Busy Busy Busy!

Whoah! Has the past month been a whirlwind for anyone else??!!!??

SO much has happened since my last post.

My baby sister asked me and Hubbs if we would be willing to take Ollie (my nephew) if anything were to happen to her. Of course we said of course. Hubbs told my mom that we would be willing to take him right now if they would let us. Poor little guy just needs a family that would really love him. His sperm donor signed away all of his parental rights after a DNA test gave us proof that he was indeed the father. And my baby sister treats Ollie like an inconvenience. Yep, I would be more than happy to adopt my nephew.

Hubbs brought home a notice from work saying he was being offered a chance to relocate to Denver with a huge bonus. We are seriously considering it. The only thing we are waiting on is to hear back from one of the train masters to see if he has the right kind of seniority or whatever. I am SO excited at the possibility of being able to start over!

Monk Man is almost done with T-ball. Friday is his last game of the season. I am very much ready for that shit to be over with.

Hubbs and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. He bought me a laptop. I didn't buy him shit. I felt a little guilty about it but then I found out that he bought something himself.

Which brings me to the next topic. Hubbs bought a motor home yesterday. This big ass motor home has been living in my FIL's back yard for years. It belongs to step-MIL's parents. They live a few hours away and come down here during the summer because it gets super hot where they live. They pack up their motor home and hide in the woods all summer. They decided that they are getting too old for it and asked FIL to sell it for them. Which he did. To Hubbs.

So guess who gets to get a loan to pay for the damn thing? And get insurance? And find a place to store it? Ding Ding Ding. Me! AND all this needs to be done by Friday afternoon because we have plans to go camping over the 3 day weekend.

Ugh.

With Kids. And Dogs. In A Tent. 1-10

This wintery weather is giving me a bad attitude. I am tired of the ice and cold. And the thought of it ONLY being January pisses me off even more.

I need to blog about something that lifts my spirits and that I can look forward to when winter is finally over.

Camping! With kids. And dogs. In a tent.

Right now, the idea of being able to get away from people makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I would pack everybody up and head out to the woods right now except for the little freezing to death issue. I am going to try and post 10 camping tips at least once a week until spring. Or until I run out of useful things to say. Or until I forget.

For the readers that might have missed all my Camping Is Fun posts this summer, here is a little history. For those of you who have already read about it, you can skip the next 3 paragraphs.

Up until last summer (2009) we really hadn't done much as a family. My boys are little hellions so I avoided public things as much as possible. Plus I don't really like to be around a bunch of people. So that means the Circus, the Fair, Water parks, the zoo, the Carnival, Disney Land, for the love of pete even the mall, all those things are BAD ideas for us.

Anyway, some time last summer, Hubbs had the brilliant idea of trying camping. We went on our very first "As A Family" camping trip in August (I think) and we were hooked. We spent almost every weekend of August and September out in the woods.

It solved our problems with not spending time together and not doing much with the boys.

So here are 1-10 of my tips for camping with kids. And dogs. In a tent.
1) Bring twice as many diapers. It is inevitable that Bobblehead gets the squirts for at least half of a day when we are camping.
2) Bring 3 times the wipes. I have baby wipes everywhere. In the car, in the tent, in the diaper bag, in all 3 of the trucks, at work, in every room of our home. Baby wipes are great for those "good enough" cleanings, especially when you are camping. Marshmallowy fingers? Get the wipes. Dirty face? Get the wipes. Need to blow your nose? Get the wipes. They also take makeup off.
3) Dress in layers. Even for bed. Out here, the temperature changes quickly. It can go from hot and sunny to cold and rainy in no time.
4) Don't forget the sunscreen. I got a horrible sunburn on one of the trips. I was sitting under the trees, in the shade and still got burned.
5) Remember the First Aid Kit! Someone always gets hurt.
6) If foods need to be cut up, do it at home and not at camp if at all possible. You know all those Ziploc containers we can get for cheap/free? The ones with the blue lids? Those are PERFECT to use to store food in a cooler. They seal up well enough to keep the melted ice out and they stack!
7) If you can find one, buy a plastic egg holder. You will know it when you see it. Look in the camping section at Walmart or Big 5. It is bright yellow and folds up. Now it will NOT keep water off of your eggs but it WILL keep your eggs from breaking better than the egg cartons which disintegrate in a cooler. Ok, I found a green one at amazon.com
8) Bring Glow Sticks! The bracelet size is perfect. As soon as it starts to get dark, break out the glow sticks and cover your kids in them. Arms, legs, belt loops, anywhere you can. They help me keep track of the boys in the dark and they help the boys get to sleep in the tent. They also help me keep track of the dogs in the dark. 1 bracelet sized stick around the little dogs neck, 2 around the big dogs neck. If you are camping with a group, the glow sticks will make you the coolest mom in camp for the night.
9) Bring REAL shoes. Like sneakers with laces. If you are anything like me and live in sandals in the summer, you will want to fight this tip. BUT good shoes are a must! I wear my sandals when I am driving up to our camping spot but change into real shoes as soon as we start unloading our stuff. I put my sandals inside the tent until after the kids are asleep and I don't have to chase anyone or even walk farther than the pee bush.
And 10) Make sure all the food is put away before you start getting drunk. This includes the dog food and even the garbage. We had a furry friend run off with all the dog food on our first camping trip because we forgot to put our stuff away. I learned my lesson and everything gets put away before the kids even get put to bed.

