Camping with a Bottle Snob

You might be a bottle snob if...

Your bottle temperature must be at least luke warm to be acceptable

You go camping with your family and refuse to drink your bottle because it is too cold

You wake the entire campground up at 2:00 AM because your bottle does not meet your expectations

On night #1 camping, your mom has to warm up water on a propane stove in the middle of the night before you will stop crying

On night #2 camping, your mom has to come up with a crazy plan to keep your bottle warm (ie. boil the water, put it in an insulated thermos, sleep with it, pray this plan with work)

Your family decides to forgo future camping trips until you no longer require a bottleYour mom still thinks you are just too stinkin adorable the next day and forgets about the night before Christopher's first family Camping trip. July 2010

Protected

Car crashes are not supposed to happen to me or to people I love. I think to some extent we all think this way.

However, on the day we moved into our new home, Dave was riding in the front passenger seat of this car when it met its demise. A young girl ran a red light and hit Dave and our good friend Kody, sending them spinning in a 360 around the intersection. Dave called to tell me he had been in an accident. When I asked if he was okay he said he didn't know. It was my first sign of how bad it had really been.

I don't know all the details and I really don't want to know. What I do know is that Dave and Kody are both okay. They were protected from harm despite the fact that the police officers said they've seen far less serious accidents result in death.

The car did not make it.

Strawberry Heaven

I felt sad when spring rolled around this year and there was no point in pulling out my gardening tools and searching for vegetable seeds. I knew we wouldn't be there when harvest time came around.

Imagine my delight when we moved into a house with strawberry heaven in the back yard. Nathan and I have been indulging in delicious home grown strawberries everyday since we moved here. It has become part of our daily routine to walk into the backyard and search for red fruit.It is delicious and fully makes up for the fact that I don't have my own garden.

Pets at the Kitchen Table

We don't have a pet, but now we live in this house with more space in it. And our kids think we are missing a pet.

While sitting around our new kitchen table eating Dave's german pancakes for breakfast our children discussed pets...the kinds of pets they think we should have.

"Hamsters", Emma says. They are best in a cute pink hamster house like the neighbors down the street. I scrunched up my nose at that suggestion because hamsters are mouse-like and dirty little creatures.

"What I really want is a horse," adds Emma. "I have always wished for a horse."

"Elephants!!!", screams Nate as he jumps up excitedly from the seat across from mine.

Suddenly hamsters sound cute and adorable. Dave thinks that was all part of their subtle plan to get us to agree to a pet hamster.

*Picture taken at snack time today.