June Part II: What I did when I got home from summer vacation

So, I had looked around the campground at all the people that were in campers - everyone was just fine, dry and warm.... I think I'm done with tent camping. We went out on Saturday after we got back and were just going to look at campers... well here is our new camper:


This is from the brochure - the picture is just what our's looks like


Standing at the door looking back toward the bed.


Standing at the bed looking back toward the bathroom and closet but the front door.


This is the guest bed (Aubri's bed) when the kitchen table is down and the the booth is made into a bed.


This is the kitchen counter.


Kitchen from another angle.

It is just right - sleeps 3, has a bathroom, and awning and we can plug in solar panels too! We pick it up on Wednesday (just in time for the 4th) and I'll be spending my weekend loading it up from the old trailer so that we can camp in our campground this weekend. I told Bill that we need to take it to an RV park so we can plug it all in (water, sewer, electric etc) and try everything out soon. :)

So, it looks like I'll have a lot of camping gear for sale soon. I have a few friends that have already asked for a few things but once we get everthing organized - I'll put a list out of what I have to sell in case anyone is interested.

June: What I did on my summer vacation

June marks the time when we take our annual 2 week camping trip. This year was quite an adventure! We arrived on a Wednesday, set up our many EZ-Ups with tents hanging in three of them and had just gotten our tarps over the entire thing when it started to thunder and the skys got really dark. So, Aubri and I started putting all of our stuff in the tents because it won't get wet there.

As we got everything in our tents someone came by to tell us that there was a Tornado Warning - where do we go? The campground had a stone house with a basement - we should go there. I looked at Bill who then said to me "I'll be fine". Yeah - like I'm going to leave him in the camp when a tornado is raging through. We had a few words and exchanged eye contact... meanwhile, Aubri and I decide to walk up to the gate to see out across the fields at the storm. There is this beautiful tourquois color in the sky but no rotation. We stand there watching the sky for a while with some other folks when I start to see the updrafts. Then I see the rotation. Then Aubri points out the rain. A wall of water is headed our way!

We run to the stone house and get in the basement just as the rain hits. It rains hard for about 15 minutes. I wasn't worried about Bill at this point as the wind is not strong enough for a tornado. When we come back out of the basement, I can see our camp and everything looks fine. But once we get there - Bill has been sitting in the truck during the storm so no one was inside the camp to make sure the rain didn't pool in the tarps.... and pool it did! We had so much rain in such a short period of time that it had pulled the back side of the EZ-ups down. We lost one entire EZ-up and broke two more (brand new ones). We had to cut one tarp to drain the water. Everything got wet!

I was devastated! I have been camping for so long with never a drop of rain inside of a tent before... and now everything is soaked! We ended up going back into town to dry our clothes and stay in warm dry beds one more night. I returned the next day to fix our tents and replace the broken EZ-up and stayed our entire time this year. But... I decided that I was done with tent camping now.

Here is our set up this year:


Our camp from the road


Our back door


Our kitchen


Another view of our kitchen


Our common space

Renaissance Fair

We went to the Renaissance Fair on Saturday with some friends. Bill and I like to dress up for these things. We felt so out of place in Texas earlier this spring not having our gear with us (well Bill had his kilt). I felt more out of place I guess than he did. So we dressed up this time:





There were many interesting people there:




We met this pirate with a real bird on his shoulder!



And he put him on Bill’s shoulder for pictures:




Little did he know that Bill loves birds and would have loved to have had one of these!

The kids went to the fair on Sunday:



Capt’n Jack asked Aubri how old she was. When she told him 17 his response was “Take the picture quick!” LOL

Mother's day kitten

Two tired kids

We walked through the Japaneese Gardens



The kids watching the Koi

We followed that up with pizza from Pi Pizza on Delmar Blvd – it surprisingly tastes a lot like Monicals – I think I may have found my new favorite Pizza place in Missouri!

And Austen dyed me beautiful flowers for mothers day that he did himselft!

Mother's day kitten

Ok so the smash up title isn't as creative as I would like but hey - it's the best I could do. I think I posted earlier in the week on FB about how I had something going on every night this past week. I did and my weekend wasn't a lot more open! We started Saturday morning at the farmer's market which had grown exponentially since the last time I had been there. I bought my year’s supply of goat milk soap from the soap lady, saw some friends who were there selling pottery, and picked ups some nice hand lotion from another vendor.

Then we headed to get something to eat followed by a trip to Wal-Mart. Then on to my son's work at Big St. Charles Motor Sports. Big St. Charles was having a car show and Bill's a car guy at heart so we went and checked out all the hold cars (I think he drooled on a few) and we of course got to see my son and his girlfriend who also works there.

