Bi And Large

OK.

 

So it's Monday night, a SCHOOL NIGHT... the very first one in our house. Tomorrow everyone has to be up early, Pete has to be at work, Amy has to catch the bus and I need to drive Iris to preschool. I'm excited for them and sad all at once! I am sure I will be back tomorrow night or the next day with tons of stories and pictures.

 

So, camping.

 

I put an entire album of camping pictures up in the links on the left. Enjoy! I won't leave it up forever but for now, it stays. If you look at it one picture at a time instead of via slideshow, there are captions that explain each picture too; so I don't have to do that here.

 

We drove out on Sunday and got a completely late start. Everything took so much more time than we expected (isn't that always the way!) We arrived at our campsite with the light fading and just enough time to get partially unpacked, start a fire, get the tent thrown together, and figure out where the bathrooms were before crashing. The girls didn't really sleep that night. The whole idea of this big 2-room tent thing was they would sleep in their room, we would sleep in ours. Did it work that way? Noooooo. We ended up with little bodies tossed all over ours and cold feet in our armpits all night. Oh, and cold - did I mention cold? We had a frost warning that night! And we were short a couple of blankets (Pete and I don't have sleeping bags and the girl's are rated to like, +60 or something.) Basically, sleep was very very uncomfortable. BUT everything else about camping was great.

 

If you have kids, especially small kids that require more effort than they are able to give back in helping out, I can't recommend camping at a KOA or similar campground enough! Toilets, hot showers, firewood and ice all bagged and ready to go, stuff for the kids to do, and a clean level campsite already free of rocks and set up with a picnic table and fire ring ready to go. There's even a game rom for renting play equipment and gift shop for anything you forgot to pack. Seriously. It's THE way to camp if you've got kids. Our site was spotlessly clean, stunningly beautiful, comfortable as could be. We had helpful staff that were unobtrusive but who could be found if you needed anything. The grounds had cool historical stuff to explore, trails in the woods (apparently, we didn't explore them!) A heated pool, a very cool playground, a fishing pond stocked with fish, and a 'jumping pillow' that is somewhat like the world's largest trampoline in the ground. We had day excursions tenatively planned and then found we didn't even need them, we had so much to do at the site. We relaxed: I read 3 books laying in the garden and it felt great! We sat in the sun, we cooked over the fire or on the portable grill. Or, attempted to cook. Some things worked out better than others.

 

We did manage to kill our car battery opening and shutting the lift gate on the back while we accessed our gear. Power gate and all. So when we left, we tried roadside assistance, who were no good where we were. We asked at the front desk, and they came down to our site and kindly jumped us.... with a tractor :D But it worked and we were back on our way home to comfortable beds at last (oh my aching hips!) Still it was a great adventure to have as a family. No tv, no computers, just us together. It was a lot of fun, and it really was relaxing. And you can't beat the price: we paid less than $25/night. Compare that to inclusive hotel rates at any other vacation spot! We'll definitely be doing it again.

 

Anyway, as I said school starts tomorrow. I'm a little nervous. I'm stressed because I don't have work yet. I've been interviewing a few places but nothing yet! And I really need a job. We are stone cold broke, as in so broke we aren't sure how to feed the kids (thank God for school lunch) and I can't afford to fill my meds this paycheck. I was really hoping to have an income by now. I do have a much clearer idea about what I want to do, and that helps some. I know I want to work in health care. I know I want to be a medical assistant for now, and get my master's to become PA certified eventually and become a physician assistant. Trouble is, the only school in the state that does a PA program has about 300 applicants for 25 places each year, and I wouldn't be able to work while I was in school. So, I have to put that off for now, but it's something I really want to do. PA's get paid well and I would have the ability to basically be a doctor at last (you KNOW I always wanted to!) without all the headaches of being a doctor. For now, I know I would love part time work but unless I land some kind of crazy lucrative gig, it won't be enough to pay the bills; so I need full time or almost full time. Tomorrow means back to looking and hopefully back to scheduling more interviews. Wish me luck!