Say WHAT?!

My youngest, Delaney is in girl scouts.  Brownies to be exact.  We are gearing up for a camping trip and I am not sure which I am going to have fun with more.......the camping with my daughter or the camping with the other moms.

Delaney is all full of excitement over the trip.  She wants to do everything and then some.  So I am voting in favor of the other moms.

When the moms all voted that we should do a trip to the spa next year instead of camping and the leader asked if anyone knew campfire songs and you could already hear the sounds of crickets, I knew this was going to be one fun weekend.  If nothing else I get the feeling I am going to be laughing my head off.

Listen.  I do not profess to be some sort of outback survivor.  We like doing outdoors things like rafting and hiking but in the end mommy wants her ac/cable tv/fluffy mattress filled room with running water, a toilet and a restaurant preferred. But I wasn't going to complain.  This was an adventure with my daughter.  I am game and ready. I view it kind of like a bug.  Outside I shrug my shoulders and squish the bug cause I don't want my daughter to be scared but inside I am secretly screaming and having a panic attack and when I clean up the dead bug I go to the bathroom for a good cry.  I think this camping trip is going to be a bug.  I shall slap on my old sneeks, pull my hair into a baseball cap and suck it up.  Its for my daughter after all. I'm game.

The other moms?  Not so much!

There will be no experienced hikers in this group or ones who love to fish or can stir up one mighty fine 3 course meal by the light of a camp fire while singing jazzy and exciting campfire songs.  I have heard a lot of groans during the planning and one mom asking if she can bring her tv and another who said that if her daughter didn't know about this trip she so wouldn't be going. The loud hurrah for a spa next year was the final straw for me. Inside I am already giggling.  This is going to be soooooooooooooo fun!

Ok. I admit I am stocking up on bug spray and already have enough lights to bring a small passenger plane in for a landing and I do plan to bring a cooler for our tent cause not only will Delaney starve with FISH for dinner but, well, mommy might want an oreo on occasion.  And I hand picked the mom and daughter we will room with.  First cause they seem nice.  Second cause she was the one that said she would stay home if her daughter didn't know about the trip.  Come on.  How could I resist? I envision a lot of laughing in that tent! 

The only thing that I myself will not do on this trip is fish.  I will hike. I will go out for hours hunting leaves of every kind in a downpour wearing my lovely poncho as it clings to my damp and humid legs. I will jump in the lake with my daughter and swim.  I will pick ticks off us and even squish a bug.  I will attempt campfire pancakes which I am not so sure will be edible.  But I will not, in any way, fish! Momma don't touch no fish!  I don't catch them. I don't remove them from the hook. I sure am NOT gutting and cleaning them.  And there is no way on this living planet I am going to TOUCH THE WORM TO CATCH IT.  This was just announced today that we have to provide our own worms and I draw the line. I have limits.  And I think that Delaney isn't likely either.  And if the other spa loving moms are a preview into this story, I think it safe to say that when the leader asks where our worms are there will be a long silence filled with cricket music (and my laughter as the leader has to bait, unhook and clean 20 fish as we watch).  I see some sketchy fishing badges coming from this trip.

You know this is going to be good!

I will lay on my sleeping bag covered cot, covered in bug spray with my tent lit up like a mansion and eating my oreos while I laugh with "not going camping" mom over the adventures of the day and after the fishing experience I see coming........

maybe plan for the spa trip next year with them.

I do not believe my week can get much better than this!

I awoke this morning late with my alarm blaring.  A good 20 minutes late in fact. I am a light sleeper so for my alarm to be roaring some song for 20 minutes is a shock in itself and just a taste of how my morning was going to go.  I jumped out of bed and ran for Megans room since she gets up first and is now late getting in the shower.  This is not good if you know my daughter at all.  A minute late means missing the bus for Megan.  She is a snail with long hair and skinny jeans.

As I run past the kitchen I see a note that she has wet jeans in the washer that she decided to throw in last minute last night before bed and they need to go in the dryer.  I sigh because everything is always last minute with Megan and this is not unusual to see a note about wet clothes and turning on the dryer in the morning.  BUT we are 20 minutes behind and that is 20 minutes those jeans do not have. 

