lake chelan

just got back from spending a few days by this beautiful lake, with 75% of my people.  the boychik stayed home, i think just to make me angry, but the rest of us got out of the house and spent time together in the sun, having a great time.  this was the view from our tent every morning.  how amazing is that? today i unpack, do laundry and prepare for my sister's baby shower tomorrow.  more photos to come!

it's a no camping summer for us

getting married and moving took a lot out of us, both financially and emotionally.  i'm not complaining! for the most part, we're having a good time this summer and honestly just getting into the swing of home-owning and renovating.  my oregon family, though, is out on the big summer camping trip this weekend, and we are not.  sigh. 

instead of being in tents and being with our people, we are sticking close to home. for the most part!  the girlchild and i are headed to the island to hit up a birthday party the park, and do some back-to-school shopping with my mom.  the boychik is going to apply for a job today, or else i'm going to strangle him.  i'm hoping today to also have something made with ice cream, and maybe see the beach.  my ratty old summer shorts are clean for a change, so i suppose i should take a shower and get ready for the day.  at the moment it's me and the cat on the couch, listening to some john doe and drinking coffee.  it's not a tent, and there aren't cousins scrambling around and shouting, and i haven't missed a camping trip for YEARS but we'll survive.  dear oregon, we miss you! we'll be thinking about you this weekend. 

oh, camping

you never last long enough!  i have lots of stories for you, honest, but tonight all i did was fiddle with some pictures.  you can see the start of my collection over here.  today was my first day back at work, and it was a doozy.  i'm not really sure why i'm still awake...

home!

evidently you are never, ever, ever supposed to let internet people you are going to be out of town.  which is why you didn't know i went to the oregon coast until just now, when i got home. 

the cat is happy to see me, which makes me happy.  we didn't leave the house too big a mess when we left, so it was nice to see a living room relatively tidy.  i had a nina simone album and a bizarro collection of stories waiting for me.  we stopped at ikea on the way home and got a ridiculously good deal on a new futon mattress for our bed in the as-is section.   it was half off!  our bed has been kind of a pain in the back, and it will be nice to sleep on something with a bit more substance.

i am a bit weary from all the traveling we did, and glad to be home where i can put a little more space between myself and bickering children.  there is nothing like a roadtrip to bring a family all close together!  hee hee...  more word and pictures tomorrow.  i had a great time, but i'm looking forward to washing some clothes and sleeping in my bed!

hey, guess what?

i am totally, thoroughly, seriously fucking sick and tired of being asked by the boychik every five minutes why has to go camping with us this summer.  um, here's why: BECAUSE.  i think he harps on me the most because a) i have already proven myself a sucker, b) i made the mistake once of trying to answer one of his questions (which you would think would work, but it doesn't! if you don't give him the answer he was already looking forward, he will harangue you to within an inch of taking your own life!) and c) we are still establishing BOUNDARIES.  sorry about all the capitalization, but DAMN.  some things i am feeling strongly about right now.

bio-moms, even if you have shitty, terrible, annoying teenagers, at least you got chubby cheeks out of the deal and delicious baby legs to chew on.  think of this when you think of ME.

yeah, so the answer to the above question is he has to go, because he does, because this is something we do as a FAMILY.  plus, he can't be home alone for four days, as he is currently being restricted from going out with friends because he never got a job this summer.  that is sort of a long story, but the gist of it is that he can have people over, but can't go anywhere unless it's with us.  needless to say, him being stuck at home is punishing ALL of us, but sometimes as a parent you have to suffer for your art.  misery transports well, thankfully, so he'll be just as mopey out in oregon as he is in my living room.  (dear friends we are going camping with, i'm sorry, he'll probably be a jerky-jerk-face at times.  but better you should find out how awful your children will be as teens now rather than being surprised about it later! right? i'm performing a public service!  it will be less painful for you to learn it from me than learning about this stuff on the streets.)  this answer to his question is, of course, not to his liking, and he's trying hard to figure out a way of getting out of this trip.  at first i tried reasoning with him, but now i just say "because!" and change the subject or hide in the bathroom, pretending to pee.  i have actually pretended not to hear him once or twice as well, which is cheap, but effective.

