The last hoorah of summer...or The Griswold's take New Braunfels!

We snuck in a quick end of summer trip last weekend, getting home literally the day before school started.

We loaded up the family truckster and hitched on the (new to us) travel trailer. It was our maiden voyage for our little travel trailer.

There she is our home away from home! Let me tell you, it was $90 total for 3 nights in the RV park. Sheesh, where have you been all my life trailer?
We of course brought Missy the wonder doxie, no family trip is complete without her.

She was the trailer park queen, a coveted title no doubt, with her cute self. She got comments everywhere we went..."She is beautiful"/"What a pretty little dog" / "Is that a Dachshund?"

Some fellow campers at the park had a Dachshund and as they walked by our spot with their short haired doxie one of them said "Look there is a hairy weenie!" To which, of course, blonde rascal and I giggled and snorted. Guess who has a new name added to the long list of endearing things we call her?

(She did get knocked down from her trailer park beauty queen, big head status today when the lady who cleans our house asked if Missy was pregnant! Wha...???? Why no, she is just fluffy, and big boned and she has a great personality and she makes her own clothes...)

Also along with Missy in our humble trailer was ZZ. You have not met ZZ yet, he is a new addition to the family...
Apparently no trip is complete without him either.Nobody asked if he was pregnant.

(ZZ is short for ZZ Top. Don't ask me.)

Friday morning we headed out to Schlitterbahn. First the fellas checked out the park map online so we could make our plan of attack.
RV parks have wi-fi. Sheesh. $90, who knew?

Schlitterbahn admission was significantly more than $90, but who's counting?Hubs and blonde rascal in the lazy river. The only picture I got...camera and water park don't really go well together you know.

It was fun, fun, fun. We had such a great time and were completely exhausted when we left that evening.

The next morning we floated the Comal River. By the by, our swanky RV park was right on the river.
That was ridiculously fun. Good times, great memories.

My sunglasses are on the bottom of that river.

Based on the adventures of those 2 days I feel I should give pause and discuss the importance of females getting a swim suit that appropriately covers and holds in all fat, jiggly parts, stomach, buttocks, bulges...that no one wants to see. Really ladies, have some respect. None of us are perfect but if you are pushing 350 lbs., I feel like it is obvious that a bikini is not the most flattering choice. Yes? I digress again...

Anyway RV park life was fun, relaxing and a great family getaway.


Toasting marshmallows....

Grilling burgers right next to the neighboring trailer and their sewer poop chute hose hookup. Dinner's ready!! Yum!

It was incredibly fantastic to be with 2 of my favorite guys (and the dog...and the hamster) for a fun weekend before the craziness of school started up again.

New school year, same emotions....

I walked into blonde rascal's room this morning at, after a lazy summer, a shockingly early 6:45 and said Good morning, wake up for your first day of 5th grade!...... I swallowed the lump in my throat as I thought 5th grade, how can that be when I could so vividly see in my mind walking into his room and seeing a happy, chubby baby smiling back at me from his crib like it was yesterday?

I am always sad when school starts, not only because I have to realize my "baby" gets older and older, but also I so enjoy summer just hanging out with the little man and hate to see it come to an end. He is for sure a bright spot in my every day!


Enough pictures Mom!! He took the camera and decided Jake would make a good subject....

I guess I can hang out with Jake today, but that's just not the same....even though he is pretty cute!

Blonde rascal was excited. His teacher this year is super kind and nurturing, a real sweetheart.


I left his classroom without hugs and kisses, like I used to get in his early school years. That would be SO uncool now. He was happy to be there. That makes me happy too.

I think I will go kiss Jake. He is very free with giving kisses!

News worthy

So I have been MIA all summer. It has been a great summer, a busy summer, but sooo fun nonetheless. School starts a week from today and I am dreading it! I like having the little man with me all the time.

There is so much to say about our summer.... I may never have to time divulge all that information. However there are those instances where something happens and it MUST be blogged about A.S.A.P. You know, like a to die for recipe that must be shared, a monumental family event, a super cute new haircut, a fantastic find at the junk store.....

OR.....

How about a scorpion in my shorts this morning that stung the everlovinghell out of my tender inner thigh/lower buttocks area?

That is a blog worthy event if I have ever heard one.

Yes sir, in my shorts. That's what I said. While I was in my shorts too, mind you. Me and a scorpion.... sharing my khaki shorts. Cozy, huh?