I run and kick her out of bed and make a mad dash downstairs to the dryer.  This now has me about 30 minutes behind myself.  I run back up and into my bathroom and start to get ready only to hear BANG BANG BANG.  My eye squints in anger and think that surely this cannot be an early daycare arrival THIS early!  I run to the window and look for a car...........nothing.  Back in I go and I hear BANG again.  Thinking it is probably Megan dropping the shampoo, I begin to head in the shower myself.  BANG!!!!!!!!!!  Ok...now I know this is not just me hearing things. I throw on something and go check on Megan and ask if she is ok.  Her comment........

"NO! I am not ok.  The bathroom door is stuck!  I told Dad it was having a problem but he didn't fix it and now I cannot open it!"

You see we have about the cheapest doorhandles the builder could find put on this house when they built it.  This is not the first time having this issue but usually it is a closet door where you can pry it open.  This is the first time someone got stuck in a room and couldn't turn the handle. 

I grasp the handle and tug.  Nothing.  I try the other way.  Nothing.  I push and turn in some odd hope it would work. Nothing.  Then I bust up laughing.  I know Megan does not find this funny and neither should I but after the week I had, this is just about the cherry to my cake!  It is more a laugh of disbelief but laugh I do. 

I run and grab a hammer and some screw drivers and rush back.  I am able to push the hammer and a screw driver under the door and tell her to work on the hinges while I am on the outside working on the handle.  Neither is budging. 

I call Todd at work and after a few comments about how the saying 'why put off till tomorrow what you can do today' should become his new study in life, I ask for directions on how to get the handle off the door!!!  Here is the next funny part...........it is on backwards.  The screws are INSIDE! 

I bust up laughing again.  This seriously cannot be happening!  I imagine what I would have done and how firefighters would now be in my house had it been Delaney behind that door!  WHAT else can go wrong??!

Well let me tell you what else can go wrong.  Nothing is moving. The screws are tights.  The hinges won't budge.  It takes us forever to get the handle off. I can now see the "tongue" of the door handle in the opening. ( I will call it a tongue for lack of a better handyman term but you should get the general idea that I am referring to the little thing that slides in and out of the jam.)  I think we are almost done.  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH NO!  It is jammed inside the door jam and will not move.  I push. I pry. I jam screw drivers in and say some words that are not very nice especially in my jammies at 6 in the morning in front of my daugher!  I am able to pry it off with some pliers.  Thinking that is the end?  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH NO!  It breaks off into the door jam.  That door is not going anywhere!

Megan goes back to banging hinges while I giggle some insane laugh, wake Ryan to help and thinking if I should call 911.  Ryan comes up, looks at the door, announces it is stuck and he is going back to bed!  He is tired, cant do anything and we are keeping him awake!  He is so spreading the brotherly love.

Finally.  30 minutes later Megan gets the hinges off the door and we pry the door from the frame.

I would love to say that this is the end of my crazy morning but early arrivals for work, not getting a shower, rushing to wake Delaney who is now 30 minutes behind herself, eating breakfast running out the door and my dog pooping in the house cause no one took her out in the craziness....just about topped it off.

I do not believe my week can get much better than dog poop, late alarms, 911 and Megan stuck in the bathroom with no way out!!  Nope.  Just do not think so...................

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Things we thought we hated.

I remember when I was growing up going to visit my great grandparents in Georgia. And I remember hating it! I hated the long ride and I hated Georgia with a passion.  Could not figure out why anyone would ever want to live there and I would give an inner grown when we passed the "Welcome to Georgia" sign on the highway. 

To me Georgia was smelly.  There was the smell of the pines everywhere mixed with humidity and a lovely whiff of what I believe was a paper mill plant nearby.  I associated that smell with Georgia and hated it. 

There was bug too.  BIG bugs.  Bugs that looked like they would chew your leg off if you stood still long enough.

There were tall pine trees and pine needles covered everything from the roof to the cars to the ground. 

My great grandparents house was....well....an old persons home.  It had a hot house attached where lizards would come and warm up and a piano and it smelled like my great grandparents. 

I remember the time my grandparents sent us down there for the summer.  I cried all the way down.  Cried each night.  And hated every minute of it.  It wasn't so much spending the entire summer with my great grandparents but it was spending it away from my family, friends and home.  I was extremely homesick and only made my hate of Georgia greater.

