Inks Lake State Park

John, Toni, Mikey, Kaelyn, Jessica, Devon, and I all went camping this weekend.  As normal around here we were getting off to a late start and I don't like to be late to anything.    John on the other hand is always on Tichi time which has nothing to do with real time.  I am a frustrated person and I try to stay in a good mood but BAM  I am grumpy when things go crazy.   I really wanted to get some bamboo sticks before we left for the park because you can't chop or cut wood in Texas State parks so you have to bring it all with you.  I decided for time sake to forgo the bamboo and just head out on time.  Turns out loading up all the stuff onto the trailor made my husband sweat so he decided to take a shower....hmmmmmm.....I needed to calm down.  I grabbed my little hatchet out of the car and went for a walk in our neighborhood down to this blank lot that has bamboo growing on it.  While walking down the road carrying a hatchet a cop passed me....slowed down and then stopped some ways ahead of me.   I just knew I had broken some non hatchet carrying law or something so I decided to visit my neighbor for a while till the cop left.  What a sight.  Some ticked off little white girl carring a hatchet (I should have thought this out).  Anyway.....I got the bamboo and my husband came to pick me up because.....well....he does not like to wait (so funny).   I hopped in the car and decided no matter what, I was going to be happy on the trip.  We showed up two hours later than planned.  Lucky us we had purchased our cabin that we were to stay in on line.  When we checked in they gave us a map to choose from the remaining cabins.  One handicap, and only two regualar ones left.   Nothing near the restrooms was my first thought......I have 4 kids with me and no cabins anywhere near a restroom.   Looked for the playgrounds.....nope....nothing near that either.   I smiled to mask my frustration and John picked the furthest cabin from everyone and everything.  Again I hopped into the car and said a quick prayer about being happy that we are able to go camping and to help me control myself.   We pulled up to Cabin 14 and it was not much to look at.   A concrete room is the best description but.....it had AC.  While unpacking our kayaks, fishing poles, bikes and other gear I glanced around and saw a swamp looking thing next to our cabin and hated the look of it.   I kept staring up the hill toward the restrooms and thinking....wow we have to climb that hill everytime anyone has to go.   We set the camp up and John started the fire.  We all sat down and roasted hotdogs and chili.  After lunch the kids spotted a trail from our camp site...we took it and it lead right to the best swimming hole....all granite hills and no mud to worry about.  The kids changed and we let them all swim.  Toni loved it except some times she would touch a slimy rock that had not been stepped on in a while and say "I touched the allergies again".    While the kids were swimming and playing John and Devon got the kayaks into the water.  Turns out a different trail lead to the perfect launch place and it was close to the site.  Here is this huge open park and somehow we have private trails and our own granite hill.  Also on our camp site was a jungle of vines that provided endless entertainment for my climbers.   I felt spoiled and silly for being upset at all.   We had the best place in the park and I loved every bit of it.   After all the playing, exploring, and kayaking it was time for dinner.  We had corn on the cob to roast over the fire and steak bites fully maranated.  For the kids I brought a cucumber for healthy reasons and then cut a small pizza up in pieces for them to roast on the fire (it was really good...you should try it).  They loved making there own pizza bites.  Mikey liked the steak too.  Everyone made smoores and life was good.   During dinner I heard all my favorite Christian music echoing off the rocks.  After I ate I went exploring and found a Christian band in the ampatheatre.  I sat for a while and then went back to camp.  We jumped in the kayaks and went back out to the concert to listen from the water.   It was great and not one mosquito bit anyone.   Oh...and that swamp looking thing is a heaven for birds when night falls.  So many birds flew in during the evening that it was crazy to think how many could fit into the cattails.  At night the swamp thing sounded like our own personal frog chior.   When it got to dark we played uno in the cabin with everyone till the kids passed out.  John and I went for a night walk to look for critters and saw snakes, tons of fish (cause the water is clear), crawfish, all kinds of frogs, and we snuck up on a coon....he ran off before we got a great look but he was fishing in the water and you could follow his wet trackes for a while.    I am glad God snapped me out of my mood.  We had the best time and with all the big kids with us we just took turns going to the restroom...it was really not a big deal at all.   I love Inks Lake State Park and from now on I really really really want cabin 14.  I think I should remember what I preech to the kids "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit".   

