ahh...Bacon!

I finally got the first tomatoe from my garden the other day and I just had to do it justice by having a BLT sandwich for lunch today.  There's nothing better in the world than a BLT with a Fresh from the garden tomatoe!

So for lunch today I gathered up the ingredients and started cooking the bacon.  We only had 4 slices of bacon in the house.  boo!  and in case you're wondering, no I haven't been pigging out on bacon.
I got this tip a while back...when you finish using the bacon take the rest of it and roll the strips into "serving sizes" and place those in a ziptop bag and freeze!  Then whenever you need bacon you have it handy and you don't have to worry about it going bad in the frig or being a cold hard block from being in the freezer.

Well once the smell of bacon filled the house, Darly came running.  "can you make me some bacon too please?"  Sometimes I question teaching this kid about all the good foods out there, especially when there are only 4 slices!!!

Once the bacon was done I started making my sandwich.  Because I'm not totally heartless, I made my sandwich with only two slices of the bacon instead of all four.  I put on the mayo, two very nice thick slices of my tomatoe and some lettuce from my garden too.

The sandwich was totally wonderful!!!  But now it's a few hours later, the house still smells of bacon and I want some more!!!  I could make a LT sandwich (my mom used to do that all the time!), but it's just about 5pm and DH will be home looking for his dinner.  sigh!  I guess I could go make our dinner too.  But instead I'm blogging and eating almonds.

Scared of the checkbook!

I have been being very lazy about my checkbook for a while now. I used to be so good with it. Checking it and balancing it every month even when most months were zero activity. But then I started slacking...a lot.

I stopped figuring out the balance when I wrote a check. I even stopped opening up my statements. I knew how much I had put in there and knew I hadn't written more than I took out, so I'm all good. right?

Well today I find out. Time to balance the check book. Those who've been reading my blog for a while are probably laughing your heads off cuz you know that I used to be the treasurer for a large non-profit organization. If they knew what I was doing now they would be very upset with me...cuz yeah, I let their books slide sometimes too.

But no one is in danger of overdraft or bank fees. I would never do that.

So let's see how bad it is... I'll keep you posted.

THE UPDATE: Well I finally figured everything out and found that I had made an error when I was trying to keep a running balance in my checkbook. I don't know how, but I miscalculated my balance by $100! So I was running around with an extra $100 in there that I didn't even know about. WOW! Perhaps I shouldn't have fixed the register. LOL! Not that I've ever been in any danger of writing more than I have, but my mom always used that kind of checkbook keeping to make herself save money.
I guess I won't do that since I use this account not for saving money but to pay for all the piddly things that come up...to keep DH from wondering when my friends are going to cash their checks. As it stands now there are two open checks from a long time ago that would drive him bonkers, but don't bother me at all.

Tornado!

This afternoon DH was getting ready to mow our grass and I noticed the sky looked rather yucky, so I went out in front of our house to see what I could see and a guy drives past and tells me there is a funnel cloud behind my house!

So I go back there and sure enough, there is!

At first it didn't look like much, but after a bit we noticed that there seemed to be a see-through part that extended towards the ground.  So I ran upstairs and watched some more.  It eventually stirred up some dirt so you could really see it.

From what we could see the tornado wasn't really doing much, and it was not going very fast.  It looked like it was about to give up many times before it finally did give up after about 20 minutes.

For some better pictures than I was able to get, check out our news.  And here too!

I guess I must have made a mistake in showing this to Darly because it seemed to upset her quite a bit.  She started packing some clothes & her favorite toys to go down into the basement.  I wanted to show her the tornado so she could see what one that you didn't have to be worried about looked like.  I tried explaining to her that DH & I wouldn't be sitting there at the window taking pictures if there was any reason to be worried about it.  That didn't seem to work until sometime after it was over.  She can now laugh about it, cuz her friend called to see if she was okay.

I have to admit that I haven't seen a tornado in person that was any larger that this one.  There was a funnel cloud in Cheyenne once, but it never touched down.  Although they sounded the sirens for it.  (we don't have sirens in my town.  They figure we don't get enough storms to pay for them.)

