Katelyn, Conner and Caleb! » August 2007 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Mon, Aug 27, 2007 7:42 PM
What a nice surprise!

When the kids and I were at Pennsic, we attended a small baptist church there. Today I got a letter from them. I'd filled out a visitor card but wasn't expecting anything since I lived so far away, I just wanted them to be able to record that we'd been there.

What surprised me more then getting a letter though was that it was personalized! Completely! It wasn't just a fill in the blank on the computer form letter.

Here's part of what it said...

"This letter comes a little late but we did want you to know how much we enjoyed having you with us while you were at Pennsic. it was great getting to know you and having you share with us in Sunday School and worship."

"I hope the weather was not too difficult on all of you as it seems like we have to get some thunder and lightening while Pennsic is going on. With all the rain we have had since you have left it almost looks like Spring with everything green again. Cooper's has transformed itself back to normal look and this week they are hosting a car show."

Wasn't that nice of them?

So.... if you are in the Slippery Rock area of Pennsylvania, then check out Zion Baptist Church. :D It's very friendly and welcoming.

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Sat, Aug 25, 2007 7:13 PM
Conner is sooo tired today.

This morning we went out to the Farmer's Market, to Meijers and then to Kinko's. That pretty much took up the entire morning.

Then becaues bananas were on sale, the kids all decided to fill up on them. That worked out well because I did a quick turnaround and we were off to the library. We spent the afternoon there until it closed.

Poor Conner never got a nap in with all of that so when we came home, he lay down and fell asleep on the couch. All on his own.

I've tried waking him up a couple of times and even offered him cake. Candy worked but then he went right back to sleep. I'm going to wake him up again for supper and see if he will stay awake long enough to make it to bedtime. The next time he tries to fall asleep, I"m going to make him go to his room to sleep on his bed.

Even Caleb is exhausted. He usually likes a morning nap and then is awake all afternoon and into the evening. He didn't get that and so he's more soundly asleep then even Conner.

Poor guys...

If both of them fall asleep easily after supper then Katelyn and I are going to read books together.

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Mon, Aug 20, 2007 10:52 AM
Every day before breakfast, I have the kids clean their room. It's their breakfast chores and doing this helps keep things a lot cleaner. They each have a part of the room that they're responsible for.

This morning Katelyn apparently hadn't slept quite enough because she first spent about 15 minutes telling me (whining) that it was too much and she needed help. Then when Conner decided to help her out, she started crying (tantrum style) that she didn't want any help and wanted to do it by herself.

Eric and I just had to laugh when we heard that. But we solved it by having Conner sit on Eric's lap until Katelyn finished up. If she wasn't cleaning though then Conner was going to help. He enjoyed his daddy time so he didn't mind.

Caleb just popped his 5th tooth. It's on the top and on his left, right next to his other two teeth on top. He also has figured out how to click his tongue and gets excited when other people click at him. He likes to echo tongue clicks.

Conner is happily eating his cereal right now. Katelyn is upset because we're out of the kind that she wants and I'm not instantly jumping into the car to go buy her more.

She's having a rough day today.

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Sun, Aug 12, 2007 8:48 AM
Apparently I hit the longest that I'm allowed for an entry so I'm finishing up here.

The first bus we took - the short yellow bus - went around the lake where we had walked the day before. The kids were enthralled though. While on the bus we found out that the children's theater was doing their play in a few minutes so we were dropped off at the tent and watched it. The kids enjoyed it and I heard Kately reciting lines from it throughout the rest of the week. It was a Grimm's fairy tale called "The Water of Life.

Then we stopped back at camp (about 100 yards of walking), got new water and waited for a different bus to go by. This was the long yellow bus and it went up past the battle field and through parking. Katelyn got to see where the van was (she'd been asking about it all week) and decided that she didn't want to walk to the car. We saw where we camped last time, and we got a nice look at the battlefield.

