Day 7 of 100 - A good day

Thanks for the commiseration on our car troubles. It's nice to know that people are angry on my behalf :-)

Today the temps stayed mostly in the 70s here with high humidity. Sometimes as high as 100%. Raining when you're camping in the wilderness is the pits because there's nothing to do except huddle in the tent or the car and play cards all cramped together. Raining when you're camping in town just means that you have to make sure everything is put under cover at the campsite, then you go into town and find something to do. Like stop at the dollar store for rain ponchos because the play you're going to that night is an outdoor drama that can't stop for rain. I figured $2 was a good investment in good weather because if I went prepared with rain gear, then naturally it wouldn't rain.

And it didn't, just so you know.

Today was a relax and enjoy vacation kind of day. We got up, picked up donuts for breakfast, bought our tickets for a play, then rode the trolley into town and walked around, getting snow cones and hot dogs for lunch. The girls thought that was a huge special treat.

It started to rain while we were gone so we spent the afternoon running around to avoid the rain, then when it stopped, we played horseshoes.

It's an awesome game for camping. Then we started singing all the songs and chants K's softball team uses during games. We were laughing and giggling and celebrating the very few good shots we made (except Grandad as he is a champion horseshoe player, but that's a story for another time). Finally the girls had enough and they insisted on a swim before dinner in the freezing cold pool water. Whatever. It's vacation and I like to say yes whenever possible.

After dinner, we cleaned up and headed out to the Great Passion Play, an outdoor drama that depicts the last days of Jesus' life. The "stage" is a village built on a mountainside with tons of people involved, animals racing across, and birds swooping through the air. It's a very impressive show.

Now, it's late, I'm tired, and tomorrow is another late night of fireworks following a full afternoon of local activities. If we so choose. That's what I love about vacation. We can do whatever stuff we want and ignore the rest without offending anyone. Like right now. My eyes keep drooping shut, so I'm off to bed. Goodnight all!

Hey, look! I actually made it into a photo!

Day 6 of 100 - No, wait, THIS is the real one

I'm on-line!!

The wonderful awesome amazing tech-savvy Mr. at Home got the correct drivers installed from my hard drive to...my hard drive (don't ask) to make my dad's wireless device to work with my laptop and I can now post from my spot beside the campfire.

Modern-day camping. What can I say?

So let me tell you about the start of this vacation. Mr. at Home's job has been incredibly busy and stressful for the past year and more. He hasn't had much of a real break from work during that time and for him, this trip isn't a real break either. I'm making him drive half-way across the country with specific plans in mind. His idea of a vacation is renting a house and sitting on the beach or beside a mountain stream for a week with nowhere to be. But he's a trooper and is putting up with my plans.

I think I mentioned that last week he finally broke down and bought a new car. His 16-year-old Camry was on its last legs and we found a great deal. That was Wednesday.

Friday Mr. at Home was broadsided coming home from work.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. Unfortunately, the people who hit him were not the most cooperative and pleasant. We didn't get their personal or insurance information, but no worries, it's on the crash report.

Right?

Well, the crash report didn't show up online. And the officer is on vacation. And his sergeant says the report probably got lost in the system. And no one else can get in and do anything about it. And we'll just have to wait until the officer gets back.

Dealing with all that was a huge stressor this past week because no one was willing to help us and his spiffy new car is sitting in the body shop parking lot waiting...

Between work, dealing with the car, and getting ready for this trip, we haven't had a moment to breathe lately. Money has become an issue as we don't know what to expect with regard to the car. It was the other driver's fault, but we don't know if it can be repaired or if the frame was bent or if they'll just total it out and will we end up losing money since it was a brand-new car? Too many questions and nothing we can do except twiddle our thumbs until the police department decides to untangle their mess.