Check back next week for tips 11-20. Maybe. If I don't forget. :)

Torture

Monday and Tuesday were hell. All 4 of us caught some kind of stomach bug and it was horrible.

Barfing, pooping, achy body, fever, chills, dizziness, and all that other nasty stuff that comes with a stomach bug.

Did I mention that we all share 1 bathroom?

By Monday night I was ready to check into a hotel, just so that I could spew without worrying about whether or not someone else would need it before I was done.

My little brother (the phlebotomist at the local hospital) said he wanted me to get us all tested for Swine Flu because we had the symptoms. He must have forgotten that our insurance went bye bye months ago and we are broke as hell. His job has made him a little paranoid. Thanks for the concern little bro but we will just ride it out (whatever "it" is) with lots of fluids, rest and vitamins.

We were fine Saturday and Sunday. We went to bed early on Friday so we could get an early start out to the picnic and get our camp set up.

Yeah, we ended up camping out there Saturday night. Hubbs never gives me all the information when he wants me to make a decision. And I guess I don't think to ask for more.

Anyway, the kids had fun playing with the 9 other kids that showed up. Sad. There are 200+ Elks Club members in town and out of those 200+, maybe 30 members don't have kids or grandkids. But I really can't blame them for not wanting to show up. There wasn't anything planned for them to do!

Not a damn thing except for a 10 foot high dirt pile with money hidden in it. I am not sure what happened this year. There was supposed to be a HUGE breakfast on Sunday morning, games all weekend and night time activities for the ones who got to stay up late on Saturday night.

The boys were so disappointed! We actually were headed out of the campground by noon on Sunday. We left our tent up and most of our stuff there since the Chili Cookoff starts Friday night. Not to worry, it is all safe. A few people we know were staying all week and would keep an eye on things.

We all laid down for a nap when we got home on Sunday because Hubbs and I stayed up way too late drinking after the kids all went to bed. When we got up, I felt kind of crappy but I just thought it was my hangover so I didn't think too much of it.

Bobblehead went to bed around 8, Monk Man and I went around 10 and Hubbs went around 2. Just like normal. When I woke up Monday morning, I felt okay until Monk Man walked down the hall crying that he had gotten sick in his blankets. I messaged my boss on Facebook (because we live on FarmTown) that I was staying home to take care of the sick Monk Man. As soon as Hubbs and Bobblehead got up I started feeling sick. And that was the end of me.

But we all seem to be doing okay today. My stomach is still a little angry but I felt good enough to get everybody off to daycare and myself off to work. I am keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow isn't a repeat of Monday.

Help Me Choose

Ugh, why do I have to make the decisions?

Here is the deal. Hubbs is an Elks Club member. The Elks picnic is this weekend and the big Chili Cookoff is next weekend.


Do we:
A. Go to the picnic on Saturday
B. Go camping for the weekend just the family
C. Stay home to do some much needed housework

Personally, I don't care where we go, as long as we go SOMEWHERE this weekend. Out of town is out of town. I don't think Hubbs wants to go to the picnic since he left the decision up to me. If he wanted to go, he would have decided that all on his own. And, the boys don't even know that it is an option, so if we do decide to go, it would be a surprise. And on top of it, we would have to leave the dogs home if we go to the picnic. If they see us loading up to go to the woods without them they are going to be so pissed.

BUT, the picnic is geared towards the kids with the games and contests and such. Plus they need interaction with other kids and out there, I have no choice but to let them run free with the other kids. It is only fair to let them go to the picnic since Hubbs and I have the Chili Cookoff.

BUT, the house is out of control. The floors need to be mopped, the carpets vacuumed, everything dusted, the office/toy room needs to be picked up and mopped, the grass needs to be mowed, the weeds needs to be pulled, the patio hosed off, a shed needs to be built, the garden needs some attention. I could go on but I am getting depressed by how much crap needs to be done.

