This last one is around 1995 pre great grand kids.

Camp was fun and exciting and COLD! MD and I roughed it in the woods with the other 11 Girls Scouts.
We were in cabins but the cabins had screens for doors and screens for windows so it was still really cold. But we did have toilets and it was pretty clean and I didn’t see one bug so I would say it was one of the easier camps we’ve done. It was a none stop weekend.
The people that planned the “encampment” were really organized and had everyone on rotations all ending with a fun dance. There were lots of screaming girls, whining moms and plenty of dirt to go around. One of my favorite things they do at encampment is Girl Scout swaps. Here MD is with two of her Dasiy friends proudly wearing their Swaps.

Swaps, for those that don’t know are some sort of (normally homemade) trinket that hangs by a safety pin and the girls swap them. The encampment’s theme was renaissance so there were lots of princess crowns, swords, shields etc but there were other’s that were just girls scout themed or camping themed etc. I like to see how creative everyone is. MD was the only experienced camped so all the parents were really nervous but I think everyone did great.

If you click on the pictures they get bigger. For some reason WordPress isn’t doing what I want and I just don’t have the energy to mess with it anymore tonight…

Now its bed time as we have been on winter holiday for the past three weeks and tomorrow everyone goes back to school and I go back to work. I am not looking forward to this.

By the way… hating on the new phone so far….

Now if I had just listen to my body and got up from the computer at 4pm and cooked dinner, actually all I had to do was heat it up as I already have chicken grilled to eat I would be eating a heathy dinner right now. But instead I am feeling awful and not meeting my goals and no closer to making a baby happen for our family in the process. This baby is supposed to be very important to me. I want this baby, I have one minor and one major obstacle in my way. The major one is unless I lose some weight and bring my sugar levels down this baby just isn’t going to happen. What is wrong with me that even with this in mind I can not make good choices? Do I just magically think all will work itself out? I better than anyone know that is not true. I must make what I want to happen, happen and I must make it happen before it’s too late.

I really need to get it together.

I don’t feel like I have anything new to write about despite the list of “to be blogged” items I have running in my hand written journal. (which I must say I think keeping a hand written journal is a lost art and I love mine). ok so on so many levels our family seems to be on the horizon of new things but just on the tip not yet happening. So many around us are going through life changing events. A few friends are having babies, two are moving, one is losing tons of weight and another just started a new job today. I spent the day making work calls, cleaning out the board game shelf, cleaning out the girl’s bedroom and reorganizing it and posting all our stuff for sale. It crossed my mind I might have been a bit more successful with this if I had done this before Christmas as I have not gotten one nibble and now my office is packed with excess of toys we have decided need to go live somewhere else.

But whatever her bedroom and our game shelf both look so much better. And I suppose my office is an “organized” mess that is on it’s was out the door.

Speaking of handwritten items, the kids spent the afternoon hand writing their Christmas card Thank Yous. I think that is so very important. They are some of the unlucky few to have birthdays so close to the holidays as they just wrote birthday thank yous but alas mom said “to bad” and off they went. Now if only the mail would run one of these days so I could get them off. For some reason our mail carrier didn’t work Thursday, Friday, Saturday or today. I know they are underpaid but come on already!!!

But it’s not just USPS I’m ticked at FedEx as well. After 2.5 years my cell phone is on its last leg…. RIP oh purple Blackberry, I will miss you. I gave in and went to the Verizon store on the 29th thinking I would get an after Christmas sale HA HA no not only not but most of the newer phones are on back order. So after I decided on the most current phone that still has an actual keypad now I wait for two-day delivery but due to the holiday it may come tomorrow or Wednesday…. meanwhile my sweet blackberry is only holding about a 30 minute charge and thats if I don’t text or call or use it in any way. Anyone who knows me, knows that just doesn’t work for me.

So cross your fingers for me and my new Samsung Stratosphere with extend battery for all my 4g needs will hurry up and get here soon. We will see.

By the Way Happy New Years!!!

I am liking my new day job (that is as much as one who hates working can like working). It does make me feel like i am contributing to my weak family’s financial state at the moment. And as for work, it’s not bad. I feel like I am getting the hang of it and my boss is nice and flexible. She just left for a two-week vacation and left me with tons of work and in charge of a lot of stuff. It makes me think she does trust me so maybe I should have a bit more faith in myself too.

Ok off to sleep, we have early morning dentist appointments before out dental insurance runs out on the 31st and then off to take the kids skating. I already have the kid’s lunch packed from home and will use my diet as to why we’re not joining the other moms when they go out to lunch. (and not the fact we have no extra cash).

Today is Christmas morning. It is an ever changing experience for our family. When the kids were babies we were out West with no family, left to our own devices all the day in PJs and pure toy ecstasy. In the years since we have been home in the South, with in laws, great grandparents and my divorced parents our holidays are broken up and long. But this year we decided to split the great grand parents and in-laws on Christmas Eve and both my parents together on Christmas day. This leaving a good part of the day with just our nuclear family. I think this is the best solution yet. Crazydaddy and I have just about perfected the Christmas morning routine down to preparing a full on breakfast in about 25 minutes. And the kitchen is already clean! (Yeah for me). The only hitch this morning was while both my children have never been told Santa is real, we have the “he’s just for fun” mentality, I think MD really wants to believe so we carry on. She was very concerned in regards to the naughty list last night and came crying into our room in the wee hours of the morning this morning that there were actually gifts under the tree for her. She had a nightmare that she was kidnapped and forced to do “bad” things while her daddy and I were killed, thus putting her on the naughty list. I’m not too sure what I’m most concerned about, the fact she dreamed we were murdered, that she was kidnapped and forced to do “bad” things or the fact that she was so contemplating the “naughty” list. After assuring her the first two things are IMPOSTBLITIES the later is something that she should really think about because this is something in her control. I think it may have an impact.

JM was super happy with his Skylander game for the Wii and his 3DS handheld game set and the puppy was paid in spades.
As for Crazydad and I, we haven’t exchanged gifts in many years as I generally just buy what I want when I want. LOL Plus this year has been very hard for us financially. The school the kids attend while we love it (and waited two years to get into) is about 45 minutes away from home and due to gas prices our gas alone is about $800 a month. This is like adding two car payments to our monthly bills when we have never even had one. We would love to sell our house and rent or buy closer to school but like so many our house isn’t worth the bank note it’s written on and we owe more then we can sell it for at this point. All this has been a huge adjustment for us, especially for me as I have to take first a part time job but now two part time jobs to help keep us above the line. It really is a huge adjustment for everyone as the grocery shopping, laundry and other things I used to do during the day are all now done on the weekend by the whole family. I will say the one day time part time job is flexible so if I need to bring the kids on a non school day I can or if I want to take a day off or something it is totally a go.

I took one such day on Friday for my annual Cookies and Craft day with the kids. It was not the same as with my friends out West but fun was had just the same. Ok I have toys to remove from boxes and shelves to reorganize. I do have a running list to blog about dating all the way back to Halloween and our two November birthdays so hopefully I will find some more time soon.

Happy Holidays to all!!!