So now we have the stress of the wreck and the ensuing uncertainty involved with the car. We left for our trip a little before 2pm yesterday, lost an hour sitting in mountain traffic, and spent the night in a hotel just west of Nashville. This morning we saw the car next to us pumping gas get scraped by a moving van. We were incredibly thankful to avoid that disaster, only to have our windshield cracked by a flying rock shortly thereafter. After the 3rd call to the insurance company in a week, we found out that windshield replacement will be less than our deductible so we have to pay for it.

Did I mention it's been a hugely stressful time lately? We just can't seem to catch a break. First I had to get new front brakes on the van before the trip, then the car was wrecked, now the windshield has to be replaced. They say bad things happen in 3s, so let's pray that we won't run into anymore car trouble for awhile.

I'm ready to just sit back, relax, and enjoy spending time with my family for a few days. I want to enjoy the cooler Ozark temps, ride the trolley around town, watch the girls hang out with their grandparents, and hang out with Mr. at Home. Speaking of which, I'm going to get off this computer and do just that.

Day 6 of 100 - From the campground

still typing from my phone since i have to have the office physically register my laptop. i got it to type in the body. for now. no guarantees that i wont press the wrong key and get kicked out. we are here and i wanted to post something. i wanted to put up a nice long wordy post, but maybe tomorrow. i will try to get the internet issue taken cae of early and write a real post.

Day 5 of 100 - My phone won't let me type a body to this post, so I'll just say goodnight from Nashville in the title

• we made

Day 4 of 100 - Drive-by posting

Like yesterday, today was very, very productive. My house is clean, the laundry is done, the shopping is done, our cat-sitter knows what to do, I found a crochet project, a couple of extra errands were taken care of, and I am desperately working to finish the one last project that I want to finish before we go.

Remember that sewing thing I was complaining about? Yep, my crazy took over and I'm making another outfit with the same pattern. But it will be so very worth it. You'll just have to trust me on it.

Besides, I have all morning tomorrow to, you know, pack.

So I'm going back to my sewing machine to pin bias tape exactly 1 centimeter from the raw edge of the sleeve opening. If you understood what I just typed, would you mind coming to my house to help? I could use it!

Day 3 of 100 - I need a vacation

I love vacations.

I love the excitement of planning and the way the kids look forward to them with ever-increasing excitement. I love how I couldn't sleep the night before we left because I was just so anxious to go already!

(In fact, one year Mr. at Home and I went on vacation with my parents and little brother. We had gathered at my parents' house and had gotten everything packed and ready, then we all sat around in the living room staring at each other. Finally someone suggested that instead of going to bed where no one would sleep before getting up at 3am, we should just leave right then and drive a few hours before finding a place to park the RV for the rest of the night. So we did.)

I love vacations. I love the camping and getting up to the crisp mountain early mornings and the smell of campfires. I love sitting quietly under the trees with a good book in the afternoon and chatting around the fire at night. I love playing cards and the friendly smack talk over dominoes and I love going into town during rainstorms.

Many of the family stories we tell over and over happened during those vacations we took, driving from one end of the country to the other.

The night the cooler blew away in Glacier

Locking the keys in the van in Yosemite

Tubing the freezing cold waters in the Smokies

My dad and my uncle winning a horseshoe tournament on Mt. Nebo

The mountain catching fire in Ouray

Mom threatening the yappy dog next to us in the Hill Country

Thursday, we leave for this year's family vacation. There's a ton to do to get ready to go. Just like my mom taught me, the house has to be clean before we leave, so I've spent all day working hard on this house. Even L got into the spirit and kept asking what she could do to help. It was one of those times when it's just easier to do things myself than explain and supervise the children as they do it, so I kept giving her short easy things until I finally lost my patience and told her to look around and if she saw something that needed to be done, to just do it!

So L disappeared and cleaned the kitchen counters, unloaded the dishwasher, folded clothes, swept, took care of the cat, and moved clothes between washer and dryer. I totally love that child.

There's still a little more cleaning and laundry to finish up, I've got one more project to do, the girl is coming over who will be caring for the cat, there's a few things I need to pick up from the store, I want to find a crochet project to take with me, and I've got to pack! We won't leave until the middle of the day Thursday so I have a day and a half to get everything finished. By the time we're ready to go, I will be in sore need of a vacation!