Ugh, and then next weekend I get to do this all over again. Chili Cookoff, family camping or housework. I am not even sure I want to go to the Chili Cookoff this year either. I much prefer being with a small group rather than a huge group.

Things That Suck

Today's post is about things that have sucked for me in the last few days.

1. Swine Flu Sucks
A customer came in Monday morning with her teenage daughter. We got a call Tuesday afternoon, right before we closed, that that teenage daughter got a positive on her Swine flu test. Gee. Thanks. At least she did manage to call and let us know that she exposed us, so that was nice, right?

2. Pink Eye Sucks
Yes, I think I am getting pink eye. Again. Yay. It feels like I have dirt up under my eyelid but I have flushed it out over and over. And it is already starting to swell up. The pink eye ointment that I have makes me see all blurry so once I put it in, I am useless. Can't drive, can't watch t.v., can't play on the internet.

3. Camping and My Period Sucks
We went camping last weekend and guess who showed up? Thankfully I brought supplies, just in case, even though Hubbs laughed and teased me about it. I managed to have a good time, even with my bathroom being a shrub. And it saved me from having to put out.

What the hell else can go wrong? Nevermind. Scratch that. My karma has been pretty bad so I won't even tempt it.

It is finally closing time, and that does not suck. Off to the gas station to buy beer for the lazy ass Hubbs.

I may have another post tomorrow, if I can see well enough to get to work. :)

And Lastly

Some camping pictures!

It took me all day to get this posted. Photobucket is being a bitch!



That is me and Monk Man. It originally was in color but we were all so dirty that I changed it to black and white to hide it. It is a rare opportunity to get a picture with me in it, since I am always the one taking the pictures.


Here is Monk Man and Bobblehead at dinner time.


Here they are, chillin by the fire.


This is Molly, my blue heeler/terrier mix. Monk Man calls her his sister.


And here she is, on what we called "High Alert".


And this is Duke, doing what he does best. Nothing.


And these are the dirtiest little piggies ever! Please ignore the dirty kitchen floor.

The Rest of the Trip

The rest of the trip was pretty boring.

We came back into town Saturday morning to pick up the rest of our stuff. I made the mistake of sending Hubbs to buy food and a couple of camp chairs while I loaded up the truck and the car again. He came home with a TON of extra stuff (including a new $45 ice chest and a $75 table to set the camp stove on) but we ended up using it all and could have used more.

We went for a drive down the canyon when we got back to camp because it was hot as hell. Hubbs put Monk Man on his lap and let him steer the truck. That was a little nerve wracking. So was when Hubbs let both the boys ride in the back of the truck with the dogs. Don't anyone worry, we were on a dirt road and never drove faster than 15 mph.

When we got back to camp, Hubbs managed to start a fire by himself and I got to cook hot dogs. Now I usually don't eat hot dogs. The only way I can manage to eat them is if they are burnt on the grill or in a fire. I don't eat them boiled or even pan fried. Barf. The kids got normal unburned hot dogs, Hubbs got some kind of fancy steak wrapped in bacon and I got my burned up hot dogs.

The boys got Smores for desert and they weren't as big of a hit as I expected. Well, Monk Man liked them but Bobblehead couldn't figure out how to eat them and got pissed off because he couldn't separate the chocolate from the marshmallow. Oh well. Maybe next time.

After dinner Bobblehead and I were left to clean up (he is such a good helper) while Hubbs and Monk Man went for a walk. The dogs hung around by the fire for a while but eventually took off down the trail to investigate a little.

After the sun went down, the kids started begging to go to bed. They were exhausted! They didn't mess around getting their pajamas on and Monk Man (my sleep fighter) even yelled at Bobblehead (loves to sleep) to let him go to sleep. The dogs even laid down in front of the tent door and didn't move for hours. Hubbs put wayyy too much wood in the fire and couldn't keep from putting in more wood so we sat up and drank. By the time the fire finally burned out, I was DRUNK. I know I went to bed, I just don't remember doing it. LoL That doesn't happen very often.

Ooooh and I felt it in the morning. Cowboy coffee just won't cut it when a hangover is involved. I couldn't wait to get home. I was going to start a pot of real coffee, put the boys in the bath, sit in front of the nice cool swamper and relax. Then maybe take a nap. Nope! Didn't happen that way. Hubbs' dad showed up at the camp site about an hour after we got up so we ended up not getting home until about 3. By then it was too late to take a nap so I just drank a Red Bull and chased it with a pot of coffee.

