A weekend to be grateful for

We just got back from a "camping" trip in Maine. Maine, oh how I love you in July. I am not sure I'd enjoy you much anytime between November and April, but summer in Maine is absolutely wonderful.

The weekend was absolutely wonderful, but we weren't certain we were going to have a weekend at first. We loaded up the camper (which is why camping is in quotes above -- it doesn't really count as camping) with just what we'd need for a weekend trip on Thursday and Friday Morning. Daddy got home early from work and we headed off.

The trip was slow going, traffic was awful through Massachusetts, which I expected, but Daddy didn't. Then we got to Maine. The traffic cleared up and the road was resurfaced, life was good.

And then they passed us. "They" is a black pickup pulling a very long, fairly old travel trailer camper. We own a fifth wheel, which means it's connected to a large hitch in the bed of our truck. They were towing a travel trailer -- just as long, just as heavy, but on a regular ball hitch on the back of their truck. Travel Trailers are not as safe and steady to drive as a fifth wheel. There is a reason that the big rig Semi's use a fifth wheel hitch to attach their loads.

Back to the story. They passed us. It all happened in a matter of seconds, but it seemed like hours as it was happening. As they passed us they hit the rumble bars. Luckily, Daddy heard that and looked over. As he looked, he noticed that their trailer hit the guard rail on the side of the road. And Daddy hit the brakes enough to allow us to back off.

Thank God for Daddy and his observant Nature.

The man in the truck over corrected as he panicked, sending the trailer swerving back into the lane, and headed into the next one over. The lane we were in. As I watched the back end of his trailer miss the front of our truck by mere inches my heart sunk into my stomach and my stomach jumped into my throat. Daddy backed off even more and hit his hazard lights to alert people behind us.

The man over corrected again, sending his trailer back onto the shoulder, where there was no guard rail this time. And then his trailer swerved back the other direction onto the other trailer. He was out of control. Daddy backed off even more.

We sat there in the cab of our truck watching as this truck and trailer prepared to flip and roll down the freeway. The trailer was swerving uncontrollably. We saw the under carriage of their trailer a few times. At one point in time the truck was sideways in the road. One second it was going one way and the next moment it was facing the other direction. Sparks flew up where the side of the trailer made impact with the asphalt on the freeway. The rear bumper of the trailer ripped off on one end and a sewage hose (just the empty hose) came flying out of the end of the bumper (a common storage place) and rolled down the road. We ran over it. It was at about that moment that I was worried for the driver and anyone inside the truck. We were going to be okay. Daddy was far enough back that we wouldn't hit them or be hurt.

After what seemed like hours, the truck managed to get the trailer back under control. He and the rest of his caravan pulled off to the side of the road. As I watched his wife (I assume that's who it was) get out of her car, I could feel the fear and pain and the beginnings of anger for her. Whatever was in the trailer was ruined. The truck's frame is probably bent. Thousands of dollars worth of damage because there was a small distraction. It could have been much worse. Much, much worse.

We didn't stop because the other vehicle had. Many people think it is safe to travel in a pull-behind trailer as you're driving down the road. I've seen people getting in and out of the things as we've stopped. It isn't safe. I only hope that this family was being cautious and didn't put any living creatures in the trailer, because anything living was most likely injured if they survived being tossed around like that.

It puts things into perspective to watch and be so close to something so scary and dangerous. I know you think I might be exaggerating this incident for the sake of the story, and the blog. But I'm not. In fact, I'm under telling the story. Daddy has seen a lot doing what he does for a living. He's had some exciting moments when waves have been rolling over the bow of his ship. He's looked over to see that his ship has rolled more than it's supposed to without falling apart and sinking into the cold North Atlantic. He has climbed on teeny tiny ladders into a zodiac type boat to rescue people in rough seas from their boat, dead in the water. Even he says that moment goes into his top five list of exciting and scary moments.

