Our Big Fat Gypsy Vacation Goes to Kentucky

(insert Yogi voice) Hey BooBoo where is the pic-a-nic basket? I am a pic-a-nic stealing bear.

If camping with Yogi Bear was on my (our) bucket list, well then, I (we) can check that off the list.

I (we) are not much for commercial campgrounds, but with Princess A only be granted one week of the two weeks vacation she requested...we revamped our entire vacation plan to accommodate a one week trip. I can't even remember the last time we took a one week vacation.  This is kind of cramping our camping lifestyle. King Ralph reminded me that we said last summer how much easier getting away was going to be when marching band no longer consumed our summers. HA!  This year it seems harder minus marching band.  When kids grow up, and you want to spend time with them, you do what you have to do. So we ended up at Jellystone Campground. The Avery's and Yogi.

Oh, and if there were any doubt to Yogi's gender...he's a boy bear alright. A boy bear who could sure use more than a hat, a shirt collar and a bow tie.  BooBoo get this bear some trousers!

Why don't we like commercial campgrounds?  One, they seem to be over crowded. And Jellystone was! Two, because they seem more like-- they paved paradise , and put up a parking lot. We choose Jellystone because of the oppressive Midwestern heat that is swallowing up that neck of the country.  We needed an electric site for some refreshing A/C!  We took a pass through the national park campground-- aaaaahhhhhh!  King Ralph said, what we were all thinking: nice.  By the number of campers in the park, four, the rest of the camping families were thinking what we were--electric for the A/C.  Don't get me wrong, for a commercial campground Jellystone is very nice. It had a nice crystal clear pool (that thanks to the 100* weather felt like a bathtub) and a water slide (that felt like a bathtub), playgrounds, mini-golf...and hayrides, complete with Yogi and Cindy. Being a costumed fictional character during a heat wave is a job for a sucker.  I chose to stay the distance from Yogi for fear he smelled like a sewer. The showers in the park sucked. I either had a stall that had a power washer feeling or a stall that felt like a pee stream...I mean trickle.

We came to Cave City for one reason, Mammoth Cave National Park.

In our Griswoldesque quest to visit all bazillion national parks, we chose Mammoth for its proximity to our home base.  Glad we did. It is an awesome sight...and a cool retreat from the oppressive heat outside.  We did two cave tours: History Tour (were the guide was less than impressive) and the Grand Avenue Tour (Ranger Rick Thomas was a FANTASTIC guide!). On the History Tour going through Fat Man's Misery

and hearing the girls ask King Ralph to stand by the sign for a picture, his reply "I am not standing next to anything that says fat man" was worth it.  Just for the laugh.

 Oh, we also referred to this tour as the tour of stupid questions. Our favorite: who is the current owner of the cave?  I felt sorry that the guide even had to bother answering that one.  Grand Avenue was worth the tour. Our guide added to the greatness of the tour.  He was full of knowledge and stories about the cave, with a sprinkling of humor. Which in my opinion makes a guide, never losing the interest of his group.  We also called this tour the tour-of-the-family-in-front-of-us-who-took-group-pictures-every-ten-steps and the tour of why-would-you-people-wear-flip-flops.  On this tour just when I was getting my exercise on and working the soles of my hiking shoes...we had a group break. There is some good steeps inclines and declines on Grand Avenue. With the breaks came good stories from Ranger Rick.  We did get to see a bat on the four and a half hour tour.  If you come to see Mammoth Cave and have time for only one tour, I would recommend this tour. I also recommend coming when there isn't a heat alert so you can camp inside the park and enjoy the hiking trails.

Before packing up and heading on to territory before traveled...the girls (no matter their age, and always with a little (lot) of giggles doing this) continued the quest they started fourteen years earlier

 OH YA JUNIOR RANGERS OF THE MAMMOTH CAVE!

Too Dam Hot in STL to Blog Much

So, since it is a blazing 100* (feels like 112*) in the shade...

I thought a little entertainment was in order. A slip back in time. A mini fashion show compliments of Princess A & Princess M (I keep forgetting I can officially call her that, and it isn't self proclaimed like you-know-who)... a throw back to the swimwear of the early 1990s. (Only I would have these beauties tucked away in the back of my summer drawer.)

 I think I must have been watching a few to many Gilligan's Island reruns on TV Land...there is the Mary Anne two piece and then the sultry Ginger suit with its french cut leg. Oooolala. Need I mention that to wear these beauties I weighed 114 pounds. Now that makes thinking of the 90s somewhat painful, sigh.

