Thanks!

Giving! He he he!

I love Thanksgiving and I have a lot to be thankful for. I have looked at my family and friends and realized, recently, that I have been truly blessed by God. I have not earned most of what I have and it is only by the grace of God that I have what I do. There have been many pitfalls and set-backs in my life. And most of the time I had no vision for the future or any kind of plan. I made seriously bad choices. And in marrying my husband I had not changed my ways at all. But he has changed me for the better and I thank God for him every day. We have so much love between us and for our kids and our extended family. I guess I'm just happy that so much has worked out so well for us. And I pray that things will work out for the best for all of my family.

We had dinner at our house on Thursday. It was the usual affair. Today we recreated it with just us and leftovers, much to the boys' delight. And tomorrow we are going to my Dad and Step-Mom's for traditional Tovaas Turkey Tacos and probably some rice crispie treats. :)

Old Dale Camping!

We're back! I wrote in our truck's "log" while we were out and I'm going to just write it here verbatim.

11/23/08 Sunday

Yay! We're back at Old Dale! We arrived last night at 9pm, set up camp, and went to bed. Dad was up first, as usual, this morning. I went for a thirty minute walk first thing when I got up. I love walking the desert alone in the early morning. Tom is complaining that Dad won't let him do fireworks, NOW! And Nikki is laying on the bench vegetating.

I made pancakes this morning! I found those bisquick bottles on sale, the ones you just add water to and shake up. The work great but I'm thinking I'll make my own instant pancake mix and put in a jar to shake next time.

We NEED better pans to cook with. These ones don't heat very evenly at all. And a measuring cup, spatula that doesn't melt, hmmmm, what else?

We found the jack rabbits grave from the last spring and dug it up! Yuck! I know! But it was awesome. The flesh was all gone but the dirt was clotted together with the fur and we found all the bones except the skull. We put it all together and reburied it so that we can dig it up again in the spring. The boys can't wait to see what is left of it then!

We had beans and hot dogs for lunch. Tom was pissed that there were no plain potato chips. Jake drank his whole soda first off and then wasn't hungry for anything else. Dad "helped" him eat his hot dog. Tom is complaining that Dad won't let him fire all the firecrackers right NOW! Nikki is absorbed in a book.

The boys flew the helicopter and lost it a couple times. We went for a walk and found a huge target someone had been shooting at. We all took turns shooting at it. We found two big piles of trash someone dumped. I can't understand why someone would do that. I mean, we all bring things out to shoot at, but this was just trash. All there information was in it too! It made me so mad!

We brought out the paper city that I made a while back and set it ablaze! It was great. I brought a bottle of dry coffee creamer and showed the boys some cool fireballs. We had chicken soup from Costco for dinner. The night is really beautiful. It was a pretty clear day and warm. It is only 50 degrees at night, so it is about perfect.

11/24/08 Monday

Last night I woke up to a rustling sound and laid there trying to figure out what it was for a long time. At first I thought it was the trash can being invaded, but then I recognized it, a chip bag! Dan had put the open bag of Doritos in a cardboard box with no lid and something was getting into it! I went out to investigate and found the bag open and pieces of it all around on the ground. I took the box inside the trailer and they didn't come back. I guess someone out there likes Nacho Cheese!

We went on a four mile hike to Lost Horse Mine in Joshua Tree today. We are all exhausted. It was getting cloudy and cool on the way back. Tom is blowing things up with firecrackers. Dan brought back a dresser he found on the road. We shall light it up this evening. Nikki is playing the guitar.

Funny of the evening, "Brainus!" That would be the part of someone with their head up their butt.

11/25/08 Tuesday

We woke up to cloudy skies. After breakfast it started raining a little. It was only sprinkling. We stayed inside reading "By the Great Horn Spoon".

We took a walk up to "the monument" and found that someone else had been there! Yay! I couldn't believe it! They signed our "guest book" and left a live shotgun shell in the bag. We built a bigger pile of rocks so that we can see it from camp. :)

The kids and Dan went up to the mines for awhile. I relaxed with a book! We built a trap for mice and we can't wait to see if we catch something! We flew kites and wandered around, played "Toss Up" and had dinner.

There was a BIG fire tonight!! :)

Funny of the day, "Pickled Llama Brainus!"

11/26/08 Wednesday

I was woken up around 2:30 this morning by the wind. It was driving me crazy because the trailer squeaks so bad in the wind. But then it started to rain, and HARD! At 4am it was still pouring. Dan got up to smoke and the boys took over his spot in our bed. Tom was afraid that we would be swept away by the water, but I reminded him that we camp on high ground just to stay out of that. He said it must have flooded at one time and it could do it again, even if it was a hundred years ago.