We did have a larger tornado in TX, but I never saw it.  DH & I were having dinner at a friend's house and looked outside at the storm wondering if we should go put our car in our carport so it wouldn't get hit by hail.  Meanwhile there was a tornado hitting DH's office and a few other buildings near it.

Damage to his office wasn't too bad...it just knocked out a few windows.  But since a new office was already under construction, DH had to survive the winter in his office with plywood over the window.

OH!  DH never mowed our grass today.  :-/

No sale

Last night for my Anniversary, DH gave me a gift card to Kohls. Kohls is one of my most favorite places to shop...normally. However, lately I've been having loads of trouble finding anything that I want there.

So today I have no kid as she's over at "I's" house. So after coloring my roots I set out to do some shopping.

First I went to Qudoba for some lunch. I had their yummy Taco salad. burp!

Then I headed to Sports Unlimited cuz they had their big tent set up in the parking lot. I thought they might have been having a summer clearance...but nope! They were setting up for a ski & snow sale that doesn't start until NEXT saturday! Oh well, like I said to another lady who had stopped because of the tent "At least I didn't spend any money!" she laughed and agreed with me.

Next I went to Kohls. I first noticed that they had rearranged the entire Women's dept. boo! I hate when they do that! But I found what I was looking for and grabbed 3 pair of jeans. One pair was supposed to be a smaller size and the other two were the size I figured that I needed. I tried on the "smaller" pair first and it fit okay, but I didn't like how it sucked in around my thighs making them look bigger. These jeans were supposed to be straight leg. Then I notice the size. What the hey?!?! Apparently someone had put them on the wrong hanger...they were the same size as the other two pair of jeans. great! Well that kept me from trying on the other pair that were the exact same jeans only supposed to be a size bigger. :eyeroll!: The 3rd pair of jeans were supposed to have a comfort waistband. I tried them on and realized that they were not the right rise. They were too high.

see I'm a very short waisted gal. And "regular" rise jeans come up too high on me...they poke me in the ribs when I'm sitting. So I started getting low rise (not the so low you have to shave to wear them!) but below the bellybutton. So pair of jeans #3 is a no go too. BOO!

After that I looked around a bit at some of the other clothes and though "blech!" I put the cart I had grabbed away and then went to look at their jewelry. I figured if DH wouldn't buy me any diamonds that I would just get some with my gift card! Well it won't be happening at Kohls. Not only did they NOT have any that I could get with my card...they didn't have any that I liked enough to wear either.

Oh well!

I then decided to head over to Walmart cuz when I saw the Sports Authority tent I was hoping for maybe getting a sun shield for camping. I found one that I might get, but today wasn't going to be the day for that.

Since I had no where to be for a while I just decided to browse. I went to the craft dept and was looking at nothing really when Jen called me to let me know that our Not Back To School party is postponed due to rain & tornado watches. Oh boy.

I told her I was supposed to get Darly back from Heather at the party and Jen jokingly said I should let her stay there until the new date for the party. HA HA! She's so funny!

I called Heather and she tells me that Darly doesn't want to come home. Okay, I guess she gets to stay there and miss her Confirmation Orientation. No big really, I'm sure it will be just like the last one that was really boring...it might even have the same info. maybe I can skip it too? hummm

So I looked at a few more things and left Walmart without buying anything too. And since I didn't need to kill anymore time (no party to go to) I headed home.

DH will be so proud of me! :D

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What's in a name? Just for Bone

Yesterday, (or maybe it was this morning?) Bone asked me to explain where I came up with my blog's URL. http://lillyput.blogspot.com/

I thought that those of you who read my blog and know my dog would figure that one out. ;o) My blog's URL is named after Lilly. When she was just a young pup we frequently called her Lillyput...from Gulliver's Travels.