While we were on this bus, the rain started again. I knew the tent was closed up tight so we just enjoyed the ride until the driver needed to go on break. So he met up with the short bus again, let us run over to it and the short bus took us back to camp.

The kids got a nap in during the rain. I'm so grateful that most of the rain occured either at night or during a logical time for a nap!

Friday was hot again and except for a very short rain that took the humidity out of the air, it was dry. So everybody in camp had clothes and bedding drying. Clotheslines were hung up all over and any method that could be rigged together was used to create a surface to dry on. Many people had clothing that was wet from simply sitting in the humidity. I got bedding dried out again, clothes dried and packed and even got most everything else packed up in preparation for leaving on Saturday.

Then the kids and I took a walk out to the merchants, watched the bridge/river battle (that was fun watching the taunting going on) and even played at the playground for a bit.

I bought the kids a pint of ice cream from the camp store and we all stood around it eating it straight from the box. The kids were as excited about eating from the box as they were about the ice cream itself.

We also stopped to watch a magician using balls and cups. It was hilarious and Katelyn really got a kick out of it. Conner didn't care much but Caleb was clapping right along with everybody else. And laughing.

On the way back we watched some of "A Lion in Winter" that was being put on by the adult theater. It was very well done and had Caleb not decided to cry, we'd have finished watching it. When the kids are older, they'll appreciate things like this more!

Throughout the week we saw a lot of various music groups that were great. Wolgemut, Teribus... those were the most recognizable among SCA people Wolgemut is from Europe and they come to Pennsic every year.

We came back yesterday exhausted but happy. And dirty. The water on site is full of iron and it oxidizes very quickly. It also coats the hair and colors things a shade of red. So the first thing we did was get everybody clean. The van is half unpacked and everybody got dry sleep.

I don't have many pictures though because I was nervous about taking the camera out of the tent since it was threatening to rain nearly all the time. However, we had lots of fun and at the end of the week Katelyn told me that she wanted to stay at Pennsic all year.

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Sat, Aug 11, 2007 9:39 PM
We're back from Pennsic. It was a ton of fun, a little scary at times and very wet. VERY wet.

Apparently Pennsylvania was having a drought before Pennsic and after Pennsic, well... the 12 inches they were missing managed to show up that week. Or so it seemed. I'm not entirely sure how much rain we had exactly but there sure was a lot of it. The only day that we didn't get rain was the day we packed up to leave.

Seriously.

We arrived late on Saturday and set up in the dark. As we drove up to the campground and could see the pavilions all set up, Katelyn and Conner were cheering with their arms up in the air. Katelyn could remember the other Pennsic she was at and Conner was riding on her excitment.

A number of men from the encampment helped out with unloading and setting up and then one rode up to the parking lot with me so that I wasn't walking back in the dark. His wife sat with the kids. I ended up at the very back of the parking area but that turned out to be a good thing because there weren't as many cars there making mud tracks today. I had nice grass to drive out on and though it was slick it still allowed me to get out.

The first night went well, the kids slept well even with the excitement of being there.

Sunday we set out to church for the morning. There's a small Baptist church that has been partially surrounded by Pensic so we walked up there with the wagon for Sunday School and church. Caleb was the only on in the nursery that morning so he got to be in the toddler class. Apparently he did very well and had lots of fun. My 3 kids doubled their toddler/preschool class though. I was told that it's usually bigger but people were either on vacation of working at Pensic.

Church was fun though. There were 3 other people there that I identified as being from Pensic and everybody was very welcoming and invited me back for next year. They apparently get a kick out of their annual oddly dressed neighbors.

After church we headed back and saw that the children's battle was going on. We went over to it and Katelyn managed to participate in just enough to earn some treasure. This year the kids got blow up sabers. Katelyn came back with hers and then dragged Conner into the line to get one. The rain started on the way back to camp and I was glad for the sabers because we spent the afternoon in the tent waiting for the rain to end.

