Well it is hard to believe that CampAPhi 2009 is in two days. Am I ready? Not really. Usually I have over prepared for this trip by now but this year I'm just going with the flow. Every year I stressed over the condition of our cabin, the sleeping arrangements, the money, the food, the music, etc. This year we are staying in the same cabin as last year so unless someone trashed it in the past year - I know we have good digs. We already know the sleeping arrangements and the comfort of the beds so if anyone has a problem with where they end up sleeping - not my problem! Only a few people requested specific sleeping arrangements this year and I'm accomodating them. Everyone else is on their own. The food teams worked well the past few years so I'm totally leaving that in their hands and hoping everyone brings what they are supposed to. I feel confident it will be fine.
The money is what it is. Some folks still never paid in full but others paid extra to help with expenses. Instead of applying to the food expense - I applied all I could to those that had not paid. I never want to turn a sister away from Camp because of finances. I've been broke and camp was always a very bright spot in an otherwise crappy year so I like that I can let it slide when they are in tough times.
The music is what it is. I made cds. Not my finest or most thought out collection ever but they will do. I didn't label the cds this year but again - not worrying about it.
There are no scavenger hunts to plan this year. There are no surprises. I am disappointed I didn't get the responses I requested to put together a little fun surprise for all but again - not worrying about it. One less thing I have to get together by Thursday.
I plan to go, relax, spend time with my beloved sisters and come home refreshed and renewed.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Surviving
I've survived the first few days of my baby boy being away in OH and WV. He will barely talk to us on the phone because he's so busy. It used to bother me when Ash would do the same thing when she was little and went on these trips with my mom but I came to understand that their independence from me is a good thing.
It was quite an adventure picking Ash up from tennis camp last Friday. We were supposed to just attend the awards ceremony and then come back the next morning to pick her up but the other moms decided during the awards that they would just go ahead and check their daughters out that night so they could spend the next day shopping and wouldn't have to come back for them. I was a bit irritated but not because we getting Ash a 1/2 day early but because I'd already told those mothers that if our girls all checked out - that left one girl alone in that cabin for the night. Apparently that did not phase them because they decided to take their girls anyway. I had already been in the cabin and I knew their daughter's stuff was strung from one side to the other and that packing was going to be no easy feat for them but decided to let them learn the hard way. Ash is neat by nature so her stuff was all by her bed where it should be so it took me all of 5 minutes to pack her up and in the truck. The look on the other mom's faces when they saw the condition of the cabin was priceless! They were still trying to figure out what belonged to who when DH and I walked out to the truck and drove away.
Luckily our hotel let us switch to double beds rather than a king. We all slept in the next morning and hit the road about 10:30. Ash was beat so our plans for a long day at the outlets in Round Rock or San Marcos were squashed. We did do a little shopping and site seeing in Gruene that morning. A very neat town right on the Guadalupe. Lots of folks in bathing suits and coverups coming off and on the river. We had a nice lunch at the Gruene River Cafe and then headed home. We were all pretty beat by the time we hit TC.
It was odd coming home and not having E or Asta at the house (she was at the boarders). It always seem too quiet when they are not around.
I've been keeping up with Maggie Lee on the caringbridge website. Her numbers are still fluctuating but she's fighting. I'm still absolutely amazed by her parents faith and the outpouring of support from strangers all over the globe. What a story of survival and faith!
It was quite an adventure picking Ash up from tennis camp last Friday. We were supposed to just attend the awards ceremony and then come back the next morning to pick her up but the other moms decided during the awards that they would just go ahead and check their daughters out that night so they could spend the next day shopping and wouldn't have to come back for them. I was a bit irritated but not because we getting Ash a 1/2 day early but because I'd already told those mothers that if our girls all checked out - that left one girl alone in that cabin for the night. Apparently that did not phase them because they decided to take their girls anyway. I had already been in the cabin and I knew their daughter's stuff was strung from one side to the other and that packing was going to be no easy feat for them but decided to let them learn the hard way. Ash is neat by nature so her stuff was all by her bed where it should be so it took me all of 5 minutes to pack her up and in the truck. The look on the other mom's faces when they saw the condition of the cabin was priceless! They were still trying to figure out what belonged to who when DH and I walked out to the truck and drove away.
