Camp Kulaqua & Yard Sale Fun

Last weekend we were at Camp Kulaqua for church retreat, hence my lack of a post (hey, at least I have a good excuse).  Since we now have retreat for Adventurers at Camp Kulaqua we were there in October so this trip marked out third time in the last calendar year.  The kids love it so it's all good. That wasn't meant to imply that we adults don't love it.  That being said, I was still feeling pretty crummy at the end of the week and thought about just sending Duncan up with the kids but I knew that would go over like a lead balloon.  So I pressed on like we mothers tend to do.

We go up after Duncan gets out of work on Friday and congregate at a local diner for supper (it's about a two hour drive to camp).  The first year we "discovered" this diner, there were only three families.  This year there were like ten and I think we may have officially overdone our welcome with the massive amount of kids.  It may be on to Plan B.

Our lodging arrangement was the same as usual - - us, Bergherms, and Isidros in the mini-lodge. No sooner did we start getting settled in then a loud noise deafened our ears.  Turns out that one Colby Cabot Grodack had pulled the red fire alarm lever as he walked down the stairs.  To be fair, it was exactly at his level and he had no idea what it was so why WOULDN'T he pull it?  He's two!!  Of course, the poor thing started crying and kept asking if he was in trouble.  Gave me an excuse to cuddle and give him a million kisses.  There was a sign next to the alarm saying there was a $50 fine if the alarm was accidentally pulled so then the girls got all worried we would have to pay. Bruce tracked down a maintenance person for us and after about ten minutes of listening to the horrifyingly loud ringing, the guy came and turned it off for us.  We questioned him about the placement of the alarm and he said they pretty much had to do that because of handicap requirements.  Makes sense I suppose.  And no, he did not charge us $50.  I told the girls he wouldn't make us pay on Sabbath!

Resetting the alarm that Colby pulled.

That was out first snafu upon arriving.  The second was Brady's bike pedals.  Due to a series of events where one of Brady's bike pedals broke, and then the back up pedals were put on a bike we ended up donating, Brady needed a new set of pedals.  Duncan bought some for him a few days before we left for camp but never put them on the bike. Once we were there and he went to put them on, oops, they were too big. So now Brady only had the one pedal. It was Sabbath and there wasn't even a convenient place to go get some after Sabbath.  Major fail because Camp Kulaqua is all about the bike riding.  Fortunately Duncan was able to jimmy rig a pedal by borrowing an Allen wrench - - from Allen - - and securing it with some hair ties.  Voila!  It worked.  Crisis averted.

We had a nice Sabbath at camp despite my horrible night sleep on Friday night.  Colby was back to his old tricks by sleeping with me - - pulling my hair, lying on top of me, generally being a major nuisance the whole night.  I put the kibosh on that on Saturday night by having Duncan sleep with me (instead of the single bed) so that he could give Colby a stern look if he awoke during the night and wanted to come in my bed.  It ended up not being necessary fortunately.

Hanging out on Johnny's lap watching the program.

A guy named Mr. Doodad did Sabbath School. He talked about health and how our bodies are temples of God.  Unfortunately he talked about the sugar content of Mountain Dew and when he asked if anyone's parents drank it, Calleigh was quick to wave her hand wildly in the air.

Calleigh, Braelyn, and Marley 

I felt like I was in Copenhagen. 

I get asked almost every day if these two are twins.  Because, yes, they are so similar in size.  I joke. About the size, not about getting asked that.

Calleigh is always happy to get to hold London.

Checking out the tiger. 

Waiting for Sabbath supper potluck.

I think someone invented the S'mores to cover up the horrible taste of a marshmallow.  Didn't work.

After sunset, it was to the gym for some fun and games.

On Sunday morning, the kids found a baby bird sitting in the street.  We were worried the mom would never find it or reject it but are happy to report that this story has a happy ending.  They put the bird near where they found it and the mom came for it. 

Mini Lodge # 7 

Couldn't leave without doing the blob.

Over the weekend, Aubree lost her second tooth which had been hanging around "by a thread" for the last four weeks, at least.  The adult tooth was already half in.  Every night as I brushed her teeth, I kept fantasizing about "accidentally" hitting it with the toothbrush just to be done with it.  But I resisted.  While we were at camp, Duncan took on the tooth brushing duties and suddenly Aubree comes running over to me, with her hand cupped under her bleeding mouth.  "Daddy accidentally hit into my tooth," she cries.  She was upset for a minute or two and then calmed down and was glad it was out.  I took a look at Duncan and he gave me a wink.  That's what I thought.