I was most impressed with the encampment though when it came time to make dinner. Andlecamp (the encampment of the Barony of Andlecrag) has a trailer that has 2 heated showers built into it as well as a full (2 gas stoves with ovens) kitchen. Running, heated water! It was wonderful. I didn't have to cook over the fire this year which was great.

Sunday supper was an amazing middle eastern feast prepared by a Lady in the cammp who happens to be a professional cook. It was sooo good. She said she'd share a couple of the recipes with me. Katelyn spontaneously went over to her to tell her how good it was. Which tells you how amazing it tasted.

On Monday we watched a battle in the morning and went to the children's tent where Katelyn learned a way to make braided cord. It's a norse technique and makes a great game for 2 kids or a kid and an adult. We went back to camp and I set up a plastic pool for the kids because of the heat. The kids were soaked and happy... and then it rained. Things cleared up for supper which was another really yummy feast (lemon chicken). Caleb couldn't get enough of the chicken. I think he ended up eating 2 pieces by himself.

Monday night was when we had our first heavy rain. And that was when I discovered that my tent doesn't handle rain well. Instead of shedding it properly at the ends, it collected the water. The top of the tent is like a dome tent and the extra water weight caused the top of the tent to collapse. I had woken up in the middle of the night and as I was laying there, all of a sudden the corner of the tent was on my shoulder. The kids slept through it but I was not impressed with the tent at that point.

We had a couple of minor leaks but nothing really bad. I'd brought extra bedding so we were good there.

Tuesday... more rain. We did get some time out looking at the merchants though. Someone made and hid little bunnies made out of washclothes for the kids. The Pennsic Independent had an article about this saying that these bunnies were safe only for children under 12 to handle and that if an adult touched them, they'd attack immediately. Katelyn made sure that everybody under 12 that she saw had a bunny. She was very good at finding them.

Unfortunately, the rain that happened during the day kept all of our wet stuff from drying out.

That evening after the kids were asleep, a good Lady came by announcing to use that 2 different severe storms were heading directly toward us. I was *not* thrilled with that news since I already knew how my tent held up during a hard rain. With help from men from the emcampment though, a tarp was thrown over it and we used extra good iron stakes for the tent.

I also had an offer that if anything serious happened to the tent, I could take the kids and sleep in another couple's pavilion's floor. Their pavilion had survived the prior hard rain with zero leaks.

I stayed up and read to see what happened with the tent. We were good until the roof caved in again. Except that this time the fly flew off along with the tarp and one strut bent. The top of the tent under the fly is mesh so the rain just came right in. I ran out to get the fly back on, ran to the other pavilion (they were awake) and they came to help with the kids. All 3 kids were taken to that pavilion, and the rain suddenly stopped.

I got things rearranged in the tent and water sopped up with towels (already damp... they still hadn't dried) and we stood around trying to figure out if the 2nd storm was still headed our way or not. Caleb was wide awake at this point. The other two went right back to sleep. I was soaked so I changed. With Caleb awake and needing to crawl, I went back to my tent and left Katelyn and Conner where they were.

No more rain that evening. We later heard that the two storms had most likely combined. Whatever happened, it was some pretty strong wind and rain and I was grateful that the tent was staked down as well as it was. The tent had really been flapping.

Thankfully Wednesday started out hot and dry so we were able to dry out (finally) for the most part. The kids and I went to the children's party in the afternoon and I put them down for a late nap to prepare for Moonlight Madness which is when the merchants all stay open until past midnight and have sales and stuff. The performers are all out too so this is one evening that I keep the kids up late.

Just after the fell asleep, I stepped out of the tent wondering if what I'd heard was thunder. It was, because within 2 minutes we had a downpour again. People were dashing around trying to rescue the last items they had drying. And other people were running like mad trying to get to cover because the rain had started so strongly and suddenly. That rain only lasted about 10 minutes though and then stopped as suddenly as it had started.

The really cool part about that rain though was that when it was over, our camp filled up with swallows and dragonflies. They were everywhere. Going between the tents and pavilions and even under some of the shade flys. It was really fun to watch.