We said many prayers of thanks throughout the rest of the weekend. We enjoyed even the small things and some annoyances without as much complaining, because we had been recently reminded how precious life is and how lucky we were to be able to enjoy our weekend. The other family's weekend had been ruined, even though it had almost been much worse than it was. We were able to enjoy our 12 mile bike ride around the park. We were able to enjoy our campfire with giant marshmallows roasting and ever mosquito bite that came along with it. We enjoyed wading in the ocean on the rocky shore and watching Little Monster ride his bike until dark at the campground. We enjoyed watching the last of the coals burn out as the kids slept. We enjoyed fresh lobster at a local lobster pound. Even thought it wasn't the Lobster Pound we wanted to visit, it seems a bit off to whine about the fact that even though their website said they were open EVERY DAY, EVEN HOLIDAYS only to show up at 2:01 on a day when they decided to close at 2:00. It's fine. Another company got our business. We enjoyed ice cream at a small local shop, even though I made a bigger mess with my ice cream than both kids combined. We enjoyed visiting a civil war fort, and watching their cannons go off. Even though it was steaming hot, and the sound of the cannon blast set baby girls to crying and little boys up my skirt, hanging onto my leg as though the end of the world was beginning.

We had a great weekend. I'm sure it would have been wonderful even without the incident, but I'm certainly grateful that we had things put into perspective and were able to enjoy the smaller things.

What did you do over the holiday weekend?

Aaahhh..

Our stuff is gone. All of it has been packed into a truck and is well on its way to the East Coast. Now, we're officially in limbo. Without an address or house, but not quite homeless. We're enjoying some family togetherness in our fifth wheel before we try to haul this thing across the country in a crazy blizzarding el nino year.

Our holidays were amazing, complete with Little Monster turning into Ralphie from A Christmas Story both when he sat on Santa's lap and forgot to tell him what he wanted for Christmas, and when he discovered the Light Saber Santa left for him. He, apparently was going to use it to save us all from the bad guys. Let's just hope I don't have any reason to give him soap poisoning and blind him anytime soon. For now, "naughty words" are any words that he doesn't want to hear from one of us. As for the words that come out of his mouth, they never stop. I swear the child even talks in his sleep.

Butterball is quickly becoming her namesake -- a little turkey. Fat thighs and goofy personality. Can it even be possible that she's pulling herself to standing and thinking about cruising on the furniture. So much for living in an RV arresting her development. She makes this incredibly cute face that's somewhere between a smile and a grimace when she's feeling silly.

I messed up again this year and failed to send out Christmas Cards. I still haven't even sent out a Christmas email to anyone. You'll all forgive me, right?

We spent most of the Christmas holidays enjoying each others company in our RV, but there was a break for a long, wonderful Christmas Eve service at church with many beautiful pieces of special music. It was probably a little late for two little ones, but we managed. We visited a friend, and Little Monster (I think for the first time in history) didn't have an accident at their house.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Happy 2009!!

Our 2008 ended with a boom. I promised yesterday I'd tell you about it, remember?

We got up early (no thanks for that wake-up call, Little Monster!) and hit the donut shop and Target. Little Monster needed some mittens, a hat, slippers and a backpack. We had just finished picking up the backpacks when

BOOM!

I was certain it was something bad. The shelves had collapsed. Or the terrorists had found us. Then I felt the cold, cold sensation on my legs. No, my water didn't break. It's too early for that - and that would be warm anyway. I turned around to find that my husband's face was beginning to match the red of his shirt. He apparently had forgotten the warning he's gotten every day from every local Starbucks about the lids not fitting on the frappuccino glasses. And he dropped his Venti Java Chip all over the aisle. And by all over, I mean ALL. OVER. It was on the floor, up the other side of the shelving (luckily it was all glassed in, so we didn't have to feel obligated to bring home any extra merchandise) and the backs of my legs.

If he could have, he would have slithered out of that store as quickly as possible. He embarrasses easily, my husband. But we weren't done shopping yet. I wiped up the back of my pants so no one would think I had a very bad situation in the bathroom (it didn't really work) and finished up our shopping.

You know, this isn't nearly as funny now that I've typed it all up as it was at the moment. Oh well. Did you know that they have this cool powdery stuff that you put on wet spills that will soak up the liquid and the sticky? All you have to do is sweep it up and the mess is gone. It was amazing.

Little Monster was thoroughly pleased with his new stuff. Especially the slippers, mittens and hat. I've convinced him (for now) to remove the hat and mittens for nap time, and he wasn't allowed to wear them during lunch (which meant he refused to eat). Here he is modeling it all, and dancing in it. Once again, the cuteness is almost suffocating. Or I'm pregnant and hormonal. You pick.

Old Traditions

Sorry about the interruption, there. We're still dealing with the aftermath. But this is about Old Christmas Traditions.