All of our camping shit is still sitting in my living room. I have no initiative to unpack it, just to re-pack it all up again in another few weekends to go again. So there it sits until I get sick of looking at it or the kids empty it and scatter it all over the house again.

Where Did I Leave Off

Oh yeah. We get to our camp site and it is darker than dark.


We opened up the doors and before WE could even get out, the dogs are climbing over each other and the seats to get the hell out of the car. Hubbs wanted to let the kids out to run around while we set up but I wanted to leave them in their car seats, out of harms way.


Unfortunately, Hubbs won the argument. And guess who got to chase after them? Bingo! Me. But it turned out to be in my favor. Hubbs had to set up the tent and I convinced the boys to help me unload all the boxes and bags from the HHR.


I would love to have been someone watching us set up camp. It must have been a hell of a show. The dogs were chasing each other, the kids were chasing the dogs, I was chasing the kids and trying to find kicked off shoes at the same time as I was trying to make camp comfortable and keep Duke from peeing on everybody and everything that wasn't nature.


Oh, and Hubbs got lucky enough to be the one to set up the tent. Alone. In the dark. With only the HHR's headlights to help him see. Ha! Next time he will let me leave the kids buckled in their car seats so I can help.


So everything gets unloaded and set up without too much drama. The boys decide they want marshmallows RIGHT THIS MINUTE! Hubbs took Monk Man to gather fire wood and Bobblehead stayed with me to find those damn marshmallows. The marshmallows are found and we have a pretty good sized stack of wood. Hubbs loads the fire pit full off wood and cardboard. He couldn't get anything to stay lit. I bet he went through 10 matches before he finally asked for some help. I sent him off to get some more wood and I get to work finding all the newspapers I had bought that morning and stashed under the seat so the coupons wouldn't get stomped on before I got them home. I am embarrassed to admit how many newspapers I found. It was like 10.


I grabbed the papers over to the fire pit where Bobblehead was sitting with his thumb in his mouth. Apparently he found a little plant that we used to call Boy Scout Toilet Paper, tore off a leaf and really liked the texture of it. Ok, so he is occupied. I yell for Monk Man to get his ass over to me so I could teach him and his daddy how to light a fire.


Hubbs walks up with an attitude like, how are YOU going to start a fire when I couldn't. Silly men. I got them started ripping up the paper and scrunching them into balls about the size of a grapefruit. I started making a tepee out of the sticks. When the paper was balled up and the tepee was up, I made them stuff the paper inside the tepee while I held it steady. When it was full of paper, I lit the paper on the bottom.


It worked like a charm. Minutes later we had a fire bright enough to be able to turn off the headlights. The boys got their marshmallows and I got to gloat a little.


Speaking of marshmallows....I found the greatest cooking sticks! 2 different kinds, single prongs and double prongs. The double ones extend and are great for cooking hot dogs on and the single ones are great for marshmallows.


After the boys are full of sugar, we turn them loose to run around. They had 1 stipulation, to stay within the light. If the campfire didn't reach it, they didn't get to go to it until the morning. They actually obeyed! While they were running around, Hubbs and I sat on an ice chest and snuggled. Snuggling is a very rare thing. Always has been. I have issues with being touched (long story) and he has issues with PDA.

The kids finally get tired and actually start begging to go to bed. They are SO excited to get to sleep somewhere new. They have a case of the giggles for about half an hour but eventually pass out. Hubbs and I stayed up way too long poking the fire, talking and stuffing ourselves silly with junk food that we had hid from the boys.

Sometime in the middle of the night, the dogs woke me up. They were growling at a forest creature and I could hear that forest creature munching away at the bag of dog food I must have forgotten to put away. I have no idea what that forest creature was because I was too scared to look out of the tent.

When the boys woke me up at the ass crack of dawn, we went on a little walk I wanted to see if I could find tracks or something and the boys just wanted to run around. Well, while we were walking around I found a trail of Reese's peanut butter cups leading away from our camp. Hubbs must have left his candy bag out and the forest creature found it after it found the dog food. I took one of the candies back to camp to show Hubbs because it had an enormous tooth print in it. He said he thought it had to have been a raccoon. I was convinced that it was a Yeti. LoL Yes, a Yeti in Arizona. I always have had an overactive imagination.

Well, whatever it was, it scared the shit out of me. And I learned my lesson about making sure EVERYTHING was put away. The last thing I need is to lay awake at night worrying that something is going to eat the dogs. The kids, not so worried about. They would just annoy the hell out of the forest creature until it brought them back.

This is turning in to a painfully long post so I will pick up where I left off sometime tomorrow.

Finally

We finally got to go on our weekend camping trip.

