Well, we're off in the morning.
So that means I'm completely prepared and ready to go, right?
Yeah, um, notsomuch....
Took the van in for an oil change this morning. That was supposed to take 20 minutes. It took an hour. And they informed me that I needed a brake flush, power steering flush, and an alignment, plus new tires SOON. "I'll only keep you about an hour." Dude, I don't have an hour!
So we were late for swim lessons, and then late for piano lessons, and then I took the van back. By the time the shuttle was ready to take me home, the van was done. $375 and another 90 minutes that I didn't have, it's road ready. Or close enough. We'll worry about tires next month.
Bruce has a grand plan. He wants us to get up at 5:00 am and pour the kids in the van in their jammies, and be on the road by 6:00.
You can stop laughing now.
I know I'm not a morning person. Bruce knows I'm not a morning person. He promised me coffee, and he told me I could sleep in the van.....because I do *that* so very well. Not happily anticipating a darn thing about this trip, except a chance to see some friends.
Wish me luck, light candles, say prayers.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
PineCliff Church Camp
Oh my goodness, what a week!
First, I have to say that I completely misjudged both the nurse and the camp director. The nurse was WONDERFUL! We went up Sunday evening, with campers arriving on Monday afternoon. The nurse, Kristin, sat down with Shannon and I and basically said "whatever you need, we'll do." So, Kristin kept Shannon's insulin and Shannon carried her emergency injection. Her counselor seemed a bit worried at first (the note I had was 2 pages long), but took it all in stride.
The camp director, Corey, is rather disorganized and schedules were mostly a suggestion, especially for morning stuff. BUT, it was clear from early on that he has a passion for this camp and for these kids. He truly loves doing this, and with that I can certainly overlook the disorganization stuff.
I had a cabin of girls ranging in age from a 1st grader (in the fall) to a couple of 4th graders. That caused a few problems. But the biggest problem came from a very insecure almost-2nd grader. She created so much girl drama and I was ready to throw my hands up in the air and run for the hills! She was doing a bunch of "You can be my friend, but *you* can't, and since you're MY friend, you can't be her friend" nonsense. She didn't want to participate half the time, and found all sorts of ways to not wind up where she was supposed to be. To be fair, I had that problem with most of them off and on all week, but seriously, I'd count heads, get to 7 and know exactly which one of my 8 was missing.
I think I've forgotten how to count past 8, by the way, after counting them over and over and over again, making sure they were all where they belonged. LOL! It was a bit like herding cats. And it was exhausting.
In spite of all of that, I had a good week. I was ministered to in ways I did not expect as people came to understand the challenges in our family right now. I thought I would pay my dues and never do this again. Now I can't wait to go back next year.
I probably won't go as a counselor though. It was just too much for me to handle, managing Shannon's food needs (the cooks were SO supportive of that) and her diabetes needs, plus Alana's clinginess (nuclear melt down Thursday afternoon, poor thing), plus the 7 other girls in my cabin. I'll go back as a craft or kitchen helper or general floater, but I need to not be in charge of so much. I don't think I had a hot meal all week, helping the little ones with trays, napkins, juice, etc.
Shannon had a rough moment Thursday night. She got her s'more, minus the graham cracker, and her sugar was 270-something. She just lost it. I think it all hit her at once, the food needs Every. Single. Meal. The can't-eat-anything-without-checking-sugar stuff. She just fell apart. She asked why she can't be normal, like everyone else. And that still rips me to my core. I don't have an answer for her. All I can tell her is that it sucks and I'm sorry.
Even in the midst of that, though, I was blessed by people who were willing to manage my cabin while I tended to my daughter. And Shannon was blessed by a cabin full of girls who quickly accepted her and all her foibles. She had a couple of friends from church with her who are used to her needs and her needles, and that really helped. I think they were able to help set the tone.
People commented all week about how strong Shannon is and how well she manages her needs. Of course, she doesn't feel so strong, but she truly is. Corey has to give himself a shot once a day and he hates it, but he told me that Shannon inspired him to buck up and deal. If an 11 yo girl can do it multiple times a day, well, then he can do it once.