How in the name of Pete did that happen you ask? You know I am going to tell you.

It all goes back to my mom telling me to pick up my clothes when I was a kid. Should of listened. You see there was a lovely pair of khaki shorts, on the floor of my closet and I chose to wear them today. Yes they should have been put back in the drawer after I wore them last, hindsight is 20/20.

I put on said khaki shorts after getting out of the shower. Wore them for a good 15 minutes before there was a devilish horrible stinging in my britches! That is the part that makes my skin crawl...that dang vile creature was hitching a ride in my drawers whilst I was putting on makeup and such. Nightmarish honestly.

I went to pull the trash bag out of the kitchen trash and obviously bent in such a manner that was not pleasing to Mr. Hitcharideinmydrawers.

Instantly there was this fire burning trauma going on in my shorts and I was momentarily dumbfounded by just what exactly was going on. I commenced to yelling and stomping. It was a very painful intense burning, so I pretty quickly had a horrified good idea at what the culprit was and shucked my shorts in a mighty fast manner. In the kitchen no less, all the while both blonde rascal and Missy the wonder mini-doxie stood mouth agape staring at the spectacle I was obviously making of myself.

As I flung my shorts, the dastardly scorpion fell to the ground where in a blind searing pain filled kung fu moment I stomped on it with my full body weight. I did have flip flops on thank goodness.

Then I grabbed an ice pack out of the fridge and waddled over to the ottoman, in my underwear, in front of blonde rascal.... and sat my left cheek on the ice pack.

It still burns 6 hours later, thank you very much.

I told blonde rascal I'd pay for his therapy later in life. I can see him laying on a therapist's couch in his young adult years mumbling..."my Mom..... hollering....underwear...... ice packs...." Poor kid.

Mog

Obviously I am on some sort of monthly blogging thing now. So, I give you my monthly log...Mog if you will.

I have so much more to say but apparently not enough time. You know, important things...like how much money we have spent on pool chemicals, rattlesnake sightings, cool patio furniture from the junk store, how much I adore summer with no schedules. The list of totally irrelevant information I could be forcing on you on a daily basis is limitless. Unfortunately I am not organized enough to blog daily.

Today all I have the energy for is a story from Sunday School. Don't worry I won't be getting all theological on you. When blonde rascal came out of his SS class this morning he was totally fired up because two girls, sisters no less, completely lost their cool and starting fighting over a sticky note in their Bible during class. He said it was off the hook....screaming, crying, slapping. He stated, for the record, it was the best SS class ever.

Does this mean he will be amused by mud wrestling when he is older? Whatever. If unruly girls keep him looking forward to church, then so be it.

The return of the phantom blogger

My Dad keeps reminding me that it has been over a month since I have blogged. (It is so nice to have a fan!)

A month? Does time always fly this fast or am I getting old?

At the end of my last riveting post, we had just returned from NC. Let's take it from the top since then....

1. Easter. Jesus lives! And obviously less important but somewhat noteworthy for the sake of killing time....

A giant chocolate rabbit to keep blonde rascal whacked out for days...
Coloring of the eggs. You should know that this one says "Mom rocks"
The holiday would not be complete without the jelly bean pooping bunny. I'm not gonna lie, it's funny every time.
2. I did a re-decorating re-vamp on blonde rascal's room. I don't have any "after" pictures yet, so it is pointless to continue that conversation. Other than of course to further justify why I have been absent from blog land.

3. In case you just stumbled across my blog (lucky you) I'll give a quick precursor to #3. We moved to a small town a year ago and hubs started a used car business. We are equally blessed and thankful that the community has embraced us and the business has taken off. Unfortunately that took my willy nilly part time involvement in the business to a full time status. (Cutting out way too much of my goof off time!) Now, hubs got a taste of this entrepreneur stuff and got all crazy, bidding on an auction of 150 FEMA trailers. Now we all work 900 hours a week. Again, we have been blessed and the customers are coming out of the woodwork to get these travel trailers. That is the main reason I am MIA. I will have to devote a post to the trailers... fun times! (P.S. if you are in the West TX vicinity and need a TT give me a shout.)

4. I like Vanilla Ice. That has nothing to do with why I have been absent, but I felt like getting it out there. Word to your mother.