Luckily our hotel let us switch to double beds rather than a king. We all slept in the next morning and hit the road about 10:30. Ash was beat so our plans for a long day at the outlets in Round Rock or San Marcos were squashed. We did do a little shopping and site seeing in Gruene that morning. A very neat town right on the Guadalupe. Lots of folks in bathing suits and coverups coming off and on the river. We had a nice lunch at the Gruene River Cafe and then headed home. We were all pretty beat by the time we hit TC.
It was odd coming home and not having E or Asta at the house (she was at the boarders). It always seem too quiet when they are not around.
I've been keeping up with Maggie Lee on the caringbridge website. Her numbers are still fluctuating but she's fighting. I'm still absolutely amazed by her parents faith and the outpouring of support from strangers all over the globe. What a story of survival and faith!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
I've spent a lot of time this week checking the internet for updated information on a 12 year old girl named Maggie Lee Henson. MLH was injured in a horrible bus accident on the way to a church mission trip in Georgia. There are several reasons this story touches me so deeply: 1) Ash is at tennis camp with MLH's best friend from TC and this girl has no idea what has happened to her friend. I feel like I'm in on a very horrible secret while we encourage the girls to have fun at tennis camp knowing when we pick them up this weekend the truth will have to come out; 2) This girl is Ash's age and the accident happened on the day I am dropping her off at a week long camp. It is hard enough to say goodbye to your child for a week where you have no control over their safety or well-being but throw in knowing there is a parent sitting on a plane at that very moment praying that her daughter is still alive when she gets to the hospital; 3) There are several of Ash's friends in TC who know this girl and her family and the fact they had recently visited TC is a haunting reminder of how quickly life changes. I hate being all doom and gloom and I am trying very hard to find the strength in my faith needed to lift me to the level where MLH's parents are at this moment. Their strength, courage and faith in God are amazing to me. I'm afraid if I were in their shoes all I would find is anger and blame. How do they sit by their baby girl's bedside and still find such strong faith? I admire that deep love and unwavering trust in the Lord. I have faith but my faith is continually and easily tested at times.
I think one of the reasons my head has hurt every single since this happened is because I realize that we cannot be with our children 24/7 so how do we keep them safe? I'm about to say goodbye to my baby boy for two weeks while he makes his annual visit to OH and WV to visit my grandmothers and other relatives with my Mom. This trip involves two plane flights and numerous four hour plus car rides. How do I know he'll be safe? Every year I worry before my kids make this trip. I fret because of the guilt I carry that I am not making the trip with them to keep them safe. I worry about whether or not my mother will be able to keep a close eye on them while also helping my grandmother with her needs.
I know that all I can do is place my children in God's hands and pray he delivers them home safely. The part I do not comprehend though is how MLH's parents could have done the same thing last Sunday when they put her on that bus only to get that dreadful call a few hours later that their baby girl was on the way to the hospital in a helicopter. I guess we are not meant to understand it all. I guess that is where blind faith comes into our lives? I pray my faith never has to be tested in this way.
I think one of the reasons my head has hurt every single since this happened is because I realize that we cannot be with our children 24/7 so how do we keep them safe? I'm about to say goodbye to my baby boy for two weeks while he makes his annual visit to OH and WV to visit my grandmothers and other relatives with my Mom. This trip involves two plane flights and numerous four hour plus car rides. How do I know he'll be safe? Every year I worry before my kids make this trip. I fret because of the guilt I carry that I am not making the trip with them to keep them safe. I worry about whether or not my mother will be able to keep a close eye on them while also helping my grandmother with her needs.