I was stressed to come up with a name folks!

and as for my blog's title: Fefyfomanna That's just barely more interesting. When I was getting my blog one of Darly's favorite games was the password game. This is where she would frequently block your path and you would have to figure out the password in order to get by her. One of her favorite passwords was "Fefyfomanna." I don't know where she came up with it from...where do kids ever come up with stuff like that? If you asked her now she would tell you I came up with it on my own, because she doesn't remember it.

Oh well.

Well Bone, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

It's Co-op time

My homeschooling group does this really cool thing we call a co-op. It's where everyone who wants to be in the co-op has to offer a class. This can be a class they teach themselves or they can arrange for a field trip or some other kind of way for the kids to learn something. And then in exchange for offering a class you then get to take as many of the other classes that are offered.

Here's what we have so far...

Talk by Lightning Telegraph -learn morse code and make a telegraph
Tricky Pics - trick digital photography
Geology Rocks! - learn about rocks
Childbirth - tour a maternity ward and learn about childbirth from posters
NCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research
JungleQuest - an indoor playplace
Make a Plate
Ecosystem Adventure - learn about ecosystems
Simple Puppets - make puppets
Take the bus/train - this was suggested because of gas prices
Indiana (Jones) University - more than just watching the movie
Platte river hike
Morrison Natural History Museum
Sew Simple - learning how to sew by hand
Intermediate art
Primary art
Phonics Phun
Taekwondo
Tour Red Rocks
Nature Notebooks and Walk
Speed – A skip counting math game
Chatfield State Park – Guided Nature Walk
Highlands Ranch Days
Snowmaking - her DH sells snowmakers and will teach the class.

and I've had about 2 more classes come in while I'm typing this. We're going to be very busy!

Oh and Darly wants to teach a class too. She's gonna help with the class I'm teaching, but she wants her own class too. However, she hasn't yet come up with a topic to teach...she wanted me to come up with the topic. LOL! I thought that I had come up with a topic she could teach. Perhaps I should step asside and give her my class?

DOH!

today was the big Girl Scout Pizza party and things went pretty well considering...

considering that even though we had called and placed the order the day before to be ready at noon, called back at 11am to confirm that the order was still there and would be ready at noon...the pizzas were in the oven at noon! :roll eyes!: They're darned lucky that I wasn't in the store to pick up the pizzas or someone would have had very red ears from all my chewing on them. GRRR!

But anyway we got our pizzas at 12:15 and were on our way to the party. We get to the party and just as we are walking in with all the food and party the guy decides that NOW he will go and clean the party room! Such intelegent people we have in charge of everything, huh? *sigh* I decided to set my 2.5gal of cold water down on one of their chairs while we waited. LOL! I hope someone got a very cold bottom.

But once we got in, the party went very well. We had plenty of pizza, the pizza gal had even cut the pies into extra slices for us, so my pizza cutter was not necessary. The kids enjoyed filling their own water cups...just like I knew they would. And to make it even more peachy for us, we were allowed to leave our belongings in the party room while the kids played. YAY!

Now for the DOH! part.

Darly comes up to me near the end of their playtime and beggs for her bestest buddy "I" to come with us to spend the night. I start racking my brain for anything that might prevent this from happening. Actually I wasn't at all against it. And not remembering anything, I said that yes she could stay over...and I's mom was right next to me and said yes too.

So we start driving home from the party with "I" in the car and then the "DOH!" moment happens... :my eyes are rolling as I'm typing here: I remembered that tonight is TNO and I had said that I would go. "OH SHOOT!"

So I the following emails between me & DH happen:

Subject: remember how good I was yesterday?

well today I think I may have just errased that.

Darly came up to me at Jungle Quest and BEGGED for "I" to come and stay
over. I thought about it and not remembering anything said that she could.

I totally forgot that tonight is TNO. I'm such a goof!

I know you had planned to get the free chicken strips at Chic-fil-a.
However, the good news is that we got another coupon for them in today's
mail. So there are enough coupons for all 3 of you to have the strips.

Or if you would rather, I can just make dinner before I leave. (if my
kitchen pass is still good?)