Then we went to a softball game - some of the girls from Aubri's old team were playing in a mother's day tournament. It was good to see old friends. Then we headed over to Bass Pro Shop to check out some camping gear. Now in our Bass Pro - there is always someone selling something. I usually smile and keep walking but Bill - being Bill who talks to everyone - stopped. I'm thinking at this point in time "oh now, they've gotten him!" But it turned out ok. We now have our honeymoon taken care of - paid for and everything. You see they were having a great deal on a resort package. $99 and when we get there we will get gift cards for $75 and $25 so the thing is already paid for. Now the real kicker is we were hesitant so they have us an extra $25 (which I spent already) right there in the store. Ok, it sounds too good but I checked it out before we bought and it was legit.... so I'm going to Branson for my honeymoon next September!
And the day wasn't over yet! Saturday night we went to a trivia night to benefit a no kill shelter. Of course they brought puppies and kitties for people to adopt:



No I didn’t adopt her – I already have 4 cats but she was so sweet.

Sunday morning we got up and had brunch at IHOP followed by a day at the Missouri Botanical Gardens:


We started out in the Temperate House (fancy name for greenhouse with cool stuff in it).



Then we moved on to the Climatron ( another fancy name for a tropical greenhouse)






More pics in a second post...

A busy week...

I have Weight Watchers tonight, A discussion group on Wednesday night, The symphony with Erik on Thursday night, New Moon on Friday, Trivia Night on Saturday and Mother’s day on Sunday… I think I might need Monday to rest up!

Erik is taking a music appreciation class at college as a humanity credit and he has to go hear classical music as one of his assignments. Of course he has waited until the last minute (school finals start next week!). So I agreed to go to the symphony to hear Beethoven on Thursday night with him. I like going as it’s an excuse to dress up and go listen to nice music so not really a hardship for mom.

I’m hoping that this Sunday is nice as I’ve wanted to go to the botanical gardens. They are beautiful in the spring (well, all year actually but the spring is especially wonderful I think.) And I’m going to drag as many of my kids as possible with me! LOL

This past weekend we had planned on doing some work out in the campground and getting our shower house built but the weather didn’t corporate and we ended up cancelling our helpers. We took the mule out in the woods just to see how muddy it was and how much rain we had in the wet weather creeks. Here are a few pics:


The campground is looking a little ragged.


A river runs through it...


As you can see by the track of the mule - it was a bit damp.

What we talk about when we talk about pockets

What we talk about when we talk about pockets

I so totally agree! I don't carry a purse - often. I bring it to work because it has my id in it... but really, why am I even doing that? I find that the stuff in my purse is stuff that occasionally I am glad I have but most of the time I leave home without it. I rely on pockets! And yes when I don't have pockets and Bill is with me - he carries my phone, wallet and keys. It's not fair to him or to me that designers of women's clothes cant find it a challenge to put pockets in stuff. Hey - even my Ren Fair clothes have pockets (or I shove it down my cleavage lol) So repost if you like and lets try to get more pockets into women's clothes!

Originally posted by beckyzoole at What we talk about when we talk about pockets over on LiveJournal

Originally posted by kylecassidy at What we talk about when we talk about pockets over on LiveJournal

This post is about pockets, feminism, design, autonomy and common sense. Please feel free to repost or link to it if you know people who'd benefit from the discussion.

A few weeks ago trillian_stars and I were out somewhere and she asked "Oooh, can I get a cup of coffee?" and I thought "why are you asking me? You don't need permission." But what I discovered was that her clothes had no pockets, so she had no money with her.

Mens clothes have pockets. My swimsuits have pockets. All of them do, and it's not unusual, because, what if you're swimming in the ocean and you find a fist full of pirate booty in the surf? You need somewhere to put it. Men are used to carrying stuff in their pockets, you put money there, you put car keys there. With money and car keys come power and independence. You can buy stuff, you can leave. The idea of some women's clothes not having pockets is baffling, but it's worse than that -- it's patriarchal because it makes the assumption that women will either carry a handbag, or they'll rely on men around them for money and keys and such things. (I noticed this also when Neil & Amanda were figuring out where her stuff had to go because she had no pockets.) Where do women carry tampons? Amanda wondered, In their boyfriend's pockets, Neil concluded.

I then noticed that none of trillian_stars' running clothes had pockets. Any pockets. Which is (as they always say on "Parking Wars") ridikulus. Who leaves the house with nothing? (It's not a rhetorical question, I actually can't think of anybody).

We fixed some of this by getting this runners wrist wallet from Poutfits on Etsy -- it holds money, ID, keys ... the sort of stuff you'd need. Plus you can wipe your nose on it. It solves the running-wear problem, but not the bigger problem.




Clickenzee to Embiggen!

The bigger problem is that people who design women's fashions are still designing pants and jackets that have no pockets. In fact, this jacket we got last December has ... no pockets. It's not a question of lines or shape, it's a question of autonomy.



Clickenzee to Embiggen

So I'm asking my friends who design women's clothes to consider putting pockets in them, they can be small, they can be out of the way, they can be inside the garment, but space enough to put ID, and cash and bus tokens. And maybe a phone. (And if you can design a surreptitious tampon stash, I'm sure Neil & Amanda & a lot of other people would appreciate it as well.)