Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Nashville Zoo

July 18, 2009, my company had their annual picnic. This year we went to the Nashville Zoo. I ahd never been to the Nashville Zoo before now. I know, I live 30 minutes away and never been! What a loser!!! Kerry took her friend Jasmine and we had a blast.
Look at my sidebar and you will see pictures from the Zoo. I think my favorite thing was the Lorikeets coming in 2nd were the Meerkats.
If you ahve never been to Nashville Zoo, I highly recommend you going. Plan on spending all day and wear very comfortable shoes!

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Friday, July 17, 2009

LADIES ONLY

This past weekend, Kerry & I had a girl’s only camping trip. It was fun and adventurous to say the least. Friday morning, I took Kerry to work then headed to Defeated Creek to start setting up camp. I thought getting there early would prove to be less hot that that afternoon. Yea, I THOUGHT! I found the camp site, pretty nice, right behind the bath house-yeah! In front of the dumpster. Awe man!

I unloaded the truck and set things in their rightful place. I unpacked my tent and began trying to set it up. Now, the tent I have was my Mom and Dad’s, it is a BIG tent! I laid it out and had to turn it around because I had the opening on the opposite side I needed it on. I then took out the poles and laid them out big to small. I knew that the longer ones went criss-cross and the smaller ones went vertical. So, I started with the longer poles, I got one side done, I was sweating bullets so I stopped and took the fan and cooled off for about 20 minutes. I did this until the tent was up. I then tried to put the dew tarp up; this was not an easy task. The tarp kept sliding off and all I could do was laugh. Finally, after about 20 mins of fighting the tarp, I got it on. Putting the stakes down was the easiest part of the entire process! I took a picture of the tent and sent it to Kelly and my Mom. I don’t think Kelly really thought I could do it on my own!
I was so stinking hot after setting up the tent, I took ice from the coolers and put it in my bra so I could cool off and sat around people watching till I had to go pick up Kerry from work.

I picked up Kerry and we went home to get her things and some wood. We went to my Mom and Dad’s because Daddy has wood for his smoker. We took about 4 logs and some kindling. When we got back to camp, my dear friend Paula was there with her 2 girls. The prettiest 2 little red heads God ever made (Paige and Alanna). Or Pooh and Buggie as I like to call them. Kerry set up her tent while the girls played at the playground. We had Frito pies for supper. Can we say Yum-o? Loved, loved it! After supper we went to the beach so Kerry could do a little night swimming. The rest of us just waded out a little bit; the water was a little chilly. We later came back to the camp and the girls had s’mores. Paula and I talked forever, trying to catch up. Paula and the girls stayed in my tent. I am pretty sure; I just passed out because I was so tired.

The next morning, Paula was up before me. The two of talked some more. We then decided that we were pretty hungry so we started breakfast, all 3 girls got up to the smell of bacon. You know, to me that is the best smell in the world. Bacon, frying at the campgrounds. Oh goodness. Fatback… I also scrambled eggs and fried biscuits. Paula and the girls had never had fried biscuits-they are hooked now! After breakfast, Paula and the girls left to go to a birthday party. Kerry and I ran out for some ice.

When we got back to camp, we headed to the beach. It was kind of cloudy but it was nice. The wind was blowing so you didn’t get hot and the water was warm enough to make you want to stay in there a little. Boats were coming by and making some of the biggest waves I had ever seen! It kinda felt like were in the ocean at times. Kerry got tired of the water so I head to my lounge chair while she went to take a shower. Again, I did a little people watching and of course some sunning. I turned over onto my stomach and fell asleep. I woke my self up snoring. Luckily there were so many kids around screaming, no one heard me. At least I hope they didn’t! I got up and headed back to camp, a little hunger pain started on my way there. Smoked bologna sandwiches sure were sounding good. Kerry was at camp listening to her MP3 player, when I got there, we fixed sandwiches, ate chips and people watched. Yes, I love people watching! After lunch, I took a nap; a not so nice nap ‘cause the campers next to us had 3 little boys who were yelling an honking the horn on their boat. When I finally got up an hour later, 2 of the boys were looking in my tent window. Luckily, I did have my swim suit on, so all they saw was my booty cheeks! Kerry and I went back to the beach and swam for about 2 hours. We came back to camp, took showers and hung out.

Kerry got a craving for pizza; I made her call Kelly to see if he would bring us one. A big fat NO! He was being lazy since he had worked a little. Remember, Kelly has been laid off since Nov. ’08 so he has gotten out of shape a little. She did everything she could to get him to come to the camp, but he didn’t. Poor Kerry! He did promise to buy her one when we got back home on Sunday. Kelly did tell us that some storms will be coming thru that night or the next morning. We roasted hot dogs and then loaded up as much of the truck that we could. All that was really left was the tents.

We talked for hours. Kerry wanted me to tell her some childhood memories I had. Of course most of them included my brother and it made me a little sad since he no longer wants to have anything to do with me and my family. But, I did have funny stories to tell, we laughed and laughed. She told me some stories about things that had happened before she became my child. We really did do some bonding. It’s really funny how much the two of us are alike. Kerry is really growing up and it makes me feel so good that I am having a hand in molding her into the beautiful young lady she is becoming. We got tired of talking and called it a night.

At 4:30 am Sunday morning, I was awoken by thunder. I sat straight up and looked out the window of the tent. I saw lightening, so unplugged my air mattress and went to the restroom. As I was walking back to the tent, the thunder got louder, I woke Kerry up and we started taking down the tents. Of course, my luck, it started raining! Needless to say, if the happened to have been a wet t-shirt contest at the time, I would have one! We got the tents down and threw them into the truck! As soon as we got in the truck, it quit raining! Dang it! We started to pull out of our campsite and the heavens opened up again, lots of rain! As we were pulling out of the gate we saw a 4 pointer laying the grass and a doe standing beside of the buck, we tried to take a picture but it was too dark and raining too hard. We made it back home safe and sound and wore out. Kerry was cute while we were taking the tents down in the rain, she looked at me and said, “ I had a good time till now”, I looked at her and said, “me too”.

I have a feeling she and I will try this girls only camping trip out again in the future!

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Thursday, July 2, 2009

BABIES

I just found out that my friends Jon & Shannon Regan have met their new babies. Kayen & Kara were born on 7/1/09 at 1:00 am. I am sooo happy for them and I can't wait to meet the twins! Shannon and Jon have been truly blessed by their family and friends during this process. God is great!

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