Camp Update

Jacob made it back from Boy Scout Camp yesterday.  He was seriously tired,  kinda filthy from not showering for 10 days (apparently, the pool and lake are good enough) and he'd lost some weight (10 pounds to be exact) but he looked great and seemed to stand a little taller.  Not like he got taller but like he was more confident.  He seemed as relieved to be home as we were to have him home.  Jacob and Mike shared story after story about camp...most revolved around the fact that the other troops were annoyed with how spirit filled our troop was.

A good deal of the kids in our troop woke up Sunday morning with orange paint all over their faces.  Some of the kids in the Mic-O-Say tribe (the honor society for our district) thought it would be fun to paint the faces of some of the younger scouts while they were sleeping.  Jacob wasn't amused.  Sounds pretty funny to me. 

Overall, Jacob had a great time and walked out of camp as a Tenderfoot.  Yeah, I didn't know what that was either.  It's the second rank in Boy Scouts.  The ranks go:  New Scout, Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, Eagle.  Mike only made it to Second Class so once Jacob hits that milestone, he will have tied him.  If (Jacob says, "when," since he says he's going to get his Eagle) he hits First Class, he'll have gone farther.  Nice.  I hope he does get his Eagle.   

I got the pleasure of washing everything.  We encountered 4 spiders and countless ticks as we washed everything...in blazing hot water.  My poor washer was very tired by the end of the day. 

Speaking of ticks, I was joking around with Mike about a tick check last night as he was heading up to bed.  He said he was fine and I headed outside to watch the incoming thunderstorm with Jacob.  A second later, Mike opens the door and says he does have a tick.  Can I help pull it off?  Sure.  I head inside and grab some alcohol.  After further inspection, we discovered three more ticks that had latched on.  One on his back, one on his stomach, one on his hip and one on his leg.  The one on his leg had been there for a while and actually backed itself out when we put alcohol on it.  The others were more stubborn and had to be pulled out.  Gross.  I hate ticks. 

Next up to camp is Daniel.  I'm breaking out the DEET.

Finally Photos!!!

I'm finally able to post photos!!! It only took me two days. Oh well. Here they are!

This makes me nervous.  The campsite (think unit from Girl Scout Camp) Storm Shelter.  Yeah. 

Jacob by his tent on the "younger boys'" side of camp. 


Jacob and his homesick tent mate, Shane.  I don't know if you can tell he'd been crying. 


Inside their tent.  What a mess!

The Ico.  This is the gas station/general store/ice cream parlor.  The line was for ice cream, which seemed to make an elderly gentleman with a gas can agitated since that one pump was right by the line.  

The Toad Suck.  I don't know if it was even open since the lot was pretty deserted. 

The kids at Osceola Cheese. What a great place!

Family Day at Boy Scout Camp

Sunday was Family Day at camp. It was a long drive down and back, but it was awesome to see Jacob again. We drove through a bunch of teeny, tiny towns in Missouri, which was fun. The little town outside of the camp is called Iconium. It had a cemetery, a gas station (one pump)/grocery store/ice cream parlor, a "restaurant" (hot dogs and root beer floats), a fire station and two houses. The sign outside of town said, "Iconium Population abuot 16." Yep. "About" was misspelled.

Jacob seems to be doing well. He is homesick, but not like his tent mate, Shane. That poor kid was crying when his parents arrived. He also holed himself up in the car for a while. Shane was pleading his case to his dad, who kept telling him that it was going to be fine and that he really doesn't want to go home, to which Shane would say, "you keep saying that but it's not true!" Poor kid. Out of all the kids there, I really thought it would be Jacob that would be demanding to be taken home.

In typical camp fashion, the only dirty laundry I took home with me was one shirt and the pair of underwear he'd been wearing since Thursday night that I made him take off. Note to self, you do not need to pack 8 shirts, 6 pairs of shorts, 12 pairs of socks and 11 pairs of underwear that you packed for Jacob's 10 day camping trip. At least they've been swimming everyday. I seriously wanted to rip the Class A uniform he was wearing off of him. I think that thing's going to be walking all by itself by the end of camp.

