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This week’s theme: Family
I tried. I really, honest to God tried, but I just couldn’t allow myself to post the original picture because my hair – good gravy – I look like a football player complete with broad shoulders and helmet hair. So, this is a more flattering picture of me. *grin* Now my guys, they look awesome! |
Tag: family
photohuntWorth the Sweat and Hard Work
Camping is not for everyone.
You must be willing to get dirty, to be sweaty, to take showers in different, sometimes bug-infested places and to show body parts to strange people while pretending that walking around in a towel in front of women you’ve never seen in your life before and will most likely never see again, is all perfectly commonplace.
But camping? DOES it for me. And my family? LOVES it.
Which is really odd for me to say because though I’m not exactly a “prissy” sort of girl, I don’t care to get dirty. I DON’T enjoy gardening, on any level. Why? Because I can’t stand the thought of having dirt under my fingernails or possibly running the pads of my fingers over a cold, slimy worm. In fact, I don’t enjoy any sort of outdoor work mainly because I can’t stand that outdoorsy smell that clings to your skin and clothes when you come back in.
I don’t swim in lakes because of the fishy, moldy, NASTY lake smell and the fact that you’re swimming in pond scum and God knows what else. And I can barely stand to wade into the ocean because when seaweed wraps it’s slick fingers around my legs it makes me gag and feel all … icky (how’s that for an original adjective?).
And yet, I’m okay with camping.
Go figure.
Camping is A LOT of work. It’s a lot of work to prepare our camper – soak the fold-down canvas beds with waterproof solution, check, and patch any leaks, replace a faulty faucet, tear out soaked cardboard and insulation because the caulk on one of our seams had aged and cracked and it leaked, air up the tires, make sure the propane tanks have enough gas, the brakes on our camper are working properly (this was especially important when we went camping in Colorado last year), blahblahblah.
And then, packing the thing with clothes, bedding, towels, food (we’ve learned that buying our perishable food when we reached our destination is SO MUCH EASIER than stressing about whether it’s staying cold in a cooler the whole trip), cooking utensils, cookery, plastic forks, spoons, knives, dish soap, paper towels, coffee maker, coffee mugs (I almost always forget coffee mugs), entertainment …. and on and on.
In essence, when you pack a camper, you’re furnishing a small house – it’s time consuming, back-breaking and really sweaty work hauling stuff back and forth between the house and the camper – both coming and going.
And yet, we do it, several times a year … and we enjoy it.
Well, me and the boys enjoy it; I think the husband just tolerates it because of me.
The camping bug usually bites me in mid-summer. I don’t care camping in the spring because my guys have allergies and the few times we’ve camped in the spring, it’s been a miserable experience for them – so we don’t.
By mid-summer, I don’t know, I just yearn to be outdoors, to appreciate nature, to breathe in that fresh air you only get when you leave the city, to hear the nature creatures and insects you can only hear when you’re away from the buzz of the city. It’s soothing, it’s peaceful, it’s rejuvenating.
But if I EVER talk about going camping at the end of July/first of August again, you have my permission to reach across cyber space and flick me on the forehead.
For those just tuning in, we went camping this past weekend – in 100 degree weather. Wow. It was not only hot (which I can handle), but it was stuffy and unbearable (which I can not handle). This past weekend was a heat wave. And to make matters even more uncomfortable, there was no wind. None. Walking outside was like trying to breathe through a blanket. The air was heavy, thick and moist. Within minutes of being outside, your skin beaded with moisture and felt clammy and unnatural.
In essence? It was miserable camping weather. We’ve camped when it’s been hot before, but not anything like this. The skies were clear, the atmosphere was hazy and people walked around liked zombies because it was simply too much of an effort to be anything more.
So, we didn’t venture outside our air conditioned camper very often. We sat around and read, played games and watched movies, and we were perfectly okay with that. We wanted a brief getaway where we did … nothing. We had no agenda. We had no desire to get out and see the sights because we’ve seen them a million times before. (We camped in Branson for the like the umpteenth time). We simply wanted to get away and … breathe, a chance to catch our breath and focus on just being together.
I think the boys really like camping because the husband and I pay attention to them. The husband and I enjoy camping with the boys because they actually acknowledge our existence. We get so caught up and distracted with other things and responsibilities at home, that we often find ourselves co-existing, and not much more.
I bought some of those cheesy plastic ball lights that you string up along your awning. We’ve always wanted them but just never got around to buying them in the past. We strung those lights up and one night, we oiled our skin up with insect repellent and sat outside together under those lights. It was a comfortable, companionable silence, the silence that you typically experience with people you’re around a lot.
And then something wonderful happened – the boys began talking.
