Me Again...

Hiho,

I'm back in the saddle again. Sort of.

Yesterday, I rode my bike for the first time in several weeks. That went well, but my allergies are about to drive me into insanity. My sinuses are going haywire. I've had some minor allergy problems before, but this year is awful! I'm doing the whole sneezing, stuffy/runny nose, itchy eyes, hoarse throat thing.

Worse yet, my face and neck (and sometimes my arms) are still swollen every morning and they are still itchy. I have a gen-u-ine allergy to the sun. Oh yes.

You can't imagine how special this makes me feel. Now I can live in Maine and miss the sun 12 stinkin' months a year. O lucky me.

Vitamin D and St. John's Wort, here I come!

Actually, I can keep most of myself out of the sun. It IS the face and neck that are tricky. I had this reaction even after using 45 spf sunscreen and constantly wearing a hat. Now I'm going to switch to sunBLOCK. No, not the lovely white zinc oxide - although that does have possibilities if I put together a miming routine. I thought I'd try the more translucent titanium dioxide. Aubrey makes an all natural sunblock with TiO2, so I'm gonna give it a try.

OK, enough about me. Now it's time to talk about...um...ME, because it's my blog!

Last weekend we camped at Smuggler's Den Campground on Mt. Desert Island. That's pronounced Mt. "Dessert", even though it is spelled "Desert". This drives me bananas, but apparently, no one cares.

It was a lovely campground and we had a (mostly) lovely time. Unfortunately, I was doped up on Benedryl for the entire time, so I may not be remembering things accurately. We camped Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Then we packed up Sunday morning and visited Calvary Chapel in Orrington Maine on our way home.

We hiked, helped the girls ride their bikes (they're still a bit shaky), went to the coast to look for tidal pools, found some groovy rocks (I LOVE rocks!), and went to an over-priced, but quaint little oceanarium. (ie. we had a "school" field trip!) We also swam in the freezing heated (supposedly) outdoor pool with the girlies several times a day.

Actually, Mulletman swam. I sat in the shade like a good girl and zoned out watched.

Here are the requisite camping photos that I know you are just DYING to see so that you'll be firmly convinced that we had mounds of fun while you sat home twiddling your thumbs:

Here's our home away from home:



Now it's pool time. Aren't those BRAVE girlies? Isn't that a cute Mulletman?




There was the coolest cemetary right in the campground:



One of the tombs was for Jacob Lurvey who was a hero from the Revolutionary War. He was a prisoner of war twice, but he lived to be 92! Unfortunately, the inscription on his tombstone didn't show up the photo very well. The stone next to it belongs to a couple of his later relatives.



Oh Look! The Groovy Fam, having school during vacation! (They're SO dedicated!)



What can this be? Is it an actual photo of a female swollen-faced groove? Note her her colorful, sun-reflecting plumage. Note also how her "bill" hides her face!



And here are two cuties goofing off after a grueling search for tidal pools. We found crabs, barnacles, snails, millions of rocks (beautiful rocks!) and a dead jelly fish.



We'll be off again either tomorrow evening or Friday morning, depending on the weather. We'll be tenting at the Windsor Fair Grounds for Maine 4-H Days. It's all free and it's reportedly just LOADS of fun. Besides, if the girls make it through a couple of goating classes and shows and help sell snacks in our Caprine Crew's snack shack, we can call it "school".

It works for me.

We'll be coming back late Saturday. I'll have Sunday for church and recovery, then Mm has his surgery on Monday followed by TWO MORE weeks at home with us.

The anticipation is almost more than I can bear!