Love you!
Renee

He writes back:

YOU!!! I think you can only use one coupon at a time. Does "I" like
chicken stips? Plus we need to save one for our anniversary. Unless the
Rockies get 7 runs on the 21st of August.... Then we can all get the
runs.... :-)

DH

Me back:
nope the coupon says "one coupon per person"...so you can use all 3 at once if you have both girls with you. they let me use multiple coupons when I had Niece H stay with us.

and if the Rockies don't score 7 runs on the 21st, we can always have Steak
& Ale. ;)

love you
Renee

Him back again:
Steak & Ale went backrupt! Maybe we can do DQ if the Rockies don't get 7

Me back again: (are you having fun yet?)
Ah Nuts! Steak & Ale even pulled their website. bummer

Ooooh wait! We've got that coin for Trapper's Steak House that we could
us...I could get Darly a return sleepover at I's.

oh is there any way for you to bring home some 9volt batteries on your way?

The smoke detector in the sewing room decided it needs a fresh one. :p

Renee

and him:
WOW are you asking a lot... I thought we still have some new ones.

and me:
never mind, I found one...now just letting it warm back up before I install it.

and him:
Warm back up??? Did you have it in the freezer? lol

and finally me:
nah, I just put it outside again.

ooh, I better get the directions to TNO!

UPDATE: Yes, I got to go to TNO. YES DH took the girls out to dinner at Chick-fil-a and the girl at the counter would have given them as many free chicken strips as they could eat!...without the coupon. Turns out DH & Darly didn't care for them, but "I" thought they were okay and ate 3. They shared some waffle fries too. Since I've been home we haven't heard much more than a small noise out of them. I hope we can all go to bed soon.

Tennis Anyone?

On Tuesday Darly got to try a tennis class for kids. The place we went to is indoors and they have everything in kids' size. The net is lower, the court is smaller and the of course have kids' size raquets.

Darly was the oldest kid in the class...in fact she was the only child who was near her age at all...the rest of the kids who showed up (there were about 5 who didn't come) were all around 4 years old. I know that you're thinking "Poor Darly" but it wasn't so bad for her. The coach did really well at switching between the kids to match their skill level and even then, Darly did awesome!

Darly now wants more tennis lessons. (of course!) LOL! However, I brought home the brochure for the place and DH choked on the prices! He said that he would teach her how to play tennis.

So we got Darly a child sized raquet. We gathered up DH's box of tennis balls and headed over to the tennis courts in our subdivision.

When we got there we were in for a shock! The gates (that have never been locked like they were supposed to be on previous visits) were locked! So instead of using the tennis courts, we decided to play in the parking lot. Which worked pretty well, except our tennis balls aren't quite so yellow anymore...seems they had just resurfaced the lot. oops!

Dh was throwing balls to Darly for her to hit back, and I was behind Darly to get the balls she missed or that DH would throw to me to keep me on my toes. He seemed to think that I needed a work out because he was making it hard on me. I actually got sweatty :p

So today I called up our homeowners' assn to find out about getting the key. They charge $10 for the key. :o and the lady said that if we decide to sell our house we can give the key to the new owners and have them pay us the $10 back. WHAT??? Yeah, like THAT will EVER HAPPEN!!! What a CROCK! Whatever... Oh, I didn't tell DH that it would cost us $10.

So later DH emails me... "Did you call about the key for the tennis courts?"
Me: "Yes dear and I have it."
DH: "Wow! You're good!"
Me: "Yeah, but I don't like to brag."

Darly Funny & update

Last night I was working on the details for a pizza party for our Girl Scout troop. And since I've heard that you can get really good tasting pizza really cheap at our local warehouse clubs, I was working how I was going to do that without a club membership. LOL!

Anyway, Darly buts into my conversation & thoughts to add her 2 cents.

she says "I don't think I want bulky pizza."

and I wasn't thinking on the same page as her, so I say "HUH?"

Darly says: "the pizza is from the bulk warehouse, so it will be a bulky pizza...right?" Then she starts giggling at her joke.

Now I get it!

I mention about how I worry that having the kids eat all this pizza before they go play might not be a good idea.

