Summer Day One: Swimming Fun!

Okay, so I went into this weekend feeling sorry for myself, but, as I imagined, my inner Pollyanna came out and kicked some draggy inner hiney.  I swear, I would be the WORST emo goth girl.  Though I look awesome in black lipstick, so that's kind of sad in and of itself.  See?  I can be a gloomy and stuff.  !

I called Beth over at Garnett's in Hartselle, my new go-to 'OMG, A NOISE' place to take the van.  256-773-8881. Seriously, they are SO nice.  I told her about the check-engine light and about the trouble I have had getting a new air intake hose (which is what makes the light go on) and she said she'd call me back, so about an hour later, she had 2 solutions, both under $100.  I go Monday and get that taken CARE OF.  Jake said, "If the light comes on after this, THEN you can panic."  She assured me the van was okay to drive this weekend, so Friday morning, I packed some fruit and water bottles and hummus and crackers and we hit the road to Deb's house on the Mulberry Fork River.

We had a picnic style lunch and everyone kind of nommed on each others stuff then we headed to the river.  They have the best swimming hole and we had a blast.  The kids floated down the rapids and swam in the pool and generally had a really good time.  I enjoyed myself as well, floating around in my chair and then swimming a while myself.  The adults got to chat a good while and the kids ended up in their usual huddle, chatting away out in the middle of the creek.  At one point they broke into song, singing the Iko Iko song, it was a little surreal.

Deb took this one!

This is me, Deb or maybe Gina took it, with Deb's waterproof Canon which I covet like a neighbor's wife and probably will do penance in the afterlife for it.

I took this using her camera as well as the next 2

 

NiaBee was the happiest dog in the Universe with the water and the sand bar and the water and the sand bar.  Between swimming, digging and rolling around, she was nearly crazy with happy.

She's actually sliding downhill upside down, like a drunk otter.

After the swim, which seemed to last about 20 minutes but was really more like 3.5 hours, we had to head home to pick up Matt.
We had intended to go to the drive in and see World War Z and Man of Steel over in Boaz, about an hour and a half away.  Deb told us about Boogie Bottoms, which is less than an hour! I had never heard of them before! They were playing the same movies at the same rate, SCORE!
We zipped home and got changed and Matt took a very short snooze and then we were off to the drive in!  The Lackey's had hung out with Deb a while longer and then headed on over early to get a good spot. 
We parked and headed over with our gear-mainly loads of pillows and blankets!

The girls both screamed, "IS THAT AN APOSTROPHE!? Aaaaaaaaaa!!!!"

 I liked this drive-in, it's very laid back and on the river, so if you get there early, you can play in the water!  They have a playground and jumpy castle and concession stand and they don't care if you bring in food or your dog.

It was such a great night!  I admit to snoozing during the last movie, but it was a long day!  :)

PERFECT first day of summer!  Plus, the check engine light went off on the way home from Deb's!  Woot woot. 

Random Pics

Front row at the drive-in

The moon Sunday night

The Webkinz I had for a couple of hours, until Ben saw him.
I think of him as 'Temp'.  *sigh*

 Below is a little cemetery that is falling apart, it's off Six-Mile Road, we stop in a couple times a year, yesterday we stopped because there's a new geocache outside the fence.

We miss thee from our home dear mother,
We miss thee from thy place,
A shadow o’er our life is cast,
We miss the sunshine of thy face. 

We miss thy kind and willing hand,
Thy fond earnest care,
Our home is dark without thee –
We miss thee every where. 

 

One by one earth’s ties are broken,
as we see our love decay;
and the hope so fondly cherished
brighten but to pass away.
One by one our hopes grow brighter
as we near the shining shore,
for we know across the river wait
the loved ones gone before.

With the recent logging, there's a view from the road down to the valley.
It's a pretty drive, but steep and winding. 

Drive-in pics

The pics taken by Dave Dieter at the H'ville Times came out Sunday.  

I am congratulating myself on the excellent call of tank top and Snuggie combo.  I should really get that patented, it could replace the mu-mu!

Hahaha!  Oh well, who knew we'd be having our photo taken?  I had on clean underwear, that's really all that matters.

Drive-in

We got Jake back yesterday, I was so glad.  I miss that kid when he is not around, even if it is much quieter!  
We hung out a little yesterday afternoon, he did his laundry and I made falafel for everyone.  I am pretty sure only Matt, Chan and I ate it, Ben tried a bite and looked like I had given him a sock to eat.  He wanted dip to go with it, but not the cream and spinach dip I had.

After a good deal of me complaining about the heat-hottest day of the year so far-AGAIN, as Ben said, "Didn't we just have that?", we checked the drive-in and saw they were playing The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Toy Story 3 together for $15.  I put drinks in the cooler and we piled chairs, pillows and blankets in the back of the van and headed out!  

We stopped at Taco Bell for a few goodies and got all set up about half an hour before the movie started.  As soon as we finished eating and everyone was comfy, a man from the Huntsville Times came over to see if he could get some pictures of us!  He climbed around into the van with the kids and shot them for a couple of minutes, then got Matt and me.  I had on a skimpy tank top, I hope he does not use the pics of me!  hahaha  At least it never came up that we homeschool.  *whew*


The movies were great!  Ben and Chan just rolled during the mop scene from The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Matt and I laughed during most of Toy Story 3-though I admit, we both squalled during the last part.

It was a pretty good day over all!  We got in late and had a good sleep, I like being tired enough to fall right to sleep, that rarely happens.  Usually I get sleepy, lay down, and my brain starts its evil slideshow of what I need to do, what could possibly go wrong and so on.  Ack.  

I think we are going to float around in some water today.  Sounds lovely to me!

Memorial Day

We have been hanging out with the Lackey's since last Thursday, it seems sort of odd to not have 5 kids and another adult or two in the house. I gripe now and then that I wish we had another room or two, but after camping and company, the house seems too big as it is.



We spent Friday in Huntsville, running a couple errands and Saturday Matt and Jake went to Geo Woodstock in Bell Buckle, Bobby came to the house to locate his missing family and that evening we all went to the drive-in movies. Night at the Museum 2 and X-Men Wolverine.


Having read X-Men comics from nearly the first issue, I take issue with many points in the movie, but I won't pick it apart here, people get paid money for that and probably do a better job.


Yesterday, Sunday, they headed back out to the house with a friend in tow, one who helped load up the last 2 of our goats and take them off to live on a real farm. The girls were quite calm in the truck, I was glad of that at least. Not as glad as I was to be done with goats in general-they had developed a new hobby called 'escape and conquer' which involved getting out of their pen and breaking into the dog pen to eat their pine tree. The same dogs who ripped the throat out of their fellow goat less than a year ago...

I was a little concerned they would get out while no one was here and head across the road and eat the plants in the farmer's field or go next door and terrorize Judy. They had mangled my roses and nearly killed a couple baby trees in our yard. All of this was collateral damage and the fence could have been added to and made a little more goat-worth with some time and money.

That was not the last straw-that came when Boca started screaming like she was being set upon by wolves whenever she saw Matt. He would have to go and talk to her, feed her by hand, pet on her and cut branches for her to snack on before she would stop the panicked bleating. It was getting to the point that if we had a window open and she just heard his voice, she would start the noise and it was LOUD and unnerving and kept us all on edge.




Chan saying goodbye to Lilly Anne


Uno Boca all loaded up.
Bye, girls! Enjoy your new farm!