alot like our new one. She hugged me and said she'd be back to help me later and went outside to where G was watching the football game. She's an Eagles fan, and G has loved the Giants since I've known him. She asked if he wanted some company, and they watched the game together and he got all in a good mood from having someone to watch with and also because the Giants came back to win it, and then when the game was over, Lisa came back inside by me and said, "Okay, let's get this done." She helped me get everything finished till it was all shiny and ready to go. She's such a great friend, and both she and her husband, Tim, have been such a huge help to us up there. I don't know what we'd do without either of them.

So when Lisa and I were done with the cleaning, G started to close it up. We did have one more injury at that point because as G was pushing the bunks into the main part of the trailer in order to close it up, R decided to go inside and got his arm pinched when the bunk was pushed into it. G was pushing from the side, and the door is on the front, so he didn't know R had gone in. He pushed it in and R yells "Dad! Pull it back out! Pull it back out!!!" G said "Why?" R said "Because my arm is stuck in it!" Arrrgh! It looked painful (as I'm sure it was) but once we got home and the pinched up skin had smoothed itself back out, there was only a tiny scrape, so it was really no big deal.

Anyway, after the weekend of blood, sweat, and tears, we dropped it off Sunday night at the dealer and Monday G went back to the dealer and signed all the papers. They're still giving us the amount they said they would for the trade in, so I guess Lisa was right about the hole in the mattress not mattering. Sorry for the lack of photos, I promise I'll have bunches of them after next week, but I figured I'd better get this up here. There are, after all a few people who weren't told yet what we bought. But anyway, if you guessed a new trailer, you guessed right! Stay tuned till next time!

I Love This Song!!!!!!!!!

Hey are you proud of me or what?! I not only figured out how to post AvaKimmy all by myself, I also taught myself how to make my blog sing! As I said in the title of this post, I do love this song, it's one of my favorites. If you don't happen to be a fan of it, scroll down to the very bottom of my page where the video is playing and click on the square stop button to turn it off. Of course, if you do like it, watch the video, it's pretty cool.

Anyway, enjoy it. And don't forget to comment and try to guess what we bought!

You Bought A What????!!!!!

Yesterday was G's birthday. He took the day off, and we went out shopping. Believe it or not, we made a purchase, something we've both been really longing for, and we got a really good deal.

I'm noticing that none of you ever seems to post comments, the exeptions being Dawn, Jenny and my new friend Spincerely. C'mon guys you're making them do all the work to make this fun for me. It's free to sign up for an account, and no, you do not have to create a blog of your own to be able to post comments. The comments are half the fun of blogging, for me and for you, so in an effort to get you post comments, I've decided to give you a challenge. Jen is running a guessing game of sorts on her blog right now and I think I will too, just to see if I can get you to post comments.

So, the challenge is, can you guess what it is that we bought? If you are among the handful of people whom I've already told, you can comment (please do), but don't give away the answer please. If you think about it, it shouldn't be too hard to guess.

Also, check out my lovely Avatar. Her name is AvaKimmy and she's my very own alter-ego. I'm working on making my site sing, the way Jenny's does (sorry to be a copycat, Jen. Look at it as you're being my inspiration.) ;) I'm just excited that I figured out how to post her without your help.

Bookcases, Bowling Balls and Nasty People, OH MY!!!!!

Arrrgh!!!! I've just had the most aggravating day in the history of the world. Well, probably not really the most, because a lot of days can be pretty aggravating. But it was really a bad one. I do have to say that even though the title talks about nasty "people", I really only encountered one of those today, when I was at work. I guess it really should read "A Nasty Person" but that didn't seem to pack the same punch as the plural did. And as a bit of a disclaimer here, I need you all to understand that even though my mother does enter into the story at one point and she was the indirect cause of a bit of the aggravation, I need you all to know that I do not mean to insinuate that she is nasty. I mean, sure she can be, but don't we all have our moments? I can't think of anyone I know who doesn't have the capacity to get testy now and again. (See Jen, it's okay to be grouchy sometimes.) But the point I'm trying to make here is that the woman you see in this picture with my beautiful offspring number two, is absolutely not the nasty person referred to in the title of this post. Are we all clear on that? Yes? Good. Alright, here we go:

Today my Art classes at work began and when the time for the last class came, a woman walked in who gave new meaning to the word nasty. All she did was rant and rave at me because her kid was the only one there, and why hadn't I called to tell her that he was the only one. I tried explaining that he wasn't the only one enrolled, and that our enrollment doesn't close when classes start, that we take registrations continually throughout the session so more kids may yet enroll, but she wouldn't let me finish a sentence before she was off and ranting again. Anyway, she stormed out, dragging her little boy with her, and I assure you that he wanted to stay, the poor kid. So, my darling boss, who's also one of my very dear friends came in and I told her all about it and she made me feel better about it. I really didn't want to be that woman's kid's teacher anyway if she was going to be like that. Turns out, she had tried our program out last spring and pulled a similar thing, demanding a refund. So whatever. It's her loss. Her kid's loss too, actually, but that's her fault, not mine.