First, we're off to Eureka Springs, AR, where we visited often when I was younger. We're meeting my parents (who got there today, lucky people!) and camping together. We'll get to see the Passion Play, wander around town, and find a 4th of July celebration. From there, we'll be traveling to Tulsa, OK, for China Heritage Camp with our adoption agency. We get to stay with the family that adopted L's best friend from the orphanage and we love those people. After camp is over, we'll come wandering back through the wilds of Kentucky.

Yep, I think it's going to be another family vacation full of memories.

Day 2 of 100 - Camp DOGwood and other truth in advertising

Today Cindy Jae had an outing with a few other puppies and their families. The Lions Club has a camp on a nearby lake where they host people (mostly adults) who are visually impaired for a week of fun in the sun. It's mostly adults who come to swim, fish, and even waterski using special skis. They go horseback riding and bowling, they have ice cream socials and watermelon parties, or they can spend all day rocking on the screened in porch enjoying the cool quiet. It is an awesome place.

We spent time talking to one of the campers, a man named Lonnie who proudly showed me pictures of his two small children. He had just gotten tossed off the tube as it was pulled behind the speedboat because he was "talkin smack" to the driver :-)

Cindy Jae was fairly well behaved for the outing, especially since I had planned according to the fact that she always works better when she's tired. We had taken her out to a park early in the morning where the girls ran off some of her energy.

Then we got to the camp very early and she spent more time walking around in the heat and getting to lay of the land alone. Having the other dogs around is a big distraction for her. At the end we took pictures by the entrance to the camp, then took our 5 guide dog puppies to Burger King for lunch (for the people, not the puppies). We were the talk of the lunch crowd ;-) But afterward, the sad moment came when we put Cindy Jae and all her stuff in a different car and they all drove away, taking our puppy away to their house for a few weeks. One of the other raisers is taking care of her while we're on vacation. Cindy Jae has stayed with them a couple of times already and she loves their family almost as much as us.

We had taken a group picture in front of the Camp Dogwood sign, but Kate couldn't get my camera to work. We figured with the name of the camp and how many guide dogs they have on campus at any given time, it was a fitting place for a group photo.

It was truth in advertising.

Speaking of which, I have a complaint about the liberties companies take when trying to sell their product.

A few weeks ago, I found an awesome fabric and knew just the type of pattern it needed. So I sat myself down and located the perfect pattern in the book. Then I checked a different book and found a similar pattern marked "It's So Easy!"

Guess which one I chose.

I see that it calls for bias tape and a zipper, but the pattern is just so perfect for this fabric that I push ahead. After all, it says it's "easy". I get home, roll out the fabric, check the cutting layout and realize that "It's So Easy!" means that one little shirt and shorts requires *9* different pattern pieces, many of which you had to cut out *2*. Hello! That many pattern pieces should automatically disqualify it from the "easy" category.

But I persevere. I cut out all the pieces, and because I've got my own kind of crazy going on, I decided to make a few changes to the outfit - lengthen the shirt, make capris instead of shorts, add a contrasting band...

Because it just wasn't going to be complicated enough.

Life came rushing in then and the pattern pieces were shelved until I decided to get started...last night at 10pm. I have to say the pattern is well written with mostly clear directions and good illustrations. But that doesn't change that there are approximately 23 steps to assemble just the shirt! And I had to baste! And measure seams to the eighth of an inch! I worked a little last night and finished the whole thing this evening.

It really wasn't complicated, just complex. It was NOT a pattern that should have been titled "It's So Easy!" But I have to admit that it was worth it. It's cute. Awesomely amazingly cute. I love when a fabric, pattern, and the style of the wearer comes together so well.

And no, I will not show you a picture of it. Not yet. It's being held for a special occasion. Just keep an eye out here over the next couple of weeks and it'll show up.