Um…hello? Anyone home?

Long time no see. It would figure that just about the time I start meeting new people in blog land and building up my readership a bit I have to take a week off to work a camp. Of course, I could have planned ahead and written my posts in advance…but I gave myself a little summer vacay from writing. Ah well!

So quick recap…last Sunday I packed up & went to work a summer camp in the DFW area. Saw lots of cool sites (Cowboy Stadium*Ripley’s Believe It or Not*Palace of Wax*Stockyards*Amon Carter*Cowgirl Musuem*Sixth Floor Musuem*Botanical Gardens*Bureau of Printing and Engraving*Rangers Stadium), hunt out with some smarty-pants kids, and missed my little family like crazy.

The weekend including catching up on laundry and all of my wifely household tasks, couponing / price matching, and making our food list / grocery shopping list. How do I have time to do all of this stuff when I’m working? I’ve been staying busy all day, pretty much everyday…hum…that could explain why I’m so-stinkin-tired most of the year. 😛

Luckily for me, a girlfriend of mine had invited everyone over for a *Pinterest*Party* (don’t you love those?!) and catching up with everyone was just what I’d been needing. There were lots of yummy treats, crafting, chatting, and plenty of baby holding. Of course, no Pinterest party is complete without mason jars and paper straws. *Love*

That’s what I took. A spritzy/berry summer drink, Moscato cupcakes, and paper straws. Is it weird to say that the drink tasted better through a paper straw? Maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me…

I also had the chance to meet up with my brother & his gf, along with my parents, as they passed through on their way home after their 30th anniversary trip to Las Vegas. (I know, 30 years! In today’s world that is quite an accomplishment…congrats Mom & Dad!) Their trip sounded fabulous…they stayed at what I’m sure would be my favorite hotel in Vegas (the Wynn) and went to a cirque show, which I think is so much fun. What the brotha and I were most interested in hearing about, however, was the Garth Brooks concert they went to.

I’m pretty sure nothing I can say would express how jealous I am over that concert. I may not listen to Garth that much these days, but when I was growing up, Garth was the man around our house. We all loved him. Caleb would dress up like him and sing his songs, strumming his guitar to the concert video we would pop in the VCR for him. Talk bad about Garth and them’s fightin’ words! Needless to say, Caleb and I are growing more and more desperate to see him in concert. Anyone wanna pay our way?!

That brings us to today. I did the dreaded grocery trip (saved around $12…it’s a start I guess) and spent the afternoon at the eye doctor. They dialiated my eyes, which made shopping around for new glasses kinda tricky since it totally messed up my near-sighted vision…I think I was cross-eyed practically the whole time. With that being said, I *think* I picked out a cute new pair of glasses. Guess we’ll see when they come in. *wink*

The rest of my week is going to be filled with crafting, new recipes, shopping, cleaning, mowing, and napping. Gotta tie up all those loose ends before I get back to the grind.

What are you doing this week?

KEEP CALM & SHARE THE GARTH BROOKS LOVE!

Camp One-Up…

Well hello there blog friends! You guts prob haven’t missed me, but I’ve missed you…this week I’ve been posting prewritten posts since I was at camp. So glad to be on my way back! (*note: I am blogging from my iPhone today since I’m currently on a long, boring bus ride home. So please forgive any spelling or random autocorrect mistakes!)

Today’s post is called “camp one-up” because, frankly, that’s where I might as well have been this week. Don’t get me wrong, these kids are great…it’s just that they seem to operate on a greater level of existence than myself. See for yourself…

One entire meal conversation I had was dominated by a girl who was sharing all of her “vacay bloopers.” now to me, this would be the time we hauled boxes to new Mexico to try and slide down the sand dunes with them, only to have them ruined by the rain. Dad driving the wrong way down one-ways in every big city we ever visited (all of which were in Texas by the way.) But to this girl, who was a mere 12 years old, bloopers included little snafus on trips to Hawaii, New York, Costa Rica (which I don’t even know for sure how to spell…), and Ireland. I’ve been one-upped.

Other meals were spent discussing the different camps these kids have visited this summer alone. This was particularly interesting to me, because the camp we were currently on costar each student over $800. One would think that at that price, this would be their only camp…especially for the two sets of twins we had. But no. No of course not. This wouldn’t be camp one-up if that were the case. These kids had been to space camps in alabama, singer/songwriter camps in utah, traditional summer camps that cost over $1000 per week…and had stayed for 2-3 weeks. For most of these kids, this wasnt even their last camp. I mean seriously?! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed some camps back in my day. Lots of church camps, band camp, heck once my parents even took out a loan and sent me to medical camp. But even that ace in my pocket didn’t do the job. Chalk another one up ti one-upped.

I’m assuming that most of you out there went to school for a solid 13 years (k-12). I mean, I did. Those were 13 glorious years for someone like me who loved school. So imagine how little I had to add to the conversation a group of kids were having about which grade levels they had had the option to SKIP and the debate which followed on “to skip or not ti skip.” Can you see why I was becoming numb to being one-upped?

We also worked with a student who registers on the autistic spectrum. He told us (and I believe it) that whereas most people us about 10% of their brain at any given moment, he uses 20%. so now you can join the one-upped club. How does it feel?!

And it just went on and on. Who’s school had the most technology, or the most students. (someone said they graduate around 7,000 every year, but I’m not buying that.) They debated who had been to Disneyland or world the most time (That would be none for me…thanks parents! Jk!) or who’s school had gone where on trips.(I performed in the cotton bowl halftime show one tear for band….for some reason thet weren’t impressed. And in every conversation I was one-upped.

One girl even one-upped me in the shoe department. She too wore a size 11 (poor thing), but she walked around all week in what have become my dream pair of shoes. That one-up felt like a slap in the face.

More on the shoes tomorrow.

A lesser person would be having some pretty extreme self esteem issues after being one-upped all week. But for the most part, I’m still feeling pretty good about myself. I may not be the most well traveled person in the world, but I’ve had plenty of fun and memorable vacations with my fam. I may not be the smartest person ever, but I did well in school and have established a strong career which I love. I may not have spent my summers at camp after camp, but I had plenty of opportunities to meet new people and learn new things. I obviously dont cone from or have as much as a lot of these kids do, but I am rich beyond measure with love and family.

And soon I will have those shoes.

So keep going with your one-up party campers…I’m out. I hope you grow up to realize that although one-upping others can make you feel good for a moment, there is much more joy found in recognizing the blessings that you have & in encouraging others to do the same.

It’s a good lesson for grownups too.

It’s a good lesson for me.

So yall can remind me of that the next time I try to one-up you. 🙂

KEEP CALM & BLESS ON!