Camping Trip

We took our trailer and our new, improved truck out for the first camping trip of the year last weekend. It was so much fun! The weather was supposed to be good all weekend, but unfortunately it was raining pretty hard when we were driving/finding a spot/setting up camp. But that evening things settled down and we had so much fun hanging around the campfire and riding the motorcycle.

Saturday my dad, my sister, and her family joined us for the rest of the weekend. They brought up two 4-wheelers, so between those and our motorcycle, there was someone going for a ride at all times. My kids love being with their cousins and the whole weekend was just wonderful. I think we'll go camping many, many more times this year! (It's so much easier loading & unloading a hard-side trailer compared to our tent trailer. I didn't mind packing & unpacking at all! And I don't even think I need to mention how preferable a toilet is to squatting in the dirt!)

Here are Bryan & Tess in the trailer, waiting for the rain to stop. (Although, looking at this picture, it looks like the sun is shining...hmmm...I swear it was raining!)Here's Miles, enjoying a S'More.
And Tess loves them too. And I like S'Mores so much that I used to roast them over the burner of our gas stove at our old house! (It was one of those things I craved when I was pregnant with Miles; those and root beer floats--Yum!) Miles loved wearing the motorcycle helmet, but he couldn't quite figure out how to put it on! Tess & Bryan enjoying a ride, while Miles plays t-ball with Papa. Jared, Mat, & Mel after a long 4-wheeler ride. They all had t.b. (that's not tuberculosis--it's tired bum.) Bayli & Emma, cute as ever! (One more little funny side note/'Miles'ism: My sister's name is Melanie & her husband is Mathew, but we always just say "Mel & Mat." Well, the other day I was at the nursery buying plants for our garden and I mentioned that we needed to buy melon. Miles said "and Mat?")

Mom

As Mother's Day is approaching I begin to think about my mom even more than normal (I already think about her several times a day, everyday, but it's even more frequent this time of year.) I also think about being a mom myself, and often compare the two. There are so very many times that I wonder what my mom would do in a situation that I, myself, am in with my own kids. I try to behave like she would, but, unfortunately, I realize later that the way I reacted is not nearly as kind as she would have acted. In short, I feel like she was a better mom than I am, hands-down. She was more patient, more easy-going, more kind, and more laid back than I am; I am trying to work on all those things each day.

But on a more optimistic note, I do like to think about the things I do that are just like my mom.

I physically look a lot like her--I could insert a joke about my small waist/big booty here--and my voice sounds a lot like hers. My uncle, her little brother, calls me Kathy Jr. I love it when I say a certain phrase, do a gesture, or make a facial expression and my sister or brother tells me that I sounded "just like Mom." It makes me really happy inside that she lives on, in me. There is no better complement to me than when people tell me, "you are just like your mom!" Those words make my heart swell with pride and my eyes well up with tears.

So, as I've been thinking these things, I thought I'd make a list of things my mom taught me, things I wish she had taught me, and things that she's still teaching me now.

Some things my mom taught me: how to sew, crochet, cross-stitch, and knit. To love reading. To love movies. To love games; card games, board games, dice games--I love them all. To love being with my girlfriends for walks and talks. To love Mexican food! I also have her love of boating and water-skiing. I'm pretty opinionated, like her, and sometimes speak before I think (and regret it later!) She taught me how to cry. She was a crier, and I'm a big crier (crying right now as I write this, in fact.)

Some things I wish I'd learned: My mom was an excellent cook, and I think she really enjoyed it. I don't have that love. I make a few things well, but nothing like she could. I miss her chicken-noodle soup with big, fat, homemade noodles. Her caramels were perfect and her homemade rolls were beyond perfect. (Although I do make her yummy banana bread, Scotcharoos, 4-layer dessert, and bran muffins.) I wish I'd learned to cut hair! (My sister got this talent!) I wish I could laugh like her. Man, I miss her laugh--she had a very unique, infectious, and sometimes embarassing (when I was in a movie theater with her) laugh that was loud and awesome. What I wouldn't give to hear that laugh again.

Some things I'm still trying to learn: I want to be a good Young Women President like she was--the girls and leaders in our ward just adored her and looked up to her. I want to laugh more easily--it didn't take much to get her cracking up and I wish I was more like that. I want to be the kind of wife she was--she put my dad before anyone or anything, even us kids, and I want to be that way for Bryan. More than anything, I want to be a mom like she was. Since I'm the youngest, I didn't really see her interact with little kids until I was a teenager. But when my mom became a grandma I saw the way she was when my niece was a baby, a toddler, and a little girl (just about Tess's age). She was so patient, kind, and fun. She would make up fun little stories and tell them while snuggling Baylee in bed. I still remember the look on Baylee's face as she looked up into Gramma Kathy's eyes--pure love and adoration. Oh, to have my kids look at me like that!

I love you Mom. You are my idol. You are my guardian angel. I miss you everyday, and I'm so anxious to see you again.

A Tale of Two Trucks

Once upon a time there was a nice family who wanted a camping trailer. The tent trailer they had was great, but lacked some very important amenities (toilet, please, for those of us who have to pee at 3:00 am and don't want to go outside and squat in the bushes with the raccoons!). Unfortunately this family did not have a vehicle that could pull anything larger than said tent trailer, so the search began for a big truck. In February a truck was found, bought, and driven home, much to the excitement of the family. Only 3 days later and a new, bigger, (plumbed!) trailer was pulled home. Lo and behold, the nice dad of this nice family began finding things out about the truck that were not so nice. Like...no spare tire, or spare tire holder. Weird. E-brake doesn't quite work. Hmmm. The jack is missing. Strange. Little by little the truck was losing its favor in the sight of the family members and the dad especially began to rue the day they brought the truck home. Slowly but surely the family replaced the missing/broken parts and the truck once again was in the family's good graces.

One fateful day, however, the father discovered several inches of diesel fuel floating on top of the antifreeze in the radiator. Not good. After many, many days of blood, sweat, tears, fuel injector sleeves, and cash flow, the truck was restored to its former...(not glory...the stinkin' truck was never glorious) working condition, with no diesel fuel floating around where it shouldn't be.

But, what now? By this point the family hated the truck so much that it could never be the same again. The answer came with three simple syllables, three syllables that had saved the family many times before: kay-ess-ell. Kayessell is magic and can work wonders, especially if used correctly. The wise mother of this family knew that Kayessell would come through again, and she decided to list the truck for more than they had even paid, in hopes of regaining some of the money lost. The cynical father doubted that anyone would pay anything for the hunk o' junk in the driveway, but he finally relented. Imagine his surprise when 2 days later a (poor schmuck) wonderful man heard the call of Kayessell and bought the truck for the full asking price!

After the p.o.s. was gone, the lovely family began their search again. Luckily, they still had their trusty Kayessell to help them out and discovered a fabulous new truck that was just waiting to be bought and brought back home. The similarities were uncanny--both were Ford F350s, both were made in the year 2000, both were white, both had long beds and back seats for the family's beautiful children, both had travelled the same number of miles (within 2000 miles of each other). But this beautiful new one had all the parts that are supposed to come with a truck (!), and the radiator only had antifreeze in it!! AND it cost $1000 less than the first (happy dance!)

The end. (I certainly hope.)

Rhymes with Truck

Miles has always been a big fan of big trucks. One of his first "words" was "uh-guh" ("a truck") which he would say over & over when we saw a semi on the road. Eventually he called it a "guck" then a "big kuck." Now for some reason he calls it a "buck." I'm curious about all the incarnations of the same word, and at this point I'm just hoping that the next variation will continue to be G-rated....