At the River

We love the river. We so love the river. We love the people who are here at the river with us too, which are the neighbors and friends we have me at our campground. We just finished up at the potluck dinner where everyone brings a dish and the campground provides music (tonight from an ipod hooked to the sound system), BBQ sandwiches, and beer. VERY NICE. We brought steamed veggies and there was everything from lazagne to mac and cheese to apple sauce and strawberry shortcake! YUM. So we arrive and it is so nice to here 'hey Sears family, what did you bring?' and we sat with our friends here. They are the nicest four other couples who are always here and all are the age of our parents. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but just saying of all the people we have met in the past year we connect with the older folks. Everyone else came and left in 45 minutes time but we all sat a talked and talked and one of the ladies asked Nicholas if he wanted to play catch with her and she and him walked over to the clearing and threw the baseball around a bit. What nice people!!

This morning was the craft show and there were seven other vendors besides myself and Allie who sold her girl scout cookies. She did well (Allie) and sold most all of them. However it was hard for her to sit in one place for four hours. So to reward herself she bought herself a new pair of fancy flipflops from one of the ladies here. They are fuzzy on the strap made with fun fur. They are purple!

I did well for a slow day. There were three other ladies who were selling jewelry. One lady was a rep for a jewelry company like premier but not them. Another lady was selling sparkly bracelets and necklaces that she crochets the crystals on silk thread. Very interesting and pretty. Then another one, an older lady who is an odd duck was selling some bracelets along with her other crochet blankets, doilies, washclothes etc, that she sells. She priced hers high and I don't think she sold much at all. In the past she bugs the mess out of me at these shows because she, while she is nice, she wants to trade stuff. Well, I crochet the same things that she does and I really don't want much of anything that she has, but she wants what I have. Like last year she LOVED my zucchini pickles and she wanted three jars and she wanted to trade. Well I couldn't come up with enough stuff that I wanted from her and then I felt guilty that I couldn't trade with her so I just picked stuff and then she wanted to trade some more stuff and I had a really hard time telling her I didn't want to trade. It was horrible for my psyche if you know what I mean. Okay back to the craft show.. .....So I sold beaded bracelets, necklaces,and earrings all for $5 each. Then I had my hairbows, dog pull toys and handmade card sets and the funny pencil toppers. I sold no card sets but everything else I sold some. I think I sold 8 or so pencil toppers, 8 or 9 pieces of jewelry and 5 or so hairbows. Oh and 6 or so dog pull toys.

The next craft show is in two weeks and I want to make a bunch more bracelets and finish off what I have of the fleece for dog toys. Last year I sold dog biscuits, canned pickles, relish, and fleece blankets and scarves when it got chilly in the fall. The other ladies sell sewn projects like wine glass cozzies, jar toppers, fabric wreaths, and crocheted blankets and washcloths, booties, bonnets, etc. And the flipflops. So I am wondering what might be a big hit around here. Help me out. I need some ideas on something that would be fun to sell that everyone would want one around here.

I am so sad....

I only have four more days left of my summer vacation. I return to work on Friday, August 1. We have a teacher work day on Friday and then start up with kids on Monday. I am so sad. I am more sad because I still hate everyone that I work with and I so don't want to go back to work.

Kenneth and I were talking and mused about taking the kids out of school and traveling around homeschooling the kids in our camper for the next year and selling my hairbows in craft shows to make money (and on line of course!) Do you know how many hairbows I would have to sell to make any money??? We would have to form a good ole "sears sweatshop" kicking out hairbows by the hundreds!!! It is fun to muse though.....

Okay, so back to reality. I want to really work on my Disney album and finish that up before I go back to school and I know the kids will want to spend a bunch of time at the pool so we will be spending the next four days here at the house and down at the pool with that clock ticking ever so much faster now....

I do have to say that I have really enjoyed having our camper down at Grey's Point Campground. The kids love it and we really like getting away every weekend again. It has been a long three years since we piled in the car on Fridays and headed down to the river for the weekend. We will continue to go through the fall and I am looking forward to the quiet fall weekends down there. I hope that Nicholas will want to do some fishing in the fall and that the girls will enjoy swimming in the warm river water once the jellyfish move out of there.

They have asked me (Grey's Point) to do some crafts with the kids. Last weekend I did notecards with them and will do that again this coming weekend and then in two weeks I will be painting with the kids.