When my great grandparents passed away, I was happy to never set foot in that state again.  Grandma great was the last to pass away and we spent a good week down there one last time in 1986 packing away and selling and closing up a house I would never see again.  As a teenager it didn't bother me. I had no connection to that house and what was done was done.......

Or so I thought.

As I get older I remember those days differently.  Those sights and smells that turned me off then brings a smile to my face now and sadness to my heart.  It has been over 27 years since I stepped foot in Georgia and now I am rather sad for it. 

Ok. I might not miss the bugs big enough to saddle up and ride on.  But I so miss that house.  I miss the pine needles that covered it. I miss the trips we did down there and the adventures we had.  I miss the flowered bedsheets that smelled like my great grandparents. I miss the homemade quilts she made with her own hands that covered the bed. I remember laying there and fingering those quilts and wondering from what shirt or dress that swatch came from and the history behind it. I miss playing in her two bottom drawers which was filled with old jewelry and her playing piano in the evenings.

I miss Fozzie (my great grandpa) who was handsome even in his old age. I remember him being quiet but firm. I remember him walking around not in jeans and a teeshirt but slacks and button up shirt that was neatly pressed. 

I miss how we walked to the post office with Grandma great each day cause she didn't drive. I remember that walk so well that I was able to pull up google map and relocate that house going the route to the post office. 

I miss her roses in the back yard and the dolls she had in her sewing room where she made me doll clothes.  I miss Piggly Wiggly and going shopping with them. 

I miss Tybee Island and going swimming on the beach. I still have a pair of earrings from the last trip there.  They are a gold pair of star fish and it brings a smile to my face when I see them.

I miss trips to Savannah.  What I thought was boring then is beautiful now. I remember walking the river front and taking the paddle boat cruise to Fort Pulaski. 

I remember going to some church in Savannah one Sunday. I wish I could remember the name of it.  It was hot that day and the church had no ac.  The windows and doors were opened wide and a breeze blew it.  It was all white and bright and lovely.  I hated then having to sit in that pew for an hour in the heat.  I wish I could find that church today.

I remember going to Juliette Lows house and walking around the willow graced streets that surrounded it.

I remember hating those things back then.  They disrupted my life back then.  It was a yearly trip I greatly disliked.  And yet.....I remember them like yesterday and wish I could bring it all back today.   Those memories bring back family and laughter and love. Those memories that I thought I hated so much back then, I remember with sadness of a time long gone now.

 How our tastes change as we grow older.  Things we thought we hated we really truly loved.

Why haven't I?

Why haven't I blogged lately?  Hummmm well half is because I am rather living in an allergy fog and a drug induced fog or a combo of both.  I was complaining about how spring seems to have forgotten us.  It has been so cold.  The leaves hardly wanted to burst open in the coldness we have been having this spring.  It has been only about two weeks of mild-don't need the actual snow coat-type of weather.  But still rather chilly.

In that sun and remotely close spring weather, came the pollen and there has been no peace in this house since.  Five of us here and four are walking around with tissues stuffed to our faces and hidden in every pocket!!

We are keeping the makers of Allergra very happy and in business.  Going through it like candy on Halloween and fighting to see who gets the last one in the box and who gets to drive to the store to get more. 

It is tiring and snotty business.

With it comes not wanting to do much but sit stare brain dead in a drug induced coma at the flowers and wish for another box of tissues and bed.

Along with sniffling we are also finishing up the school year and preparing for summer.  Delaney has taken a break from swimming for the summer. I figured it was ok since she would be living in the pool anyway and it was one more day to sit at night and do nothing which you all know I look forward to in the summer.  Ryan is finishing up college and Megan is counting down the days till she thinks she will be sleeping the days away.

With all the cool air, it is hard to believe we will be opening the pool in four weeks. I know I won't be in it!!  It must get much warmer than this for me to stick a toe in!!  But we are making plans for the warm weather days.  I am planning daycare activities and lining up spots.  We are also planning vacation which we are very excited about this year and looking forward to. 

It will be nice to sit outside and let the warm sun bask me in its glory.......and to not need a box of tissues stuffed up my nose.......

count down...........40.....39.......38................