If you can remember being little, and thinking about Santa Claus coming on Christmas Eve, munching down on some cookies and bringing presents, you remember how terribly exciting it was. It wasn't bad enough there were usually gifts under the tree anyway. You'd been watching them for weeks (and if you were smart like me, you'd probably tried to sneak peaks at them), waiting for Christmas Day to come so that you could open them. At one point there were four children five and under in my house growing up. I can't imagine being the parent to four kids, so excited they couldn't sleep on Christmas eve. In order to alleviate some of the craziness (at least I assume this is why), my mom allowed us to open ONE gift on Christmas Eve. She picked them, of course. We always got a pair of pajamas. To this day, I fondly remember going to bed on Christmas Eve in a brand new snuggly pair of PJs each year. I am continuing that tradition in our home. This year, things got a little crazy. My mom sent Little Monster a pair of Pajamas:

Thank you Grami!

Excited about the new Jammies

New Superman Jammies

Little Monster loves his new pajamas. So much, in fact, that we have to trick him into wearing actual clothing.

As for other traditions, we had a light (ha!) meal of bread and soup for dinner Christmas Eve. The soup is delicious, and I'll post the recipe soon, but alas, it has been more than 10 minutes so I must annoy my child until he relents and sits on the potty again.

A New Christmas Tradition

Christmas traditions are hard to establish when you're constantly moving. This year, we're home, but next year who knows where we'll be. We could be in Nebraska, hanging out with the Grandparents, travelling across the country to some other state. I try to cling to traditions that we can do whether we're on the road, visiting family or at home.

A new tradition we started this year was a Gingerbread Tree. People do gingerbread houses, but we couldn't find a decent kit. In hind-sight, that was okay. Little Monster is waaay too little to decorate a house, but a tree is right up his alley. I found a kit that contained a bunch of gingerbread star cookies and frosting mix, got everything out that we needed and made sure to get Little Monster all ready for some possibly messy kitchen fun.


I'm not sure he's excited. What do you think? We laid out our star cookies so that we would be ready to stack them. I laid the first cookie down, gluing it to the foil-covered plate and turned my back to grab another. What would any two year old boy do?


He grabbed it off the plate and ate it. It ended up being a good thing. He "helped" by munching down on a probably-stale pre-baked gingerbread cookie while I attempted to assemble the tree with the frosting. It leans a little. But then, it was supposed to be assembled by a two-year-old. Once the tree was mostly together, we decided to add a little 'green' and some decorations to our tree.



Of course he took some time to taste test the little balls that went all over the tree. And he decided that the Star didn't go on top, it went at the bottom with the presents. Fine with me, it was his tree.

The finished (crooked but cute) Product:


The kid when he was done:

You can tell by the green on his face that he had fun tasting everything. And if you look in the bottom left corner, you'll notice I was a very nice mommy and left a few of the candy balls for him to eat when we were done.

I was very glad that we hadn't attempted a house. I don't think that would have went nearly as well. The whole experience was wonderful. I also had to get over the fact that the tree wasn't going to look beautiful like the ones on the box, because Little Monster was going to be putting it together. It isn't about the end product, it's about the fun getting there. It did take me a few minutes to get to that point as we were scrambling for water, mixing the icing, and getting things ready. In the future, I'll be more prepared for disasters and laughter and be more willing to let things get a little crazy. I'll also make sure I have EVERYTHING out and ready to go before I let Little Monster in the kitchen so that he's not dumping water on the floor while I search for the mixer beaters.

Thanks Little Monster for a great time. I loved laughing because you were sneaking cookies, taste testing the candy, and making general messes. I hope that you'll enjoy doing stuff like this with me every year. Merry Christmas and thanks again. I am excited to continue this tradition year after year -- at Grandma's house, in our fifth wheel as we travel from duty station to duty station, or in our home. I love you.

Holiday Plans

This year we're kickin' it at home. We've kindly told out-of-state relatives that if they want Christmas with us, that they can come here. And they did or are.

We aren't going anywhere else, either. This will be the first school break that we haven't gone somewhere. We've been to Morro Dunes, San Diego, and Nebraska for the other three breaks we've had this year. We're moving next year, so we'd like (read: Mommy Mary would like and if she doesn't get her way it is not a good thing) to have one relaxing year at home. Unfortunately, relaxation is something Not the Momma doesn't do well. He fidgets and gets bored easily. He's already beat one video game this break. And it hasn't even been a full week yet.

