Supernatural: Dude!

Because it's Thursday. Because I miss the boys. Because I'm too lame to find anything else to post about.
Behave!

Weird Wednesday

I still don't have much to report.
Still very quiet here.
My dog is sick. I'm recovering from some stupid, icky virus that hit me out of the blue and knocked me for a loop. Luckily, it's a short lived one, but my stomach still isn't so happy.
Summer is ticking by really fast. School supplies are on the shelves. The next thing you know Christmas decorations will be on display. I don't even want to think about that. I'm having a hard enough time thinking about outfitting everyone for the new school year. But it's coming up very soon.
I'm hoping the last part of summer will be better than the first half.
And that's all I have for now...
Behave!

This Looks Familiar!

It's pretty darned close to what my cat's been doing!
Not much to report today. Quiet.
That is all.
Behave!

Monday Madness...

Isn't that weird?

Yes. Those are nostrils you see in the eye holes. And K4's tongue. This is how she occupied herself one afternoon. I think it's very amusing. The kid loves scissors. Loves them. When I discovered there weren't many things in her room that didn't have cutting involvement, (comforter, mini blinds, pillow, baby doll hair - you name it) I had to take her scissors and hide every pair in the house. (and I'm not entirely convinced she's outgrown the habit, so I'm ever watchful) She loves to cut stuff. She'll even take scissors outside and cut the grass. She's only cut her hair once a few years ago, but she has given the cat and the dog a trim from time to time. When I see her with scissors I constantly remind her what not to cut. Fun stuff in my house. As usual.

Man, it's quiet here! I don't think either K4 or I know what to do with ourselves. She's enjoying not having to share the computer and the fact her brother neglected to put away his gaming system before he left. She figures that's a good indication that she can use it. But, she didn't sleep well last night and I know that's the stress of missing her siblings.

And the dog? She's acting all depressed and holding her paw up for sympathy love. I've checked it over three times now and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

That's all for Monday.

Behave!

Sniffle! and Camping Wrap up

So...we're down to one child at home this week. Weird stuff. Already and it's only been about an hour since we said goodbye. K3 was excited and nervous for his first solid week away from home. I'm sure he'll do fine. I just don't know if I will!

Camping wrap up...

We said goodbye to Freddie (the snapping turtle K2 found on her last day of school). He's now happily swimming in the creek with the other turtles. There were a lot of gypsy moths flitting about with no purpose except to breed and die. They were annoying, and directionally challenged, and would often fly right into your face, or in your mouth. Pretty gross, but better than the Dobson Fly. The guys caught a lot of different fish - ones we've never pulled out of the creek as long as we've been going. I didn't. I rarely catch any fish. Usually all I catch is trees, rocks, and the occasional hook between the eyes. Even with the rain, we had a fantastic time, and I can't help but wish we had another trip planned soon.

I'm off to see if I can erase one of my lower production days in this writing challenge. As of right now I'm in second place. We start all over again tomorrow.

That's all...

Behave!

Icky Bugs

This is a Dobson Fly.

Pretty gross, huh?

And it's not a small critter. They're huge - like 5 inches long huge. This one's a female. See those pinchers? The males have really, really long ones. They're mean. They both bite. And they stink. And fly. The larvae is called a hellgrammite. They're just as disgusting as the adults, except they don't have wings.

This particular one is in a bag. B wanted to show K3's friend who was camping with us Saturday night. K2 and I gave him a CT scan with a flashlight (they look hollow), and inspected his body with the relative safety of the heavy plastic. Then we let him go. Yeah, they're disgusting and scary, but killing it seemed wrong.

Thursday morning, I woke to hear B say, "Don't freak and cover your head." Yeah. One was in the camper and probably had been all night. I'd seen two on the screen door earlier, and when we went to bed there was only one. The seal between the canvas and door wasn't completely closed. I didn't freak since it was over and B got it out. If I was alone it would probably have been a completely different story. Ha!

So, there you have it. Something disgusting for the weekend!

Lots of camp preparations going on here. My living room looks like a laundromat explosion.

Behave!

Fatigue Friday!

... Yes. This is how I feel today. Had a good page count again yesterday, and then a late night last night, that included getting up early and finding a lovely present from my doggie in the bathroom hallway. That was compliments of her eating the cat's food last night. Fun stuff. Am now in the middle of some brainstorming with Simon and Burkholder - am obviously having some attention deficit issues - Ha! Actually we're all checking email and stuff, and the hard part is done. Now we're going to try to get some pages in on the writing challenge. In between talking. And laughing. And other brainstorming.
Not much Fiesta-type stuff going on today. K2 comes home from camp tonight, but then she leaves again Sunday. K3 leaves Sunday, too. Next week is going to be a weird one around here.
That's all for now!
Behave!

