Busiest Weekend of the Year.....

. . .  and I'm messing around with the computer.....

This morning, DH and I joined 3 other members of DD's train club to set up our O scale stuff for National Train Day in Toledo, which is tomorrow.  The Heritage Train is here and DD is miserable because we won't take him to see it tonight.  One of the reasons for that is that there's a Train Club business meeting tonight.  Should be pretty short, I hope.

So tomorrow, we get down to the Toledo Terminal Train Station bright and early.  It's a really cool art deco station, by the way.

{{Insert pics here.... oh, Blogspot is having a little hissy and won't load pic for me.....}}

BadAmy and L were married here, and it was a fantastic location for that!

Then DH and DD will stay at the station, and I'll head over to the world class Toledo Museum of Art for the dedication of the Ohio Historical marker, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting.  There will be blah blah blah speeches, a couple of troops will sing songs, then we'll 're-enact' a photo that was taken of Scouts on the Museum steps.  Cool.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to wear my badge sash.....

Then we troop inside and spend the night in the museum!!!  The last I heard there were 1500 girls and several hundred adults signed up, including yours truly.  This is quite literally a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I'm pretty sure we don't get to sleep in the Cloister or with the mummies....

After staying up most of the night, and sleeping on the floor--something I never do any more--I'll come home and pack the trailer.  Oh, and I'll have to put away the train stuff we got out for the display downtown, too.  We've told friends to come over Sunday after 4 for a BYOEverything cookout.

I will hopefully sleep like a log Sunday night, get up Monday morning and send my youngest child off to his last day at the Anthony Wayne High School, go to the ankle doc's at lunch time, pick up said child at school, come home, put suitcase and backpack in the car, and will maybe be able to sleep.....

Tuesday, I put my middle child on the bus at 6:35 a.m.,  and leave sometime after that with youngest for a 4 month sojourn to the west and work.

So I'm sitting around blogging and playing online Scrabble. 

The thing that takes a back seat in the summer is blogging.  I'll be reading yours as often as I can get to a computer, and maybe even once in a while I'll drop you a line.  I'll still be on FB, usually every day, and of course there's the old fashioned method of communication:

Ranger Anna
5 Madison Ranger Station
Yellowstone National Park,  WY  82190

It's been a wonderful ride with you all so far.  Thanks for coming along.

Packing Already? Seriously?

Yep, I am.

Just like the birds that sense the longer day, the bison that move to find the new spring grasses, and baseball fans who do what ever it is baseball fans do, I start packing with the longer day and warmer temps.

Last week's mind-blowing record highs and fantabulous weather started it.  I was looking for a nice summer top to wear last week, and ended up packing my summer street clothes.  Every year I tell myself I'm not going to take as much and every year I don't do that. Maybe this year....

I also ended up packing most of my books, because they had over taken the laundry room/office.  I was looking for one little thing and ended up re-packing and condensing several boxes.  I have cut down on books, knowing that the Mad Crew has a goodly supply of stuff, but I still have my own field guides and geyser guides.  Plus I try to take some non-parkie stuff for those few occasions when I need to get my head out of the park.

Anywho, I spent most of yesterday doing paperwork crap for the boys.  I've said before that I'm so thankful the safety net is out there for them, but it comes with tons of paperwork.  I'm hoping to get the info into a more universally useful format.  I have some of it under control, but now that I use my dumb phone for more and more info, it means adding it to the phone the old-fashioned way.... one entry at a time. No nifty linking cables from the Mac to the phone.  There's an iPhone in my future, but since I've already decided what this year's earnings are going to, and it'll be expensive... the phone may not happen for another couple of years.  And by then, I'll need a new laptop.....  I am thinking about getting an iPad for play and keep this laptop for more work/life related things.  Maybe.....

Anywho, with the changes in our lives, I'll be chained to paperwork, meetings, and more paperwork for the boys in the next few weeks.  I sorta have this naive hope that we won't have to do such extensive paperwork again, unless we end up with a bunch of ultra-conservative morons in state and national government, who believe the best way to balance a budget is on the backs of my kids and/or at the expense of a clean, safe environment.  Could be a double whammy.