So my workday ended and I went to pick up my mom and K because I had promised to take my mom, who doesn't drive, to run some errands. We went to the bank and the post office, then picked up my son at school and headed out shopping for a bookcase for my mother. We went to a store not too far away. I actually thought of going to another location of the same store that I like a bit better, but decided to go to the closer one, figuring that whatever one would have they all would have. Well, she did actually find a bookcase she liked rather quickly, but of course, it wasn't in stock. She asked one of the people that worked there if they had it and he said no, but to check with customer service as they could check nearby store's inventories to find out which stores had it. So she did that, and they said that the location I'd thought briefly of going to did, in fact, have it in stock. Mom said she'd like to go get it, and I was going to give G a call while we were in the parking lot and tell him what I was doing, but by then it was nearly 5:30 and I told her that I was tired and wanted to get home to see G before he left for bowling but I'd be happy to take her tomorrow. She seemed like that was fine, although she didn't say anything, but when I was nearly home she said "I can't go tomorrow, I'm on the senior bus, so unless we can go first thing in the morning so I'm back for 11, I can't go." I had planned to get my car tuned up tomorrow, so I said "Okay, let's just go now, then, because I can't do the morning." I did sort of wish she'd told me before I'd left the parking lot of the first store, because my handsfree set for my cell is broken and once I'd left the parking lot, I couldn't call G, as I was driving. But I figured, he's going out, and I spoke with him earlier, so it's no big deal to go get this bookcase now.

This other store is about a fifteen minute ride from the one we'd been at and due to the hour, we hit traffic, so it ended up being closer to a twenty minute ride. So we went inside and found the bookcase, which was, in fact, in stock, and just then my cell phone rang. G said "Where are you?" I explained where I was. He said "Hon, you've gotta come back, my bowling bag is in your car and I'm supposed to start bowling in ten minutes!" I said, "I'll be right there!!!"So I left my son and mother at the store, raced to the bowling ally, which seemed to take forever, to bring him his ball and shoes, then flew back there to pick up mom and R. That was a pain, but the bookcase was heavy and bulky and wouldn't fit in the cart, so we had to wait so someone could bring it up to the front of the store for us, and there just wasn't time for that. I suspect he missed out on warming up as it was, but I know I was there before 6:30 and that is when warm-ups end and play begins, so I guess he wasn't really late after all. Anyway, my mom called later to let me know that the bookcase is perfect and she thanked me profusely for doing all that running so she could get it, and as you can probably guess, I'm really, really wiped out by now. But I'll leave you with this shot of my princess. She can always bring a smile even on my worst day. And the best part of all is, now this awful day is officially over and I can go to bed. Nite-Nite! ;)

Reflections on life with a camping man

Alright, another Sunday, another camping trip finished. This week we did have a bit of an exciting start to our trip. First of all, by some small miracle we got out of here by 4 pm on Friday and arrived at our mountain paradise a little past 5, so that was great. The love of my life was on the cell with his buddy and ended the call because he needed to try to fix the leak he'd discovered as we packed up to leave last weekend and wanted to get it done before dark.

Now let me qualify here for a moment, by saying that, while I do my fair share in taking care of all the laundry before and after each trip, doing the dishes while up there (I have a lot of modern conveniences up there, but they don't include a dishwasher), making sure the bunks have proper (and clean) bedding and keeping the trailer straitened up and making sure the kids are clean, I do have to admit that my dh does pretty much everything else as far as chores when we are there. In a trailer, among many other things, this includes lighting the water heater so I have hot water to do my dishes with, and making sure the water and electrical hookups are indeed hooked up. Let me also say that in the year+ that we've had the campsite, I have never, for any reason had to do anything involving the water hookup. That said, I can proceed in telling my story.