No rain during Moonlight Madness. We all were grateful for that!

The kids got to watch a juggler who not only juggled flaming torches, he did it while standing on a big ball. We bought some sweet potato fried (yum!) and also watched a couple of different musical groups. We also watched a glass blower for a while which was pretty cool.

Thursday morning came up very foggy. It was pretty though to see all the tents in the fog. Katelyn asked for some hot cocoa but this morning she refused milk. She's good about holding hot stuff so I let her hold the cup until it cooled off. She sat down to do so. Unfortunately Conner decided to "bother" her. That's the term Katelyn used. He spilled the hot cocoa onto her lap. I heard her screaming as did the Baroness. She was closer so she pulled Katelyn off the chair and pulled the tunic off and I got Katelyn cleaned up. That's when I saw a couple of blisters forming. I threw some brun gel onto it, dropped Caleb off with another family and then put Katelyn into the wagon with Caleb and off we went to the Chirurgeon tent.

This is a tent staffed by EMS but helped out by SCA folk who are doctors or first responders in non-SCA life. She went right in and they took a look at it. By the time we got there, the blister's had grown but no new blisters were there. They put silverdine on it, put gauze on and complemented me on knowing about burn gel. They said that she was acting much better then they'd have expected and the burn was not as bad as they'd have expected from such hot water.

Since this made walking a bit painful for Katelyn, we sat around camp for a bit listening to a children's version of D&D going on that involved fierce bunnies searching through a cave looking for jewels. It was cute to listen into. And the kids were very sweet with Katelyn, Conner and Caleb even though they were all elementary or middle school aged.

Then after Katelyn started to perk up a bit, I asked her if she wanted to go for a bus ride. There are 3 buses at Pennsic that go around picking people up and dropping them off. It's a long walk to get around there so this is a huge blessing especially for people who aren't able to walk far.

So we went for a tour of Pennsic on the bus.

Comments:
Carolina: Pennsic sounds like so much fun. I'm sorry that you and the kids were soggy most of the time, but overall it sounds like a good time was had by all!

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Fri, Aug 3, 2007 2:34 PM
Caleb just discovered how to make kissing sounds. It's adorable.

The older two are up attemping to "rest" right now. I'd love it if they fell alseep. I'm not holding out much hope though because they woke up so early this morning that they collapsed mid afternoon and I struggled to wake them up. They were OUT.

I'm going to start packing the van this afternoon though. I have most everything on a tarp in the garage and ready to load. Everything else will either fit into a plastic crate that I'm putting into the van or it'll be bought at Meijer this evening.

Eric went on the youth group bike trip this afternoon. No idea how he did yet. It's a long ride and he's not in shape because of not being as active during the day lately. The ride was supposed to be 40+ miles. He'll be tired tonight!!

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Thu, Aug 2, 2007 6:02 PM
Poor guy.... Caleb started screaming this afternoon. He went from happy baby to screaming at the top of his lungs baby in a moment. I tried nursing him and then (after he didn't want anything to do with it) checked his diaper. I started to change it and his butt was so raw that I didn't even want to put a wipe on it. So up to the tub we went. He was dripping blood. Eww! It appears that the cracker from the weekend isn't out of his system yet. I'm used to him clearing up in a day or two from his reaction when I eat wheat. It makes sense that when he eats it, it's a stronger reaction. But still... poor guy!

We're madly packing and gathering things for next week. The plan is to leave Saturday. Sewing is nearly done, I'm getting equipment around, and then tomorrow we'll go shopping, go to the library (for books on CD) and pack. Then it's an early start on Saturday.

Katelyn and Conner were so excited about it that they insisted on sleeping in their "camping clothes" or as Conner says, "Namping cothes". And then they got upset at me when I told them that I needed to wash and pack the clothes today. I can't complain about excitement though! But... I'll mention that they are so wound up that they'll be sleeping *very* well on the trip. They're just not sleeping during naps or at bedtime and they're waking up way too early in the morning for me.

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