I've been singing Twila Paris' "The Warrior Is A Child" all day, and I sang the chorus to Shannon Thursday night. It really is an inspiration to me...
They don't know that I go running home when I fall down.
They don't know who picks me up when no one is around.
I drop my sword and cry for just a while
Cuz deep inside this armor
The warrior is a child.
That's how I feel. The rest of the song talks about how people see the strength on the outside, but they don't see the wounds and tears. God does though, and I reminded Shannon of that. I reminded her that we're not alone. God has given us friends and loved ones, and even total strangers who care. And God has given us gifts and strengths so that we can meet these challenges, and He's always there for us.
I tucked her in and then fell apart myself. And was again blessed by people who barely knew me.
Anyway, this post rambled a bit. But you get the idea.
I found the song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5o2YY5BRUg&feature=related
First, I have to say that I completely misjudged both the nurse and the camp director. The nurse was WONDERFUL! We went up Sunday evening, with campers arriving on Monday afternoon. The nurse, Kristin, sat down with Shannon and I and basically said "whatever you need, we'll do." So, Kristin kept Shannon's insulin and Shannon carried her emergency injection. Her counselor seemed a bit worried at first (the note I had was 2 pages long), but took it all in stride.
The camp director, Corey, is rather disorganized and schedules were mostly a suggestion, especially for morning stuff. BUT, it was clear from early on that he has a passion for this camp and for these kids. He truly loves doing this, and with that I can certainly overlook the disorganization stuff.
I had a cabin of girls ranging in age from a 1st grader (in the fall) to a couple of 4th graders. That caused a few problems. But the biggest problem came from a very insecure almost-2nd grader. She created so much girl drama and I was ready to throw my hands up in the air and run for the hills! She was doing a bunch of "You can be my friend, but *you* can't, and since you're MY friend, you can't be her friend" nonsense. She didn't want to participate half the time, and found all sorts of ways to not wind up where she was supposed to be. To be fair, I had that problem with most of them off and on all week, but seriously, I'd count heads, get to 7 and know exactly which one of my 8 was missing.
I think I've forgotten how to count past 8, by the way, after counting them over and over and over again, making sure they were all where they belonged. LOL! It was a bit like herding cats. And it was exhausting.
In spite of all of that, I had a good week. I was ministered to in ways I did not expect as people came to understand the challenges in our family right now. I thought I would pay my dues and never do this again. Now I can't wait to go back next year.
I probably won't go as a counselor though. It was just too much for me to handle, managing Shannon's food needs (the cooks were SO supportive of that) and her diabetes needs, plus Alana's clinginess (nuclear melt down Thursday afternoon, poor thing), plus the 7 other girls in my cabin. I'll go back as a craft or kitchen helper or general floater, but I need to not be in charge of so much. I don't think I had a hot meal all week, helping the little ones with trays, napkins, juice, etc.
Shannon had a rough moment Thursday night. She got her s'more, minus the graham cracker, and her sugar was 270-something. She just lost it. I think it all hit her at once, the food needs Every. Single. Meal. The can't-eat-anything-without-checking-sugar stuff. She just fell apart. She asked why she can't be normal, like everyone else. And that still rips me to my core. I don't have an answer for her. All I can tell her is that it sucks and I'm sorry.
Even in the midst of that, though, I was blessed by people who were willing to manage my cabin while I tended to my daughter. And Shannon was blessed by a cabin full of girls who quickly accepted her and all her foibles. She had a couple of friends from church with her who are used to her needs and her needles, and that really helped. I think they were able to help set the tone.
People commented all week about how strong Shannon is and how well she manages her needs. Of course, she doesn't feel so strong, but she truly is. Corey has to give himself a shot once a day and he hates it, but he told me that Shannon inspired him to buck up and deal. If an 11 yo girl can do it multiple times a day, well, then he can do it once.
