I have an idea...

I've been thinking about this idea for a long time...well at least a couple of years. The one thing I don't like about tent camping is the dampness from the dew and how everything gets wet. But, I like the idea of saving money when we travel. Well, we are going to take a trip to Maine here in a couple of weeks and try camping/sleeping in our mini van! I told Dave when we get sick of sleeping in the van, we'll splurge on a motel!

About 10 years ago I bought this couch/bed thing from a couple of gay guys in the McIntire district of Zanesville. It was meant to be used in the back of a pick up truck with a cap for sleeping. Well, we've used it in the old green van at Buffalo Camp and even slept on it at Casey and Jackie's when they lived in Charleston. It's really not too bad...could be a little thicker but it beats sleeping on the ground.

So, on September 21, 2009, Dave and I are heading out for a 2 week "vagabond" van camping trip to Maine and back. I want to travel all the old 2 lane highways and really see the countryside.

Fall is my favorite time of the year and I am hoping for decent weather. I figure a little desk heater will keep us warm, the van will keep us dry and we can leave the cooking to Ronald.

So far I found a couple of places I want to make sure we see and do:
Maine Seashore and Arcadia National Park
Camping on the Battenkill River in Arlington VT
Finger Lakes regions of New York
Woodstock (did you know the Woodstock movie was where we went on our first date?)
BIG lobster dinner in one of the little seaside villages of Maine

We are leaving after Carrie's craft show at the Back Woods Fest and we'll be back before Baby Caroline's expected arrival. Casey and Jackie are holding down the "JUNK-Shun" while we are gone. Trying to decide whether I should rent a laptop...2 weeks is a long time to go without checking emails and stuff... but I wonder if we'll be able to access wireless in very many places that we are traveling though.

Casey left his Backpacker Magazines in the bathroom so I've been checking out how hikers make do. If backpackers can camp light, we can to! Did you know that a bandana could be used as a towel? It will have to be a huge bandana to dry off this body and I'm not sure why I would need a bandana...but it was useful information!!

Anyway, wish us luck and send along any suggestions..."how to or where to" that you can think of!

Happy Trails:)

Too Long....

It's been too long since I blogged...my resolution was to blog at least once a week:( Here's an quickie update of the past month:

*5oth Anniversary Celebration at Buffalo Camp

*4th of July doings (family reunion, parade, creekin' and pig pickin') at Buffalo Camp, NC

*Camp Meow Week with all the kiddos and grands

50th Anniversary Celebration went off without a hitch! I think Mom and Dad were surprised with their golf cart and we had a great time sharing the memory DVD that Ken made with them. Kinda sad not having Big Mike there but I know he was there in spirit. I swore I saw him sittin' in the corner, laughing the way he did with his shoulders shakin' and drinkin' a beer! The clubhouse looked terrific and Vicki's food was delicious as always!

4th of July parade was lots of fun...Mom and Dad led the way in their very decorated golf cart. The kids loved getting to ride on the back!Decided to go creekin' after the parade but it didn't go quite as planned. Suppose to meet Ken and his girls but got lost several times so they gave up on us:) We did get to go creekin' and hiking though so all was not lost....next year we'll have to plan better!! I thought for SURE I knew exactly where it was!!! The pig pickin' was delicious and it was fun to watch everyone dance and have fun. It was Sunday and time to go home too soon. At least it was raining...made it easier to leave everyone. This year April, Belinda and Stephen all joined us...hoping April's gang and Nikki get to join us too next year.

Camp Meow was awesome this year! Even the big kids were in on the fun! Oh...and the dog cousins (Phoenix and Cinderella) and cat cousins (Jade, Cami, Sheba and Colonel) came too! We started off with Hunter's 7th birthday party, then Andrea's baby shower for Kason, Monday was Tuscora Park in New Philadelphia OH. Cannon loved the train and the roller coaster! Sidney and Catie were pretty excited to ride the Ferris Wheel too. Bradley, Michael and Casey were pretty competivitive in the batting cages!! We all played Putt Putt, feed the Ducks and swam in the pool. Catie insisted on a picnic so Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches were enjoyed by all!

I think my favorite time was the Campfire. I loved hearing everyones secrets and dreams as we share questions and answers around the campfire. Having all my kiddos and grands together in one place was VERY SPECIAL!

Tuesday was the Dresden Pool, Blitz for Games and Pizza and jeepin' with Papaw for ice cream.