We were able to take Jacob into "town" (Osceola...pop. 800) to the cheese store. That was so much fun. What was even better was that I scored some cheese curds and a 12-pack of peach Nehi. Next time, I think we'll skip the Nehi and get more cheese curds.

I wish I could post pictures but Blogger's being stupid lately. I'll try again tomorrow.

We Made It!!!

Well, we made it through the big sleepover and everyone seemed to have a good time. I was pleased that most of the boys were asleep by 11:30 and the final three (Jacob included) were down by 11:45. The boys all seemed to get along pretty well, which was nice.

By the time everyone left Saturday morning, I was completely exhausted. Hannah and I both napped in the afternoon.

Last night, we went out to get our final supplies for Webelos Camp. Jacob kept saying that he wasn't looking forward to camp and didn't want to go. I told him that that was the same way he felt about day camp and he ended up loving it. Over and over again we heard that he just didn't want to go. I then told him that going to overnight camp this year and next year will pretty much guarantee he'll get his Arrow of Light Award (think Eagle Scout for Cub Scouts...the only Cub Scout award that transfers to Boy Scouts) when he's a Webelos II...he still didn't care.

This morning, he was so excited that he couldn't eat. He was dressed, complete with hat and shoes, about 1 1/2 hours before it was actually time to go. Mike ended up leaving about 10 minutes before it was time to actually go because of the excitement. I know that the first thing they are going to do after getting settled into camp is swim, so that should be a lot of fun for him.

It's going to be strange to be missing both Mike and Jacob until Tuesday night. I can't wait to hear about the fun they had.

Family Night Camporee

I pretty much had the van packed and ready to go when Mike got home from work. We finished up packing and headed out. We had found out that we needed to eat dinner beforehand so we hit a Burger King on the way.

Just before we got to BK, I saw signage that I hadn't seen since we lived in Virginia. Our bank has opened a branch here! We are so excited because it means that we don't have to bank by mail anymore.

Anyway, we headed off and arrived at the lake at about 5:30. We had been told to get there early because there is just one way in and they were expecting about 900 people. I would say that we were amongst the first 100 people there and got our pick of the campsites. We were lucky to be able to camp with our pack. Some people filled up their areas and had to camp outside of their packs.

We began setting up the tent. We got a brand new one specifically for this campout since the one we had would have never held us all. Big mistake not putting it up once beforehand. Luckily, another Mike, who was set up right next to us, came over to help out. It took about 1/2 hour to put the tent up (even though it felt like an hour) and we were quite pleased with it.

Above, Mike puts the finishing touches on the tent

Below, Jacob helps with the sleeping bags

Above and below: Camp city fills up. By the end of the evening, there were no open spaces for tents!


Once we got the tent up, the kids played with their friends while we chatted with their parents and the pack leader, Rodger. One of Jacob's friends, Alex, arrived with his parents a little late and had never put up their tent before either. Mike and I went over to help and Lisa (Alex's mom) told me that we were clearly seasoned campers since we knew what were doing. I laughed and said that no...we'd just had a lot of help ourselves and were quick to learn. Apparently, she said something to Mike as well, who also told her that we were a mere 30 minutes ahead of them camping wise. Above, Mike chats with Rodger, our pack leader (Cub Master)

Below, Mike helps Lisa and George put up their tent

After it got nice and dark, we headed over for the bonfire. They had some of the packs (including ours) perform skits and had a Native American dancing demonstration, which was very cool. They also did a flag retirement ceremony, which had Daniel very upset. It was very difficult to explain to Daniel that burning the flags is how you respectfully dispose of worn out flags. He kept yelling, "why are they killing America?!?" He was almost in tears when they put the first part in the fire. It wasn't until the end that he got it. After the bonfire, we headed back to camp where the kids played for a while and it was lights out at 10:30. Oh, and I forgot to mention that at one point, Daniel wandered off in search of one of his friends and got lost. Lost and found discovered him and another little boy and were able to bring him back. They said that they were happy he was wearing his uniform because they could track us down by our pack. Typical Daniel. Above, Jacob and Daniel pose with some Boy Scouts

Below, Hannah has fun with her new friend, Georgia

Sleeping was rough because we were on a bit of an incline and we kept sliding down to one side of the tent. It also got pretty chilly and I kept waking up because of the cold.