We woke up again at six and it had stopped. I took a walk and found PUDDLES! I especially liked the one at the front door to the trailer! Our trap only caught a stink bug thanks to the rain.

We are all up now, except the boys are still in my bed argueing, playing, and being loud. It's raining again.

During breaks in the rain, we packed up and put away the trailer. We left camp at 9am and got home around 12:30. We can't wait to go again!!

Time Flies!

I didn't realize how many days it has been since I entered anything! It has been pretty uneventful here this week. We have all recovered from our colds. I have gotten all the shopping I need to do for the weekend and Thanksgiving. That was a feat! Tomorrow, we have Nikki's counseling appointment, pick up Ann from the airport, and then we are packing up and heading to Old Dale for a couple days. We will come back and get ready for a Thanksgiving dinner at our house! Yay! I love turkey! I was going to bring the computer and blog while I was out there, but Nikki reminded me that it was cheating to bring electronics camping. So you will all have to wait until we get back! Ha! I'm sure we will have lots of fun. I haven't been out there since Spring, so I'm excited to see the place again.

I'm sick!

Dan and I both have a cold! Yuck! I hate the sniffles. It is expected though, since the boys had a bad cold the past week.

I sanded the stair railing and put two coats of primer on! Yay for me! And I made dinner. :)

We didn't go skating tonight. So sad. I know that Nikki was disappointed, but I just don't feel well and I don't want to sit in the rink with the loud music when my head is so stuffy and achey.

The boys played on the computer most of the day. Dad was supposed to cut out their wooden shields, but he isn't feeling well either. Maybe we can get it done tomorrow.

Thanks to Jenn! I checked out SparkPeople and like it. Hopefully it will help me get an edge on this weight loss thing. I really need to lose some. I'm tired of working out on the Wii and having it say I'm obese! Makes me want to go eat a big bowl of ice cream. :(

The Smokey Time of Year

Cough cough...gag..sniffle...Those are the sounds around here! There were fires north of here earlier this week, but this morning we woke up to strong dry winds as is typical and a couple hours later the smell of smoke filled the air and the familiar rain of ash followed. Just after I noticed the smoke, I left to go to the hardware store. Up the street a couple blocks there was no smoke at all. I could see where the smoke was coming from though and the trail of it through the wind across my neighborhood. It is so strange how those winds run across the area. When I got home I checked the local news for "Fire Watch!" but it is "Firestorm 2008!" this time. Wow! Houses are burning down! When the Santa Ana winds blow, usually there are huge brush fires and a house or two on the edge of the rural areas gets in the way. But this was different. I have many friends and family that live in that area and I'm still praying that more houses don't go up in flames. I can't imagine the loss. It is just sad. Now, do you think if just my garage went up I could blame it on those fires? Just kidding!

On a happier note, I finished taking the paint of the stair railing today! Yay!! I started that project months ago but burned my hands so badly with the stipper (even with gloves) that I just didn't want to go back to it. I got some non-toxic stuff to finish up with and it worked out ok. I wouldn't want to have started with it though. It just didn't eat all that paint off as well as the really yucky kind. Tomorrow I'm going to sand it down. If I have enough time, I'll get a coat of paint on it too. And then the rest of the room will look like hell and I'll have to start sanding and painting that.

I'm going to complain here. I'm pretty discouraged with this weight-loss. I eat a decent amount of calories and work out. I lose a pound or two. Then I eat a bit more than I should and gain it back. This goes over and over. I've lost 10 pounds, but I need to lose WAY more and I'm just getting frustrated. I love working out though and I feel stronger. I don't quit that. It is the eating that is causing me grief. I don't even want to know how many calories I consumed at Cabo's tonight! Yikes!

Wednesday

Nikki went back to school today. Back to the old grindstone. :(

The boys and I went to Knott's. The Dragon Swing makes me totally sick and I will NOT ride it again. And I am scared to death watching the boys on the swing. So I'm officially old.

I spent most of my time perfecting the look of my blog and I'm still not happy with it. I do like the quote from the book I'm reading, but I don't like the way it is written there. Hmmm...

And the winner is.....

Dad and Nikki! They were way behind last night, but decided to merge and beat us all. By a stroke of luck they got Park Place and Broadway and it was over. Tom was annoyed and swears he will never allow a merger again. But it was fun!

Not much of a report today. Nikki and I got her homework all sorted out and she has a list of what she needs to catch up on. We'll see if we can stay on top of it all. Tomorrow she is going in early to take a make-up test in French.

Tom has a cold and refused to leave his pj's today. He didn't do much of anything all day. He seems fine now, but he is doing his bounce around the room act because he has all this bottled energy. Jake is doing it too.

I got the livingroom vacuum and sort of dusted. I'll finish it tomorrow.

And that is it. Happy Veteran's Day!