5. Another issue, again nothing to do with my absence but just go with the stream of consciousness right now please, is my oven. More specifically the timer on the oven. When we moved here a year ago and did a little kitchen remodel on our new house, we got a new oven. Maytag. They are generally known for quality products yes? Well the stupid timer on said Maytag beeps 3 times in a row when it is done...and that is all. Done, will not beep again ever. Is it just me or is that wrong? Granted continuous beeping is somewhat annoying, but how about beeps at intervals until turned off? I NEED more beeps in order to not burn dinner.

Back to my original purpose....

6. The Marine got to come home on leave for about 2 weeks.

He was glad to get to drive a horse instead of an armored bulldozer!
Did you ever wonder where the term slinging snot came from?....Now you know. That steer needs a kleenex.

Or what a modern day woolly mammoth looks like?....
I digress.

We were so glad to have him home, he deserved some time off after fighting in Afghanistan.

#7 I have been working on the porches and trying to get flowers planted, in my spare time. Again, no "after" pictures so that post will come later.

Incidentally while sprucing up the porches/yard, I droped an extremely heavy bottom to a bird bath on my big toe. I have had the bird bath for like 7 years. The bolts rusted and fell apart. We re-bolted the top to the bottom, and then it got hit by the lawn mower & fell apart again. It has been in the garage for like 2 years because I am cheap and bird baths are not, I refuse to get rid of it. So I glued it together last week with some E6000 wonder glue that bonds anything. Or at least that had been my experience with that glue until I picked up the bird bath and the bottom smashed my big toe right in the joint. Ouch. I got a big gnarly bruise. I thought I was beginning to see the likeness of the Virgin Mary in the bruise. In which case I could have sold pictures of it on E-bay, making some big moolah. Unfortunately, it ended up looking more like Papa Smurf.

The bruised toe has caused me to run all gimpy on the treadmill, which in turn has cause all kinds of weird blisters/callouses, skin peeling. I am in dreadful need of an intervention by way of a pedicure. No time for that......

#8 We went to the car show in our little small town. Blonde rascal took a friend from school.Beautiful cars...
Hot Wheels races....
Trophy for winning a coloring contest....
And the real crowd pleaser....The tire burn out competition.

For your viewing pleasure, I give you the burn out competition...
Nice.

The next competitor had a bumper sticker on his tailgate that summed up the whole event....
Nice.

Man, I am tired just reading all of this nonsense. I hope to be back soon. Maybe tomorrow? It IS Mother's Day tomorrow after all, so I will exercise my right to do nothing, but blog if I so choose. How else am I going to get all this useless information out of my head, huh?

Welcome home, hero!!

We loaded up the car early last Wednesday and drove to North Carolina. West Texas to North Carolina. I will spare you the details of how grueling and devastatingly long THAT took.

After a flight around the world from Afghanistan, The Marine was scheduled to be back at Camp Lejuene around noon on Friday.

They had a welcome area set up in a maintenance bay on the base. Lots of eager family and friends waiting for their soldiers!How precious is that little guy waiting for his daddy?


Blonde rascal was anxiously awaiting his brother's arrival too...
There was some cool machinery and things that go boom for us to look at while passing the time.

Some brass walked around and met the families and thanked us for letting him borrow our son.That was pretty nice, we thought.


They told us the bus was on its way. They had to stop first at the armory to turn in their guns (thank goodness) and then go to medical and get blood drawn. Finally that was done and here they came.

I couldn't help snapping a picture of this little girl in her cute dress...obviously waiting for her daddy.

The bus pulled in.......and I could not help snapping another picture, that little girl's daddy was the first one off the bus.SO heartwarming, even though I did not know these people. That started my tears flowing!


At last after nine tough months, there was the face we had been hoping and praying to see again!Ahhhh....Thank God!


He grabbed his bags.......and we were out of there. We really did ask if we could help carry anything!
Blonde rascal did strap on one back pack.

I was a little scared to touch anything....The Marine affectionately called what we were smelling "the smell of deployment"....it was strong to say the least!

That didn't stop blonde rascal from trying on a few things!



We enjoyed getting to spend the weekend with him. He had some incredible pictures and even more incredible stories. It is somewhat amazing that any of them come out of it alive. Keep praying for those brave men and women over there still fighting for us!

Feels good to sleep peacefully again now that he is safe. Feels good to be out of the dang car too!!! No more road trips for me any time soon!