I know that all I can do is place my children in God's hands and pray he delivers them home safely. The part I do not comprehend though is how MLH's parents could have done the same thing last Sunday when they put her on that bus only to get that dreadful call a few hours later that their baby girl was on the way to the hospital in a helicopter. I guess we are not meant to understand it all. I guess that is where blind faith comes into our lives? I pray my faith never has to be tested in this way.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Newks
It was a long weekend in the car! We got up Saturday morning and drove to Austin. We went straight to lunch at this funky place on 6th street called Opal Devine's. The food was really good but the misters on the patio were not enough to block the 104 degree temp. We went from there to the Children's Museum and it took me 30 minutes inside the museum to stop dripping sweat. The kids loved the activities in the museum. I was a bit disappointed because my only memory of a Children's Museum is the one in Indianapolis and it totally ROCKED! This was more like an interactive play area for kids. The kids didn't know the difference though and had a great time. Then we headed over to the Capitol and went inside for some photo ops. E loved standing in the middle and looking up at the dome. It was too funny. Two weddings at the Capitol that day. I never thought about getting married there but it seems to be pretty popular.
After checking into our hotel, the kids wanted to go swim in the indoor pool so we went down for about an hour. It was so hot in that room that an hour was more than I could stand. I was actually dreaming of fresh air the last 20 minutes or so. Dinner that night at Joe's Crab Shack was awesome. They actually made me a Brandy Alexander for dessert (they even let me call my brother for the recipe since they'd never made one before). Super yum!!
Sunday, we hung out in the room until we were stir crazy and decided to go ahead and head in the direction of the tennis camp in New Braunfels. We were going to stop and shop in San Marcus but we got word from the other Mom's heading to camp that they were close so we decided to eat a quick lunch and head on to Newks. Lo' and behold, they got sidetracked on the way and we beat them by about 40 minutes. No big deal except it was super hot, they weren't given their cabin assignments til 3p and we'd arrived at 1p. Two hours of sitting around and they finally told us which cabin the girls would live in for the next 6 days. I was expecting a big room full of beds. Instead it was a small room full of bunk beds. Ash was not happy that she did not get inside in time to choose a top bunk. Her tallness is terribly afraid she'll bump her head on the bunk above during the night. 10 girls, one toilet, one shower and A/C that was running at about 85 degrees at best. Glad it is not me!!
Five hour drive home (with stops for potty and food). Ugh! Ash called at about 7p to let us know she'd made the top team when they did the skills test at 5. Her and two of the other girls from our group all made the Top Gun Seniors. Our little powerhouse 8 year old in the group made Top Gun Juniors and our other player made the regular team. She is a bit newer to the game than the others and just started getting more serious about tennis this summer. She is the one that went to camp w/ Ash at UNT a few wks ago. I hope she's not too disappointed to not be in the top groups with the other girls. She's a real sweetie and I know she was super nervous about the skills test.
I'm sure the girls will have a blast this week. The whole thing was a bit rustic for my taste but Ash seemed to love it. It reminded me of the 2nd year of CampAPhi when 6 of us were crowded into a 400 sq. ft. cabin for 3 days. Also very rustic. Now that I think of it - it was my favorite Camp ever so maybe Ash is more like me than I thought!
After checking into our hotel, the kids wanted to go swim in the indoor pool so we went down for about an hour. It was so hot in that room that an hour was more than I could stand. I was actually dreaming of fresh air the last 20 minutes or so. Dinner that night at Joe's Crab Shack was awesome. They actually made me a Brandy Alexander for dessert (they even let me call my brother for the recipe since they'd never made one before). Super yum!!
