The Adventures of Big Dog & Little Dog

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Hello Muddah, hello Faddah

It's a right of passage... sending your kids off to camp. I never attended camp when I was growing up, but I was a camp counselor for two summers. It was a lot of fun and it's a great summer job for teenagers too. When I sent my daughter to camp, she didn't have any worries because her best friend went with her. She had a blast. This summer I sent my twin 8 year old boys to their first overnight camp. Joe didn't have any hesitation to go to an overnight camp. Jake, on the other hand, started to worry when he found out he was going to be in a different cabin than Joe. I told him that two other boys that we know were going to be in his cabin, but that didn't seem to make things better. The camp directors told me they usually split up siblings unless the parents request them to be together. I said that was fine. I like for my boys to be separated since they spend so much time together anyway. I told Jake everything would be fine, that he would still see Joe during the day, then I kissed him goodbye and drove back home wondering if I had done the right thing.

You see, I am a recovering Catholic. And I still have major Catholic guilt. You can take the girl out of the Catholic church, but you can't take the Catholic church out of the girl! So the guilt set in. And I worried. And I worried some more. I sent both Jake & Joe email letters each day with a happy, positive attitude. Then the guilt started to fade away. When I went to go pick them up, they were fine. I told Jake it was time to leave and he said hold on, then he went and hugged his counselors goodbye. They both said they had a good time and that they wanted to do it again next summer. When I was cleaning out their suitcases I found a letter Jake had written to us. Now spelling is not Jake's strong suit, so here is his letter in "Jake speak".

"Mom. dad todey was fun I didint waent to go at frst but i sems fun and I maed noowe fends waer whint swiming and tuke a swimng test to swim in the depend and I pasd the test so can you send me a ledr I LYve yYu."

Have scissors ... will destroy

Oh the things little boys will do while you're folding laundry! My very creative son, Jake, decided to get the scissors and cut a little cave out of the bush near our back deck. Thank goodness its a type of bush that grows like a weed. So I believe it will recover soon. Now, as far as Jake is concerned, he will be perpetually creating stuff out of just about anything.

Another example is one morning I woke up and he had used up the entire roll of aluminum foil to build a rocket. My first thought was to reprimand him for using up all the foil, but then when I saw how excited he was with his creation and he even explained to me how he had fit his Snoopy inside the capsule, I was so impressed with his creativity. I praised him for his talents and bought a new roll of aluminum foil.

So the rain will come, hopefully. And the bush will grow back, hopefully. And Jake will grow up to be an engineer, or something ... just as long as he's happy ... and not destroying plant life.

Snow!

"Snow, snow, just look at the snow. Come out, come out, come out in the snow."

Big dog barked at it. Little dog ran, ran, and then ran some more in it. The kids stayed out until dark in it. I actually joined in a snow ball fight. It's really cool to see snow when it only comes once every six years or so.

Successful Dinner

I can't believe it, but I actually found an easy chicken dinner that all my kids like. It's been sitting in my recipe box for about 20 years and I thought I'd give it a try.

3-4 skinless chicken breast (cut up)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can of cream of chicken soup
shredded cheddar cheese

Mix first 3 ingredients in casserole dish. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve over rice.

My kids like the rice seperate and I like it together. Give it a try. It's so easy and fast.

The Adventures of Big Dog & Little Dog

Are we there yet?

Most parents have heard those words uttered from their child's lips... "Are we there yet?" After driving 32 hours total to see my family last week, I've heard it all.

"How many more minutes?"
"How many more hours?"
"Are we still in Texas?"
"When are we going to eat lunch?"
"Where are we going to eat lunch?"
"Did you bring any snacks or drinks?"

The list goes on and on. And it reminded me of when I was a little girl, traveling with my three sisters and one brother and usually the dog too. We would draw imaginary lines on the car seat to mark off our territory. And of course, if anyone dared to cross our line... "Mom, she's in my space!"

I also remember having the seats folded down flat in the back of the station wagon so we could all crawl around and play. That, of course, was back in the days of no seat belt laws and no car seat laws. We made a sign that said, "You're on Candid Camera!", and we pretended to film other cars with our 8 mm movie camera. Now that was fun. We got all sorts of reactions from cars that passed us. And it also took up a lot of travel time.

And then there was the time when we finally got all packed up. Everyone was accounted for. We had spent a week at my grandparents house. We were headed back home almost to the interstate and heard someone honking their horn behind us. It was my grandfather, and he was holding up our dachshund with one hand and driving with the other hand. So my Dad pulled over to retrieve our dog, "Rudy". Now Rudy was not happy at all with us. We smothered him with hugs and told him we were so sorry for having forgotten him. But Rudy was unforgiving the whole way home. He wouldn't look at us. He did eventually get over it, since he remembered that we were the ones who feed him.

Every time I pull into the driveway after a long road trip, I say to myself, "I'm never doing this again!" And then time goes by and I start to miss my family and I get back in the the car with all the kids to head out on another adventure, and I think to myself, "Are we there yet?"