Hello to all my people.

Well...so so so much has gone on that I really can't write about all of it.  Toni was diagnosed with Asthma and our whole family is suffering with allergies.  We went to Virginia for spring break to visit my sis one last time before she moves to Cuba.  Loved the visit.  It was my kiddo's, my 19 year old niece, my mom and myself in the car for the long haul.  It was so fun having my sisters kids and mine together....they play so well.   I have tons of pictures but can't share any of them.  My main computer is on the fritz and I have not had access to it for about a month.  My husband keeps "fixing" it but it still does not work.  I love that he keeps trying.  I think we need a new computer.  Anyway.  We visited my mom a week and a half ago and that was a blast.  Took the babies on an unexpected 6 mile bike ride...they did great.  I was proud of them for not giving up.  We took pictures in the blue bonnets on the way to there.  I love one of the pictures so much (again...I would share but......)  Easter was a blast.  We had a BIG eggstravaganza at the church and 1000's of eggs were hunted by 100's of kiddo's.  It was a fun morning.  They had games, crafts, shows, and of course the hunt.  We spent several hours there.  We had a little Easter egg hunt of our own here at the house too.  The kids have too much candy.  All in all we have been good.  Well....after spring break we all took turns at the doctor for about 3 days and spent over $600 to get all the proper meds to deal with the spring allergies.   It feels like the flu when you get hit hard.  We still have bills sneaking in the mail because of things our insurance won't pick up.  But the Lord never gives us more than we can handle. Check this out.  I was getting money saved to travel to my sisters and still be ok with the budget but then my mom ended up going and she paid gas and food for the whole bunch of us.  My sis picked up our hotel for two nights and my mom picked up the third night.   So when we arrived home with all of our sickness we did not even worry about the bills at the doc.  Anyway...I might be oversharing but we are just so blessed to be able to live like we do.  It seems no matter what we are always taken care of.  Ok...lets see...what am I missing here.   Let me see, I have kinda lost my mind lately too.   I can't remember what day it is most the time now.  I walk into a room and can't remember what I needed in the room.   Or I finish half of something and walk off and then can't remember what I was doing or why.  I have missed appointments, meetings, and all kinds of stuff in the past month.  I have never missed my mommy group at church and yep....you guessed it.  April snuck up on me and I just forgot we had a meeting.  I signed up for Vacation Bible School crafts this year and we had a meeting planned....totally forgot and missed it too.  April is hard LOL.  Toni is doing great in school.  I know her teacher loves her and she always does so good in class.  Her hand writing is pretty and getting better all the time.   Toni's teacher was gone for a few days and the class had a substitute teacher.  Well...Toni comes home with a thank you note from the sub saying how great she was and how much help Toni was during her few days there.   It seems everywhere my girl goes she is loved and appreciated.  She is such a wonderful little girl.  Ok...that's it for now.   Wish me luck on getting my computer back and my photoshop....and all my pictures to play with.   I need access to all my stuff.   Love to all my readers and sorry for not signing on for quite some time.   

Gotta love it!

I just wanted to update everyone. I have been so busy lately and so much goes by. Toni was sick again....but this time it was not strep....yay for Toni. Now both my kiddo's are well and happy. Good thing too because Toni will turn 6 next week (crazy girl thinks she is allowed to grow up on me). Mikey and Toni are wonderful kids and almost everyday Mikey gets his Guitar out and sings to me...or the dog...whoever seems to like it the best. Mikey can write his name finally... such a long name...Michael. I don't let him get away with Mikey....nope it is Michael. Just to show off when we were at the doctors office getting Toni tested for strep he wrote it out for the pediatrician (such a show-off). Toni's love for school reminds me of my sister. She is a truly gifted student and we received her report card today...Hand written over the top of the card was "Toni is an awesome student!" She is marked as "above expected level" the highest mark available. She has mastered every section and I am so glad she does not struggle. That being said...we found out before Christmas that Toni's best friend was moving and this was just sad news for Toni. I blogged about it because I picked her up from school and she was in tears....yep...real tears for her friend. With all that was going on in the world I felt selfish about tossing a prayer up for my daughter's happiness at school. I instead talked to her about other happy things at school like how much she loves her teacher and how much her teacher loves her. When I compare our problems with the rest of the world they seem weak. I mean should I really pray for a new best friend at school when so many kids in the world don't even have an opportunity to attend a school....or even eat every day. See...in the grand scale of things it seems selfish to pray. Instead I prayed to be thankful for what we have and not what we don't have. But we have an awesome God and I know he hears my thoughts whether I pray about them or not. He kinda spoils my family a bit and I know he loves my kids as much as I do. Last week Toni came bouncing into the house telling me about a new girl in her class room "and momma...Mrs. Douglas sat her at my table with me". I thought how lucky she was and I asked Toni what her name was. "Angel" my daughter gleamed. Now Toni draws pictures of her and calls her her new best friend. Yep that's right...God sent a friend for Toni....he sent her to Toni's class instead of any of the other 6 classes down the hall...and then sat her at my daughters table. Just to make sure I knew this was from him...he named her Angel. So the next time you think anything is too small to bring to God...just remember God loves us as much as anyone ever could and he does not want to see us hurting over anything no matter how simple or small the request is.