And Darly says "a kid bounces off the rock wall and UFF DA!" :p


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
and in other news, I got a call from the PetSmart owner today. He appologized for the problem. He agreed with me that what happened should never happen. In this day and age of economy problems he cannot afford to loose any of his Pet Parents. So he kept asking what he could do for me, so that I would give him another chance.

I told him the biggest problem was that the shelf wasn't stocked. And he totally agreed with me and started to say something about there could have been stock in the back, but then switched to that I never got the chance to ask. EXACTLY!

I'll definately be shopping there still as there aren't any other stores nearby that carry the rabbit food I use. I really like their grooming salon too. But I did tell him that I went online to order my supplies this time. He asked me to ask for him the next time we are in so he can make it up to me in person.

What a day!!!

Warning: This post is going to be incredibly cranky. I'm sorry in advance, it was just a day to make me cranky!

The day actually didn't start off as a cranky day. It started off pretty good as I got up, had my coffee and read a few blogs. Darly & I were scheduled for a field trip to the Phoenix Gold Mine up in Idaho Springs. On our way we had to pick up a friend who was having some body work done on her car...luckily the repair shop was right here by my house.

So we get to the mine and the first thing we notice is that there is already a TON of people there! In fact there are a bunch of cars and TWO Charter Buses there!!! We had to park our cars on the road going past the mine. We find out that the two bus loads are folks from Up With People and they didn't have a scheduled tour but the manager gave them a special deal cuz they do work for charity. (ummm, do they?) But they had to break up their large group into smaller groups and take them threw the mine...BEFORE US!!!! WHAT???

Them with NO RESERVATION get to go before us who have a reserved tour. WE got to wait. Darly of course was bored! Many in our group chose to go ahead and eat their lunch...but we hadn't brough lunch because we were planning to be done with the tour by lunch time and then go to eat in town.

Our tour was supposed to begin at 11am, we didn't get our tour until 12:30. Of course by then none of the kids cared what the poor tour guide had to say about the mine. And frankly I didn't either! Mr Tour guide was full of jokes and "great stories" about the mine...yeah right bud, whatever! Most of the kids were running past nap time and had no patience...and to top everything off, the tour ahead of us (still Up With People folks) were talking so we couldn't hear our tour guide!!!

The good part of the tour is that we saw a real vein of gold! While this mine is non-operational, it does have real gold in it. And the kids were able to fine real gold dust in the creek. Darly has a zip top bag full of gold dust laden mud that we're going to try to dry out and blow the dirt away from the gold...hopefully. I might try a sample first.

After the tour we went to lunch at a very popular pizza place here in Colorado. And of course right as they announce our table is ready two things happen...1) other folks from our homeschool group show up...2) my husband calls! (he never calls, this is important.) So I'm talking to him and the gal that I gave a ride to wants to know if we want to wait and have a bigger table with the other folks. I told her I didn't care, whatever she wanted. I guess she was hungry, cuz she opted to take our table.
DH called to see where we were because his mom's waterheater isn't working. Can I come to her house with my car in case he needs to go buy a new waterheater. Okay.

MIL's about 2 hours later (after lunch, & dropping off friend & her girls.) Waterheater actually started acting up on Sunday, but MIL didn't call us then cuz she knew we were going to the ball game. :where's the eyeroll smiley???: So DH figures that the waterheater is probably okay, but two parts above the waterheater are leaking. DH fixed the one, but needs to find the other. He says that Darly & I can leave.

On the way home I remember that I need to pick up hay for the rabbits. We stop at PetSmart. Upon entering the store we are immediately "Pounced on" by two sales associates. I politely turn down their offers of help as I know what I need and where it is in the store. In fact when the second guy offers to help me, I have the hay I need. But then I decide I should probably pick up rabbit food too as they will run out soon enough. So I go to the rabbit food eisle. The food I buy the rabbits is on sale in the 10lb bags...but there are NO 10lb bags on the shelves. In fact someone has stocked part of the shelf for the 10lb food with 5lb bags...but there is no price tag on the shelf for the 5lb bags. :GROAN!: So I go looking for an associate to help me. And of course the two who pounced on me earlier are now long gone and helping other customers.

