RazNoggle

Hey fans!  Last night we had a great dinner with the staff at the Olive Garden!  I ate way more than was good for me, but I enjoyed every bite!  Qade did well.  I was thinking that he would struggle being in a high chair after having been in his car seat all day, but he was remarkably patient.  We all had a good night’s sleep and woke up bright and early to get on the road this morning.  We had been warned that there was construction in our path and we wanted to get through it as early as possible.  A very scary thing happened while I was trying to get Qade in his seat this morning.  One of his buckles was all wacky and twisted, I have NO CLUE how it got that way, but I had to move him to try to get it straight, so I set him on the seat next to me, and he lost his balance and took a head dive right out the door of the Yukon!  I screamed and grabbed for him, and caught him by the seat of his shorts, literally!  I hauled him back in and we hugged as he calmed down from his fright and I calmed down from mine!  It was one of the scariest moments of my life I think.  Still it was obvious that God was watching over us and my “lightning reflexes” were working.  Wow!  My mind could drive me crazy with the ‘what if’s” of life, but I know that there’s no use borrowing trouble.  I’m just glad that we didn’t have an accident today!

We’re supposed to make it all the way back to camp in Alpine tonight.  It’s going to be a long day.  Actually kind feels long already, but I think that we’re making good time.  I’m just more than ready to get back and be home.  It might be awhile yet before we’re “normal” as we have to get the cat and the dog and get the house in order, but at least we’ll be back.  I ordered a vacuum from Sears that should do a great job of cleaning our floors.  I don’t want Qade to come across any mouse ick while he’s playing and exploring.  Blah!

Well, I shall sign off for now before I loose internet access.  Happy Monday to you all!

Well, we’re here sure enough, eh?  We all arrived safe and sound in Alberta, even had some good experiences at the border.  As in the agent we spoke to actually smiled this time!  Wow!!  Everyone got more or less settled in on Wednesday evening, and then the storms rolled in.  There are some terrific thunder, lightning, and sometimes even hail storms out here on the planes.  Well, we were snug enough in our camper, though the hail did get a little bit loud at times.  It was big though, last year we had golf ball sized hail, now that was scary!!!  Anyway, it decided to keep on raining all through Thursday when we were supposed to be unpacking camp.  To ease the boardom of the day some of the guys hauled a basket ball goal into the big room in the building where they played some pretty intense basketball apparently.  I had just brought Qade down to the kitchen to roam around a bit before lunch when it walked Stuart with blood all down his neck and all over his shirt.  That was not a happy sight, but I didn’t panic because I realised it was from a little gash in his head and it always looks worse than it is.  Still…    I ended up taking him into a town not too terribly far from here, and we only had to go to 3 clinics till we found somplace available and afordable.  The first place was booked, the second wanted $500 just because we were out of country and another $200 for the stitches.  The third place was friendly, afordable, and fast!  Wow!  So Stu got his first stitches ever for the about inch and a half gash over his eyebrow, and I got a trip to town with my hubby, and Starbucks out of the deal.   All’s well that ends well, huh?

The staff had a trip to Banff planned for Saturday, and we were looking forward to going and getting lots of great pics with our new camera.  Life had other plans though, and on Friday I was smitten with one of the worst migranes I’ve had in a LONG time!  It actually got bad somtime around 1 or 2 am on  Saturday, and I thought I was gonna die!  You may think that’s dramatic, but when there’s a pain that sevear in your head, you just can’t get away from it.  Stuart was a great help to me.  Marriage is awesome!  You get to live with your best friend ever, and that person cares so much about you that they are willing to sacrifice their own comfort to help you if they can.  He got up with me, and stayed up for a long time just rubbing my neck and head till I could finally relax.  Poor hubby!  His own head still hurt from the elbow incident, so his sacrifice of sleep really did mean a lot to me.  Makes me feel so loved!!  But anyway, the point was, I was in no shape to have an outing the next day so we hung out at camp, just the little Noggle clan.  It was a good day even if my head still was hurting.  At least it was no where near as bad!