The great thing about the "Ginger" suit is, it could double as a beauty pageant suit, for the swimwear category.  (In the interview category this contestant's answer to everything would be: "world peace")

 Man-oh-man did I have fashion sense in the 90s or what!? So if you're hungry for some vintage beachwear, you know where to find me.

Just Saying...

We may be ordering Chinese food often when ... the cute little Chinese girl says to us (insert Chinese accent)-- "Ooooooo, you got differ-rent or-a-der."

I suppose we should stick with an order of chicken egg foo young from now on.  Messing with your Chinese food supplier probably isn't a good thing.

On a side note I believe word hit the squirrelhood that I was petitioning the State of Missouri for the first ever suburban squirrel hunt. Or maybe it's that squirrel guillotine contraption that the neighbor up the street created around his tree's trunk was just the threat the squirrels needed. (I must get a picture to share.)  Whatever the reason or cause....

Looky-looky. I have, finally, gerber daisy blooms.  



     This makes me pretty darn happy!

Defining the Word: Friend

Friendology

Study of friends and the power of friendships. The bond shared between two or more people. The understanding of friendship and how it is used in today's society. The worlds understanding of true friendship.

These girls have been pals, some besties, since their middle school years. They study together, they laugh together, they talk extremely loud together-- friends!  They have years before they have to think about separation.  And, when they do, I bet it'll be hard. 

This group of best pals, well, they're a whole different story. They are about to separate. Spread wings. While most of this close knit group is headed to Mizzou together, a few others are the brave souls, ready to branch off on their own for new adventures. Make new friends. Which sounds easy, but is it?  M is one of those brave souls.  M and her bestie (the other beauty clad in yellow) have been "sisters of the heart" for so long I can't see one without the other. They have lived and laughed together...even tested their parents' patience a time or two, together.  Growing up together as friends. 

While I sit outside enjoying the cool summer air (being eaten by mosquitoes) I can't help but think about how I too, like M, have to be that brave soul, leaving behind my school friends to spread my wings. I am totally excited about my new venture at work.  I feel fortunate to get the opportunity.  I spend my evenings building skill and knowledge...still old friends are hard to leave.  Old friends know you, you trust them, they get you, you aren't afraid to ask them questions. You know how to have after work fun together--Christmas karaoke and game night (what happens at game night stays at game night). How to make each other laugh-- at work and after work. The girl friend thing! We've all shed our separation tears, boxed up the old place, unboxed at the new place... I've cleaned the old place with new faces, to make the old feel fresh and new. The old place is my new place.  Still. Somehow, there is a comfort in the "old". Knowing how to finish each others sentences. How to complete a task without having to ask for assistance.  There's a forgotten unfamiliar to starting over.  I guess because the "old" had it: friendology!  

So what do girls do when they are about to embark on new adventures?  They spend as much time as they can with the old friends, so never to forget that feeling of comfortable. The trucks are rolling, walls are coming down and going up, but through all the boxes and all the construction we all know...friends never stop being friends.  

So girls, here's to us all. Here's to our new beginnings and our memories of the days. Here's to always being friends!

Turning Into A Bear

I don't know if I can actually constitute myself and King Ralph as being held hostage, since we signed up and attended on our own free will...well it was kind of required: SOAR, aka MSU Orientation.  However folks, when you are told to attend informational meetings from 10am-8pm... let's just call it what it it felt like--hostage! 

Hostage in an ice box. Seriously I think tuition could be reduced by 15% if they cranked the A/C up in the theater alone.  I had arms and legs that looked like a chicken just plucked, and my feet were a couple of blocks of ice.  Hey while we are talking feet... once you have spent 4 hours listening to topic talks about homesickness, student alcohol consumption and smoking pot in your dorm room by filtering it through a toilet paper tube stuffed with dryer sheets... well friends you start staring at the floor. Then you notice people's feet, like the gal next to me who had two full toes and three half toes. And, the two full toes where exactly the ones she needed to wear flip flops successfully.  Then you find yourself, at least King Ralph and I did, wanting to stand up and scream when the fifth person asked the same dumb question about how the Health Center functioned.  Listening ears people, turn them on.  King Ralph was losing it by 6pm, when he started showing me all the tools that make up his Swiss Army knife. (For the record the tooth pick scares me.)  Unlike the mother who sat next to me, and had an hour nap with her bobble head...I stayed awake for every minute of every topic--boring and informational.  