Sunday, we hung out in the room until we were stir crazy and decided to go ahead and head in the direction of the tennis camp in New Braunfels. We were going to stop and shop in San Marcus but we got word from the other Mom's heading to camp that they were close so we decided to eat a quick lunch and head on to Newks. Lo' and behold, they got sidetracked on the way and we beat them by about 40 minutes. No big deal except it was super hot, they weren't given their cabin assignments til 3p and we'd arrived at 1p. Two hours of sitting around and they finally told us which cabin the girls would live in for the next 6 days. I was expecting a big room full of beds. Instead it was a small room full of bunk beds. Ash was not happy that she did not get inside in time to choose a top bunk. Her tallness is terribly afraid she'll bump her head on the bunk above during the night. 10 girls, one toilet, one shower and A/C that was running at about 85 degrees at best. Glad it is not me!!
Five hour drive home (with stops for potty and food). Ugh! Ash called at about 7p to let us know she'd made the top team when they did the skills test at 5. Her and two of the other girls from our group all made the Top Gun Seniors. Our little powerhouse 8 year old in the group made Top Gun Juniors and our other player made the regular team. She is a bit newer to the game than the others and just started getting more serious about tennis this summer. She is the one that went to camp w/ Ash at UNT a few wks ago. I hope she's not too disappointed to not be in the top groups with the other girls. She's a real sweetie and I know she was super nervous about the skills test.
I'm sure the girls will have a blast this week. The whole thing was a bit rustic for my taste but Ash seemed to love it. It reminded me of the 2nd year of CampAPhi when 6 of us were crowded into a 400 sq. ft. cabin for 3 days. Also very rustic. Now that I think of it - it was my favorite Camp ever so maybe Ash is more like me than I thought!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Hello July
Well, we spent our long weekend cramming in as much as possible. Wednesday and Thursday we had new tile installed in the entry way which matches the tile in the kitchen. It looks FABULOUS!!! 12 years of staring at the 4x4 goldish ugly tile was long enough. The new 12x12 make the space look so much bigger and brighter!! After they finished up, DH and I headed to Denton to pick up Ash from tennis camp. She'd had a ball and won every single match she played all week. She was awarded the "Camper of the Week" honor during the closing ceremonies. We were all thrilled. Once we got home, it was straight to my parents for swim time. We ate burgers over there and headed home at dark time (as E calls it).
Friday was a day at home. It was glorious. DH went golfing so the kids and I snuck off to Main Event for lunch and games. A tremendous amount of money later and E walked away with a robot, mini care bear figurine, Sponge Bob tattoos, and a new mini Webkins (whose name has changed 10 times already). Ash gave all her points to her baby brother proving she might have actually missed him a tiny bit while at camp. Afterwards, we came home and vegged out. The kids watched tv and I worked on the computer. I got pictured labeled and journaling done. I made a few more mix CDs for CampAPhi. I caught up on emails. It was fairly productive. That night we all headed to Southlake to watch the fireworks - our family tradition.
Saturday started with me heading to AT&T to get a new cellphone. I discovered my old one to be rather useless since the #'s 2,8 and 0 did not work anymore. Hard to call folks, harder to text! So one new Samsung Propel slidephone later and I was back home to meet my family who was already next door in our neighbors pool. A few hours over there and we all came home to dry off and rest a little before heading to my mom's for dinner. We stayed at mom's til after 10:30. Talk about a tired family on Sunday!!
Sunday we headed down to Waxahachie to see our friends C&C's new house and her new baby bump!! They have a great house and tons of land! The baby bump was not nearly as big as described a few weeks ago by the mommy to be. We had a great visit and headed home much later than we'd planned.
Needless to say, we are all dragging rear today and have all vowed to get to bed early tonight! Looking forward to a "normal" week before we head down to New Braunsfils to take Ash to her next tennis camp.
Friday was a day at home. It was glorious. DH went golfing so the kids and I snuck off to Main Event for lunch and games. A tremendous amount of money later and E walked away with a robot, mini care bear figurine, Sponge Bob tattoos, and a new mini Webkins (whose name has changed 10 times already). Ash gave all her points to her baby brother proving she might have actually missed him a tiny bit while at camp. Afterwards, we came home and vegged out. The kids watched tv and I worked on the computer. I got pictured labeled and journaling done. I made a few more mix CDs for CampAPhi. I caught up on emails. It was fairly productive. That night we all headed to Southlake to watch the fireworks - our family tradition.