So I spy another associate, who is also helping another customer, but they are heading up front and no longer "engaged in conversation" so I ask if the associate could please ask someone to come help me with the rabbit food. I stand over near the rabbit food, but where I can watch the associate I asked to get someone. She finishes helping her customer, clocks out and leaves the store!!! She never sent any help. By this time the associate who pounced on me second has also clocked out and left the store! The manager (I can only assume that he was the manager because he was wearing a different PetSmart shirt) has followed him out to round up shopping carts...which really needed to be done!

Totally frustrated, I walk up front and the cashier asks if she can help. I tell her my story and that this is the second time I've had this happen to me (no really, the last time I was in this store virtually the exact same thing happened...only no one clocked out and left me hanging...he just forgot about me.) The cashier appologizes and calls for an associate to come to us at the register. I look outside to see the manager has come with some carts and has a phone that he's talking into...he heads back out. As I turn the girl from fish has showed up, but she immediately rushes over to help some folks who are looking at lizzards...not even checking to answer the page. :groan: The clerk calls again for an associate and no one shows up.

Finally the manager comes in, still on the phone, but comes close enough to the cashier that she can tell him I need some help. I tell him that I want rabbit food, the 10lb bag is not on the shelf and the 5lb bag has no price. He holds up a finger and then walks over to the grooming salon to help a customer load her dog into her car...all the while still on the phone. He comes back in the store and goes to another closed register and continues his call.

By this time I'm just ticked beyond belief. I leave my cart with the hay in it, get Darly who was looking at the cats up for adoption, and we head for the door. OF COURSE THE manager is finally off the phone and can help me now...but in total disgust I tell him that it is too late, and we leave the store.

I get home, go to the PetSmart website and file a complaint. I've received an email telling them that I need to file a formal complaint...apparently I didn't use proper procedure!!! :groan: I'll be back! But NOT TO that PetSmart!

Faith Day 2008

Today we enjoyed Faith Day at Coors Field.  This is a yearly event however it isn't highly publicized.  In fact that link on my previous post was really hard to find.  This event is mostly advertised just at area Churches.  This was Darly & my second Rockies game.  Dh has gone to one other Rockies game.

We take the light rail because it's easier...the train takes us almost the entire way from our house, there's no fuss for parking and with gas prices, we're pretty sure it is much cheaper!  So the first shot in the slideshow is on the train.

We got to the game very early because last time we went the wait to pick up our tickets at the Will Call box was very long and we missed most of the first inning.  This time because we were so early there was no wait and we got to watch them prepair the field for the game...snore!  LOL!

The Rockies got pounced on by the Padres.  It was pretty sad.  However, the game was not the only thing we were there for.

Because they were expecting rain the stage was set up near the 3rd base line and they had all of us move over to that side of the field.  There were over 4,000 at the game and I would guess there were easily over 1000 for the Faith Day presentation & concert.

First they had a few speakers talk about their faith and then Stephen Curtis Chapman came on stage.  Stephen talked for a bit about his recent loss.  If you don't already know, Stephen's daughter Maria went to Heaven back in May.  He shared with us the story of when he first met his daughter Maria in China.  He was there doing some work for the orphanage and he asked to hold one of the two foster babies that he had met.  He asked the name of the one he was holding and she was Maria.  There aren't many babies in China named Maria...and the first thought through his head were the words to a song he had written 12 years earlier "Maria"   Before he left on the trip his wife MaryBeth had warned him to "NOT come back with another baby.  Their house was full...there's no room at the inn!"  He called her crying about Maria.  MaryBeth still said no, however, when Stephen got home she had already started filling out the paperwork to adopt her.
When Maria had attended preschool she was learning the lyrics to "Big Big House" and she was asking MaryBeth about them.  "Does God have a Big Big House in Heaven?"  "Does he have a Big Big Table with lots and lots of food?"  MaryBeth caught on and said "yes and he's got a big big yard where we can play football!"  Maria was suprised, and then said that she wanted to go and see that big big house.

