Mammoth Cave Camping Trip Day 1

Ever since our last camping trip, we had been talking about our next one. Joy really wanted to visit Mammoth Cave and so that is where we headed for our next camping trip.

Thomas and I took Friday off and headed out. It is about a 3 hour drive and by the time we got moving, we were ready for lunch before we got into Mammoth Cave. So, after stopping for lunch it was time to get to the park.

Here are the boys at the entrance to the park (Tapanga got sick yesterday and ended up staying with Mike and Diann for the weekend). While setting up, Gwen started chasing Tanner around with a big stick. He loved it!

Tyler and the girls playing on the fence.

After setting up we played a game of keep away with the kids.

After setting up we were ready to go exploring and made it as far as the store, when a down pour came! So to wait out the time we bought the kids some push ups to munch on!

We walked back to our campsite in a light drizzle and waited it out in the tent, the kids though played in the rain.After the rain ended, we set out again to go exploring and came across the Mammoth Cave train.

The kids enjoyed looking over the bridge near the visitors center.

While walking Tyler and Fiona held hands...very cute. Tyler is such a ladies man.

On the way back to the campsite we came across the amphitheater where we let the kids put on a show.Joy wanted us to put on a show for the kids, so here we are, Joy cheerleading and me playing the air guitar. We can be a little silly sometimes!

It is time to cook dinner! Thomas worked on cooking the burgers while Tanner and I watched.

Melissa even got into the cooking!

Joy cooked the dogs for the kids.

The kids made a worm habitat for a worm that they found.

After eating we enjoyed some relaxed time together.

Of course, we can't camp without s'mores!

Eric also made Jiffy Pop over the fire, which turned out ok.

Thomas and the boys relaxing.

Even though we had to put up with a little bit of rain, we have enjoyed our first day and night camping again!

Court Case

I have already mentioned how I was thinking of taking a local photographer to court for Tapangas 1st birthday pictures. Well on May 12, I did. I am surprised that I managed to do it...I don't like confrontation and this would be major confrontation, but I really wanted the pictures.

I consulted numerous people before making sure I really had a case. I spent hours printing and organizing the email communications, looking for receipts and just putting the case together in my head.

So, it is finally the court date. Thomas takes the day off to go with me and we pick up Diann on the way. When we get to the court house we go up to courtroom 209. I had never been to court, so it was really interesting to watch all these people coming in. More and more kept coming, until the room is full with standing room only. Then "all rise for the honorable Judge Shelton."

He comes in and starts to chew out someone standing on the side! Something about he was tired of paperwork being brought in the day before the court date or something, but he is yelling at this women. I don't think he is having a good day! The judge then calls out certain cases that do not have lawyers present to send to another room, ours is one of these. We go to the other room and wait...for what not quite sure but...?

Eventually, Judge Shelton comes in only after visiting with someone in the hallway. He goes through a series of cases involving renters. One case involving a dog being attacked and a couple others. Finally, we get called up...the last case to be heard.

I go through my points, mentioning the numerous contacts and the time frame. Her lack of following through. Mentioned the emails numerous times, but the Judge NEVER looked at them! Next, it was her turn. She talked about her business and how she has this gift for me. She also mentions how she thinks I am treating her like a photo studio at Walmart. She pulls out examples of her work to show the judge.

I tried 3 times to get the Judge to hear me on how she, the photographer, said she was going to get me these pictures and how she would never tell me how much to pay her. It was very frustrating! The Judge then says, "it sounds to me like you do not have a contract, is this right." Well not a written contract no. This communication is not a contract, "a contract is a written form signed by the two parties in question." He then says something to her about her "gift". And says "I cannot make a judgement, there is no case here."

WHAT! No case? How in the world? A so called professional photographer promised certain things in writing and never followed through? I will never be able to go back and redo this time in Tapangas life, never! To say the least it was pretty devastating to me. I broke down. I tried to be strong, but as I already mentioned I don't like confrontation to begin with. It made me physically sick.

It is now a few days later and I am ok with it, because there is nothing I can do. I think the Judge was wrong, I know the photographer was wrong, but there is nothing I can do. That is life I guess.

Pie in the Face

Nine years! Nine years...I have been teaching for nine years and in all this time I have missed some of the fun experiences...until now! A few months ago I was approached by a couple students asking if I would volunteer to be the #3 teacher on the list to get pied in the face. I questioned this and was told I would get pied only if the other two ahead of me backed out, so I said ok.

Mr. Blades class won the fundraising and instead of following the original guidelines they decided to vote and guess who won! Maybe its because they just really enjoy my class or me? Maybe they thought I would be the most fun! Who knows but its me!

Actually, I heard that the vote was really close between me and Mr. Schulte (the science teacher) so I brought him along on this gig. Three pies, he can take one!

Three students were selected from the winning class to pie the teachers, two of which had me for math and the other one did not. I made sure to get goggles for this, because I didn't want to get pie in my eyes, especially since I heard it stings!

It was a really weird experience to know that someone was about to get you with a pie. The first one I was expecting and wham in my face it went. Even though I had goggles on, I closed my eyes in preparation of the hit. So after the hit, I opened my eyes and it was weird not being able to see and then to have pie up your nose and everywhere else...!

After the first hit, the kids were talking and I didn't know if I was getting the second hit or if Mr. Schulte was so I start to ask and BAHM! Hit again, this time not only is it everywhere, but its also in my mouth! It didn't taste very good!