By 830pm we finally made it to the Holiday Inn, where I promptly redeemed by free drink coupon for a glass of white wine, paired with a basket of complimentary popcorn and my bag of trail mix.  Aaaaaahhhh!  Freedom.  The joy of not listening to yet another college topic talk. Then we caught a few z's and did it all again the next day. Donated a few green backs to the bookstore for some Bear wear and hit the road home.

You know what? It was so worth every minute of information overload to see M excited about the choice she made to grow and develope!

To that we all say: Go Bears!

Or.

Maybe we say: Missouri State University here's my wallet, take it all.    

Hey Keeper Where Ya Been?

Keeper: Hey Jodi where ya been?

J: Inside a cardboard box!

Keeper: Really, a cardboard box?

J: Well not actually, I am speaking in figurative term. You see since May I have been packing boxes for the move from school.

Keeper: School? Move?

J: Ya, you know the elementary school has closed up shop and is moving to a new location, with a new name. The new school is absolutely bee-u-tee-ful!

Keeper: So you are going to the new school?

J: Nope I am staying at the old homestead, as it transitions back to into a middle school, after twenty plus years. I am taking a new position.

Keeper: Really, how exciting!

J: I am excited. I have been training, lots. Training so much my new books I bought to read this summer are on the shelf collecting dust.

Keeper: Maybe you can read them on vacation?

J: Yes! That sounds like a plan. Reading under a canopy of trees and singing birds.

Keeper: You taking the house on wheels for that vacation?

J: Yep. King Ralph thought for a minute about not doing so, then the girls said to him "Dad, noooooo! being in the camper is what makes us a family."

Keeper: Wow, that is something.

J: I know, it is like when we go in the camper and take squat in the middle of nature so remote that there is no cell service, no lap tops, no TV....  We connect, like the family that we are. We laugh. We play board games. We play cards. We hike and hike and hike. I am about as excited for vacation as I am for my job.

Keeper: Not to change the subject but what about the BWFs?

J: Oh I know, we cried when our placements were announced. It is hard leaving old friends.

Keeper: You can make new friends.

J: I know...make new friends but keep the old.

Keeper: You're getting all old school Girl Scout leader on me there.

J: LOL

J: Hey I don't mean to end our little conversation, but I have to smell cardboard and packing tape again tomorrow morning...and Friday...and at the old homestead, turned new homestead on Monday. A girl needs her rest to lift boxes and ripe packing tape.

Keeper: Night. Hey, don't stay away so long.

J: Ok. I promise!

(If I never smell the scent of fresh cardboard boxes or hear the sound of packing tape ripping I will live happily ever after!)     

FINALLY!

Some of us will be taking a little break.



Stilts

I tried M's graduation shoes on, the shoes she picked out herself. As King Ralph and I stood in her room staring at the shoes before, I, tried them on, all we could say was "these are stilts!"  You can't even begin to imagine the difficulty it took for me to try to stand in the shoes, let alone think about taking a step. King Ralph helped me keep my balance as I teetered. 

When I look back at M's last 18 years, life has really been about walking on stilts, teetering through life.  If we aren't all walking on stilts then I'd venture to say we aren't really living, navigating and trying to keep balance as we all grow--parent and child. When I take the time to allow for reflection of every little stumble, trip, and wobble in M's growing year; its has been totally worth it.

Although I couldn't, wouldn't even attempt to try to balance in the shoes M wore last night...the shoes she wears most of the time...somehow she just knows how to work'em. Keeping balance. Just as she does in life.

So I say to my M, who was once the cutest little muncher and is now a gorgeous tall young lady... keep wearing those stilts through life and work'em!

Just remember: if you trip or fall while at Missouri State University, just like when you were little, we're here to help you stand up and catch your balance again.

Thank a Teacher

I SENT:
Ladies-
Often high school teachers are looked past by parents; appreciation goes unrecognized.

With that said I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for instilling, molding in Maddi passion and drive, creating for her-- a future goal. Favorite teachers have a special place forever in the heart of a student. Tomorrow as Maddi walks out the doors of LHS moving on with her future, please know you two are that mark on Maddi’s heart.

Thank you for adding to her successses at Lindbergh!


REPLIES:
Thank you for the sweet words. You have raised a lovely young woman who exemplifies what high school should be about. She enjoyed her experience, she tried hard, she was seriously involved...what more could you want. I have loved getting to know and work with Maddi over the last three years. She is a special young lady and will miss her bubbly personality.