Supernatural: Savin' Me

As promised!
Enjoy!
Behave!

Snack Wrapper Hate

I swear!
Those clear plastic snack wrappers are the bane of my current existence! I'm finding them everywhere!! Bathroom, living room, dining room, bedrooms, beside the trash can, blowing in the breeze around the swing set. Just when I think I've found them all, another one peeks out from underneath the piano or the couch cushions. All of that while I've been assured by the small humans that live and visit here that they've taken care of their trash and cleaned up after themselves. huh.
I'm in the middle of a writing challenge right now. Some people are blaming me for taking them away from their pages, and calling me names! Like saboteur! All because I sent the links for Supernatural videos similar to the one I posted here yesterday. Ha! I think we all agree they're necessary inspiration in a world with too much time before new Sam and Dean.
As of the last tally, I have the lead in the writing challenge, thanks to a stellar 32 page day yesterday. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to hold onto that lead since I'm already slacking behind today and tomorrow is a brainstorming session for the new anthology. There is a possibility of some writing time once we've finished slamming ideas around, so maybe I shouldn't write the day off yet. Not that it truly matters in the end. I've made terrific progress and that's what it's about. Then, Monday we start again and hopefully by the end of next week I'll have finished my current wip. It's a way for us all to stay focused after spending the first few weeks of summer vacation wondering what happened to our muses.
I'll probably post another Supernatural video later.
But for now...
Behave!

Supernatural : The Best Winchester Lines

h, how I miss them!! How long until the new season starts?
Behave!

Then, The Rain Came

Thursday evening the rain started with a big ole bang. The thunder was so close it rattled the camper and your bones depending on where you were standing. It was crazy rain - coming in from the creek side. Usually when it rains, we're able to stand under the awning and watch, and keep the front camper window open. Not this time.

We had small breaks in between cloud bursts, but not long enough to even contemplate a fire. B and I made soup for dinner, and it turned into a collective pot with additions from my folks and sister. Instead of finishing it over the fire like we'd planned, we ended up dishing it up from the camper.

Anyway. When bedtime rolled around, we thought we were done with the rain. K3 had retired to his tent where it was surprisingly dry. We'd told him he could sleep in the camper if the rain got too bad. I don't think fifteen minutes went by before heavy rain started and he made his way over. I dodged the drops to check out his tent and make sure his sleeping bag was away from the sides and to stow his clothes in the truck. It's no wonder he didn't hang out in his tent, the rain was deafening inside. He was lucky though, the spot he picked was like an island by the time the rain stopped, (which wasn't until the next morning) and his tent stayed dry.

So, no, those aren't orbs in the picture. They're rain drops. I was trying to catch a picture of how the rain was falling on the creek, but my poor old camera isn't capable of that. Apparently.

That's all for now.

Behave!

A Funny!

It cracks me up!!
(And yes, I'm procrastinating!)
Behave!

What's That?

Believe it or not, we were really looking at something. Or at least trying to. B was sure he saw a young deer drinking from the creek downstream. Of course, my cell phone rang and spooked it, but we were pretty sure it was still in a patch of woods not too far in from what we could see. Besides that brief sighting, the odor of skunk, ducks, and some egrets, we didn't see a lot of wildlife this time. Oh, I did see some baby pilated woodpeckers. They were in that tree right behind B's head. Eww. Though babies are more tolerable that the full-sized creepiness of the adults.

There was an interesting situation caused by...something....we're not sure. Shortly after we went to bed Friday night, we heard a loud crack. With the way the nuts fall out of the trees, we weren't too concerned about it even though the noise was much louder than normal. Saturday morning, my sister went to take their Jeep to the house and found the entire back windshield shattered. You couldn't tell from the outside. Highly doubtful the breakage was caused by a nut, so here are the theories: A deer ran into it, aliens, jealousy over the new car they just bought, or the fact that my bro showed up later with his sling shot and the window figured it'd break itself before he could do it. We did a whole crime scene investigation thing, but couldn't figure out what happened.

That's all for today...maybe...

Behave!

A Room With A View

The view from the camper.

This was taken Wednesday morning. It's hard to tell, but the creek was very clear. I know it looks muddy in the picture, but it really wasn't - you could see pretty much every rock and even watch fish meander around.

My night alone with the younger K's? Actually, it went just fine. B left later than he intended, but not before telling me how brave he thought I was and making scared faces at every sound. Goofball. I wrote for a while, and as I was drifting off to sleep, K1 texted me. I spent the next while in a text conversation with him, so by the time we were done, I slept very well.