First day of vacation...

and I woke up at my usual 6:30 am!!! Not naturally, no, I had the alarm set and yes that was on purpose too! We had an 8:30 riding lesson and a 9:00 one too. This was the make up lesson for missing last Saturday's lesson. Both girls did well and Allie is already jumping. Caroline is still along for the ride but enjoys spending Allie's lesson time in the barn talking to the horses. I think that is her true calling. I can't keep her out of the barn. Today I went in there and she is talking to a horse and I asked if she wanted to see Allie jump. She came out for a minute and because Allie wasn't up first to jump Caroline went back in the barn. Allie called to her, "Aren't you going to watch me jump?" Caroline said, "No!" and skirted back in the barn. I had to come get her when we were ready to go.

Yesterday at the end of Horse Riding Camp the girls got to pick a "prize" from a basket when the went up to get their certificates. Caroline chose the riding crop and Allie got really mad at her because Allie wanted it. Well Caroline chose it and Allie couldn't get over her jealousy. By the time I got to mom's house to pick the girls up for speech, two hours later. Allie had convinced Caroline to trade prizes with her. But there was incentive. Allie promised Caroline that she would buy her 50 Webkinz for her birthday next year. Yes that is what the price of this $8 crop became. An average Webkinz cost between $12 and $17 each!! Yeah, do the math. That is how jealous Allie was. I put a stop to that and gave the crop back to Caroline. We go to riding this morning and Caroline uses it first for her lesson and lets Allie borrow it for her lesson. After the lesson, Allie asks if we can buy a crop for her for her lesson tomorrow. I caved and took her to the horse shop around the corner to end this argument. $15 later we now own a beautiful purple crop that will keep Allie's hands of Carolines pretty red one! That was the best $15 I have spent in a while.

This afternoon we are off to see Wall-e in the movie theatre. It is a Disney film so it should be good. Movie review to come later!

I am so enjoying the...

sucking up that is going on at work right now. This one teacher has realized last week that I am not such a bad person. I think she is also realizing that there are other teachers who are deliberately being rude and mean to me. She is seeing this and realizing that she used to be "one of them". So the sucking up has begun. Last week she needed a ride home and she was complaining about not having a ride and I offered her one and she accepted. While we were riding home she broached the subject of the mean and caddyness (is that a word??) that has been going on. I told her that I was well aware of what they were doing and while it was frustrating on my end because they are attempting to sabatage all the nice things that I am trying to do for all the teachers (time to work in classrooms, a luncheon that never ended up happening because everyone protested, etc.) that I am not going to play their game and succumb to their tactics. I don't play. I work and use the rules that are set in place previous to me coming into this position. I try to follow the rules and expect everyone else to work hard and follow the rules too. If they want to sabbatage the nice things then so be it, I just won't do nice things anymore. She agreed with me and has been more chatty recently and has come to vent some frustrations of her own. I don't talk bad about any particular person and will from time to time make comments like, "I don't understand how we can't be mature individuals and work nicely together", or "sometimes people need to belittle others to make themselves feel better", or "the faculty is a unique group who while we all do our jobs very well have difficulty coming together as a group and enjoying the differences of each other rather that being critical to them". You know stuff like that. Lel, see your workplace isn't the only place that is disfunctional!!

Everyone else have done a great job of ignoring me blatently to my face and by avoiding exposure to me. I must have leprocy or something contagious. All I can say is that I have two and a half days left and am counting down the hours, well class periods left. For the count, that makes 18!!

On a good note, we had a great weekend and I can't wait to get back down to the river. For those friends who don't know, we rented a seasonal space at the campground just down from my parents house. Their house is a bit small for us to be invading their space every weekend and this way we will have our own space to hang out. Plus it has a super cool pool!!

Here is our little slice of heaven...

And this is another shot so you can see our whole spot.

And another angle:

And now meet the neighbors!!

They are the Bennetts and they are from the Richmond area too (Highland Springs) and they LOVE to sit on their back deck and stare at us. Our family will most likely become their summer entertainment this year. Can't wait!! It seemed like everytime we came back to our trailer they would come out and sit on their deck and watch us. Do you know how hard it is to read a book while being stared at. Kenneth said that we need to plant some Leeland Cyprus trees right there in front of their deck on our side of the line so they can't see us directly. He said he felt like he was in a fishbowl. I say that they won't be coming down as much once we are there an entire weekend without three loud kids. We will ruin their peace and quiet and they will find it not as enjoyable. OR they will move to the front deck on the other side. Whichever is fine with me.