If you are, or have ever been, a parent of a teenager, then you’ll know that when these “talk” sessions happen, you savor every minute of it. It’s hard enough to communicate with your teenager at the best of times, but it’s certainly a rarity if they VOLUNTEER information about themselves or what they’re thinking.
We sat around and had a really good chat. They talked, and we listened. We asked them questions, and they actually answered them, honestly. It was an insightful and rewarding pow-wow with our sons. We caught a glimpse of the men they were becoming and we were quite pleased with what we saw.
We have been blessed with some truly great kids.
We spent the majority of our time playing a board game. It’s called Blokus and in essence, it’s a reality-based Tetras game. You can only place your pieces on the corner of your own colored pieces and when you run out of places you can place your tiles, you count up how many squares you have remaining and the person who has the least squares, wins.
We really had a great time playing that game. It’s a strategy THINKING game (as opposed to all of those RPG shoot-first-ask-questions-later games the boys are in to), and we shared quite a few laughs trying to outwit each other. I think MK might have won the most games, which doesn’t surprise me, he is the linear thinker in the family (well, he and the husband – they are two peas in a pod). GD and I held our own, though. (Translation: We weren’t TOTALLY boring to play. 😀 )
See this happy, relaxed smile?
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what I like about camping: the easy camaraderie, the relaxed atmosphere and the chance to be together and enjoy each other.
It makes all the sweat and hard work seem insignificant in comparison.
Family Friday – Ants, Tanning, Passed, Awards
Family Friday is my your chance to catch up with what’s going on with the family. Lucky, lucky you. 😉
Cast of characters:
The hubs
Me
GD – oldest son (15)
MK – youngest son (13)
The Hubs: The hubs has been pretty busy at work. The first of the month is usually the busiest time for him (he’s the CFO of a finance company). When he’s not crunching numbers at work, he’s working on our lawn – planting grass seed, putting down dark mulch, fixing sagging gutters, mowing and crawling under the house.
I wasn’t sure about the dark mulch at first.
Actually, I didn’t have much of a choice. The hubs took off one Saturday and came back with a truckload of the stuff. He tends to do that, make executive decisions without consulting the executive.
That would be me, in case anyone was confused. 😀
And he was halfway done putting it down before I really noticed what he was doing. (The outside? Yeah, his domain – I stay out of it). At first, I was a bit … cautious with my opinion. It was so … dark. But after a few days, it really grew on me and now I quite like it. I think it adds a whole new level of contrast to our house next to the light gravel and brownish stones.
Was I upset that he went ahead and did that without asking me? Not really. I’m quite used to it (he once came home with a $600 canoe and announced, “Guess what we’re going to do this summer! Go fishing on the lake!”)
I trust the husband’s decorating opinions. And I generally agree with him – emphasis on the generally. *cough*
He’s also been crawling under our house. We, um, sort of have an ant problem. Not the big, ugly black kind of problem, but the teeny tiny thousands that just appear out of nowhere in the time it takes you examine the dirt under your fingernails. I honestly don’t know where these critters are coming from, but they’re everywhere. We’ve been really cautious about making sure everything is wiped up and the floor has been swept but every time I turn around, I find another thousand or so crawling around.
For instance, I opened the pantry up the other day to get something (I can’t remember what, but if I’m opening the pantry, it’s because of something important – you think I LIKE walking into a room full of tempting/fattening goodies?) and nearly came unglued when I came face-to-face with a colony of ants that were having quite the picnic on our Rice Crispy Treats cereal.
And then the other morning, I opened the cabinet to grab the honey so I could make the boys a sandwich for their lunch and nearly lost my breakfast at the swarm covering every square inch of the little, sweet honey bear bottle.
Okay fine, I’m exaggerating, we don’t have them quite that bad, but there are enough to give me the whillies. I’ve sprayed more ant spray in the past week to replace the smog over L.A. And then tonight, when we were eating our dinner, I noticed about five flying ants. WTH? (At least, I hope they were flying ants and not termites. Please God, anything but termites).
Our house is being controlled by critters. Guess what we’re going to be doing this weekend? Yep, spraying the heck out of house. We also bought some ant stuff to sprinkle around our foundation to hopefully kill the suckers already in the house.
Me: I’ve been tanning. *sigh* I know I’m probably going to receive some flack for telling ya’ll that, but yep, I’ve been baring my soul to the tanning gods. And I can just hear several of you out in there cyberworld asking, “WHY Karen? WHY would you do that to yourself?”