Wednesday Billy and Carrie took the kids to Canton to the McKinley Museum. They love slidding down the old time fire pole and Cannon can't get enough of their Thomas Train display! Dave and I had to take the day off to attent a funeral for his Step brother, Jerry in Marietta.

We worked on Camp Meow scrapbooks all week for our Camp Craft this year...they turned out so cute! Sidney came up with some very original ideas. Aunt Jackie helped a LOT with the scrapbooking.

Thursday was COSI day and lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse. Unfortunately Scottie Valentine doesn't work there anymore (the kids favorite waiter from last year...they still talk about him!) but COSI was fun and the girls were able to sneak off for some thrift store shopping afterwards!

Friday was Cousin's Day. This year we met at Lake Park in Coshocton, OH and went creekin' in the Walhonding river after a picnic tea party. We swam for a little bit at the Water Park before a storm closed it down. Fun Day!

Friday night at our last campfire, Catie and I were the last ones outside and she reminded me that we hadn't had time to take a walk/wagon ride! She said, "Mamaw, next year at Camp Meow can we schedule one day when we stay home??!!" I told her we could do that!

Pop Up Memories

Carrie and Billy's pop-up camper sold today. I thought I should blog about it so the memories made wouldn't be lost. Lots of great memories made with this camper. One summer I took a boat load of kids to Atwood Lake for a camping trip. We had a ball. Camped right on the water! Boys fished all night most every night. Lots of campfires. They took their blow up boats and had a blast fishing and splashing and swimming.

Another time we camped with Carrie and Billy at Lake Park in Coshocton. I remember Michael caught a whopper of a fish, ran all the way to the campground to tell us. We all piled in the car and drove up to see it. He wouldn't take it off the hook. Made Carrie do it. We all thought the poor fish was going to die. Quite the fisherman, but wouldn't take the fish off the hook. Thank goodness he's past that now. Another time we took the camper to Lake Park for their Halloween week-end. It rained so hard we came home and left the camper there! Waited till it dried out to pack it up and bring it home. The camper was dry, but the campgrounds was one big massive puddle.

Great camper...lots of wonderful memories. Time for another family to make some memories with it. We're back to tent camping!

Home Again, Home Again Jiggedy Jig

Bradley, Levi and I headed out early this morning to hit the US 40 yard sales. They are suppose to stretch from St. Louis, MO to Boston Mass I think. We only made it from West Muskingum High School to Gratiot, but had a grand time. Treasures today included a skim board (Bradley), scooter (Levi), 4 old metal lawn chairs (Junk-Shun), 2 pair of New Balance tennis shoes (me), a Simpson's DUFF Beer hat (Dad), 11 iced cut out cookies (from a church bake sale) and 2 cans of spray paint (10 cents each...Bradley wants to paint his tree house).

Home again by noon so the boys went to the pool. Tabitha and I headed back to Zanesville with the truck to pick up the lawn chairs.

Home again by 3:00. Picked up the boys from the pool, home again so Bradley could change and headed back to Dresden for Bradley's soccer game. His team finally won a game:)!

Home again to pick up Dave and head to Reynoldsburg for my cousin Lisa Stead Reese's daughter's (Jessica) graduation party. Fun to see Aunt Sheila again too. Jessica is so pretty! Headed to college to pursue her degree in International Business, I think she said Missouri. Has one year under her belt already from post secondary in high school. 3 years of French and 1 year of Japanese. Amazing....smart cookie! She's going far. Lisa and Randy's little boy starts Kindergarten this year...they are starting over.

And now, we're home again!

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig! Love that Carrie and Casey loved to hear me say that when they were still at home, always made me smile when they said it...picked it up from Grandma Stead I think.

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig. Home Again...nothing like it!

Eccentric Henderhan's

Michael ran out of gas today...again...the 4th time in 2 months! At least this time he only made it to the shop. Dad and I went down to get him some gas (Dad didn't make a fuss...how could he when he still reigns as King when it comes to running out of gas!). When we pulled into the gas station I was thinking...again...about the time when we could fill up the gas can to mow the lawn for $3.00. Dad said he can remember when we could fill the can for $1.50. Today gas in Dresden was $2.55 a gallon. Starting to creep back up. Hope it doesn't make it to $4.00 a gallon again.