So, as I said, when we arrived, G immediately set about trying to track down the source of the leak and I kept the kids and the dog outside so they wouldn't be in his way. Well, I was sitting at the picnic table reading a magazine, Princess K was playing on the swingset and R was playing with the dog when all of a sudden I hear this sound of water gushing (not running mind you; gushing) and G starts yelling "TURN THE WATER OFF!!!!!!" "Where?" I called back. He said "Where the line connects to the hookup!" Huh? I had NO CLUE where he meant. So I said "Where is that?" Well, he lost it. He ran outside and turned the water off, and I must say he really did look pretty funny because he was dripping wet, all red in the face, muttering amidst a myriad of swear words "How long have we been campin here that none of you know where the *&%$# water connection is? We've got six *&%$# inches of *&%$# water in the trailer!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I have to say I felt really bad, because it seems like I should've known where the water connection was. But at the same time, as I said, I don't ever do anything involving the water connection, so how could I have known? But G is a good guy, and later on he actually apologized to me for getting so mad. He said "It's just that I was standing there, and the water was gushing out of two different places and I was trying to keep both of them covered with my hands to keep it from coming out and I had to let go to come out and turn off the water." Then, we laughed about it, because the mental picture of him trying to keep water from gushing out with only his hands really is rather funny. Sort of like the old story of the little boy who stuck his finger into the hole in the dam to keep it from flooding his village. And really, it wasn't as bad as "six *&%$# inches of water in the trailer". What water there was, was pretty much limited to the shower area, and so even though our bunk got splashed a bit, most of the water was contained and drained out easily enough.

Anyway, though, we had a good laugh about it. We really do have a lot of fun up there, and this season especially has brought us really close together. And see, I did find a picture of myself...Albeit an old one, but it is a picture of me, and a camping picture at that. I definitely need to get my butt on a diet, because looking at all these old pictures I was just digging through, it seems like as we age, the better G looks and the worse I look. But, I'm working on that too. I think I'm going to try the Special K challenge... It even has my initial in it. I've heard it can work, so maybe I'll give it a shot. Of course dieting would be easier if he wasn't such a damn good cook.

So, I guess I'll end this here, with a picture of G in his "happy place", which basically means on our mountain with a cold beer in his hand next to a roaring fire. This shot is another "oldie" so it isn't at our site, but it is, in fact, on our mountain, from the days when we used to tent camp. I hope you've all enjoyed this glimpse into my weekends away. If you can join us some weekend, let me know. ;)

A bit of help, please....

This weekend, once we'd cleaned up from the fall out from the storm, I had a chance to sit down and begin planning on a cropping project I'm planning to work on when I go on my retreat in October. My little one is absolutely gaga over the Disney Princesses, and I thought I'd make her a Princess ABC book. I've got all sorts of great stickers and paper and even a Princess album to put it in. But I figured, being a book, as opposed to a scrapbook in which I would journal, it might be wise to get the text (which will rhyme) written and printed out ahead of time. It is rather a big project and if I'm to have any hope of finishing it that weekend, I need to have as much of the prep work done as possible. That means, poems written for each letter, pictures chosen and ready to go for each page, and layouts decided upon. I really did pretty well too. I got most of the little poems written. They might be a bit corny, but hey, they are being written for a three year old, after all.

So here's where my request for help comes into play. As I said, I did pretty well coming up with "princessy" words to begin with each letter, but, there are a few I just went blank on. I still need some words for the letters "I", "J", "N", "R", "T", "X" and (of course) "Z". I would appreciate anything you can come up with. They don't have to be babyish words, as she really has quite a vocabulary. Just as long as they are, well, princessy. I'll handle doing the poems, I just need some help coming up with the words themselves. To give you an idea of what I'm doing, for example, for the letter "E" I came up with "enchantment", "excitement", and "eyes". So the way the poem worked out was: "E is for enchantment, where all magic lies; E is for excitement shining in your eyes". For H all I came up with was happy, so I wrote: "H is for hapiness, as happy can be, a princess lives happily ever after, you see." I guess you get the idea. Anyway, if anyone out there can come up with any ideas for me, that'd be great. Thanks alot.

Things You Should NEVER Do On A Camping Trip

Alright, I figured, in light of the name of my blog, it's about time to have a post that's actually about camping. I took a few days last week and practiced preparing and posting pictures and after a couple phone call lessons from my dear friend, Jen, I managed to be able to post a few, along with this list of things you should never do when camping.

If at all possible, try to avoid camping when a tropical storm is ripping it's way through your area. It makes for a very sleepless night, with all the cracking and banging of falling tree limbs, etc.

If you do actually go when said storm is a-blowin, don't be unwilling to assist in clean up efforts afterwards. Instead, try to follow the example of the cheerful young lady in the photo above.

Don't forget to take the time during your trip to check out the local wildlife. It can be really be a thrilling experience, especially to younger members of your group.

And never miss out on the magic of watching them watch the wildlife.







Don't forget that boys will be boys and that some boys (men too) will just need to mess with the campfire, and try to be okay with that. Also, try hard not to freak out when you see a photo of just how close to his shirt said boy decides to hold a flaming stick.









Follow these guidelines, and I'm sure you and your happy campers will all have a wonderful time.