i'm really looking forward to being with friends and going camping, i just hope my friends still like me after next week!  and i do actually hope that i don't kill the boy or otherwise freak out the next time he wheedles at me and tries to worm his way out of a family vacation that he will enjoy, or ELSE.  

dear diary, i love my tent

it took me forever to find a decent cup of coffee this morning! i was way too lazy and lame to make a pot this morning before i left the house, and the hospital coffee is cheap but is just so bad that i can't drink it anymore. i'm fairly sure it's not made of beans, but instead from old socks. old, burnt, crusty socks. i shudder to think. coming back to work from five days off is hard, y'all. getting up early because i have to get dressed and take a shower and be civilized is not as much fun as sleeping in late, living in a tent and being slightly dirty all the time. granted, our most recent sojourn to jim creek was a short one, but we got into the swing of things by not really unpacking from our last trip out. work today is nice and quiet and a good way to ease back into things, but i'd prefer to be crashed on the couch watching tv with the kids. they got a whole summer, why can't i?!

jim creek was gorgeous! the big downside to it is you have to be military or be related to someone in the military to go, the other downside is that you aren't actually allowed anywhere in or near the creek itself (it's protected for salmon and freshwater mussels). all that water, but no wading! they have some lakes and boats you can rent for fishing, but you can't swim in them, which is also sort of lame. especially if it's hot. you'd think maybe they'd have a pool or something there as an alternative, but they don't. the campsites themselves were really nice; they had privacy hedges between sites, and the RV's were in a seperate part of the campground. i have nothing against people to camp in RV's per se, i mean, people should vacation and camp any way they like, however, when we were out at prineville we were right by two big RV's and campers who stayed up all night long watching tv and movies. their camping was noisy and bright and irritating if you were living next door in a tent. i think having campers in vans and RVs out on their own turf is just a reasonable thing, as well as polite. jim creek also had some cute as hell cabins out there, which i really wanted to stay at. my little family scoffs at the idea of this as "camping" but i don't care. living in a tiny, rustic cabin (or yurt! don't forget my favorite!) for just a few days makes me feel all laura ingalls wilder, and i love it. plus, sometimes when i camp i'm less all about hiking and hanging out outside, and more about just taking some quiet time "off" from the rest of the world. doing some thinking, reading, writing or whatever away from TVs, radios, and the rest of the world is just a nice thing to do sometimes. it's refreshing. i don't always need to be out doing stuff, especially considering i'm one of the laziest people i know. i'm all about getting my sloth on at times!

we had a great time on our both camping trips, and last night before drifting off to sleep D and i talked about how much fun we had and how excited we are to take more trips. we'd like a bigger tent so we can all sleep in there (the boychik right now prefers to sleep in the car; he gets a bit of privacy and a bit more room to stretch out), or at least have more wiggle room. we're getting better at camping all together, although on both trips we forgot stuff. once it was silverware, once it was fire, and i kept talking about yogurt and granola for breakfast and then forgot the granola! nothing huge or life-shattering has ever been left behind, though, so i think we're doing okay. i know it's late in the camping season, but the best thing about the pacific northwest is that we often get our best weather starting in september, so we probably have at least one more trip in us. i'm hoping for two, but we'll see! first we have to attack the mountain of laundry and get kids ready for school (ASB cards are $30 at the high school. can you say WTF?!). they go back in a little less than two weeks, and while it's been great having them around, i'm kind of looking forward to having my monday's back. monday was always the day i had off by myself, and i got a lot done on that day, and enjoyed a bit of quiet alone time. i'm a much nicer person and more pleasant all around when i get a bit of alone time, trust me.

vacation all i ever wanted

the past couple of weeks have been a hell of a lot of fun. we all went down to prineville to go camping, and that was awesome. the reservoir was nice and warm, perfect for swimming or going on sea-doos or boating. there were a million kids there, and despite a few reservations on the parts of M and C, a good time was had by all. all the kids got along great, we ate some great dinners, got a ridiculous amount of sun (our new skins are coming in quite nicely, bytheway), and came home tired, dirty and happy. can you ask for more out of a camping trip? i think not. i worked a few days after we got back, spent one day majorly cleaning the house, and now we're back on vacation week part two. tomorrow we got on a small overnight camping trip with D's brother and family, which should be fun.