With the way things were going when we were setting up the camper, I wasn't so sure it would be an easy night. I broke my coffee pot - shattered it all over the camper floor between my feet. We parked the camper in a patch of poison ivy, so I had to pull that out as soon as possible. Luckily, I keep a pair of gloves in the camper for such occasions, and I normally don't get poison. We'll see if that holds true - I hiked through a rather large patch on Thursday because it was better than the alternative path over slimy rocks in the creek. I'm not just talking tiny slippery rocks, but huge boulder-sized ones with the potential for ankle breaking or other serious bodily harm should you happen to slide the right way and get your foot wedged between them. I wanted to take the camera on that particular adventure, but it was good B talked me out of it since I ended up on my butt in the creek more times than I care to count. Plus, I caught zero fish. But even with my slimy rock anxiety and my sister's spastic dog, our hike was a really good time.

The whole time away was really good - even with torrential rain, an overactive, insane moth population, a tick on my butt, and a Dobson fly inside the camper. (I'll show you a picture of a Dobson fly. They're disgusting, evil flying insects.)

More tomorrow!

Behave!

Into the Wilds

If the posts come up the way they're supposed to, it's Sunday and I've been away since Tuesday night.
Away into the wilds.
Though by now, I'm probably home soaking in a hot tub and have no energy to even contemplate catching up on the electronic world. Which is reason number one for scheduling this post when I don't really have to. Reason two is that the only reason we came home early is because we have stuff to do tonight that we couldn't reschedule.
Through the coming week I'll most likely have pictures and stories of our extended time camping. Especially possibly from Tuesday night when the younger K's and I spent the night alone in the meadow. As I write this, that hasn't happened yet. Sometimes the meadow can be spooky in the middle of the night with no one else around. But, I'll have my puppy and be secure in the camper, but maybe I'll have a good story to tell you about it. Then again, I could fall asleep immediately and sleep the whole night without nary a episode.
I'll let you know soon.
Anyway. As I write this on Tuesday I can only tell you how much I'm looking forward to the very long weekend. It's as close to vacation as we get this year and if we can't go to the beach, the meadow's the next best place.
Behave!

Memories...

Behave!

Happy 4th of July!

Enjoy the day doing whatever makes you happy!
But don't forget to thank a soldier for your independence!
Behave!

Thursday!

Another list:
Ten ways to show love to your mother:
1. Say "What?" every single time she says something. You can do this numerous times because Mom's love to repeat themselves.
2. Then say "Really?" immediately following her repeat.
3. When being asked why you haven't done what your mother asked, say "I didn't hear you."
4. Don't turn off the lights in any room you exit. Make several trips through the house and turn the lights on - even duing the day. Then blink like you're innocent when asked why you didn't turn the lights off. It's a sure sign to show her how much you care.
5. Leave your dishes wherever you are when finishing whatever it is you're eating - bedroom, bathroom, outside - the possibilities are endless. And no matter what she says, your mom loves your dish treasure hunt.
6. Occasionally allow the water in the bathroom/kitchen sink to trickle when you're done washing. Mom's love that.
7. Ask what's for dinner repeatedly regardless of if you've already been given an answer. Ask about the following night while eating the current night's dinner. Don't take "I don't know" for an answer. Because your Mom is only ever thinking of cooking for you.
8. Make frequent trips to check out the contents of the refrigerator and pantry even though nothing is different inside. Ask why there's nothing to eat often. See number 7 - food = love.
9. Argue about taking a bath even though you know you're filthy and stinky. It makes your mom feel important to make sure you're clean.
10. Leave a trail of destruction behind you wherever you go. Snack wrappers, clothing, toys, trash - again, the possibilities are endless. Mom's absolutely love this. It's positive proof you care.
:)
What? Yes. It's a heavy dose of sarcasm. It's how I cope.
Behave!!

Dogs!

It's what they do!
Behave!

Wow!

Yeah. I'm doing it again...
Wondering what happened to last month.
But...seriously?
July already?
It's crazy in a where the heck has summer gone so far kind of way. June was quick - it slipped by without having much attention paid to it. The next thing you know, school supplies will be stocked on store shelves - if they aren't already. I'm looking at the next four/five weeks in utter amazement at what's going on. Every week there's a camp thing, and every weekend an obligation. Which tells you that on August 1st, I'll be saying the same thing. Expect it. Live for it. 'Cause you know you can't wait. :)
We've got a lot going on this week, so posts may be spotty over the next few days. I'm already running behind schedule for today, and I imagine that trend will continue since the younger K's don't seem to be willing to offer much cooperation even though the end result is a good one. It's already noon and K3's still in his jammies though I've asked him to get dressed three times so far.
Behave!