At about 3:30am, it began thundering and lightning. Of course it did. Then, it rained. And rained. And rained some more. At about 6:30am, there was a huge crack of lightning and a huge BOOM! which told us that it struck very, very close by. Mike and I both became a little nervous at this point. We took a look outside and saw that some families had already broken camp and left. We decided to hang out for a little bit to see if the rain would let up. After almost an hour of waiting, we decided to go ahead and make a break for it. We heard George in the next tent over say, "if you're going to go, I'd do it now!" We put the kids in the car and packed up. After the first trip to the car, it began to rain again. Heavier this time. At this point, I've decided that I'm soaked so I may as well accept it and just try to work quickly to get the tent down. What took 3 of us 1/2 hour to put up came down in about 3 minutes.

We get the tent loaded into the van and I go to open the driver's side door when I'm harassed by two Boy Scouts. They said something like, "a little wet, are we?" Ha ha. Yeah, shut up. I get into the van and the kids are amazed at just how wet I am. It's literally like I took a shower with my clothes on.

Anyway, we get home and Mike pulls his car in next to the van in the garage (we took two cars since Mike thought he'd be going straight to TKD after the campout) and I look at his seat and he has a big bath towel in there. I yell, "is that a towel? I'm soaking wet, and you have a towel?" Mike says, "yeah, it's a towel. The one you made fun of me for taking last week. I don't look so stupid now, do I?" I scream, "You are stupid!" and head inside. As of 9am, we had about 1.6 inches of rain and it just started up again. I am pretty glad we didn't wait for it to pass like we had thought about doing.

So, our campout ended a little early. Even though it rained and was cold and we were almost killed by lightening, we still had a good time. It's nice to spend time like that as a family.

Girls' Night Out and a Guest Blog

It's been such a busy weekend that I'm just now up to blogging about it.

Friday night was Girls' Night Out for me and Hannah since the boys were off being wilderness men. Soon after the boys left, Hannah and I headed out to dinner. One of her favorites is Outback since she can get snake (steak for those of you that don't know Hannahese). After a very nice dinner, we went bowling, which seems to be a favorite activity for the two of us. My average is beginning to increase the more we go, so that's pretty cool (I bowled a 154 and a 147 this week). We came home and Hannah was in bed and asleep by 8:20. Not a bad night for me. Hannah just loves Girls' Night Out (this is our second time doing it) and talks about it endlessly for the next several days.

And now...a guest blog by Mike...

The Moon, Kata, & God

Part I: The Moon

I took the boys camping on Friday night. The campsite was in Missouri and about 75 miles from home. The weather was nice, a little hot, but very clear. There were about seven scouts with five dads (two dads, including myself, brought two boys).

The boys were helpful in putting up the tent. We were camping right off of a lake and the boys were anxious to go fishing. All the scouts spent an hour fishing off the docks or taking canoes into the lake all came back with the result: No bites, no nibbles, no fish. But with setting up their lines, hooking the worms, and trying to catch fish, Daniel and Jacob earned their fishing belt loop.

After fishing it was time for dinner. Not being much of a cook myself, we planned for hotdogs and chips. The boys had a blast skewering their hotdogs and sticking them in the fire. Some dads actually brought steaks, seasoned them, and then skewered and cooked them like hotdogs. If I knew it was that easy - we would have been eating steak!

When it became dark, the scout master called all of the boys around the campfire and broght out a whiteboard and markers. He then announced that we were going to earn our astrology belt loop. The scout master quizzed the boys on the meaning of words like meteorites, astroids, planets, sun, and the galaxy. He then pointed out certain stars and planets.