Saturday started with me heading to AT&T to get a new cellphone. I discovered my old one to be rather useless since the #'s 2,8 and 0 did not work anymore. Hard to call folks, harder to text! So one new Samsung Propel slidephone later and I was back home to meet my family who was already next door in our neighbors pool. A few hours over there and we all came home to dry off and rest a little before heading to my mom's for dinner. We stayed at mom's til after 10:30. Talk about a tired family on Sunday!!
Sunday we headed down to Waxahachie to see our friends C&C's new house and her new baby bump!! They have a great house and tons of land! The baby bump was not nearly as big as described a few weeks ago by the mommy to be. We had a great visit and headed home much later than we'd planned.
Needless to say, we are all dragging rear today and have all vowed to get to bed early tonight! Looking forward to a "normal" week before we head down to New Braunsfils to take Ash to her next tennis camp.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Complete
I actually managed to finish my free CM Digital Scrapbook on Monday night. This was no easy task and it is probably not as good as it could have been if I'd had more time. BUT it is done and I'm excited. When Steph D. told me I'd won but only had til June 30th to complete it - I was still sure I could get it done. Then when I loaded Storybook Creator Plus on my machine and spent an hour pulling in kits - I really thought this was a slam dunk. BUT when I went back in Sunday night to find the right kit to use for my background and discovered I couldn't find any of the 10+ I'd saved, panic set in. It was too late Sunday to do more so I gave up for the night.
On Monday night, I got a late start on the project and was really frustrated when I couldn't find those kits. I finally downloaded my top four favs and put them in a different folder. This time it worked. I picked my favorite, named my project: Natchitoches, LA and pulled in my pictures from last year's trip on MM3.0. Then I had to pull my memory card from my camera to get the pics from our trip (I had been storing them on the camera until I had my MM3.0 properly loaded w/ all my old photos of the other computer). After I had all the pics from both trips to Natchitoches loaded and ready to go, it was simply a matter of picking which ones I wanted on which page. A little journaling about the pictures and our trips and the book was done. I sent it off to the Creative Memories folks to print and cannot wait to see the final product.
Digital scrapbooking would be so much faster and easier than traditional books but when you have as much invested in paper, embellishments, stickers, tools, etc - how can you switch? I think I might make more of the digital books of the trips Cameron and I have taken over the years. I was trying to do a traditional book but am about 10 years behind. I think having them in print and bound into a nice book that could be kept out for folks to look at is a great plan. I may start doing that for other occasions and leave the traditional scrapping to the kid's books only.
All I know is I'm pretty excited to have this book done!!
On Monday night, I got a late start on the project and was really frustrated when I couldn't find those kits. I finally downloaded my top four favs and put them in a different folder. This time it worked. I picked my favorite, named my project: Natchitoches, LA and pulled in my pictures from last year's trip on MM3.0. Then I had to pull my memory card from my camera to get the pics from our trip (I had been storing them on the camera until I had my MM3.0 properly loaded w/ all my old photos of the other computer). After I had all the pics from both trips to Natchitoches loaded and ready to go, it was simply a matter of picking which ones I wanted on which page. A little journaling about the pictures and our trips and the book was done. I sent it off to the Creative Memories folks to print and cannot wait to see the final product.
Digital scrapbooking would be so much faster and easier than traditional books but when you have as much invested in paper, embellishments, stickers, tools, etc - how can you switch? I think I might make more of the digital books of the trips Cameron and I have taken over the years. I was trying to do a traditional book but am about 10 years behind. I think having them in print and bound into a nice book that could be kept out for folks to look at is a great plan. I may start doing that for other occasions and leave the traditional scrapping to the kid's books only.
All I know is I'm pretty excited to have this book done!!
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