So to make a short story long, I'm thinking I won't have much blogging time for the next few weeks.  I love reading your adventures, but can't always leave a note, but know that I'm with ya! I do have a few quilty things to finish up, along with a flamingo outfit, but then it will be time to 'close' up the crafty corner. (Did I mention that in lieu of summer clothes, I'm taking more sewing stuff??? :)  )

I did get DH's 'crappy' quilt bound and done!  I won a batik jelly roll, then added leftovers from our giant bed quilt and FTD's log cabin quilt to make it big enough for using on a sofa or up at the lake.  I double sewed corners and such to make it nearly indestructible so he can trash it all he wants.

DH's stripy quilt--the one he can beat to heck.  And I suspect finding it laying around outside will be the norm.

I also make a mini-quilt that I thought I'd enter in the Sauder Village (Ohio) Quilt Festival.  The Challenge this was to use Ohio Star~~ 'natch one of my favs~~using Bear Essentials fabric in one of several suggested colorways.  I bought the starter pack in fall colors, which looked sumptuous in the store and after I ironed them.  Then I started messing with them on my computer. The other contest stipulations were use at least 4 Ohio Stars, and one colorway, and one neutral, also from Bear Essentials.  Well, I worked and worked and for the life of me couldn't find a combo I liked.  So I decided screw it, I'll just make and enter in the plain old category.  So I worked and worked, and stitched and ripped and by golly every single point was perfect!  And you know 'perfect' is not my long suit, I really don't have a patience for it.  So here 'tis:  I call it Bearly Up to the Challenge~~get it???

Bearly Up to the Challenge, by yours truly, 3/25/12.  Mostly Bear Essentials fabric.

The background fabric is Timeless Treasures, Are We There Yet? Line.  It says things like, "Don't feed the bears," "Are we there yet," "Take a hike," "Pack it in, pack it out" and stuff.  Get it.... BEARS...?

Will ya look at those points?  All of them!! Perfect!!

Not being a precision or even a good quilter, I just went simple, simple classic quilting on it.  Yea for me!  Then I went back online to get the registration forms and read the following:

REGISTRATION FOR ALL CATEGORIES EXCEPT CHALLENGE QUILTS ARE CLOSED.

Are you kidding me?  Why the hell didn't I read the big print first?  Oh, because it was buried several pages after all the other info.  Crap.  So now I have a beautiful little quilt that needs a really special home.  And there's only one I can think of, and that's my West Yell friend Lois, who hand quilted FTD's quilt.  She'll be so happy!  And I'm so proud that it's so darn good!



Today, I'm back to PT, then off to BadAmy's to help unload the few leftovers from the show she did last weekend.  She did fabulously well, and we're just tickled pink for her.

Tomorrow, back to the paperwork/meeting grind.

T-Minus 7 Days and Counting!

Okay, so I really don't have time to blog. But I need a break from clothes packing hell! The good news is that the kitchen/linen/uniform stuff is done and ready to go into the trailer. The food stuff is close to done and easy to finish. My civies won't take too long, and most of them are still packed from last summer anyway. That leaves. . . . teenager clothing. Arg.

If we were all four going out at the same time this year, or if two of us go out now and 2 follow later, and if we were all coming back at the same time, it would be a snap to pack. Unfortunately, since we've got an utterly wacky schedule this year, packing is going to be a real trip.

First, DD and I need traveling clothes. No problem. We throw the stuff the 2 of us need for traveling in a big ol' suitcase and call it done. But! I have to be sure he has clothes to wear when we come home for FTD's graduation in June. Okay, so I leave some of his least favorite clothes in the closet. But wait! Then he and DH have to drive back out, so he needs traveling clothes. Okay, pack a separate suitcase for that. Done. But wait! Tommy needs clothes out west, so I'll have to take those now. But he also needs clothes for 3 more weeks of school. Why do you ask, do I need to pack the suitcases for the boys now? Because DH is totally clueless as to what the boys wear, what they like, what they need, what fits, etc., etc.. God only knows what they'd show up with if I let DH pack.

I'm worried enough about letting him pack his own clothes. He keeps saying things like, "Well, I'll be 10 pounds lighter when I get out there, so I'll bring the 'skinny' clothes that I kept/purchased all these years." Take a deep breath, Mama. Think happy, serene thoughts. As kindly as I could, I says, "You know, Love of My Life, that we have no extra storage space out west for clothes. . ." "Oh. Yeah. Well," says he. Says I, "If you loose some weight while you're out there, we'll go buy you new stuff." "Hmmm," says he, "but I've been collecting this stuff for so long, and never got to wear it." "Hmmmmm," says I, as kindly as I can again muster. And so it goes. I've no idea what he'll bring out, but I did set limits on how many boxes he can bring.