He then asked the boys if they knew the main star of our solar system. One boy shouted out "the sun". He was then instructed to grab a marker and go to the whiteboard and draw a picture of the Sun and write out "Sun" next to his picture. The next question was: "What's the planet closest to the sun?" The boy that answered "Mercury" came up and drew Mercury near the Sun. Jacob correctly guessed that Earth was the third planet and drew it accordingly. He even included a little moon! With a little prodding by dad, Daniel correctly shouted out Neptune. Not knowing how to spell Neptune, Jacob accompanied Daniel to the whiteboard and whispered the spelling letter-by-letter so that Daniel could complete his picture. Daniel had an ear-to-ear smile that he was able to do this exercise with the older scouts. It was too cute!

The last requirement to complete the Astrology merit badge was to find the moon with a pair of binoucalars. The moon wasn't out but the boys would spot it at 6:00 am on Saturday morning and thus completed their Astrology merit badget.

The rest of Friday night was spent cooking s'mores, telling jokes and stories around the camp fire, and just running/goodfing around. The night wound down around midnight.

It was a fairly hot night and didn't really cool down until 2-3 am. Everybody got up at 6:00 am to see the moon and to see if they could catch fish. Everybody ate at 7:30 am. I couldn't find the bagels that Barb packed, so I gave the boys doughnuts and juice boxes. The other dads whipped out skillets and cooked bacon and eggs over the open fire. I have got to learn how to cook! Fortunately, the cooking of hot dogs and s'mores was enough for partial credit towards their Cooking belt loop.

In the course of about 14 hours, the boys put up a tent, went fishing, cooked their dinner, stoked the fire, hung around their pals, and earned three belt loops.

We then broke down the camp and left around 8:45 am for the Tae Kwondo Tournament.

Part II: The Kata

We went to the Tae Kwondo Tournament at the urging of our instructor, Master Johnson. The tournament has two main sections: Forms (or Kata) and Sparring. Forms are a prescribed routine of kicks and punches to demonstate power, profiency, and an sense of rythm. Sparring is full contact fighting, but with the protection of head gear, arm and legs pads, and a chest protector. The divisions of competion were broken down by age (essentially children, teenagers, adults, and seniors - and yes, I fell into the senior group!) and by belt class (low, medium, and black belts - all three of us were in the low belt class).

Master Johnson wanted the boys to compete in Form to build up Jacob's confidence in performing in front of a crowd and Daniel focusing on speed and power. He left the choice of competing in Sparring up to the boys - who both initially declined for fear of getting hurt.

As I was going to be there anyways, I signed up for both Forms and Sparring. I signed up for Forms to basically kill some time and signed up for Sparring to try and teach the boys to face their fears. Like them, I had a fear of getting hurt. I've been doing this for 6 months and bearly have gotten back into shape. I told them that during their lives they will face situations when someone is going to push them around and will challenge them. There will be times when someone won't let reason resolve the situation. They will have to either stand up or back down. Nobody likes getting hurt, but on reflection, it's almost always more painful when you back down and don't stand up for yourself. So, I entered the ring with the hopes of showing the boys how to face your fear, that fear is self restricting, and if you don't give it into you will build inner respect and confidence.

The Tae Kwondo tournament started by lining up all of the competitors by rank, taking us through some basic exercises to the background of Queen's "We Will Rock You!" The boys loved this and have been thumping with their hands and the feet the riff to this song.

Next was a demo by the high ranking blackbelts. We saw demos on board and brick breaking, self defense, and Forms. One blackbelt did a standing back flip and while in mid-air, backwards, broke two boards with his legs over his upsidedown head and body. It was jaw dropping!

Next was Forms. The kids went first. Daniel and Jacob were in two adjoining rings, with Barb helping out Daniel and me helping out Jacob.

The judges call the kids two-by-two and score them. Best scores win - with the top three earning trophies. While the boys are grouped in eight for expediency, they are actually competing with three other boys (two groups of fours each competing for first through third).