Congratulations!

AND
 
Maddi was one of the most wonderful students I have had. She is so bright and has such a caring heart. I can't believe the amount of activities DECA accomplished this year under her leadership! I know she will be successful in her endeavors. I will miss her.

Melancholy, All Because of Monday's Last Lunch

I did it. I really did it. I just packed M’s last lunch for school on a Monday. Sure there is still Tuesday and Wednesday to go; but before I know it the school years will having me packing one lone lunch in a brown sack to send out the door. Sniffle, sniffle.

There will be a bitter sweetness in packing that very last lunch Wednesday morning. For years I have been schlepping around the kitchen early in the morning grabbing this and grabbing that to toss into sacks…well back in the days it was lunch boxes; when they were still cool to carry. Today however I packed a special bakery treat with a special note written on the label. Corny maybe, but that’s me and my girls like that. The world needs more corny. I often oblige and the girls love me for it!

Last lunches make the mind roll back into reflection mode, which is exactly where I aim to go. Bear with me if get a little kumbaya and melancholy.

M, so affectionately nicknamed Maddi Phyl by Princess A. Princess A’s sweet squeaky three year old voice singing out to her new infant sister and playmate--“no-no Maddi Phyl” and it stuck. By fourth grade Mrs. Kunze had nick named you Madders and that stuck too. My little Punky Brewster you came into this world with more hair than I have ever known your father to have. Your skin as red as a hot chili pepper. Your little eyes sunk to your nose. You were then and are still loveable. You could then and still can make me madder than hell, madder than any of your sisters. You let me kiss your cheeks a hundred times to heal your heart when needed and you let my sternness (and daddy’s) teach you life’s tough lessons. Even if it meant serving some time in, what did your friends call your long grounding? Ah, yes, “jail”. At three losing your glasses in a toy box and your wee person response to where the glasses were of, “I dunno” was minor in comparison to the teen shenanigans you tried to pull—but never got away with. Aaaahhh, growing up. Never Easy.

Why did my M need her heart healed with kisses? There were your three eye surgeries. Your last crushed me more than you ever knew and no matter how many times I told you that you God was merely perfecting you, it never helped. You needed that space to be alone to work through it during those formidable teen years, to realize you have the Gift of Mercy. Nothing, nothing I tell you was more heart wrenching then strapping that scoliosis back brace on you and sending you out the door into the world of hallways filled with judgment wearing that dam plastic beast. I smiled at you, encouraged you, hugged and kissed you and then walked to a room to cry my mother’s tears. So when you left for high school on that first day and we struck a deal that you didn’t have to wear that brace-- you referred to as “Helga” (because it must have felt like a stern German grandmother strapped to your back)-- for the day…a little relief was had, if only for a little while. While you left feeling like the ugly duckling I knew your swan-self was in there and you needed to find and believe what we all knew you had buried inside you. By the summer before tenth grade you shed the back brace, the braces on your teeth, your contacts were popped in your eyes and I could hear Paul McCartney singing: blackbird singing in the dead of night take these broken wings and learn to fly all your life you were only waiting for this moment to arise.


I have been your supporter through friendship woes—good and bad. I have been your shoulder to lean on when your heart was broken, reminding you how beautiful you are. I have been your cheerleader when you performed on the fields. I have been here for you as you struggle to say good-bye to high school and hello to the unknown that lies ahead. No matter how stressful it has been switching you back and forth from college choice one to college choice two and back to choice one again…the stress is always worth not allowing you to look back on life and have regret.

So while you left for your first day of high school “feeling” like the ugly duckling, you will walk out those doors of Lindbergh High School on Thursday morning knowing and believing that you are a beautiful swan. Our crowned princess. High school turned out to be …how did Mrs. Yancey put it… you have been very successful in high school and it has been good to you, so saying good-bye is difficult. You showed the world of green and gold your style, your leadership qualities, your loyal friendship, your beauty and your heart. For that it has been a pleasure and a joy watching you become a young woman.

It because of this that I love you unconditionally!

My Maddi Phyl, my Madders.

Love, Mom

Dear Princess A Sorry To Say But There Is New Royality Among Us (and her titled isn't self proclaimed)

Prom.