Answer? I’m not quite sure. I haven’t tanned for a number of years and I can’t really pinpoint one reason why I’m doing it this year. But I suppose part of the reason is because I feel ugly. I’m so WHITE. Like fish belly white. It’s gross. And I’m going to be forced to don a bathing suit in the next week because the weather is warming up and the boys will want to go swimming. The thought of my white skin against the white concrete at the pool makes me want to rub my temples in pain. Can you IMAGINE what that white-on-white might do to the other people at the pool? It could blind them! I’m only thinking of their well being, you understand. 😀
I’ve been lamenting on the fact that I can’t find any clothes that flatter me. So I suppose, after wasting countless hours trying on clothes that accentuate my every flaw (and trust me, there are several flaws to accentuate), I was feeling a bit down on myself. And tanning makes me feel … sexy. In fact, it was funny, but as I was lying on the tanning bed being cooked alive (don’t you love how I’m reinforcing everyone’s notions about the evils of tanning?) listening to the radio, I endured commercial after commercial about various lotions that would enhance your “deep, dark, sexy tan”. And for the low, low price of only $50, you too could walk around looking like a burnt French fry!
I kid you not. The lotions for sell at my tanning salon are FIFTY DOLLARS for ONE BOTTLE. Isn’t that outrageous?! So of course, being the el-cheapo that I am, I went to Wal-Mart and bought an eight dollar bottle of Hawaiian Sun and guess what? It’s working just fine.
I should get paid for that picture, don’t you think? hehe
GD: Ding Dong, the math problem is dead. GD had his math final yesterday and found out his overall grade before he left class – 76%. Not too bad, not too impressive either. He could have done better, he’s capable of so much more. But quite honestly? I was THRILLED. He passed with a solid C which means he won’t have to go to summer school. And this also means I won’t have to stress about missing summer school when we go to Washington DC next month.
He was pretty proud of himself.
Apparently, there were quite a few other kids who didn’t pass. I don’t know if he just had a hard teacher, or what, but this was a hard class for him. Granted, the hubs, who WORKS in the math field, thought it was college-level algebra so maybe the material was just a bit too hard for his age, I don’t know. All I know is that that is a huge weight off my shoulders and I can finally start breathing easier once again.
GD also had an opportunity to win a free car – a Kia Rio – but he blew it.
The kids need to achieve a certain attendance percentage all year long to be eligible to put their name into a pot for a drawing for a free car at the end of the school year. Then each high school in the city draws out five names and those names are then sent to the car dealership. The dealership then shuffles up the names of the five kids drawn from each high school and whoever they pick wins the car. Doesn’t that sound like fun? And what a great program to entice the kids to show up everyday.
GD had perfect attendance this year (so did MK). As a result, he was able to turn in two cards, perfect attendance for each semester. We filled them out, gave them back to him and reminded him a gazillion times to turn them in because heck, you never know, right?
He didn’t turn them in. And when we asked him why? “I forgot.”
Bull-larkey! The kid was simply too shy to walk his skinny butt into the office and hand them over. AARGH!!! This son of mine REALLY needs to get over his aversion to people! Just think! He could have won!! The hubs was pretty ticked off at him when he found out he didn’t turn them in. And he’s REALLY HOPING that someone from GD’s school wins that car so he can pound that particular nail into his coffin just a bit more firmly.
MK: Yesterday was MK’s 7th grade honors assembly. And judging by the sheer number of things the boy walked away with, his name was called A LOT.
And he’s not even holding up the four certificates he received.
Beginning with the ribbons – every year, the PTA has an arts program called “Reflections.” And the kids can enter something in one of four categories: literature, photography, musical composition, and drawing. This year the theme was: I Can Make a Difference By … Actually, I make this sound like it’s a voluntary program, it’s not. The kids are required to enter something. So, MK whipped up a musical composition. In his essay that went with the composition he said something about how there is too much trash and negativity in today’s music and how he would make music that was positive and uplifting for kids. (That’s my boy!) He didn’t spend that much time putting it together, but he won 2nd place at his school. This meant his entry could go on to the state level, where he received an honorable mention. Hence the ribbons.
The letter: MK had to do three of several things in order to earn that letter. The three things he opted to do was try out, and make, honors band, try and out and make jazz band, and compete in the solo and ensemble competition (he was part of a saxophone ensemble).
The bars you see on his shirt: One was for jazz band, one was for honors band, and the last one was for the ensemble. He also received a certificate for the ensemble competition where they earned a one (this is a good thing).
He was nearly bursting at the seams when I picked him up from school yesterday sporting all of his cool memorabilia. He’s worked so hard all year long that it was really rewarding to see HIM so richly rewarded. All of the goodies and the recognition in front of his peers (he had to walk across a stage and accept his prizes) has really fired him up to do the same thing next year with the addition of pep band, too. (Though I suspect the main reason for the pep band thing is because the girl he’s had a crush on for the past three years made cheerleading and will be at the games – but I’m only speculating of course. I’m just the mom, what do I know?)
Write From Karen 