Jacob went before Daniel. Jacob is the star of his class and had been repeatedly told he had a great shot at first. I personally made the mistake of having told Jacob he was our families' best shot at a trophy - because I'm old and slow - and Daniel has dad's sense of rythm. This may have gotten Jacob overly confident. I thought he rushed through his Form and didn't really focus on power or rythm. Because Barb had been working with Daniel, she just caught the tail end of Jacob's Form.

Daniel was then called out on the adjoining mat, so Barb and I ran over. We had told Daniel to focus on completing his Form and not winning. This was the best we had ever seen Daniel. He didn't stumble and remembered the sequence of the kicks and punches. Seeing all the 6 year olds perform, was too cute!

Daniel's section finished before Jacob's section. The judges lined up all the contestants in Daniel's section - and the by the way they lined up - we were guessing that Daniel had earned third. We were very excited to see that he won something. We soon discovered that we looking at the line from the wrong direction, and what appeared to be third was actually a first place finish! Daniel was stunned and we were the proud parents. I ran up, hugged Daniel, and hoisted him the air, shouting: "That's my boy, that's my boy!" Daniel was all ear-to-ear smiles.

I was then called over to my ring to do Form before I could see Jacob's results. As I was lining up, I glanced back over to Jacob's ring and saw Barb hugging Jacob. They never came over to see me perform and I knew something was wrong.

As it initially turned out, Jacob did not place and was so upset that he missed my performance. Because of this, my family also missed my performance.

There are no group limitations at the adult level - but there are not a whole lot of low belt seniors. There were five in my group - so my goal wss just to medal, top three of five.

One of my instructors told me at level to perform each block, kick, and punch with enough power that it could break a board. To yell (kiop) very loudly and dramatically at the end of each sequence and not break closing stance until instructed. I thought I pulled this off fairly well and liked my chances of scoring in top three.

As they were announcing the winners of my division, Barb ran over and said she had to chase Jacob out the door as he announced he was leaving because he didn't win. As she, Daniel, and Hannah were chasing down Jacob, the judges began announcing the winners of my division. Third place - my name is not called. Second place - my name is not called. Crap this getting close. First place - they announce my name and with a fist pump and smile, I claim my winners trophy. As I am walking up, I am thinking "Damn, this will look good in my office for all to see. As I receive the trophy, the judge shakes my hand and whispers in my ear: "Sorry, we ran out of first place trophies - all we have left are "Special Recognition" trophies and he handed it to me. Walking back out of the ring, I'm now thinking: "Crap, I can't bring this into the office, it looks like a "I participated and didn't get hurt trophy." Without my family witnessing my performance or a trophy to show for it - you will all simply have to beleve I won this thing - I swear I did!

At this point, Barb has successfully stopped Jacob from leaving. Master Johnson all came up to us and told us their was a scoring mistake with Jacob. The judges had accidently paired Jacob's group with four older boys. They wanted Jacob and his group to reperform. Jacob refused. Not sure about the other boys in the group. To settle this, they took Jacob's groups original scores and ranked him - and Jacob finished third. At this point, Jacob didn't believe us and thought we were handing him a charity trophy. It was high drama. Neither Barb or us could settle him down. Master Johnson couldn't really do it either. Jacob eventually settled himself down.

The tourament was now moving to Sparring - and Daniel and Jacob announced they wanted to Spar. After a first place finish, Daniel now had confidence he could compete. Jacob was so angry at his third place finish, he wanted to Spar for redemption. Jacob and Daniel had found their own path into the Sparring ring for their own personal reasons, and papa was proud. I no longer had to Spar to try and teach the boys about facing fear - but I was with Daniel, I took first place in Form and now it was time to kick some ass!