That next night I took Nyquil, ha, should have known better.  I took a full dose too, and I did know better!  I slept like a rock and was totally “hung over” all of Sunday.  Good grief!  NEVER again!  I felt so completely stupid, and I’m sure I came across as less than all there.  *sigh*  Oh well, for sure the next time I’ll know better.

The campers came today, and we have a record number for Camp on Wheels ever!!!  They are highly energized and I just know it’s going to be a great week.  Jim Shettler is the speaker this week, and I’m looking forward to sitting in on a couple of the services.  Qade has been great!  He loves Canada, I think, and he’s really tight with some of the staff.  He’ll have to adjust to just Mom and Dad again once we get home.  I’m afraid we’ll be boring compared to the energetic college kids, but maybe Qade won’t mind.  Pretty soon he’ll have a lil bro anyway, and won’t give it a second though.  Speaking of little brother, he has been quite active lately, and his “pats” are becoming much more forceful.   We’re very excited that in about 3 months we’ll get to meet this new little one.

Okay, I’m going to try to post this, but who knows if it will, cause the internet out here is very patchy!

Happy fourth of July!!  We just found out today from our resident volunteer fire dude that there will be fireworks tomorrow night in Alpine!!!  Woo-hoo!  I was thinking that we’d have to do without them again this year, but happy day, I was wrong!  We’ve got a great weekend planned even though it’s going to be busy!  The jr. campers left today after lunch and the staff has been hecticly busy since then trying to get the camp cleaned and packed for the trip to Canada.  I have been working in the store getting stuff packed into different bins for storage and shipping.  We’ll be taking some of the stuff along with us to sell to the campers up north, but other of it needed to be in plastics to avoid rats getting into it.  Then this afternoon Stu and I worked in there to get the “staff surprise” ready for them.  It’s fun to do specail things for people, ya know?  Even if it is simple, it’s still cool!  Anyway, so they’ll get to have that this afternoon/evening when most of the work is done.  THEN tomorrow the real fun begins.  We’ll probably use the morning hours to wrap up most of the packing/cleaning, but then after lunch we are taking the staff to a Rodeo!!  Those are just way fun!!  We’ll do that in the afternoon, and then we are planning to grill these fabulous steaks for a yum-yummy dinner and THEN, as if it couldn’t get better, we will get to see the fireworks!!  It’s going to be a late night, but I want to take Bubba anyway.  He needs to experience some fireworks for sure!  Today he is wearing his little red, white and blue USA outfit.  It’s very cute.  He even got watermellon juice on it at lunch, and if that’s not a sign of the 4th, I don’t know what is.   So enjoy your holiday and your independence too!

I’ve been told that I need to update my blog.  Not for lack of want to has it sat idle all this time.  Last week was CRRRRAAAAAAZY!  We had teen camp, and it went really well, but we were just all very very busy!  Stuart was running like mad from sun up till late at night.  I think he’s paying a bit for it now though, cause it might be catching a cold.   Today started our jr. camp week, and it is too much fun to see these little itty bitty campers arrive so excited about being up in the mountains for camp!  The energy they exude is just amazing!!  I think we have a really good group, and the counselors are going to have a blast with these kids!

Qade has been doing great! He did get his shot last week, and so far hasn’t had any ill effects.  They say that they can get flu like symptoms about a week after, but he’s been doing okay so far.  He had a great time last week with his grandparents for sure!  He’s become quite the jabber bug as well, and talks to everyone and anyone about everything!  It’s hysterical because his vocal inflections are so conversational, and you just know that he’s telling you “something” but his words are just nonsense.   I laugh a lot about it!  As far as real words go, his newest are “uh” for up, and “daw” for down, and he signs with them as well.  He also now says “Uh-oh” when something gets dropped (0r thrown) on the floor.  The other day he had his hand on a “no-no” door that he’s not supposed to open, and he would shake his head “no” and say “uh-uh.”  It was then that I realized that I often follow up “no-no” with a head shake and an uh-uh.   At least he’s getting it!  Qade has made good buddies with  most of the summer staff.  It’s pretty funny to watch him interact with them.  He’s quite the mimic too, and that’s scary in some ways.  It just makes you realize that you have to be so careful who your kids get to “hang out” with, because they will become like the people they are most with.