Finding THE dress on the sale rack of ShaleyBug $52
Dress alterations $30
The perfect shoes $60
Earrings, Necklace, bracelet and clutch $40
Vintage 1950's styled hair $15
Boutonniere with a peacock feather $12
Portion of the limo $56
My girlie looking like a million bucks PRICELESS!
Being crowned a Senior Prom Princess DOUBLE PRICELESS!!

Reason I Haven't Been Blogging

1. spending to much time seeking safety in the basement

2. drawing up plans to build an arc...5 days of rain and the mote around my house is about to overflow

3. menu planning: tea sandwiches, scones and English tea for the royal wedding watching party

4. busy mowing grass between rain drops while wearing wellies
(come to think of it I should probably think about planting a rice field on the side of my house)

5. can probably be found steaming the wrinkles from a prom gown and bedazzling an umbrella to match

I'll be back Sunday with fun prom picks and stories. Till then...  

Not So Much A Good Friday

Yesterday was a day I devoted to scrubbing my frig out, dusting and grocery shopping--dreaming of Ina Garten's Orange Glazed Ham that will grace my Easter feast table...

Most of the day was spent either beating the rain fall, glued to the TV watching "storm mode" or huddling...in of all places Walmart.

Yep huddling in Walmart is what I said!

 I have woke to realize there is no visual effects to being part of a "code black". Which means Walmart locks the doors and instructs its customers that a tornado has been spotted in the area and everyone must gather in the center of the store till an all clear is announced.  Huddling in the center of the store with Walmart mutants is really no fun. They allowed customers to continue shopping which was okay if you were in the market for Huggies diapers, an exersaucer or St. Louis Cardinal paraphernalia; because that is all that was in the center of the huddle zone.  Lucky me the restrooms were in the center cause I needed to pee like a race horse. When I entered the restroom I found around 20 mother and children seeking safety sitting on the nasty bathroom floor, ick! King Ralph moseyed over to electronics to see if the gazillion flat screen TV's were channeled to the weather. [They] "don't turn the TVs to weather in order not to panic the customers". Like a mandated center of the store huddle doesn't ensue panic. Dam, one pre-tween was crying before the wind even started to howl. I don't know about you but hearing my local weatherman tell me Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers came to town this week because they new our area was the hot storm mecca of the week and pointing out the deep red swirled areas on the map is more comforting than a Walmart "code black".  As I stood in the huddle listening to the storm grow in intensity, believing grapefruit size hail was turning my truck into Swiss cheese...turns out there was no hail just the fattest rain drops falling in gallon dumps along with roaring winds.  All this because I wanted some jelly beans.

While King Ralph and I huddled in Walmart we worried about Princess A who was in St. Charles on a party bus celebrating a friend's twenty-first birthday, M at work and D in the city at a restaurant celebrating one of her besties sixteenth birthday. When in "storm mode" mother hen and her rooster want their little chicks close by.  Turns out while our little chicks were fine our communities where hit yet again, neighbors crumbled, airport closed down....  When will this freaky wrath of weather stop? Dear God it's really enough now!  When you can walk away with your life it gives new meaning to Easter blessings.

While yesterday's non-stop storms have passed, birds seem to be singing their morning songs today, we wait...not just for Easter's blessings, its feast of ham, colored eggs and those treasured jelly beans, but MORE STORMS!

(the skies are darking as I type)      

Wordless Wednesday

Lately I've Been Passing The Time Watching The Eagle

Video streaming by Ustream

The Girl Who Changed My Name

Twenty-one years ago I gazed down at this beautiful face

and the beautiful face gazed back at me. 

In that moment I became "mom".

One of many of the happiest days of my life.

Happy Birthday Princess A! 

I love you!!  

Season: Sprinter

Who needs words when a picture tells the whole story--yuck!

Expecting 4 inches.

It's About Celebrating The Life That Was

While I Was Doing Laundry

While I was doing laundry my pilot nephew was busy having just another day at the office.

The best part of this first day of Spring, besides being proud of my nephew, is wearing my sunglasses and flip flops not just because but because the weather becons it.  Grilling ribs and chicken, listening to music on the deck and sipping ginger ale.

I forgot to mention there are 49 days in the school year for me and D. Five days less for M.  Is counting down wrong?  H-E-double-L, NO!   

Soon To Be In The Arms of God

Just like the weather has changed dramatically this week (snow on Monday, 83* today) so has the health of our beloved band director/teacher. The warrior fought a good battle. Sometimes you are called to lay down your weapon and make peace with the beast.   

And so we pray.