Jacob was first to Spar. In practice, Jacob is very reluctant and defensive. He doesn't like the thought of hurting anyone and really just works on blocking. He needs to be constantly coached to kick and punch. Today was different. He was aggressive. Jacob was paired against a bigger kid. He stayed in the center of the ring. He executed lots of combinations. While he connected a lot, Tae Kwondo scoring is hard. You must actually make your opponent move backwards with a kick or punch to score. It was a three minute match. Jacob lost 2-1 and kept the bout very close. I came over to Jacob and whispered how pleased I was of the effort. No backing down. Good execution. Great sportsmanship. Papa was proud! There were only three in Jacob's division who chose to spar. Because he lost the first match, he finished third and claimed his trophy. It is tough to stand in there and take and give full contact punches and kicks. Jacob really earned his trophy!

Next was Daniel. Daniel loves Sparring but typically doesn't take it seriously. A lot his kicks and punches are rather random. But Daniel came out and, like Jacob, took this seriously. Daniel was also paired against a bigger kid. He threw good combinations and gave a great effort. I was coaching him from the sidelines - and everytime I said something he turned back to look at me and smile. I sooned learned not to say anything so he wouldn't turn away and get sucker punched. Daniel lost 2-0. He was also called out a second time, gave another great peformance and came up short again 2-0. The judges declared a two way tie for third and gave Daniel a 3rd place trophy. Daniel suspected this was a charity trophy and didn't want to accept it. I generally agree with that thinking - but if you can stand in the ring for two full contact bouts at age 6, you've earned a trophy!

Now it was my turn. Like my boys, I was outsized. I stand 5'6'' and was paired against a guy who was 6'3''. In this sport, height is a huge advantage. We bowed and the bout began. In the first few seconds, my opponent and I each landed a round kick on the other. The referee yelled: "point" and the judges scored 3-0 that I landed the kick (and moved my opponent backwards). I was up 1-0. Barb was in the first row of the stands about 10 feet from me. Our eyes met and we gave each other "a holy crap, I can actually win this thing look".

That first kick was the only one I could land. My oppenent was too tall for me. I couldn't connect kicks and moved to the inside to avoid his kick and punch. I punched the tar out of this guy. I easily out connected him. I couldn't move him backwards and all my punches went for naught.

My opponent became a poor sport. He protested almost everything I did. I also blocked his kicks hard sending him to floor several times. You don't score points for blocks. All of his protests and theatrics though, did rally a small crowd to my side. He did land two round kicks to my weak side and I found myself down 2-1.

At this point, I should have changed something up - but I didn't. I continued to block kicks, move inside, and tried punching him backwards - very tough to do with someone wearing a chest protector. I came in with a hard left hook, even though he is so much taller than I am decided to try and duck the punch. I ended up hitting him square in the jaw which is highly illegal. He bitched to the ref, and I apologized. But I have to tell you, that that punch felt great - it was orgasmic. My best shot of the day and it was illegal.

Now the weight of the equipment was wearing on me. I used too much energy working inside, and the equipment now felt heavy. I left my weak side open again and was scored against. I had lost 3-1.

The boys were really upset. They thought I won. It probably looked like to the average person that I had won. My opponent was out punched and fell down at least twice. As it was explained to me aftwards, Tae Kwondo is about technique and is scored on technique- not on power.

I came over to Barb and smiled. Didn't matter that I lost, it was way cool to go into a ring and duke it out - and I lived to tell about it. Besides, I still had my Special Recognition trophy! Two of the five in my group, decided not to spar - which handed me third place trophy.

I also need to comment on our dojo. We had about 30 people compete. We were a tight nit family. Everybody rooting for each other. The families helping each other out. The high black belts coaching in between sessions. It was a very cool feeling.

End result: Three Ginsbergs in a total six events. Total trophies won: 6 (two firsts and four thirds).

We then went to out to dinner. After coming home, we were all exhausted. We took baths and ended the evening.

Part III. God.

It's now Sunday morning and we are at synagogue. During the family service, I began reflecting on the week. The camping trip was a great father-sons experience. The girls had a girls night out on Friday and had a great time at Outback and bowling. We all learned so much about ourselves and each other at the Tae Kwondo tournament - we all passed our individual tests. It was now time to thank God for giving me my family and for our love of each other.

-Mike

How Hard Could It Be?