I've been singing Twila Paris' "The Warrior Is A Child" all day, and I sang the chorus to Shannon Thursday night. It really is an inspiration to me...
They don't know that I go running home when I fall down.
They don't know who picks me up when no one is around.
I drop my sword and cry for just a while
Cuz deep inside this armor
The warrior is a child.
That's how I feel. The rest of the song talks about how people see the strength on the outside, but they don't see the wounds and tears. God does though, and I reminded Shannon of that. I reminded her that we're not alone. God has given us friends and loved ones, and even total strangers who care. And God has given us gifts and strengths so that we can meet these challenges, and He's always there for us.
I tucked her in and then fell apart myself. And was again blessed by people who barely knew me.
Anyway, this post rambled a bit. But you get the idea.
I found the song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5o2YY5BRUg&feature=related
Sunday, July 26, 2009
On to Hovenweep National Monument
Eroded Boulder House. They built INSIDE the rock. How cool is that?!
Boulder House, built on a boulder set apart from the canyon walls. You can see the steps they carved in the rock to get to the door.
Twin Towers, in Little Ruin Canyon.
Not sure which one this is, though I *think* it's Tower Point, or maybe one of the ones in the smaller areas of the park.
Hovenweep Castle, again in Little Ruin Canyon.
Hovenweep NM is in the middle of nowhere, straddling the Utah-Colorado border, not on the way to anywhere, but it's only about 50 miles from several cities. It was well worth the drive out there, and you can see much of it in one day, especially if you get started before noon, unlike us. LOL! At the visitor center, you'll learn about the ruins, and if you take the 2-mile loop through Little Ruin Canyon, you'll see roughly a dozen ruins. The trail is mostly flat, going around the edge of the canyon, on slickrock. At the end, it descends into the canyon and back out again.
There are three other areas of the park, not contiguous, that are (mostly) reachable by passenger car. I'm not sure I would've attempted some of those roads in the van, however. And there's one that they recommend a high-clearance vehicle. They're not kidding. Or, you can hike the .8 miles to see that group. The overcast skies that had been such a blessing in keeping the weather cool became a curse as darkness came early. Bruce didn't want to attempt the "high clearance" section in the Pilot, and I don't blame him. It started off down a steep grade and over a couple of large boulders. Add the growing darkness and the expansive feel of being all alone for miles and miles, and well, we'll just have to see that group another time.
Most of the ruins, including many of the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde, were built in the 1200s. Mesa Verde has many that date from earlier, and the park documents the way the ancients moved from on top of the mesa to the cliff dwellings and back again. Everything in Hovenweep was built from about 1200 to 1275 or so. And then it was abandoned. Theories as to why abound, but it seems that it was a combination of factors. There was a 23-year long drought; perhaps they'd over-farmed the surrounding land, and there is evidence of internal strife. Of course, the strife may have been brought on by the shrinking resources, or it may have been exacerbated by it. No one knows for certain, but they continue to dig and research.
The people who lived here did not just disappear, however. It would seem that they migrated south to the Rio Grande river, where the Zuni and other Peubloan people still live today. These people may also have been the ancestors of the Hopi; possibly the Utes, but not the Navajo and it appears that the Freemont culture so prevalent in other areas of Utah was NOT related to them either. Attempts at DNA testing have been made, but the present-day Native Americans don't trust white scientists to be respectful (can you really blame them?), and say they don't need to know the results anyway. So, the results remain a secret. Perhaps as relationships between Native Americans and Anglos improve, we'll know.
The area is a veritable gold mine of Ancient Puebloan ruins, and it's just amazing. There is the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, run by the BLM (not the Park Service) and I got the feeling that there was some inter-agency turf wars going on there. The Park Service had very little information about the Canyon of the Ancients Monument, instead directing us to the Anasazi Heritage Center in Delores, CO, headquarters of the Monument. Even the Visitors Center in Cortez, CO had very little information about it, which is rather odd considering the mountains of information they had about every National Park for 100 miles.
