A few goings-on

I feel like my brain is in a million different places right now. Fortunately for you, you get to read all about it!

We went camping this last week with Jeff's family at Wallowa Lake State Park, in Oregon. The scenery reminded me a lot of the Wasatch mountain range in Utah. I miraculously remembered to bring a camera, but then, not so miraculously, forgot to use it most of the time. So, here are some goofy pictures for you to enjoy from our camping trip.

 Jeff caught a trout one evening while fishing with his dad. That poor fellow remains frozen in our freezer (the fish, not Jeff's dad)

 Leila and Jude. Jude does not have epilepsy, he just never takes his helmet off when he's done riding his bike.

 The Exuberant Jude

 See those bandages on Leila's leg? Any normal parent would have Band-Aids on hand. As a nurse, however, I was prepared with a roll of gauze, bandage scissors, and medical tape. 

Eddie was on this camping trip also, though we almost lost him when he had to urgently have a bowel movement, and I had to send him to the bathroom alone. We couldn't find him in the bathroom we thought he'd gone into, and the ranger station and marina were both notified, and a park-wide search was underway for a brown kid wearing swim trunks who had an urgent need to poop. Not much later, Eddie emerged from an unexpected bathroom with empty bowels, ready to play again. Whew!

Another notable incident occurred while I was getting into my sleeping bag one night and felt a very specific kind of pain on my left buttock. With great speed I pulled my pants down and told Jeff to look at my bottom (he was disappointed at the reason). We found a yellow jacket in my sleeping bag! Needless to say, I became the sleeping bag checking nazi after that. No child went to bed without having their sleeping bag thoroughly dumped upside down and a light shined into every dark corner. 

It was a pretty fun trip, and I got a little more used to cooking in a dutch oven. When I worked at Anasazi I became a whiz at cooking my food in a tin cup shoved into the coals in a fire. This mass-quantity idea is harder for me. But, no one got food poisoning or contracted a deadly parasite, so I consider it a success! 

I finally got around to organizing the kids' craft area, and one of the kids took this picture of it. I've been organizing more than usual lately. For example, I finally have a laundry basket dedicated to whites only. Jeff called me a racist when I told him. 

Jeff is bow hunting for deer with his dad this week, which leaves me alone with the children. I was excited to try it out . . . right up until the moment Jeff left and realized everything really is up to me this week. Because of the hunt, I pushed back our ultrasound of our baby another week so Jeff can be there with me. At long last, at week 19, I felt this baby move! I don't know why it took so long. Hopefully I'm really carrying a baby and not a very small fish or something. Or maybe this is just an extremely lazy child. I guess we'll find out at the ultrasound appointment. I mostly care that the baby's organs are INSIDE its body, because if they're not, you know, that's when things get serious. The boy/girl thing is interesting, but not as crucial as the organs being inside the body. Oh, and a brain. I hope it has a brain. That's how I feel about ultrasounds. I don't mean to sound trite and mean for those parents who have had babies born with anxiety-causing birth defects or diseases. I think you parents are amazing, and I just don't think I could be as tough as you are. 

Today I put Jude in time-out for breaking a rule, and he screamed from behind the door, "Mommy! You're a sh**!" I swear to you, as I live and flourish, I have NEVER used that word, especially in front of my children. I think he learned that word because the only movie we had downloaded on the iPad on the long drive home from our camping trip was Avatar, which includes that word a couple of times. We were so nervous when we heard it and saw it go into our children's innocent ears, and now I have paid for that mistake. Why didn't I have a strong-worded come-to-Jesus talk with Jude when he disrespected his mother like that?? Guilt. I believe it is my fault he knows that word, and I lost a part of my soul when I heard him use it.

I also read my friend Geoff Groberg's blog today about a gig my band played in 2008, and it made me so nostalgic. Here's the link to the blog post. It is magical (the link is actually just normal, but the blog post is really good, kind of magical). http://geoffgroberg.com/2013/08/25/koosharem/

Well, I hope your Sunday was a good one!