I hope this blog finds everyone in great health....and just know I love all my readers.

Mystery Camp...Youth Camp

I went on a youth trip with our Church to help out and chaperon. They called it mystery camp this year and none of the students knew where we were going or what we would be doing. All they knew is they needed to show up at the church on Friday and would not be back till Sunday. We loaded up three vans and truck full of pre-teens and teens and headed off to hill country to Camp Buckner. It was beautiful and only a little over an hour from the church but that did not stop me from convincing a few of them that we would be in the van till at least midnight ha ha ha. Anyway we arrived and all loaded into cabins for the weekend and we reveled our mystery theme "Gifted". The weather was cold but not wet so we were outside for tons of activities. A band by the name of LookToTheSky came and lead worship...did I mention they rocked. I felt old right away because after about 5 min. my ears were ringing from the music being so LOUD...I wore ear plugs the rest the time but no one noticed. We took up every moment of the youths time with organized games, quite time, group discussions, worship and prayer. At night we stayed outside till around midnight playing running games like Capture the flag. The teams were very competitive and everyone that I talked to had a blast. The first morning there I woke up sore from running till midnight and would not have been able to function without my Ibuprofen. The next day was filled with more games and worship. The church had been collecting shoes in good used condition or new to donate to Honduras and while at camp the youth spent some of there time writing scriptures on the soles of the shoes before sending them off. The church also brought a huge beach ball that took more than one person to carry over to the volley ball net. Watching this ball going from one side to the other was amazing. It took so much team work just to keep the ball from touching the ground. At one point some of the band members came out and jumped in the game for some fun too. The youth had a blast as did the adults and the food was good too. At the camp they had a large cafeteria that had and dished more food than one person should be eating. The cafeteria had a large fire place and the last night we were there everyone made smores. It would have been fun to have an outside fire but the hill country has been on a burn ban for over 6 months now...so no fires. The campers had a blast and all kinds of pranks were pulled on various people...not everyone enjoyed the pranks...but I did. Sunday morning we headed back to the church for Sunday service and the band came with us to lead fellowship for the whole congregation. The youth at our church are truly amazing kids and I loved getting to know them. But I must say that I was happy to be home and hug my babies, John took great care of them and Toni even had a pony tail in for church that morning...such a good daddy. I am thankful that I was able to go and help out. I am blessed to have a husband willing to stay at home for a few days just him and kiddo's.

Toni

My baby has strep....again. Yep I got a call from school today and had to pick her up early. We called the doc and they squeezed us in this afternoon and confirmed that she has strep. So sad. Again no one else has any symptoms. Grrrrrrrr She just got off of anti bio tics on Christmas day. She had a 10 day round of Agmenton (SP) and now...ten more days.

On a new note. I took pictures yesterday so I could put them on and blog about how great the weather is. The kids were out bike riding, playing, and just being cute...so I took some pix. Well....I can't find my card reader and it has a card in it. I am sure it will turn up but this is crazy, where is it already.

I hope all is well with whoever reads this blog and know I love you all.

more busy days...