Going back to two weeks ago, Sunday the 17th was the big day for Calleigh.  First, she had a soccer game with Duncan.  He had gotten some free tickets to the Orlando City (the professional team in town) game versus the New England Revolution.  As luck would have it, it was Calleigh's turn to get to do something with one of us so it worked out perfectly (if one can even use the word "perfect" at all in association with having to watch a soccer game).  She was quite torn on whether to root for the Revolution, since they are obviously from NE like the Patriots and have the same owner or if she should go for the home town team.  I told her to go for the home team which she ended up doing and scored a new hat in the process.  The thing that was perfect was that she had her brain MRI scheduled for 7:00 pm not far from the soccer stadium so they could zip over from the game to the appointment. They ended up only staying for the first half but according to Duncan, it FELT like a whole game. Wouldn't have mattered anyway because it ended in that exciting phenomenon known as a tie (2-2), which as my Dad would say "Is as bad as kissing your sister."

As Calleigh reported it, the MRI went fine.  It wasn't a big deal to lie there other than the fact that it was really boring.  When Duncan retold the story after she went to bed, it turns out she had left out the dramatic part where they tried to stick a needle in her arm to do a second MRI with contrast and she went screaming and running out of the room. Fortunately, that had been right at the end and all had gone well before that point. They decided they didn't need the contrast so she was off the hook. I'm afraid my girl is just like me with the needles although I am pleased to say I outgrew the fear once I started having kids.

Because they had showed Calleigh the pictures after it was done, we figured they didn't see anything particularly alarming so it wasn't too difficult to wait all the way until Friday to get the results.  The nurse called Friday morning to report they didn't see any tumors or anything else out of the ordinary. It was still good to hear that though. The doctor recommended seeing a GI doctor as our next step so I need to schedule that. Meanwhile, we have now been four weeks since the last vomiting episode so that's good news at least after the very short stretches recently.

Also last week, we had visitors at our house from Sunday to Wednesday.  My cousin Shannon and husband Sean, kids Finley(4), Griffen(2), and Hudson (6 months) came to visit after their cruise. Shannon, of course, lived here in 2008ish but hadn't been back to the Orlando area since moving back up north.  She was the last of the cousins to see our "new" house.  As much as I enjoyed having them here, I'm afraid I wasn't very good company.  On the Monday, I came down with a fever of 102 and took to my bed from the afternoon through the rest of the day.  Shannon ended up making supper on both Monday and Tuesday nights so I think maybe it was providential she was here.  The kids loved having their (second) cousins here and Brady and Finley had a marvelous time especially playing outside.  Brady cracked me up because he would look to see where Finley was and he'd ask me, "Have you seen that girl?" We also discovered or rediscovered that Griffen loves cars just as much as Colby so the two of them were like two peas in a pod.  And then Calleigh and Aubree couldn't stop doting on Hudson.  A nice time was had by all (Well, except me who felt like junk).

How 2-year olds play.  Next to each other but not necessarily "with" each other.

On the Monday that I didn't feel good, Brady threw up twice.  But after a quick nap at 11:00 AM, he was back to normal.  Thankfully nobody else got anything...whatever it was.

Being silly. 

Thank goodness for Shan! 

On Tuesday, our microwave/convection oven stopped working.  It went completely dead as in it appeared there was no power.  Duncan and Sean tried to fix it but to no avail.  We had to have the GE repairman come.  Ended up costing $248 but I would have paid a lot more to have a microwave working again.  It is SO hard not to have one.  I had to make my tea the old fashioned way by boiling water on the stove.  Who has time for that??

This week we also had some company in the form of Shawn.  He arrived on Monday to attend a church planting event called Exponential, taking place at the First Baptist Church in Orlando.  He is starting a new church in his hometown of Bangor, Maine, hence his interest.  His time was short here as he left on Thursday but I enjoyed the few days together.  He is someone you can have deep conversations with and I often consider him to be my moral compass here on earth and can't help feel a little bit closer to Jesus after being around him.  I know I complain about not having a sister but honestly, I think my brothers make up for the lack of one (mostly!).  His new book also just came out, "There's More to Jesus" available on Amazon (Kindle) and soon at your ABC.  Buy yours today!

The girls got him to play the Geography game with them which involves identifying the most countries on a particular continent - - in this case, Africa.  Calleigh beat him by one.