Well, camp is sure to be exciting this week.  I’ll get to see the campers when I’m in the store, but I also need to be thinking about packing up for our trip to Canada.  We’ll be taking up some of the store stuff with us, so I need to get that packed along with our personal stuff.  Qade and I will be having a trip home this week too, because I have a Doctor visit to squeeze in before we leave the country.   Should be a good time.  This weekend we’re going to have fun with the staff by taking them to a rodeo and having a fabulous steak dinner as well!  We (the full time staff) got a staff gift for everyone that we’re sure they will love too!!  Gonna be fun!  So anyway, even if you can’t be having as much fun as we are, have as much fun as you can!!!  Toodles!

Today campers arrive for our second teen week at camp.  The work week went well, and a lot was accomplished, but I think we’re all ready to have campers again.  Last night me and some helpers got the store/snackshop ready to run.  I have to say that I’ve been sadly disappointed with the company that we ordered stuff from for our store.  In the first place, NONE of it was here on time.  Once it did start arriving, after camp had already started, the orders were printed wrong, and so were unusable!  We finally got the imprinted waterbottles and will be selling those this week, but still no sign of the latte mugs that I was so excited about, and the sweatshirts were wrong and haven’t been replaced yet.  It’s been a disaster!!  I suppose it’s a learning experience, but the main thing that I have learned is to NEVER order from this company again!

Qade is bound to have fun this week.  His grandparents are coming up with their teen group as sponsors.  His Uncle James and Aunt Joy will be here too.  Let the spoiling commence!!  I happen to know that they are bringing black “Aussie” licorice and some vianna sausages just because Qade likes them.  Maybe if I’m a good mommy Qade will share some licorice with me!

Tomorrow I have to take Qade to town to get his shot.  It’s the MMR and I’m dreading this one.  I’ve read enough and been reasured by the nurses (Qade’s doc doesn’t cout, she was so rude aobut it when I asked her questions that I’m going to change his doctor!!) that this immunization is safe, but it still bothers me for some reason.  Besides that I’m sure it’s going to make Bubba unhappy for a couple days, and I hate to do that during camp, but this is really the last chance I’ll have before we head to Canada, and Stuart would like it done.  So, pray for me and Bubba tomorrow.  Maybe having the grandparents here will help counter the ill effects of the shot.

Y’all enjoy your week!

Well, last night I was pretty much out of steam.  Good thing it was Friday.  Yesterday Qade started to feel bad and he had a fever and just seemed miserable.  So we made it an early night for him.  I tried to stay up till Stu got back, but I figured he was tied up with some of the last minute camp issues.  Eventually I took my tired brain to bed, and slept pretty well last night.  Stu and I have switched sides in the bed.  He’s now sleeping on the ‘hilly’ side, just to help me get a more comfy night’s sleep.  Isn’t he the best?!  I sure think so!  Anyway, this morning, I still had a hard time getting up and I could tell by Bubba’s voice that he was still not feeling good.  Sure enough his temp was back up and he was miserable, poor baby!  I took him to our bed, which is usually fun and games, and he just laid there and cried.  I felt so bad for him.  He and I didn’t go down to camp for breakfast, so we didn’t see the campers off, but that’s okay.  We needed some rest time.  Qade, and I, took a mid morning nap in the big bed and he woke up feeling somewhat better.  He was still fussy, but he didn’t seem as hot and after a little bit even played some.   Good sign.  Stuart had to go to the new property with the guys this afternoon to do “stuff.”  I miss him.  Seems like it’s been hit and miss, more miss, as far as seeing each other this week.  Next week will be better I think.  At least we have a Dr. apt on Wednesday that we get to go to together.  I just hope poor Bubby get’s feeling better soon.  I hate it when he’s down.  Makes me feel pretty helpless.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!