Camping, Quadding and Card Making, OH MY!

The last two weeks I have been extremely busy. The week before last we took our first trip to Straddle Line ORV Park. This park is made for off roading with dirt bikes, quads and other vehicles of that type. The girls learned how to drive the quads and Nyah even got to ride. She had so much fun that when dad brought her back she cried when he took her off of the quad. The girls got to bring a friend each and even though we had no hookups we still had a great time. The girls all rode and drove and when they weren't playing on the quads then dad was. I tested it out once and Gary, Nyah and I went for a short stroll on the trails, but when I wasn't riding or watching Nyah....I was card making for our troops.

Everyone had so much fun that we had to go back again. So for two weekends in a row we were camping and quading. This time Taylor and Leanna went with us and brought there new trailer. Looks like we have many more weekends of fun ahead.

If you look really close at the picture with Veta (my little mamma) and Kayla ( my princess of darkness) you can see that Kayla is smiling and having a good time. We don't get to see that very often with the princess since she is at the age where mom and dad have the plague. It is a very nice thing to see.

Totally For Troops

I have been busy making cards for our soldiers. There is an organization here in Washington that will collect hand made cards and make sure they get to our troops over seas so that they have cards to send home to loved ones. You can find their website here http://www.totally4troops.org/ .

They do have some rules such as no metal. ACK! no eyelets, no charms, no brads, oh my. So I will be blinging mine with lots of glitter. I am going to try to use my scraps as much as I can to make cards. I am also using stickers and items I probably wouldn't use on a page, but look really nice on cards. I have tons of cardstock pre-cut from my Stampin Up days that I will be using up. I have probably made about 30 cards or so. It feels really good to be able to give back to the men and women who insure that we live in a free country.

Give it a try if you have lots of scraps and paper just sitting around. Here is a picture of just a few of the cards I have made.

Let Freedom Ring!

We weren't really sure what we were going to do this 4th. I really wasn't looking forward to walking a whole lot. I did want to go and see the Tall ships which I miss every year. By the time the late morning/early afternoon rolled around we decided to head down to the Freedom Fair on Ruston Way with Taylor and Leanna.

We met up with Tracy and his son when we got down there. Tracy is one of Gary's friends from the gym and he is also an police officer for one of our local cities. We hung out at the beer garden for a while. Taylor nor I drank but the music was fun. Nyah was loving the dance floor. The beer garden was hosted by the Ram restaurant so we were lucky to spy a table later that evening that was empty outside and Gary sweetalked the host into letting us have it. We grabbed our table and ordered some dinner. It was great, we had to weight a long time for the food because they were jam packed but our food came out before the fireworks show and the the fireworks started. Other than the outdoor light from the deck over the water, we had an awesome view of the fireworks. Nyah was afraid of them and went from person to person for comfort. I didn't have batteries for my camera. I was going to buy some on the way down but totally spaced and then couldn't find any when we got there.

We went home after the show and I dug out some REALLY old sparklers that I had found in my scrapbook room while organizing. A few of them fizzled out but a couple put on a nice glow.

"When are you due?"

Ok, so I am tired of being asked if I am pregnant. I have gained some weight I know and if I don't suck it in I also know that I do look like I am about 6 months pregnant. I can't use the excuse "I just had a baby" because my baby is now a year and a half old.

I developed a condition while I was pregnant with Nyah called Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction. I had to have physical therapy for it which really didn't help much. I could barely get out of bed without help and couldn't lift my leg to shave or put my pants on. I still suffer from the issue and because of it can't walk for far distances or still push anything heavy aside with my foot.

I have discovered that I can ride a bike without aggravating the issue. So I decided I was going to buy a bike and ride to work each day. At first Gary didn't like the idea because I was going to ride to the day care with Nyah in a trolley cart behind me, drop her off and then continue on to work. He thought that was too dangerous. Now I realize that his saying no was a good thing because as I ride to work (he takes Nyah to day care and then I ride home and get the car to pick her up after work) the "little hills" that I take for granted and didn't even really know existed have turned into mountains! Right now, I have to get off my bike and walk up the hills. My leg muscles burn and my but hurts from the seat. In a couple of weeks I am sure I will be able to bike all the way to work without getting off to walk.

I am only on my second day of riding my bike to work....although it is only my second day I feel awesome and would break my arm patting my self on the back. I am hoping to loose weight, not be so tired and look like a model when the summer is over.