The neighbors adjacent to us in the second picture up where you see the back of another unit, apparently never come down. They (according to the Bennetts) bought the place last year and have spent one night here. They don't expect to see them at all this summer as they weren't there at all last summer.

Everyone else we have seen have waved or said hello but not introduced themselves to us or come up to talk. We weren't around much last weekend but I intend to do some "friendmaking" this weekend while down. I will also take some pictures of other people's places. Most are "park model" trailers and look much more perminent than ours but in the next coming weeks we will be making some improvements to our space so it will feel a bit more homey.

Summer Camps

It is way past time to begin thinking of summer camps, however, I have just begun to think about it for the kids. I am not sure why I wasn't on top of things a few months ago but I have found that this summer the registration for camps have been slow around here which is in my favor.

So far here is the run down:

Son, sailing camp and then a craft camp maybe and a sailing camp revisit at the end of summer, reading tutoring all summer.
Daughter #1, horseback riding camp and craft camp
Daughter #2, bug camp, craft camp, and maybe horseback riding.

They will all be swimming on the swim team for our pool as well. We have opted out of the summer enrichment program at the school this year. It just seemed like too much and I didn't see any real benefit from it in the past couple years.

Did you notice the horseback riding? Yes, daughter #1 has been saying she wants to take lessons so my mother, bless her, took her up to check out the stables. Now this is the daughter who doesn't like dogs or other animals much. Before I signed her up for this expensive camp I wanted her to look at a live horse face to face, eye to eye and see a real horse. So my mother took her to the stables yesterday and daughter #1 was a bit timid (if that is the right word) with the oldest horse out there and while she touched the horse she used her sister's hand to pet it. Yes it was like hand over hand petting. Daughter #2 isn't scared. In fact she is mad because you have to be six to start lessons. Because of this timidness with the horse it was suggested that she start lessons right away and not wait until summer. So they signed her up for private lessons starting Saturday! No time like the present, right?

"What I did this summer"

Tomorrow is my last day of freedom before I return to ... jail. Well, not jail for me but I work there. I teach at our county juvenile detention center, aka, juvenile jail. We return to work a month earlier than "regular" teachers and we work the entire month of June whereas other schools get out the first or second week in June. So tomorrow is my last day of summer vacation.

If I were to have written an essay, entitled, "what did I do this summer". I would be hard pressed to come up with anything interesting. So let's see.

Things I did this summer:
1. Went to the pool with the kids, almost everyday.
2. Got up early and drove kids to and from various camps everyday all summer break.
3. Went to the movies and saw, Rattatouille and Over the Hedge.
4. Went to Talbots twice and bought $650 worth of clothes on huge clearance. (clothes for me and all three of my kids)
5. Went to the Smithsonian Institute Natural History Museum. Rode the Metro in to DC from Springfield. Yes, on the way out of town I stopped by the Talbots Outlet Store and bought some great buys there too!!
6. Knitted half of a sweater, crocheted 4 potholders, and a doily.
7. Made a scrapbook for my mother with all her old pictures.
8. Participated in the neighborhood 4th of July parade which ended at and involved a day at the pool.
9. Harvested copious amounts of squash, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. from our garden. Pulled weeds, planted and sprayed for pests.
10. Canned and cooked a lot!!
11. Did considerable amounts of laundry.

12. Installed a new vanity in our downstairs bathroom. (Well my husband installed it, I just stood there and looked pretty!)

13. Oh yeah, I read five books too!!

I can't think of anything else. My boss asked us to all bring pictures of what we did this summer when we return. I think I am just going to refer them to my blog.

Up and Running...