Stephen sang "How Great is our God" and some other songs that are escaping my memory right now, probably because I have the radio on.  But he told us that he struggled when he knew that he would return to the stage about which songs he would preform.  He was certain that he would never sing "Cinderella" again.  However, he knew that Maria's life wasn't over and that he had to sing the song again.  Only for us he changed the last line to "Because I know the Truth, the Dance will go on!"

Stephen started singing another song but the rain wouldn't hold off any longer.  By the time he was about 1/2 way through the song, the crew was covering up all the equipment.  But Stephen kept on playing.  He had mentioned earlier that he wasn't at all worried about getting zapped, in fact if it started lightening he would be out chasing it.  But his crew put a tarp over his keyboard before his song was over and let him finish before they covered it completely.

Stephen said that if we wanted to wait for the rain to quit he would come back out and play the rest of his set for us.  So we decided to see if we could get a seat that had some protection from the rain on a lower level.  (note our first seats for the ball game were on the 3rd level in the nosebleed section.  Our second seats were still on the 3rd level, only closer to home plate. 

So while it rained we made our way to the lower level...and what did we spy there?  Why it was Bob & Larry from the Veggie Tales!  Darly really wanted a picture with them (she's been a bit jealous of a friend of hers who is seen posed with them on her mom's blog.)  So we got the shot.  When I took the picture, I gave Darly the Thumbs up...and LOL!  Larry gave me one back.

The rain quit right after we made it to the lower level.  So the crew pulled back the tarps, dried things off and the concert was back on...only now it was pumped up!  Well first Stephen played "I Will Be Here" for his wife.  And then we needed to make some Noise and "Live Out Loud!"  But Darly was waiting for "Dive" and she didn't have to wait long.  The only bummer was that the sound got a bit messed up and the vocals were drounded out by the music on that song.  But Darly still enjoyed it.

We didn't leave the ball park until almost 8pm and didn't get back to our car until almost 9pm.  So we're all very tired...including my dog who got to sleep all day!

Whoa Man!

Tonight we (DH, Darly & I) went to Church service because we are going to the Rockie's Family Faith day tomorrow. After Church we went out to dinner at Black-eyed Pea.

Dh & I normally share a dinner since most places make them way too big. So I decided I wanted their Chicken Fried Steak (I wanted something that I couldn't or wouldn't make at home!) When our waiter found our that we were sharing he suggested that we try their "Texas Sized" Chicken Fried Steak. But I insisted that all we needed was the regular portion. And WHOA MAN! was I right!

Look at the picture of what we ordered in the menu... that's it next to the green beans in the first picture. That is NOT the size of the meal we were served. When our order arrived on a 10inch plate, the steak covered about 75% of the plate!

Dh & I looked at this mass of meat and asked our waiter, "Just how big is that Texas sized steak?" He told us it was much bigger and would hang off the edges of the plate by a few inches. Are your eyes rolling? Cuz mine are! Who on earth could eat that much? The waiter said the only way to finish one was to have two people share it. I think that all 3 of us couldn't have finished a Texas Sized. As it was DH & I had a hard time with the regular...although we did find that the actual meat wasn't quite as big as it's breading. Still I wasn't able to eat half.

Darly ordered her grilled cheese with cheddar cheese on it. Our waiter said he used to do the same thing as a kid. Cheddar is much better. ;o)

Excuse me, I need to loosen my pants.

new do!

today after whining for far too long I did something about it. I really wish that I would get smart and take a before photo for you. :P

I asked my homeschooling buddies for a recommendation and went to the stylist that Maura suggested.


I think I love it!

the camping pictures!

We got to the campground right around 3pm (this was after going to Church and loading up the car. DH was a big help!) We were the 3rd family to arrive. One had been there since Friday night.