we've been doing crazy amounts of cooking as well on our little vacation. the weather's cooled down a bit, making grilling and baking a lot less painful and stifling. the other night i made pizza dough for the first time; a process that was a lot easier than i thought it would be. the results were good too, although the next time i make it i'll add a bit more salt to the dough and let it rest a bit more before baking. it made great zucchini pizzas, which is good because as those of you with friends or family who garden know, it's totally zucchini time. we've eaten it in salads, grilled, baked, in pizzas and added to just about anything that might need a touch of green. tonight i may make some muffins or something to use up some more of it! it's a green squash invasion, to be sure. on today's agenda as well is the making of some pork sausage. while out shopping yesterday we found pork shoulder roasts for only .99 cents a pound, which my dear sweet boyfriend couldn't say no to. the look on his face was like a boy on christmas morning! we're in the middle of grinding and cooling, waiting for everything to come down again in temp so we can grind some more and add some spicy goodness. we're going to try a couple new recipes, you can be sure i'm taking pictures and notes as we go along. the waiting is the hardest part for me, i just want to get in there and make it now, but if you go too fast the meat gets too warm and the results are lame. patience is a virtue and all that jazz.

this is one reason i want to marry D; i love days where all we do is cook and goof off and make stuff. i have fun with him, i get excited about trying new recipes and trolling websites to find new ones. it's exciting to be with someone who is so passionate about food and cooking and gets swoony about cuts of meat and fresh veggies. i can't think of a better way to spend a "staycation" than in the kitchen, radio going, good smells coming from the oven and a mess being made.

prineville!

camping was gorgeous, hot, dusty and bright. i am sunburnt, filthy, and ready to spend the night in my own bed. funny how exhausting vacation can be. once i shower and put on something clean and brush the tumbleweeds out of my hair i'll have photos and stories! we had a great time, but i am happy to be home.

...aaahhh...

taking a few days off to go spend time with my favorite little family. packing tonight has been lots of fun; i think we're all getting excited about getting out of town and goofing off. our house-sitter comes over tonight, to use the wi-fi and watch endless amounts of tv. i still have boxes of stuff to get ready, lists to go over, and a bag to unpack and re-pack (as usual, i brought too much!). ooh boy, i'm ready to go!

have a great few days! hopefully i'll have loads of photos and stuff when i get home!

p.s. how coincidental is this post?

sleep-away camp

start of lamp sweater, originally uploaded by pinprick.

on friday afternoon we got a call saying that the camp the boychik had applied to had a cancellation, meaning they had a spot for him on the next trip. which was, of course, two days away. we were excited for him, of course; he'll get to spend almost two weeks over at ross lake, learning about conservation, being out of the house, canoeing and hopefully making friends and having fun. we were also a bit stressed out because suddenly we had to get him outfitted and ready to go in just two days. D had to work all weekend, so it ws just the boy, the girlchild and i getting stuff done. i will say i'm pretty sure i hate clothes shopping with a 15 year old boy (evidently everything is stupid and/or simply shrugged at enigmatically), but both kids were awesome, given the circumstances. it was kind of stressful, but i'm happy to report we got everything he needed, and when he left on monday he seemed pleased to be going. i hope he has a great time, and have been thinking about what he might be up to all day today. all the time on the lake kind of makes me jealous.

however! soon all four of us will get to go to a camping trip together, and that's going to be fun. D has a ton of camping supplies, so we don't need to get too much together; maybe some new camp chairs (a few of ours are getting seriously ratty) and a new swimsuit for the girl. i'm looking forward to a few days of sun and swimming and relaxing. i never go camping as much as i want to in the summer, which is a shame, but the good thing about this trip is it isn't just a weekend away, it's a good five days. getting the boy ready to go this week just made me more antsy for our big trip!

one in the morning!

i am exhausted, grody and ready for bed. camping was awesome. i'm going to miss seeing the boys when i wake up in the morning.