Almost Ready

The kids go back to school on Monday....

I think we are ready...we have met their teachers (Davis' is Mrs. Havens - my maiden name - which is very cool and she is also AWESOME)...school supplies are neatly tucked in their new backpacks (courtesy of Grandma and Papa)...clothes are picked out...new school shoes are awaiting their turn to climb the stairs of the bus.

I am really excited that they will be back in school. It does mean we have to get back to a schedule and deal with homework. But I find the kids quickly get bored and start acting crazy.

I will update on Monday with the "1st day" pictures. I dreamed last night that they headed off on the bus and I suddenly remembered that I hadn't taken pictures. I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world...one time on the way to the bus after taking the pictures I accidentally deleted the pictures I just took. We simply redid them the next morning!!

We are looking forward to the last day of "summer" tomorrow.

The close of a chapter

Over 7 years ago we bought a small camping trailer brand new...right off the lot (actually we had one ordered so we could get the fabric we wanted).

We have loved this camper and have had many good times in it.

We called it "Tommy" (Hannah's)..."Lil" (Pete's)...and "Willy" (mine) each time we drove by it where we had it stored.

Due to our current "economic state", we decided it was time to sell our beloved trailer.

So, yesterday Pete listed it on Craig's List at about 11 am. We had not done anything to prepare the trailer...to clean it up...take anything out. We imagined it would take awhile for it to sell and we could bring it home this weekend to get it ready.

Boy were we wrong....it was sold for our asking price within a couple of hours. Pete brought it home and started the process of cleaning it out. I stopped by the store on the way home to get some storage bins and started helping when I got home. I cried....it was sad. However, there is also a sense of relief. We couldn't really afford to go camping right now and we still had to pay to store it. We had really outgrown it in some ways too...we were only a family of 4 when we got it. Maybe we can get an end of the year deal on a tent so we can still have some camping fun.

We delivered it to the family that bought it and was greeted by a very excited almost 3 year old little boy who jumped up and down saying "we have a camper, we have a camper". They were so excited about it.

I left a note to the family wishing them as much joy as we have had in the trailer. I also did a little note inside a cabinet with a Sharpie that states that "The Yost family loved "Tommy", "Lil", "Willy" from 3/03 to 7/10".

It was much easier to leave it than I thought it was going to be. I was so proud to be able to show them the rails and the ladder my dad made and was even more proud when I heard my husband recommend winterizing the trailer (don't fall over Mom and Dad) and him showing him the bypass that my dad installed to help with the process.

We will miss that trailer...but know that it will be loved by the family that bought it. I also know that I can make the mortgage and pay for the kid's sports this fall.

Bye Willy....thanks for fun!!!

***The ad actually helped us connect with an old friend that would never return Pete's calls - cause he is a slacker :). As we were getting the trailer ready, Pete got ANOTHER call about the trailer....or so we thought. The guy says "I hear you have a crappy trailer to sell...I bet it is really a piece of crap...I bet the owner didn't take care of it and I hear he is a real jerk". Then he laughed and Pete knew exactly who it was....his friend Jay. He is actually looking for a trailer in the price range we listed it at and saw the ad. He thought it looked like ours but then knew for sure when he saw Pete's name and number. As we said goodbye to one "friend" we were reconnected with another....life goes on.***

Buffalo…Finally

We went on vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota for my family reunion (there will be another post about that).  We arrived before the reunion so we took the scenic route through Custer State Park to get to Mt. Rushmore.

The scenery is BEAUTIFUL…

 

But this in NOT what Pete was looking for…he wanted to see BUFFALO.

We were over 3 hours into our drive and about to leave the park and we had not seen a single buffalo.

Then we rounded a corner and Pete about peed his pants!!!

 

This made the long drive worth every minute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nine

In Nine Years we have gone from this...

To This

This boy has been a shining light for us and my world would be so dark without him.

Davis Alexander - nine years ago God gave me what I needed to make all the yucky parts of life not feel so yucky!! This mommy couldn't feel more blessed to have given such a wonderful gift. Happy Birthday and I look forward to spending many more birthdays with you!!!

What we learned this weekend

We went camping this weekend at a different campground than we are used to.  It was very nice, just didn’t quite feel like “ours”.

We are all exhausted tonight….both boys have been asleep for almost an hour and their summer break has started.

We learned quite a few things this weekend

I can get a new kitchen faucet and install it in our camping trailer all by myself…and it works.

The drought is definitely over here in Georgia….I am so tired of the rain!!

When you hear thunder when you are out on the lake in a boat you might want to head to the dock as quickly as possible…especially when we had a 6 year-old, 3 year-old and 18 month old on board with us.  It was a crazy pop up storm that was like the movies.  I learned that when faced with danger my family acts calmly and together.   Matt kept asking yesterday when we got back to the trailer if we were going to be alright.,,and in fact we were!!

We should close the vents when we leave the trailer so when said pop up storm arrives unexpected we don’t have a wet trailer again.

We can replace our bathroom faucet in the trailer with an inexpensive faucet from Kmart and replace it while camping. 

We need to put more towels in the trailer because lots of rain and faucet issues need them!!!!

Take two collars for Hunter so when his breaks we don’t have to head out to the store….luckily we were headed there to get the new faucet and Lisa let us borrow one of hers until we could get him a new one.

Hunter likes the water but thinks he can’t swim.  He also provided me some entertainment when he took a poo in the lake (in about 3 inches of water) and kept turning around looking for it.

Hunter is shedding his winter coat.  The below picture is of the pile of hair I got after just about 30 minutes of brushing him tonight.  Can you see his cool new red collar??

Finally, we learned it is good to stay in school or maybe just speak English.  This is the sign that was outside the nail salon we passed tonight….

Hope you had a nice holliday and learned as much as we did!!!!

Anniversary

Eight years ago today I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.  It was found during an operation to remove swollen lymph nodes with a “possible thyroid removal”.

My family spent an agonizing 2 hours waiting to hear if there was cancer and another 5 for me to get out of surgery.

I simply went to sleep with cancer and awoke without (sorta).

My heartfelt gratitude for Dr. Keith Jackson for doing everything you could to make sure this mom could birth another baby and watch them grow up.

To my family…..words are not enough to say thank you for wrapping your arms around me and keeping them there!!

To cancer…..you can still kiss my ass!!!!

Matt’s 1st field day

Today was Matt’s very first field day at school.  I didn’t get to go but Pete was able to go.  He was also lucky enough to have his Papa and Uncle John from South Dakota there.

Pete said he did really well and he seemed happy!!  Fortunately he got lots of sleep last night (he fell asleep at about 5:30 last night and stayed asleep all night) so he was well rested and ready to go.

His class took 2nd overall and from what I heard everyone had a great time.

I loved downloading the pictures tonight….it was as close as I could get to being there!!

I Guess Matt got the camera, but he took a great picture of Pete.

The quality of this photo isn’t great, but it is a great shot of Matt doing a great job at dribbling. 

  I love this picture of Matt catching the water balloon from his teacher because  I can see my dad and uncle watching with my dad smoothing his mustache like his known to do.

Hopefully next year I will have a full time job with vacation so I can see my boys at their next field day.

I want to thank my dad for going to Davis’ field day on Monday because Pete and I could not.  I know how much Dave loved to have his Papa there!!!  His class didn’t do quite as well, but Davis didn’t seem to mind!!