Darly & I set up our camp in our usual manner, but one of the other moms (the one who had been there since Friday) thought that we had a very good system. And we do. First we find a location for the tent, clear the area, set out the foot print to get an idea of where the tent is going and how to situate it...then we roll out the tent and get the polls ready. There's one point where someone has to go inside the tent and hold it up while the other person puts the tent polls onto the pegs. It used to be that Darly did 3 of the 5 polls and I did the last two cuz she wasn't strong enough to do them...but now she can do all 5 polls herself! I'm proud.
After we get the tent polls, I carry our bedding and stuff to the tent for Darly to set up while I get the rain fly on and then get our "kitchen" set up. She does a great job and gets the cots all set up for us.

As we were setting up more of our friends arrived...and we watched as their campsites went up. I also set up my handwashing station. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but there's a nail on a string poked into the milk jug. the nail serves as a plug. when you need to wash your hands you remove the nail, and the water comes out. Wash up and then return the nail. Tah dah! "running" water.

right after we got the campsite ready, I went ahead and lit a fire to make our dinner. I had some wood issues though. I'm not sure if my firewood was too green or too dry, but it would light up in a flash and then smolder. I never got my large logs to light up at all. :( After I got dinner cooked I realized that was the first time I had sat down since we had got there.

Lilly decided that she didn't like any of the other dogs. So she didn't get to play and for a while that meant that I didn't get to go visit either. But I decided to put her in our car later on and she actually went willingly. I think that she was glad to take a nap.

Even though I had fire issues and it rained, we DID have smores...each night. We also had some pretty good campin food. for breakfast I had brewed my coffee at home, so I just reheated it on the stove. Darly had cereal...I brought her oatmeal, but she wasn't in the mood for it. Lunch was sandwiches with chips. and then for dinner... the first night I made us Hobo dinners, but Darly just ate her hamburger with cheese on a bun. I ate her potatoes. My hobo packet had some zucchini in it too...yum! and Lilly got the leftovers. I then realized that while I remembered her dog food, I had forgotten to bring her food dish. No worries, she ate off our dirty dishes.

I got a lot of reading done. Darly got a lot of playing done. Lilly got a lot of eating done. LOL!

We're home early!

We woke up (or in my case, got up from not being allowed to sleep) this morning to the news that a very large thunderstorm would be rolling through our campground area and it would last pretty much all day.  So figuring that:
1) Darly's buddy was going to go home and wouldn't be there for playing
2) rain means cold...and I don't like cold
3) rain makes it really hard to prepair food when you're camping (you can't make a fire in your tent or use your cookstove either!!!) and when you're cold, cold food is no fun
4) no smores in the rain! (I guess that goes with food too!)
5) Idiot campground host hadn't checked the "bathrooms" since Sunday morning at 7am and they were all out of toilet paper! (BTW: "bathrooms" were really outhouses)
6) previous night I was up every 2 hours or so because a small child in the campground kept kicking off her blankets and crying cuz she was cold. 

we decided to cut our trip short by a day.  And not too long ago I received a text from Jen...Holy Chit! It's raining hard & does not appear it will let up anytime soon.  It's worse than the rain @ Guanella that time. IDK how the tenties will last :-(  Jen is in a pop-up, so at least she has some sturdy housing to hold up for the night.  The rain here was pretty dramatic...I never did go check my garden cuz it started raining about 5 minutes after we got home.

The camping trip was nice.  I had a good time for most of it.  I've got pictures on my camera...but seeing as I just got home today, I'll save the pictures for when I'm not so tired.

I can tell you that we got to the campground and picked a spot for the tent...moved a bunch of rocks and settled...then after getting the tent set up, found a spot where all the rocks were already moved.  :eyeroll:  So if I ever go back and get that spot, I'll know where the tent spot is.  It looked comfy.  The only problem with that spot was that it was pretty far from the fire ring.  I usually put Lilly's tie out so that she can reach the tent and the fire ring from it...which makes for fun with the table, but anyway.  So this spot she wouldn't have been happy with cuz I would have spent a lot of time too far from her.

I should go sleep.
nite...at 9pm

gone campin

more cat
see ya in a few.