On Wednesday morning, the kids and I took a field trip right around the corner to Lake Meadows Naturals Farm with one of our groups.  This place was only about five minutes down the road but I had never heard of it.  They have a farm full of animals, a big garden, a store, and 5,000 chickens.  Our tour consisted of about a dozen moms and their young children and then about ten other adults and kids that somehow ended up on our tour.  You could say it started off on a very strange foot.  Our first stop was the turkey pen where our tour guide (a 50ish woman) pointed out the one male and several females.  She says, loudly, "We used to have another male but he grew to be 43 pounds and was too heavy to mount any of the females.  He did make a good turkey salad though." Mount?? Mercy.  Know your audience lady! Nothing questionable happened after that though thankfully.  We ended the tour with a visit through their store which had all kind of neat "natural" products.  I promised to come back when it was less crowded and we had more time. While we were on the tour, I saw a mom I hadn't seen before.  She had a toddler and a son about the age of the girls. All the other kids on the tour were babies or toddlers so this boy made a beeline to Calleigh and said "Hello. What's your name? I'm Aden."  Right away I noticed that he was terribly cross eyed.  I saw Calleigh kind of looking but she didn't miss a beat and started talking to him.  He was very friendly and well spoken (he was seven) and it looks like we made a new friend.  Later that day, his mom sent me a message (though Meetup which we use for the group) and said "Your daughter was very sweet to and nice to my son.  He said 'She is so cool and she didn't ask me what was wrong with my eyes.  I want to be her friend.'" It was a proud Mom moment.

This picture cracks me up because it looks like Colby and the goat are kissing.

They found a kitten in the garden and the kids were all enamored and starting begging to get one. 

Found some kohlrabi which we enjoyed last year in Nova Scotia.

When I saw this house on the farm overlooking a big green pasture with no other houses in sight, my heart started to yearn.  They even had big band music playing on a loud speaker.

Lots and lots of chickens.

The kids got to help pack the eggs.  It was neat seeing how an automated system sorts the eggs by medium, large, and jumbo based on the weight of the egg.

Straight from there it was on to the dentist for the kids.  They are taking after their parents (who didn't get a cavity - - and then only one - - until their 20's) as far as cavities and are still cavity free.  The exciting thing was getting to add Colby to the appointment on the next go round since he will be three.  All four will get to go at the same time which is very convenient.  

Friday was our big yard sale day.  Not to go to yard sales but to have one.  The girls have been bugging me to have another one ever since the last one we had at our house 1.5 years ago.  But, I decided we needed to do things differently.  Our community has a sale twice a year but we just don't get enough traffic here on a Sunday to really make it worthwhile.  The solution was to have a sale at Ron and Elaine's since we could do it on a Friday and they live in a much better location.  Fortunately they went along with our plan since they had some items to sell as well.  We went over on Thursday evening to set up everything on tables in the garage (Ron and Elaine took several loads of our stuff in their van when they would visit in the weeks prior) so that Friday morning it would be much easier to set up - - just pull the tables out.  I had a lot of clothes left from the consignment sale and then I also had cleaned out my clothes from the closet along with a bunch of other items.  The kids and I arrived at their house at 7:30 and the sale started at 8:00.  It went great!  I have always loved selling things and handling money so it was right up my alley.  The biggest seller was my clothes and when all was said and done (at 1:00), my total was $200.  Ron and Elaine made much more with some big ticket items so we concluded it was well worth it.  But the best part was the girls who were selling lemonade and brownies.  They had a ton of customers and made $24 (each items was $0.50).  We ran out of brownies at about 10:30 so I'm sure they would have made even more if I had made more. Something to remember for next time. All in all, it was a fun day.  The only downside was not getting to go to yard sales myself!

We told the girls they could go in the pool when they sold all the brownies.  This nice lady heard me say that and she was really sweet and bought all the rest of the brownies (like maybe six left).  She said "It's all about the kids."

Some more random pictures...

Church today.

Calleigh's new bedroom set, bedding, and curtains. 

Aubree working on her cursive and Colby working on?

Blueberries are in season!  Went picking a few Sunday's ago.

Attended a small Saturday night gathering for the twins sixth birthday. 

At art class.  Loved her project.

Loved seeing the boys cuddled up together looking at a book. See, they do look like twins, right??

In closing, one funny thing from Brady today.  We were on the way to church and I was trying to get him to repeat his memory verse.

Me: "Brady, please say your memory verse, 'Pray to Me, and I will listen to you.'"
Brady: Silence.
Me: "Brady, come on, we need to say it."
Brady: More silence.
Me: "Brady, I know you know it."
Brady: "Pray to me, Mom, and then I'll listen to you."

Very clever.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.