So, yeah, Canyon of the Ancients will have to happen on another trip. I hear that there are some spectacular ruins to be seen there, including some that you can actually enter. And, a ranger in Mesa Verde told me that there are far more ruins on the nearby Tribal lands as well. Some of which you can arrange to tour. Add that to the list of things I must see before I die! At this rate, I can't ever die....too many amazing wonders to see!
More links:
More links:
A Taste of Mesa Verde National Park
Square Tower House
Cliff Palace (the largest ruin in the Park)
Long House, from the inside
Long House, from the inside
Long House
(Now that I figured out, at least somewhat, how to do this, ya'll are in for a whole passle of posts with pictures!)
Saturday, July 25, 2009
MIL called
I don't know whether to laugh or what....
She called dh's cell phone twice. I didn't get there in time to answer it the first time, and the second time, well, I just do NOT talk to her on the phone. Ever. So I ignored it. I did, however, tell him that she'd called the first time and that I didn't get to it fast enough.
He called her back a while later. The conversation went something like this:
MIL: Tell Tristan that I didn't forget his birthday (it was Friday the 17th), but I was busy getting a ride to the hospital in an ambulance.
Bruce: An ambulance? What happened?
I don't know what all she said, but apparently she had some chest pains and thought she was having a heart attack. The paramedics gave her something in the ambulance and she got better. She has no idea what they gave her.....my guess is nitroglycerin, but whatever. After running all sorts of tests, they don't know what caused her pain, but it was NOT a heart attack.
But see the birthday thing? That's just weird. Tristan's birthday was over a week ago, and this ambulance ride was Wednesday. She took several more days to even TRY to call, calls his cell phone but not the house phone and didn't leave a message. Yeah, she forgot his birthday, not that he cares.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she's all right. Well, mostly. But the way she told Bruce? What did she say to the rest of the family (the other 7 siblings)? And waiting so long? I seriously don't get how that family operates.
And now, you know she'll be using this for attention and other stuff. They haven't made any effort to come and visit us in at least two years. The last time they did was Memorial Day 2008, and they met us at a camping spot less than an hour from their house. And then they almost didn't come! We were there for Thanksgiving, and Bruce has visited with the kids a couple of times. Now he wants to visit them again...."probably should," he says. Which is *exactly* her game.
The woman makes me crazy, I tell ya.
*sigh*
(post about camp coming very soon, I promise)
She called dh's cell phone twice. I didn't get there in time to answer it the first time, and the second time, well, I just do NOT talk to her on the phone. Ever. So I ignored it. I did, however, tell him that she'd called the first time and that I didn't get to it fast enough.
He called her back a while later. The conversation went something like this:
MIL: Tell Tristan that I didn't forget his birthday (it was Friday the 17th), but I was busy getting a ride to the hospital in an ambulance.
Bruce: An ambulance? What happened?
I don't know what all she said, but apparently she had some chest pains and thought she was having a heart attack. The paramedics gave her something in the ambulance and she got better. She has no idea what they gave her.....my guess is nitroglycerin, but whatever. After running all sorts of tests, they don't know what caused her pain, but it was NOT a heart attack.
But see the birthday thing? That's just weird. Tristan's birthday was over a week ago, and this ambulance ride was Wednesday. She took several more days to even TRY to call, calls his cell phone but not the house phone and didn't leave a message. Yeah, she forgot his birthday, not that he cares.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she's all right. Well, mostly. But the way she told Bruce? What did she say to the rest of the family (the other 7 siblings)? And waiting so long? I seriously don't get how that family operates.
And now, you know she'll be using this for attention and other stuff. They haven't made any effort to come and visit us in at least two years. The last time they did was Memorial Day 2008, and they met us at a camping spot less than an hour from their house. And then they almost didn't come! We were there for Thanksgiving, and Bruce has visited with the kids a couple of times. Now he wants to visit them again...."probably should," he says. Which is *exactly* her game.
The woman makes me crazy, I tell ya.