It was so much fun. The kids were great, the dogs were great, everything was great.

But I have to tell you, camping is NOT a bargain. Well, for normal people, it probably is. For us, not so much.

As I posted before, this camping in a tent shit is totally new to me. Years ago we had a little trailer that we could hitch up to our little V-2 truck (seriously, the HHR has more balls) and we were set. I think if we would have kept the trailer instead of selling it, we would have actually ended up with more money.

We had to basically start from scratch. When we sold the trailer, I either gave away or threw away everything camping related. I kept a few things but over the years they ended up getting put in with our regular household stuff.

Friday, Hubbs called me at work and told me that he wanted to go to the bar that night and have some drinks with a few friends. I was pissed since there was NO way I was going to get the rest of the stuff packed and try to keep the kids under control, PLUS do the grocery shopping and pick up the last minute things. So I told him he was being an asshole and just to forget the whole camping idea. Then I guilt tripped him, telling him that we have been promising this to the boys for weeks now and he has managed to screw it up for them, again.

I know, it was a shitty thing to tell him. I have to be a bitch sometimes. But in my defence, I was PMSing and can't be held responsible for my actions.

He found a baby sitter for the boys (all by himself) and convinced me to go to the steak fry at the Elks Club. After we ate and he had a couple of drinks(and I was calmed down enough to listen to him), we decided to just throw what we needed for the night into the HHR and come back in the morning to pick up the truck and the rest of our crap.

We get home, pay the baby sitter and start rushing around like nobodies business. By this time it is already 7 p.m. We throw what I already had packed up into the HHR, throw in the kids and the dogs and head off to the grocery store to pick up dinner and breakfast stuff.

And alcohol of course. Lots and lots of alcohol.

We have to go back to the house and re-stuff the car. Eventually we had to put one of the back seats down, put both car seats next to each other (usually a bad idea since then the boys can actually reach one another and normally results in a bite mark or a bruise by the end of the car ride) and stuck the dogs on Hubb's lap.

When we finally get on the road, it is already around 9:15, 9:30ish. I wanted to forget about it but we were so far into it, it would not be worth it to wait. It is an hour drive during the day but since it was dark (and I was driving) it took closer to an hour and a half.

Hubbs talked the ENTIRE drive. I finally had to direct his conversation towards Monk Man since I was having a hard time focusing on the road. I try not to drive at night because I can't see that well in the dark anymore, plus there were all these shadows jumping around by the side of the road. I know it was the headlights and trees but I was so sure an elk or something was going to run out in front of us.

This post is getting crazy long so I will make you wait until tomorrow (or knowing me, the next day) for the rest of the story.

Or Maybe Not

The weather forecast for the area we are planning our camp out calls for Scattered Thunderstorms into Tuesday.

Well, that's nice.

We are postponing the trip until the weekend after next. The boys are so disappointed. But to make it up to them, I think I am going to let them camp out in the back yard Saturday night.

I was so pissed off about it that I couldn't sleep last night. I understand that no one has control over the weather, but it still makes me mad.

So I am off to blog stalk and sulk.

Camping Anxiety

I have been swagging for "Tips on Camping With A Toddler" and came across the funniest thing.

"Camping with children is one of the true joys in family life."

Ha! Who do they think they are kidding?

Monk Man is already all stressed out about our trip. He had himself soooo worked up yesterday. I couldn't help but laugh at him. He was worried about where he was going to poop.

You should have seen the look on his face when he figured it all out. It was a pretty interesting (funny) conversation. "Wha wha wahddya mean, there's no potties?" came first, followed by "I have to find a tree?" and "what if somebody sees me?" He finished with "Oh that's just gross, I just won't poop".

LoL

On the bright side of things, I am half-way packed up and ready to go! It is all sitting in re-usable Safeway bags I got for free and in Rubbermaid boxes, half in the kitchen and the other half in the living room. It is all so unorganized right now it is driving me batty. But the kids keep getting into it and moving the stuff around so there isn't any use in trying to keep it organized.

Camping?

We are going camping next weekend.

Before we had kids, we went camping a couple of times. But we had a (very tiny) camp trailer. That is long gone. The first time Hubbs got laid off a few years ago, we sold it and all our stuff to pay some bills. Even with the camp trailer I still thought I was "roughing it".

This time, we are really going to be roughing it, in a tent.

Did I mention we are taking are taking both boys and both dogs?

Ugh. What am I getting myself into?

At the very least, this trip should provide some cute pictures for their scrapbooks. If I don't stress myself to death about it first. And yes, I already have a few lists going so I don't forget anything. I started that the minute after Hubbs suggested going.