Seriously. How hard is it, exactly, to send three boys off for an overnight campout? I'm probably over packing them, but I figure that it's better to be safe than sorry. They're all set up with food, drinks, paper plates and plastic silverware, paper towels, toilet paper, wet wipes, hot dogs, chips, worms for fishing, sleeping bags and whatnot. Phew. I can't wait to hear about how much fun they had.

Hannah had school pictures this afternoon. I have no idea how they turned out, yet, but I made sure to get a few of her before she headed off. She said that she was a queen! LOL! I thought she looked too cute.

I Really Shouldn't Be Blogging Right Now

I really should be cleaning. I'll get to it when I'm done here.

We're getting ready to send the boys camping. Jacob's den leader invited Daniel to come along, so all of the boys are going tomorrow. It'll be strange to have one overnight. Hannah's not upset, though. It just means she doesn't have to share her mom with anyone else.

We decided to set up the tent last night so that Mike could see how it goes together. Of course, I got a little ahead of myself and began to put it up without Mike. LOL! Nathan from a couple of houses down came by to lend a hand. It went up and down pretty easily so Mike should be just fine.

Jacob's excited about earning his fishing belt loop this weekend (belt loops are their badges). I think his den leader said that they could possibly earn some other stuff too, so that's pretty cool. Jacob keeps asking when he's going to get his BB gun belt loop. I have to always remind him that he can only earn that one at Cub Scout camp next summer. Then, he'll ask about bow and arrow. Again, only at camp. Jacob's never very happy about that.

Daniel's beginning to do a lot better in reading. He's killing me, though. He can do it, he just won't. It's easier to say that he doesn't know and let me do it. He's frustrated because I'm not putting up with that anymore. He had a word list test yesterday and he passed to move onto the next list. I was telling him how proud of him I was and just giving him a lot of attention when Hannah starts freaking out. She's killing me too. "I need love too!" She tells me. Little jealous thing.

Okay...so I guess that's about it for now. I wonder what else I can do to put off cleaning the house. LOL!

Happy October

Raise your hand if you think this year's going by too fast. I know my hand is up.

I finally got around to draining the pool (okay, so it's still draining). I know...I know. They were actually in it on Saturday, so I don't feel too bad about it. It seems like every time I'd get set to drain it, it would be close to 90 degrees outside. Oh well. What's strange is that it seems to take longer to drain than it did to fill. Once it does finally drain completely and dry out, I have to figure out exactly where to store the thing for next year.

Over the weekend, a new family moved into the repo house behind us. It looks like they have some kids (around the same ages as mine)...hopefully the kids will have some new playmates. We haven't been over to introduce ourselves yet, but we will.

Hannah went to a princess dress up party last Friday, hosted by a girl at my MOPS table, and had a great time. The cool part, for me, was the fact that I was able to sit around and talk to other moms. It felt a lot like a MOMS Club event in Virginia. A bunch of us decided to start a Friday morning playgroup for the kids beginning this coming Friday. I am really looking forward to it. They have also started a MOPS Bible Study on alternate Tuesday mornings. That starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that as well. Here are a couple of photos from the party...



Mike and Jacob are busily getting ready for their camp out this Friday. This one is just for Jacob's den. Should be a lot of fun for the two of them. Daniel has said that he thinks it would be cool if Jacob would catch a seal while fishing (they're going to do some fishing while they're there). Daniel, Hannah and I are planning on going bowling as a special treat while they are camping. They all just love to go bowling. The following weekend, there's a Cub Scout district-wide family camp out. We're all planning on attending that one. It's been a long time since I've been camping (9 years to be exact) and I know that the kids have never been. Mike and I are hoping that we can get into the camping thing and start doing that as a family thing in the summer. I don't know if we'd ever get to the point where we'd get a camper/pop-up or anything (my nod to Deb and family...you guys are hard core campers that would put us to shame...although, if you have any tips, I'd be happy to take them) but it would be fun to be able to go out and camp now and then. Even if we just set up the tent in the backyard.