These last few days have been crazy. I am loving having both my babies home for Toni's two week vacation from school. Of course three days after Christmas was Mikeys birthday and it was on a Sunday this year. I made and decorated cupcakes for his Sunday school class to share for a snack that day. Mikey had a mini church party which was good because if we had to celebrate his birthday on Sunday it would have just been Mikey, Toni and I. John was hunting that weekend, Lia was in Mexico for the holidays, and our other neighbor had to work. Did I mention that our phone lines were down for almost 5 days around the holiday...yep no phone calls in or out. Boy my voice mail was full when it finally worked. Anyway....we celebrated his birthday on the 31st. On the 30th John and I took our little family down to sea world for the holiday shows and fun times to be had. The kids had a blast and I got to see my dolphin again. I love Mattie and will always have a special place in my heart for her. While we were at sea world we caught a 4D theater show (The Polar express) and it was the coolest thing. When the wind would blow in the movie you would feel wind in your face. Or when the train rumbled so would the theater. When it snowed in the movie....the theater filled with snow. It was so much fun and I wish I would have taken pictures of our family in the goofy 3d glasses we all had to wear LOL. We also caught the Orca whale show with shamu, the dolphin/beluga whale show Viva, and a few other things as well. We timed everything just right and saw everything the park had to offer. The kids loved climbing these large rope structures and it was hard keeping track of them. We walked all day up and down the hills at sea world and Toni never asked for a break or to be carried. Mikey did well too only asking a hand full of times for a piggy back ride. I was impressed with my babies as we passed by complaining 8 and 9 year old being pushed in kid strollers. After the day was done we drove our 2 hour ride home and put our exhausted selves to bed. We slept hard for a few hours and then Mikey woke up and crawled into bed with us. Before I could go back to sleep I heard someone beating on the door. The time was around 4:30 in the morning. I woke John up and he grabbed his gun to answer the door. I thought it was funny because I told him if you needed the gun they would not be knocking. Anyway...it was his sister from Washington that he has not seen sense he was almost 4. She was on her way from Hammond LA. to El Paso Tx. She stopped by to meet him and it just happened to be very early. After a hour or two of chatting we all went back to bed. The next day we spent getting to know her and playing silly games like uno attack with her, her husband and her daughter. It was the 31st and that was Mikey's party day so they got to meet the neighbors and be present for a Mikey party. It was a nice visit and we went to Gatti land so the kids could play and we all ate pizza and had a grand ol' time. After the outing we came back to the house to ring the new year in. It was nice ringing in the new year with new family in the house. Anyway...like I said it was a busy time and I am leaving out soooooo much but for now this is an update on what has been going on.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas! The waiting for Christmas was so much fun through my kids eyes. They would tell me everyday how many days it was till Jesus's birthday. We had a nativity wall hanging that they had to add a piece everyday and on the last day baby Jesus was added. They really got Christmas this year. My Toni sang Happy Birthday on Christmas and I got all teary. The day before Christmas we received a box from Grandma Barbara in California...she got the kids some of the cutest outfits so I took them out to the creek where it is all white rocks to take some pictures of them. It worked out well. It was 72 degrees out side and no snow in site (normal for Texas) but the pictures look like winter...I did it. The white white rocks give the feel of snow and the bright colors of Toni's dress just look great with the background. Now....if only my kids skin was not sooooooo white LOL. Anyway...Johns Dad and Mom came up from Huntsville for Christmas day and it was nice having them. We made a very strange Christmas dinner and it was fun getting it all on the table. I wanted to make sure everyone was included in the dinner making so I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner a few days ago. Toni wanted rolls and ham, Mikey wanted ham and fruit. Both the kids decided they wanted orange coke to drink so the one day of year I bought coke for them. Most the John spoke up and wanted to cook a prime roast. Vince was happy with all of that but loves Oatmeal Raisin cookies and Vince and John both wanted their favorite beans and potatoes. My favorite dessert of all time is Chocolate pie. soooo....it was fun. We had prime roast, a ham, and a turkey for the meat. For the sides John made his special fresh greenbeens with pecans, I made German mashed potato casserole, pinto beans with beacon and onion (yum yum yum) and of course dinner rolls. We also had Oatmeal Rasin cookies, sugar cookies, and a chocolate pie. It was wonderful. The table was full and after the dinner every ones belly was too.