We do have some family crafts planned for the next few days since it will be extra cool and rainy. We're going to bake cookies, decorate a gingerbread tree and a Rice Krispie House (no gingerbread house kits to be found!), watch Christmas movies and hang out. Christmas Eve we'll have soup and go to Church. Christmas morning we'll have breakfast, maybe go to Church again and make some dinner. I've invited our new neighbors over. Who knows if they'll come.

After Christmas, who knows what will happen. We've got a whole additional two weeks before he has to go back to school. Pray we don't all kill each other after an overdose of Christmas Cheer -- especially because my egg nog remains un-spiked this year!

Reasons I am a certifiable Grinch - sort of.

I am a Grinch in that we are not doing a big "gift-give" this Christmas. Little Monster is getting some "big boy" underwear, a book about potty training, a potty chair, some pajamas and a few small toys. Not the Momma is getting -- well, I'll tell you about that later. As for the rest of you, I can't afford anything. And I don't feel remorseful. The lack of remorse bothers me a bit.


I am not doing Christmas cards this year. If that makes me terrible, so be it. I'm sending out an email with a picture of Little Monster. I may even take the time to write out a dorky letter and photo shop a Santa hat onto Little Monster's head.


We have not (and might not) take Little Monster to see Santa this year. Ever since the burn, his eyes and face are all gross, green, and/or broken out.



I am pregnant. And Crabby. And I don't like it when people touch me. Or breathe on or near me. The only exception is Little Monster when he says "Mommy, Hugs" hugs me then says "More Hugs!" and repeats that.

Someone has figured out how to take off his shorts and diaper. He does so when he's in his playroom by himself. Hopefully he didn't pee on anything.

I lost a $200 key fob for the minivan. I finally got around to having the dealer program the new one I ordered to find out it didn't have a right "piece" or some other baloney and I would have to come back later.

It is day one of a very long break with my easily bored husband who owns no property to maintain, fix or update. It could be a long, long break. And he's started complaining about the lack of blogging going on over here.

Thankfulness.

Let's face it. I'm a complainer. I don't usually behave as though I am grateful for everything in my life, but really, I am.

I am thankful for the debilitating nausea that has accompanied this pregnancy. It reminds me that I am carrying a child -- a healthy child. It reminds me that there are so many women in this world who are unable to carry a child. Each time I pick up my prescription I am reminded of how lucky I am to have healthcare that will cover the expensive medication that allows me to be able to eat and drink -- and how lucky I am that I live in a time and a place where that medication is available to me. I believe that without it, I'd have died of dehydration weeks ago.

I am thankful for how naughty my son is. Naughty is relative, and generally his naughtiness is brought on by curiosity and energy. Both things that you only find in smart, healthy children. I have been especially thankful that I have been able to witness him growing up and learning. He has brought more laughter into my life than any other one thing. I mean, who else will start off the morning by drinking out of the dog water, sharing it with his stuffed dog, and then demand that his doggie is poopie and needs a diaper?

I am thankful for my husband. Even when he's whining about the vacuuming that I've asked him to do in preparation for today. Because it means he's home and safe. And although there is a sly, sarcastic comment among the chores, it reminds me that I too hate vacuuming and am lucky to have found a spouse who will help out. He has been a true blessing lately. He has picked up the slack for me these past couple of months. In more ways than one. It doesn't mean he isn't getting up before 5AM to get to school so he can study. It doesn't mean he isn't coming home at dinner time exhausted from having formulas crammed into his head all day. He does. But when he gets home, he often takes care of Little Monster, picks up a lot of the mess we've made during the day, fixes dinner, cleans up and puts Little Monster to bed. And after all that, he still wants to spend time snuggling with me. How lucky can a girl get?

I am thankful for everything the Lord has given me -- good and bad. Because I learn more from the bad than I do from the good, and the bad reminds me that no matter how bad I think I have it, there is always someone who isn't nearly as lucky as I am. I am thankful for family that loves each other. We are far apart, yet distance cannot stop the relationships that our parents are forming with Little Monster. Rarely does a day go by when he doesn't ask for at least one grandparent. Our family enjoys rare relationships without the tension that many families struggle with.

How wonderful my life must be when the only things I have to complain about are things that don't really matter -- the holes in the backyard, the dogs that bark, the house that's not exactly clean, the bread I wrecked. It means I am rich enough to have dogs, food, a house, and the family that makes it home.