The other fly in the packing ointment is that all three of them will drive home in mid August for school. They'll wear uniforms at Penta, so I don't have to worry about getting all their clothes home in August. I'll send traveling clothes, and pack the rest away to bring home with me in the trailer. Three grown size male humans in the butt-ugly Aztec with traveling gear is all the car will hold. (What an odd sentence.)

DH just surfaced to say he's got some of the fishing gear ready. Translation, "I might have it done by Thursday or so."

Back to the pack I go. I'm stalling on getting the office supplies done, I don't know why, but I can't seem to take enough stuff. I don't really need all that much stuff, but what if . . . We all have our Achilles tendon, and mine is office supplies. Oh. And books. Did I mention books. . . .

Madison, Hayden, and Lamar just sit back and laugh at me. Rotten little scoundrels.

It's Countdown Time!

With fewer than three weeks to go, I can really start counting down. Of course, it may be for naught, since I haven't heard about my fingerprints yet, but we'll hope for the best.

I picked up nearly all the kitchen/bath non-perishables today. Just a couple more things to get yet--like TP which will hopefully go on sale soon. Stocking two kitchens is one of those interesting juggling jobs. Trying to guess how much of this or that to take always taxes my puny grey cells. But from today--3 weeks before we head out!

Packing Up, Not Quite Heading Out

It's that time of year! Hooray! I'm counting the days--less than a month until we head back out west. I indulged in some pre-packing this weekend. I did the linens a while back, so I took on the kitchen gear this time.

Packing to go west isn't too bad. There are a few clothing issues (which I could easily solve by just saying "This pile is my out west clothes and this pile is my at home clothes). But I have several favorites that I like for both places. There aren't too many cross-pollinated things, not being a clothes horse, but still more than I like to admit. And I only have one winter coat and I need that in both places. I suppose I could go hit the Good Will to find an out west coat. . . . hmmm.

Linens aren't too much of a problem. This year we're going to try a little foam pad deal that supposedly turns two twins into a king size bed. Three of our four years on the road we hauled out Select Comfort mattress with us and put in on two twins. Worked pretty nicely. It doesn't pack down really small, but smaller than a real king mattress would. One year, we decided to use the double bed that was provided. We barely slept a wink all summer. When you've had a king bed for 25 years, and your girth has significantly expanded in said time, well. . . . This year, since DH will only be out west for about 6 or 7 weeks, we're going to try another route. I'm hoping the beds didn't get moved out of our apartment. We had to do some fancy footwork to get 4 twin bed frames, springs, and mattress last year. We'll see. I'll have plenty of time to round them back up if I need to this year.

The real packing challenge comes with kitchen gear. I've accumulated almost enough stuff for the summer kitchen. DH has a couple of favorite pans, and I have a favorite pot, so I guess I'll take the pot, and he gets to keep the pan until he comes out. We really don't need the pan at home, because I've completed my Calphalon set here (Dang, I'm a savvy shopper--I've never had to pay full price for the stuff! And I think it's still made here in Toledo. Cool.) I'd like to keep it in the kitchen box, but he likes to use it here, so we lug it back and forth. There are a couple of other goodies like that--Pyrex dish in a warming carrier, good apple slicer, margarita cooler. And going out I can pack up all the stuff and still eat. Not the case coming home. Meal planning is an art when it's time to come home, especially since the nearest restaurant is 14 miles away. So I have to plan food we can eat without using real tableware, pots, pans, or microwave. Yea. Cereal it is for the last 2 days in the park.

Here's my packing tip for getting food on the way out. I stock up on all the basics here--flour, sugar, cereal, pasta, etc.. But I also take 2 empty coolers with us. When we get to Livingston or Bozeman, we hit the grocery and stock up on frozen and refrigerated stuff and get as much into the coolers as possible.

When we arrive at the apartment, Job One is put a frozen pumpkin pie in the oven, which means I need to get to a cooking sheet. I use the pizza pan for that. The apartment smells like home again in no time at all. Job Two is get the beds made. That of course means the linens have to be in the back of the cargo trailer, which works out nicely. The next day, the pizza pan is ready to pop pizza in the oven and we're really home.

This is the theory. . . it worked quite well last year, let's see how it plays out in real life!