Hayden Scott

Hayden got his physical for soccer this week. They did not make him do the turn and cough test or whack his knee with the little hammer. I kept telling him that they were done and he didn't believe me. The lady brought the discharge papers in and told us that we could go and he said, no way!!  That wasn't even a real physical!!

It's good to see that he can make himself comfortable anywhere still.  

And entertain himself...

Waiting to hear from the new principal at Fairview. I hope I get this job. My friends are all talking about their classrooms and I feel like I'm missing out.  I'm going to think positive and hope for the best. 

The Job

I've worked 3 days at Target this week. That means that I've worked every day this week. I learned how to use the cash register on the first day.  I watched the girl check 4 or 5 people out and then she said, it's your turn!  I helped 3 people and she said, ok, it's time for me to go home.  I was like, whatttttt????  I haven't used a cash register since the 80's!!!  She cracked up.  I think she was around 12.  She said, oh you will be fine and if you need help, flip this light on. Everything was fine. Cash registers do everything now. I think I pushed 2 buttons for each customer. Oh. We can't call them customers, they are guests. The Be My Guest song always plays in my head when I hear someone say it. 

I have folded a lot of clothes this week.  More than I have in the past 5 years at home.  Maybe I should start folding my own clothes now. I'll think about it.  We organized the market tonight. The market is the food aisles. I couldn't reach anything on the top shelf and our trainer said, I know someone that's not going to make it out of seasonal employment.... Our trainer was pretty funny. He kept waking around telling us jokes.  Most of the jokes were not funny, but he was. His name is Addison, but his name tag says Red Bulll.  

The work is stress free and the people are all very nice, but back to school signs and supplies are everywhere. Stress is coming from a different angle. I'm sleeping like 4 or 5 hours a night right now and I need 8 or 9 or 15! 

Almost Home

We slept in Indy on Friday night.  It was nice to sleep in a real bed. I want to buy a bigger tent for the next trip. Harrison and I decided that we liked the drive through wild life park the most.  Next summer we are going to look for another drive through park and plan our camping trip around that place.

Top 5 Are you serious???.... Moments 

1.  Discovered a giant piece of the van missing 

2.  Always clean out the tent after a camping trip. Especially if it has rained 

3.  Do not spray deep woods off on the van. Unless you already need a new paint job 

4.  If you are low on gas, do not get off the interstate unless you can see a gas station with your own eyeballs. 

5.  Do NOT lock the door of the van with the remote while you are sitting in it and then open the door. Especially at 10pm in the middle of a pitch black campsite while people are sleeping. 

Henry was blocking me from taking his picture.

On Saturday, I met Allan somewhere on 37 to exchange kids. He took Harrison and I took Henry and Hayden to hockey camp.  5 more hours in the car to Kent, Ohio. We stayed in Kent on Saturday night and got the boys settled into their dorm on Sunday. 

My boys are playing the crazy popular  Pokemon Go game.  The twins don't have a data plan so they make me turn on my hotspot.  We were shopping for a suitcase with wheels on it and found this on Sunday. 

Beth and I stopped in Columbus to eat dinner on the way home. We ate at the Columbus Brewery.  It was a lot like Upland, but the food wasn't as good. I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown on the ride back to Indy last night.  I start my job at Target tonight in Bloomington. I guess I'm going to take a year off of teaching. 

Day 4

We visited the Reptile Gardens today.  They have some pretty amazing creatures at that place. The snake show was entertaining.  The guy was handling some pretty venomous snakes. The cobra was so venomous and crazy that he had to leave it in the container. That thing was striking like mad.

They also had giant tortoises, spiders, turtles, frogs, alligators, and prairie dogs. They had a huge alligator from Australia named Maniac!  

I also saw a turtle digging a nest for her babies. I really wanted to stay and watch her lay her eggs, but Harrison said it would take forever. 

We hit the road after the reptile gardens and are sleeping in Minnesota. We got here after dark, so we didn't really get to see the camp ground. I could see the lake though. It's huge. There are a TON of bugs here. Some are in the tent with me. Harrison is sleeping in the van. He's afraid that he will get eaten alive by mosquitos out here. 

We will be home tomorrow. I'm hoping for light traffic.  We have been very lucky so far. 

Lewis and Clark Memorial Bridge in Chamberlain, South Dakota 

Day 3

So the mountain closest to us is on fire.  Yep.  It's been burning for about 6 hours now.  They are going to bring in planes tomorrow to help put it out. The office staff told us that we are in no danger....  

Other than that, it's been a great day.  We visited Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. We watched a movie about the guy that started the Crazy Horse memorial, but our bus driver had some amazing facts about CH.  He really pissed the white people off and they stabbed him.  I'm going to read more about him later. 

We also went to a drive thru wildlife park. We got to see some pretty cute animals and they were walking around our car. I really wanted to get out and touch the bears.  We were there during feeding time.  There was a guy in the back of a pick up truck with a shovel slinging bread out. The bears took off running toward the truck. It was so cute. 

They also had a few exhibits of local wild life. badgers, river otters, skunks, porcupines, bobcats, baby bears, and a huge grizzly bear!   Bear country USA is awesome! 

We are going to reptile world tomorrow. 

Day 2

Made it to Rapid City, SD around 8.  We bought a few supplies, set up the tent, and walked around a little. We can see the mountains from our campgrounds. 

This place has a pool and free wifi. Very different from the camp that we stayed at last night. This place is packed, but quiet. 

The drive was exhausting.  I think we should only drive 4 hours a day, but it would take forever to get here.   We were allowed to drive 80mph in South Dakota and the van was whistling. I thought it was because we were going so fast, turns out, we lost part of the van today.  Not sure when or where... 

There is a farm with cows adjacent to the campsite. We could hear them mooing while we were setting up the tent.  We walked over to see them, but they were in the barn. 

Harrison played with the fire for an hour straight tonight. I remembered that he loved to do that when he was little too.  We always had to get onto him for it; some things never change.  

I'm exhausted.  I'm going to get a good nights sleep tonight and see some amazing things tomorrow. 

Day 1

Day 1 of fun road trip was challenging. We left later than I thought we would, 2 hours later.  The roads were great though.  There was hardly any traffic. We almost ran out of gas.   We took an exit that had one gas station and it was 2 miles off of the highway. I looked down for a minute and Harrison missed the turn. 30 minutes later we had gas and I took over the driving. 

Harrison went back to sleep. 

We got to Clear Lake, Iowa and I could not find the state park entrance.  It is beautiful here by the way. I didn't mind getting lost, but I was worried about getting the tent up before dark.  

Harrison did not get the tent ready like I asked him to do.  He was supposed to set it up at home before we left.  We set it up here and it was all moldy from him using it 2 years ago!!   I stomped around and raged a little and he said, "Mom, you have known me for almost 20 years.  What did you expect?"  I died laughing. We had to run to Walmart and buy a new one.  It was 11 pm....  We got it together and built a fire.  I think we sat down and relaxed for about 2 minutes and then the storm hit.  Can't wait for tomorrow!! 

Adventure Time

On Monday, Harrison and I are leaving for Mount Rushmore.  We're going to stop in Clear Lake State Park in Iowa and spend the night in a tent. On Tuesday, we're going to drive to Rapid City, South Dakota and camp for 2 nights. This is about 20 miles from the monument. 

34 hours in the car.  I need to download some books or go to the library. We are both very excited about this trip. We have been looking forward to it all summer. Some people are worried about the camping part. Some people have actually offered to pay for our hotels. We both laughed.  That's going to be the fun part.  I hope the wild animals stay away. 

I can't wait to be standing in front of this monument.