21 May 2009

Whoa...Who Am I? Have I Been Here Before?

*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*WHEEZE*

*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*WHEEZE*

*GASP!*

Oh hi! *pant*pant*

Groovy here. *pant*pant*

I'm still alive. But I've been busy, Busy, BUSY! *pant*pant*

Here's the short list (heh-heh) of recent goings-on. Afterward, I'll regale you with tales of our recent camping adventure:

Biking, more biking, fundraising, MORE fundsraising (Hey YOU, it's your turn to send in $5+ for the American Lung Association. See HERE for details!), yard sale, barn dance, Silly-Head's birthday, Mother's Day, gardening, gardening for GrammaJ, loads of 4H-ing, goat milking for a friend, visiting the nursing home, quilting (gotta have 'em all done before June 7!!), shopping for bike accessories, fighting asthma and horrific allergies, homeschooling, camping, alternately freezing or sweltering according to the crazy Maine weather patterns, tracking down the source of evil itty-bitty ants in the cupboard, watching the robin's nest outside our door, talking to the birds at our feeder (UPDATE: Mr. Nutty has finally chilled out.), hitting wild turkeys with our van, swatting at black flies (curse them!), doing housework (sort of), cooking, planning some "event" cakes, and occasionally combing my hair (three cheers for hats and bandanas!)

Obviously I have NOT been blogging! I think up ideas and then sit down at the computer and my brain just turns to mush. I post a quick update on Facebook -usually along with a plea for money for the Trek and then I just stare into space.

Into spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace.

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Huh? What? Oh sorry, I was drooling.

Life is good right now, but it's very tiring!

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We finally have gotten a few emails from Scout in Iraq. In his last one he said:

happy mothers day!! i know it is late but i remembered. thank you for being there for me through the good times and the bad. And being patient with me through all the rough times i put you through.
i would tell you what i do here but i would have to kill you. it's classified. i have always wanted to say that. hahahaha.
love, scout


:-D

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Silly-Head is a Mother's Day baby. This year we had a surprise party for her on (surprise!) Mother's Day. It was a great success! After our Mother's day meal etc., Girly-Girl took her down into the basement to play while we decorated and snuck in the party guests. Then Mulletman called them both up and...






My baby is EIGHT now!
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One of Silly-Head's favorite things to do is camp. So Mulletman asked for time off and had last week free and clear. We packed up all our gear and bikes and headed for a private campground near Sebago Lake. Problem was, it's NOT camping season here yet and the campground was closed!

No sweat, we turned the car toward the Sebago Lake State Park. There was absolutely NO ONE there except the camp "hosts", so we had our pick of the campsites! We got one near the sand beach and the playground.

Advantages to camping out of season:

- Rates are lower
- NO noise from late night karaoke campers! (or vehicles driving in and out, or other folks' kids)
- We get the run of the whole place.
- Clean bathrooms. :-D
- It was cold out, so the mosquitoes and black flies were practically non-existant.
- There was a veritable plethora of easily accessible downed wood for tinder and kindling.
- No security fears; the girls could run hither and yon without one of us with them all the time.
- The girls had the entire beach to themselves. They could sing, dance, build, play without disturbing anyone, without fear of someone laughing at them, or destroying their creations.





Disadvantages to camping out of season:

-It was COLD!!!!!!!!!! Cold, as in shivering and wearing winter coats!


Ironically, it is supposed to be almost 90ºF today!

-No swimming, boating, or fishing (too cold and no rentals available).

-No local restaurants were open. We usually just eat our own food at camp, but it was so chilly that we ate our warm supper for lunch on Day 2 and then had nothing but cold food left. We hoped for a local diner, but ended up at Applebees!

-No park rangers to give your money to or buy firewood from or ask questions of. We had to calculate our own fees and then go find an atm so we could pay in cash. The Mulletman had to hunt up some firewood. Lots of firewood...because it was COLD!

Highlights of the camping trip:

-We were on the way south on the interstate when a wild turkey hen ran out right in front of our van. SPLAT! She broke the front grille, the headlight mount, and one of the brackets on the bug shield. We praised God that it was a turkey and not a deer or moose!

-We saw a whole flock of turkeys AND a flock of goldfinches right next to our campsite.

-A bold crow gang tried to make off with our dirty dishes!

-We saw and heard several loons. Never heard a loon? It is the weirdest, creepiest sound you can imagine - especially in the middle of the night. The first time I ever heard them, I thought it was some strange, hungry wild animal coming to eat us. I hardly slept at all that night!

Now I find the sound soothing and lovely. :-)

-Mulletman did, indeed, almost hit a deer while on his atm and firewood trek.

-I got off track while traipsing in the woods and my 30 minute hike ended up being an hour and a half hike.

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Ok folks, believe it or not, I have many things I'm s'posed to be doing today. I'm going to try to get in a blog post at least once a week. So hang in there, I haven't deserted you! At least, not completely! Hopefully, I'll be able to get around and visit a few of you before the next 3 days are over.

Have a lovely Memorial Day!

6 comments:

anno said...

Welcome back! Looks like a wonderful Mother's Day, even the camping trip. The only camping trip I ever enjoyed was up at Sleeping Bear Dunes in mid-May where we were the only other company we had was the occasional fox. But, yes, it was kind of cold...

Good to see you again!

Lauri said...

Ooo... I love the sound of a loon- reminds me of camping in Northern Wisconsin, reminds me of spring. Your post has made me want to pull out the tent and go camping. Sounds fun.... though I'm not the fan of cold and it's winter here now...

Dawn said...

I love the sound of loons on the lake in Minnesota.

Your weather is as crazy as ours - 90+ for two days, 50 today.

Love the note from your son. What a blessing that was.

You are indeed crazy busy - take care of yourself and stay in touch when you can!

Superwoman said...

the wail did sound a little creepy but the rest of the sounds were fun! Hope the car isn't too expensive to fix and I'm glad you've been having fun!

Anonymous said...

I'll be thinking of your Scout and his buddies. Your camping trip looked like an absolutely wonderful time. I haven't been camping in ages, and I miss it. We used to go in the NC mtns before we moved to Evil Florida. 8 years there, and it never once occurred to me to camp there. Now that we're back in NC, we might have to start up again. Happy belated Mother's Day to you and Happy Belated Birthday to Silly Head. The big 8! Woo-hoo!

Anonymous said...

Hope Silly Head had a lovely birthday. She is such a cutie!