I tried to be a good sport, but I was so ready to get cleaned up! I smelled sour milk all day...YUCK! I will have to think about agreeing to this type of thing in the future!

Mothers Day

For Mothers Day, Thomas had the kids make me heart decorations for a planter. He let Tanner and Tyler help cut them out, but then the kids got to paint them themselves. Tapanga painted hers pink, Tyler red and Tanner white. Then they placed them in a plant for me.

The kids like to make things and I think they really enjoyed making these hearts for me. They were definitely proud to show it off that morning.

I got to be really lazy on Mothers Day, but Thomas took the kids out to fly kites and I did go out and watch for a few minutes. This was a lot of fun for the kids, especially Tanner.

Thomas is so wonderful, he let me be lazy and I greatly appreciate that, but he also included some fun into my day!

5 year check up

When I called to make the boys 5 year old appointment I originally got April 21st as the date. Unfortunately, this was my math competition day so I had to call and reschedule, when I did this I was told the boys had to have to different appointment times. At first I wasn't very happy about this, but warmed up to it pretty quickly. I would be able to spend some quality time with each boy and maybe do something else special.

So Tyler's appointment was first at 9:30 in the morning. My original plan was to grab some breakfast with him before his appointment time, but traffic was awful! This was right after the flooding roads were still closed and there was only one way into downtown, so traffic was BAD! Luckily, I brought some breakfast with us just in case!

So, Tyler and I were a little early, but we did have to fill out the paperwork. As part of the paperwork I had to ask Tyler certain questions. One of the things he had to do was draw a picture, which I thought was pretty funny. Look at his picture, I labeled it so that the doctor would know what those pieces were. Notice he included the brain and heart and then he mentioned that his little boy needed a haircut and was wearing mittens. What imagination!The boys have always been small for their age and this time it was no different! Tyler weighed in at 38 pounds and was 41 3/4 inches tall, which is under the 20th percent.

Tyler was embarrassed about having to undress in front of the nurse! He also kept asking if he was going have to get shots and that he didn't want to get any shots! Of course, after seeing Dr. Roads I learned he was going to have to get 4 shots and a finger prick! Poor baby! When Tyler saw the nurse come in with the shots he hid under the table and I had to actually go get him! And during the shots he kept saying, "Please stop, please!" But he made it through and is now ready for Kindergarten!

By the time Tyler and I finished up, I had just enough time to run him to daycare and get Tanner. It took me a little less time than anticipated, so Tyler and I ran to McDonalds for some lunch. I think he enjoyed this time with me! I asked him if he was going to tell Tanner about the shots and he said, "No way!"

Tanner had eaten lunch at daycare, but they had some things he doesn't like. So I ran through the drive through with him, plus he wanted a "car like Tyler".

Tanners picture was different, he asked me if he should draw a girl or a boy. I told him a girl so this is what he drew...a girl with really BIG hair! Tanner was the same height as Tyler, but weighed more at 39.5 pounds. He kept asking about shots and I would ask him if Tyler said something about shots and he said no, but...?

Tanner ran when he saw the nurse come in with the shots! He to was very upset about the shots and kept saying, "Stop, please, no more!" Dr. Roads came back in after Tanners shots and said, "Well they can scream, but they sure are polite...both asked to stop please!"

Tanner complained for days about the shots, saying his legs hurt and he couldn't walk! Both boys are excited about starting school and this was just one last hurdle to jump to get there!

The big red box!

I recently received an email from the Mickey Moms Club about hosting a "What will you celebrate?" house party. Of course, I applied and one day a big red box was on my door step....I got the party! The package included some really great items to share with my guests all I had to do was figure out when to host the party!

We had planned to have the party one evening, but then the floods happened and school was canceled, so I asked everyone if they would be ok with doing our party during the day around lunch time...this worked out really well!

Tons of balloons were in the package, so I had Thomas blow some up to put around and we sent a bunch home with each family!Another part of the party pack included recipes to make and serve at our party...I followed some, but I also went to their website and found others to incorporate as well!

These are pretzel pizzas, to make them we used pizza dough and cut it into strips where we rolled in pepperonis and then rolled it up...Thomas made a few of them into actual pretzel shapes, but these were hard to make.

Our punch was Fizzy Delight, made up of Hawaiian Punch, pineapple juice, frozen orange juice, and ginger ale...it was yummy!I also made a fruit dish following the Fab Five Fruit Cups, we used bananas, strawberries, and apples. Then mixed in some vanilla yogurt, granola crisps and sprinkled with coconut...this was very good also!

I tried to draw the Mickey head on the cupcakes...some looked ok, but they all tasted great!All of the kids got to make their own Mighty Mickey pizzas. Each was given an English muffin where they put on the sauce and then chose their own toppings from ham, pepperoni, olives, green pepper, pineapple and of course cheese! I think all of the kids really enjoyed this!

While the pizzas cooked we played one of the games sent with the package...Disney Bingo! Each child was given a board with the parks, hotels, characters and more and then we would draw a slip and call it out, the kids did a great job playing and had a lot of fun!

Pizzas are ready!

After eating, we made the Disney Wish Maker Craft. This craft was also sent in the package and was printed on thick, colorful paper. The kids enjoyed the finger craft/game.

The adults answered the questions on the trivia cards and Laura impersonated Captain Hook! :)Tyler, Tanner and one of the Richards' boys participated in a sword/saber fight.

As always, any reason to get together with friends is great and to have a party package to share with them is even greater! Thanks Disney for the package and thanks to all our friends for coming and celebrating friendship with us!