After Michael was taken care of, we headed off to a few yard sales in the area. Tickled to death when we found a sale where a little boy was selling all his Thomas the Train stuff! He and his Sib's were selling their toys so they could raise money for a pool pass. What a great idea...sure would make going to the pool this summer way more meaningful, wouldn't it? This little 7 year old was quite the salesman. He found everything he had that was Thomas related and then even convinced me to buy a train that wasn't:) I see a bright future ahead of him...we left him $14.10 of our money! Cannon is going to be thrilled!!!

I was hanging towels outside to dry today on my redneck clothesline (the chain link fence) and I was smiling as I remembered our foster care coordinator asking me on Wedensday when she did her home inspection what Tabitha thought about living in such an eccentric home (I think my towels were hanging on the fence that day too). ECCENTRIC! I love it:) At one time in my life I might have taken offense at that label but now I think it describes us to a "T"!!! ECCENTRIC...I'm smiling as I type it!

Quilt, Garage Sales and Vintage Curtains
Sold that beautiful Lone Star quilt in the yummy shades of buttery yellow this week on ebay! Sales have been a bit slow the past few weeks so that made my day! Paid 25.00 for it and I was afraid I wouldn't make a profit but it sold for 104.00 so I was doing the happy dance.

Found a couple of yard sales today. One was amazing...filled the back end of the car for only $20.00. Best find was TWO winter jackets for 1.00 each in my size (Columbia and Eddie Bauer) and one of those black cape things with fringe that always looked so fun to wear whe I saw it on someone else! Bradley told me I looked like a movie star:).

Agie Smith passed away a few months ago and Valerie Davis (her daughter) had an estate sale today. The house was packed full! Never been to one quite like this. Organized very well. You got a ticket and someone in each room put down what you purchased and the price. Then you took everything to the cashier and they checked you out. Bought an old metal rocking lawn chair and a couple of redwood chairs that had been painted. Other things were nice...just not priced were we could make a profit.

Learned something from one of our customers today. Found a bunch of old wood things in an auction box. I thought they were vintage door stops as they had screws at one end. Couldn't figure out why the middle was cut out of them though. Dumped them in an old pottery piece and priced them at 50 cents each in the shop...new owners (Dick and Rita Parsons) informed us they were old curtain rod holders...back when curtain rods were made of wood. So that explains the cut out middle! Never too old to learn are we? Probably a good thing I didn't know...might have kept them for the old windows in our 125 year old home:)

Phonenix had surgery today...she can no longer have puppies. Hard on her parents to wait for her all day but all is well. Ran into an old teacher of Casey's, Mrs. Dailey. Her nephew went to Hocking Hills (the school where Casey is going to go) and is now working as a canoe tour guide in the state of Deleware. Made my day to hear of someone that went through the program and has a job doing what he loves. Can't wait for them to be home.

Carrie and kiddos are coming for a week too. Miss 'em. Hope to spend the week at the pool, soaking up the sun and making some memories. No ultra sound yet that tells us what's coming in Nov. I'm still leaning towards a little guy. Wish we knew for sure...a BUNCH of community yard sales this week-end!

Dave and I were fingerprinted to have our Foster Home License renewed. Still need to fill out more forms. Home inspection done. Need to take a CPR and First Aid class next week (Ugh...I hate those classes...pretty boring). Off to bed...hope to do better about blogging this week.

Fly Lady, Front Porch & Families

I just couldn't get it in gear yesterday...not sure why, surely jet lag from the Reno trip is past. Two "half hour" naps and was still tired. I think my diabetes didn't like the half a pan of ooey and gooey brownies that I ate. I threw the rest out...I was the only one eating them and I REALLY didn't need them. Trying to stay low carb today to make up for the brownies yesterday!

BUT, today the sun is shining, I made myself get up, shower and dressed to my shoes (as the fly lady says) and went garage saling (is that a word) with Dave. Bought a new gas grill and some "stuff" for the junkshun. Sweeping the front porch has been on my to do list all week and getting the grill made me get it done! I love my front porch, especially when it's swept and cleaned. Still need to wash it down but that will have to happen later.

Received an irritating call from one of the caseworkers...she's not irritiating, just the news she delivered. I love working with birth families...usually ... but have one that isn't fun to work with right now:( Prayer...lots of prayer...God doesn't give us more than we can handle...so I know I can handle this too with HIS help!

Auction tonight. I'm excited, it's been almost 3 weeks since we were able to go to one.