I am up and running on scanning in old slides. This one is from the Crisfield Crab Festival in 1971. It is a yearly festival in Crisfield, Maryland. We used to go most every year. Crabs are big in our family. From when I can remember summer meant being at the shore with my grandparents and crabs. Catching crabs in traps, moving the crabs to the live box, my grandmother getting in the water with a big basket and getting the crabs out of the livebox, and steaming and eating the crabs. Summer life revolved around crabs. We steamed them and ate them. My grandmother made "She Crab Soup" which was a vegetable soup with big pieces of crab in them. No not crab meat but chunked crabs. You ate the soup until you found a claw or a piece of crab, shell and all and pick it out and suck the crab meat out of the shells or pick the meat like you would steamed crabs. We had crab salad, like ham salad or chicken salad. We had crab cakes and fried soft crabs. And on and on. We all loved being at the shore. The house was on the water, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. We would take the boat out and fish. We would fish off the dock. We would swim and swim and swim. We would jump off the dock and swim around to the shore or to the ladder and climb back. We would jump off the dock and swim down three more docks to my other grandparent's home. I was lucky because both my grandparents summer homes were just down from the other. My cousins would come and we would swim.

Back to Crisfield. At the festival there were many events including a crab cooking contest, pig catching contests, crab picking contests and the highlight-crab races! You would buy a crab (live of course) and they would paint a number on it and enter it in the races. Then they would race the crabs down a specially designed track. The fastest crab wins. All crabs get cooked at the end or you can take your crab home with you. We would take ours home and cook him there.

In 1971, as a child of only one year, my crab came in 99th!! My father's came in 83rd.

The crab picking contest was also fun to watch. The contestants were usually the women who picked crabs for a living right there in Crisfield. They worked in the factories and did this day in and day out. They can pick some crabs!

Summer Reading

Today is the first day of my summer vacation. I am excited that I have my 5 weeks off until we start back up August 1st, but I also feel the end of my summer is very near. I want to have accomplished something and am not sure what yet.

Anyway, I have just begun my summer reading list. It is chosen by me and they are all books I have been wanting to read for a while. The first book I am very excited about because I had read an article in our local newspaper about it about a month ago and the book just came out last week. I hunted for a while in the local bookstores with no success until someone was nice enough to tell me that it hadn't come out yet. So I ordered it from Barnes and Noble and low and behold it arrived on my doorstep yesterday! Perfect timing.

The book is See you in A Hundred Years, by Logan Ward. It is about his wife and 2 year old child. They are frustrated with the pace of life in New York and they decide to sell their apartment and buy an old farm house and land in the mountains of Virginia. This is a true story. They not only buy this property but they decide that they will farm it and live like people did in 1900, without electricity, cars, TV, refridgerator, and washing machine. They get the idea from the PBS shows Frontier House, Colonial House, etc. They decide to do this for a year. So far I am about 50 pages into it and laying in bed last night reading it I was laughing so hard I was crying! It is an easy read and with the kids behaving I should have it done by the weekend.

Also on the list is a trilogy of books by Debbie Macomber. The first is The Shop on Blossom Street. It was also a hard find in the bookstores so I ordered it too and it came in the box with the Ward book yesterday. The second in the series is A Good Yarn, and the third is Back on Blossom Street. They are girl books, about women and their friendships and bits of romance intertwined. I anticipate them being read by the middle of July. Then I have a Nelson DeMille Book, Wild Fire, that I have not read yet and can't right now remember the title but it is his newest one. Kenneth gave it to me for Christmas but I haven't read it yet.

Has anyone read a good book recently that should be on my list? Got a classic suggestion? Let me hear 'em...

The Longest Week

This has felt like the longest week. It is finally Friday. Whew! I made it. This morning I was commenting to a fellow teacher as we both dragged in late that even with an inservice day on Monday it has felt like a terribly long week. She too agreed and also added that she was glad that the bus came to pick up 4 kids to take them to prison yesterday. When that happens it makes the next day a bit nicer because those who are usually picked up are the ones that cause trouble during the days just before the pick up day. Are you following me? So today did feel a bit better but looking back it feels like last weekend was forever ago.

Another teacher also commented on it and our principal agreed as well.

Let's think for a minute, yes, 6 1/2 weeks to go before we are off for "summer break", if you can call it that. We work an extended year so our summer is only the month of July. Then the 1st of August we are back with our little jailbirds again. This year we get exactly 5 weeks to the day for summer break. I guard those weeks with all I have. This summer two of my three are going to summer school in the mornings and the afternoons are filled with time at the pool. I don't think we will get to the beach but I do plan on taking some long weekends camping. We have this trailer that we don't use enough. Anyone know any good fun places to camp in the VA, MD, NC, WV area? Tell me about them...