babyblog

1st weekend away in Caravan

So we arrived in Moses Lake - allegedly a popular vacation destination - to discover our supposedly great camp site (according to their website) was BESIDE THE FREEWAY and all of the caravans were sardined together with inches between them. Nearly everyone there drove a falling apart PICK UP TRUCK, most had TATTOOS, most SMOKED, all SHOUTED and SCREAMED at each other, and all DRANK heavily while sitting in their chairs outside their camper BESIDE THE FREEWAY.

There were also tons of half dead old people in ginormous RV's. They all looked really miserable. They probably were really miserable if that's what retirement has to offer them.

Is this the type of person we can expect to camp beside in future? Is this what camp sites are like???? IF SO I AM NOT GOING AGAIN.

The landscape of the place we went, was hideous - mostly desert brush type stuff. This place was allegedly an 'oasis' but it was just ugly with tumbleweeds blowing around and a lake with alternatively houses and nasty trailer parks beside it.

The local family restaurant was a real treat. We went there for dinner & half way through our meal the waitress went home and nobody else came over. We sat like idiots for about 30 mins wondering why nobody was coming before finally asking. It took them 10 mins to work out that she'd gone and another 10 to find someone to take our order for dessert. The dessert came and I had to ask that they remove the dirty dinner plates otherwise they clearly planned on leaving them on the table. Unfortunately we also went back there for breakfast this morning and had a very similar experience, this time they decided we didn't need cutlery.

The only real store WITHIN 200 MILES was WalMart. HOW do people live in places where that's all there is in 200 miles?? No wonder Religion is big in rural USA, I'd want to believe there is something better when I die too.

Anyway our Caravan was so nice and if we could ignore the surroundings we enjoyed getting away and spending time together. The kids loved it. I enjoyed playing mini-house and barbecuing and having cooked breakfasts, it was nice! We managed to take the kids boating, swimming, to a water park, 10 pin bowling, and let them play outside loads. They had a blast.

Until, that is, we got home. We got the Caravan back over the mountains without event and I went down the drive to move the other vehicles out of the way so that G could reverse the Caravan and park it. I moved the one car then went back to move G's nasty old pick up truck which was parked in the Caravan space while we were away. Wouldn't start. G came down and discovered that someone had tried to steal it and bust it in the process. WHO WOULD WANT TO STEAL SUCH A THING? It's so horrid it would have fit in nicely on the campsite. Also why go for that not the minivan? And in a neighbourhood with practically zero crime, this strikes me as VERY ODD. I guess now we have the caravan it's easy to see we're away, but there were 2 cars parked in the drive still - someone could have been there. And actually the caravan is barely visible from the drive..... so it would have to be someone VERY LOCAL...... perhaps someone who is pissed off that we have parked the caravan there & tried to make life difficult for us to return it? A neighbour with a grudge perhaps?

Anyway - the truck was towed off to be fixed and the caravan is back in position. I have booked a ton of future trips including 2 weeks in California in July - hoorah! I have learned my lesson in the type of site I need to book...... avoid the 'RV' sites..... go for the state parks or KOA sites ,they are nicer, quieter, private!

Oh Crap

Yesterday Tabitha was really grizzly. Today she was even more grizzly. I had 3210983109328 errands to run today but I figured maybe I would take her to the Pediatrician * just in case * she was getting an ear infection seeing as we have a 4 day weekend away as of tomorrow.

I popped out to Nordstrom 1st thing to get Dylan some shoes, then came back via the Ped. Explained that I was no doubt being overly paranoid - a result of the RSV she had I worry too much - and he had a look and discovered a double ear infection :-( Then he listened to her chest and diagnosed a 'wheeze' too.

Because of the RSV she's potentially at risk for chest issues / asthma so he gave her some Albuterol (steroid inhaler) and had us wait 20 minutes to see if it helped. It didn't, but apparently that is a good thing - it means the wheeze is a result of the virus not asthma.

Anyway - she now has antibiotics. I asked about the tubes in her ears but he said because this latest one is some time after the previous ones it doesn't automatically mean tubes. I have mixed feelings because I don't want her to keep getting these ear infections and I think she maybe ought to have them, but at the same time I don't want her having surgery.

Anyway - as a result of this I was late to take Harry to school and still had 129348012938 errands plus Tab was NOT loving being out & about. Rushed home, force fed Harry in 10 minutes flat, got to school 20 mins late, then drove through McDonalds to grab myself something in desperation ...... got to the window and discovered NO CREDIT CARD. GONE. Pulled over & searched the car but it was nowhere. I think Nordstrom failed to give it back to me. Called Nordstrom - they denied seeing it, fuckers. Called bank & cancelled it. Drove to branch and got given a new one (thankfully so easy to do). Did rest of errands, much to Tab's disgust.