*sigh*
(post about camp coming very soon, I promise)
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Busy Busy Summer
I think I say this every year, but next year, I'm NOT scheduling so many things. I'm just not. We haven't had two consecutive weeks at home all summer, and we're not going to....
July 18-25 Boy Scout Camp
July 19-24 Church Elementary Camp. I'm going as a counselor for the K-2 kids. Pray for me.
July 30-August 3 Quick trip to N. Idaho to see my family. We're driving straight through both ways, 12 hours, something we've never done before with the kids. Pray for us.
August 9-14 Diabetes Camp
School starts August 24th.
VBS is the week before school starts, but we've decided that we're not going to participate this year. We all need that week to breathe a bit, meet with schools about diabetes and celiac, and get ready.
I keep waiting for this long stretch of time called "Summer Break." It's only taken me a month to realize that it's just not happening, so if I want to accomplish anything, cleaning out the craft rooms for instance, I need to do it in smaller spurts. I'm having a hard time even finding those, though, with all the running. We return from one thing, do the laundry, unpack, and then it's time to go again.
Not that I'm complaining.
Well, okay, maybe a little.
We've already done some amazing things this summer. Tristan went to Jr. High Camp, plus the PineCliff mission trip where he did a lot of work on the church-owned camp to get it ready for the summer season. Then there was the Mesa Verde and Hovenweep trip. That was amazing. I can't wait to scrapbook all of that! And the trip to Zion was awesome. God's creation is truly awe-inspiring! Camp will be good for all of us, and Diabetes camp will be fantastic for the kids. They're familiar with Celiac disease too, so I won't have to worry and fuss about Shannon.
It's just that I really wanted to get things done this summer. I think we all go through that. And it's not happening, or not happening very fast. I feel like I'm working all the time and not getting anywhere. Frustrating, to say the least!
Oh well, one thing at a time. Instead of completely reorganizing an entire room, I'll just have to settle for one closet or cupboard at a time. Tossing half-empty bottles of lotion that are 3 years old sure feels good (from the kids' bathroom vanity....don't tell. It was fancy Princess lotion)!
July 18-25 Boy Scout Camp
July 19-24 Church Elementary Camp. I'm going as a counselor for the K-2 kids. Pray for me.
July 30-August 3 Quick trip to N. Idaho to see my family. We're driving straight through both ways, 12 hours, something we've never done before with the kids. Pray for us.
August 9-14 Diabetes Camp
School starts August 24th.
VBS is the week before school starts, but we've decided that we're not going to participate this year. We all need that week to breathe a bit, meet with schools about diabetes and celiac, and get ready.
I keep waiting for this long stretch of time called "Summer Break." It's only taken me a month to realize that it's just not happening, so if I want to accomplish anything, cleaning out the craft rooms for instance, I need to do it in smaller spurts. I'm having a hard time even finding those, though, with all the running. We return from one thing, do the laundry, unpack, and then it's time to go again.
Not that I'm complaining.
Well, okay, maybe a little.
We've already done some amazing things this summer. Tristan went to Jr. High Camp, plus the PineCliff mission trip where he did a lot of work on the church-owned camp to get it ready for the summer season. Then there was the Mesa Verde and Hovenweep trip. That was amazing. I can't wait to scrapbook all of that! And the trip to Zion was awesome. God's creation is truly awe-inspiring! Camp will be good for all of us, and Diabetes camp will be fantastic for the kids. They're familiar with Celiac disease too, so I won't have to worry and fuss about Shannon.
It's just that I really wanted to get things done this summer. I think we all go through that. And it's not happening, or not happening very fast. I feel like I'm working all the time and not getting anywhere. Frustrating, to say the least!
Oh well, one thing at a time. Instead of completely reorganizing an entire room, I'll just have to settle for one closet or cupboard at a time. Tossing half-empty bottles of lotion that are 3 years old sure feels good (from the kids' bathroom vanity....don't tell. It was fancy Princess lotion)!
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