Since getting home have worked like a dog getting Caravan loaded up ready for weekend...... now G is finishing off the manly tasks to do with electric and gas, and we'll be off in the morning, sick baby and all.

2 Harry-ism's today

Harry came out with 2 classics today.

"H A R R Y does not spell TABFER" - noticing his sister playing with a toy with his name on.

"I got green shit all over the silver car" - referring to an ice cream he spilled in our old minivan. When (after much laughter) I told him not to use the bad word, he replied "my daddy said it", quite positive that it was perfectly OK.

Woe

Dad has gone home :-( So sad.

It's been so amazing to have company, to have help, to not be struggling on my own day in day out with the kids...... and to have his fab company for 10 days straight.

Dylan and I sobbed our way home from the airport. When we got home Harry (who had been to cub scouts with G) said 'Where's Grandad? I want Grandad back'

HOT

OMG it's HOT all of a sudden!!! Yesterday was over 100 degrees F... today it's getting up there too! We took the kids to Remlinger Farm yesterday and it was really too hot to enjoy it - we all felt sick with the heat!
Today we've been clearing up the weed beds and getting the drive way ready for the caravan - G and Dad are going to attempt to park it here at the house shortly. I predict swearing and shouting.

Illness

Harry caught a nasty cough / virus last week which made him cough so hard he threw up..... he's still snotty and fragile. Dad then caught it. I then caught it. Now Tab has caught it.... arghh.

Lack of updates

Due to Dad visiting and being a bit busy plus RSI really bugging me at the moment.

Life is good. Bought the RV/Caravan, yay. It is sitting in a storage place 15 mins away from home until G gets some practise at reversing it !! We go away for the first time next w/e and I can't wait........ working on buying all the bits & bobs that we need to go in it!

Click the pic for more photo's.

Tab is well, bum shuffling around and going from sitting to her belly..... still not properly crawling but getting there. Slowly detoxing the dairy from her system and things seem a little bit better on the constipation front. Not great, but she's not so uncomfortable and things are improving.

Dylan appeared in 'High School Musical' yesterday - SO PROUD OF HIM. It was excellent. Will attempt to upload video & photo's at some point. Zac Efron in the making there!

Harry is an Imp! Loving having his Grandad here despite having a nasty cough and cold.... having a fine time playing 'Grandadbusters' -a game they've invented!

RV Shopping

So we're becoming rednecks and buying a "Travel Trailer" for the Americans reading this ....... "Caravan" to you Brits.

It's hard to go on holiday with 3 kids - well it's not hard, but it's expensive. We really need 2 hotel rooms now going anywhere which means $$$$. Let alone flights anywhere.

We've also always enjoyed going away for weekends in the past but that's become more problematic since Tab was born - again from a logistical and financial perspective.

I have good memories of caravan holidays as a kid and I think our kids will LOVE it.... there are a million billion campsites within a few hours of here on beaches, on lakes, in mountains etc. It's also not quite like it was when we were kids - you now have all the electrics, water, waste!, tv, etc hooked up from the park that you go to...... the caravans are HUGE in comparison...etc.

We have found one with a bedroom one end which has 4 bunks - perfect for the kids. There is an adult bed the other end plus loads of dining / sitting space etc.

Got to figure out if we can park the thing on our drive now before we take the plunge!!

Where did katie.com go?

To answer all the queries in one place.... the short answer is, I sold it.

The longer answer is complicated, but basically I haven't really used it properly since the book situation happened. It is only very recently, some years after the whole debacle, that I felt safe enough to put my personal content on the front page and I was quite apprehensive of doing so at all.

I hadn't even used it for email in years because of my inbox being flooded with junk and spam and stories of rape.

It's weird though. Some part of my online identity is tied to that situation, like it or not, because it was such a big deal. I 'fought the good fight' for it and I feel some sense of achievement in that. But at the same time, it interfered with my enjoyment of using Katie.com for the purpose it was intended. However proud I felt to own a first name .com it was always marred by the book thing.

It's bittersweet to give it up.

We have movement!

Tab decided yesterday that it was time to learn to crawl -completely out of the blue! She goes backwards! I don't think it'll be long before she goes forwards though...... babyproofing HERE WE COME. OMG this house is a baby nightmare in terms of small chokable dangerous things....arghhh.