This too weird!  My niece called last night and needed a baby sitter for her daughter today while she went to school.  Her mother (who usually baby sits for her) had jury duty.  I said to bring her on over she could run about with us today.  When my niece arrives she informs me that she also has jury duty on the 11th of July.  It interferes with her school schedule and I explained how that worked.  She’d have to miss her class for that day and it would be excused as the professor understands jury duty.  So I go out to run errands with all the kids in tow and come home to find of all things in my mail box…a jury summons.  July 30th.  I haven’t been summoned for jury duty for 10 years.  My husband on the other hand has been summoned EVERY year since we were married over 11 years ago.  Is that not wierd?  In the past I’ve had the excuse that I have a child under the age of 5 of whom I’m the primary care giver.  Guess they’ve kept track or something cause DD turns 6 on the 6th of July!  I enjoy it though…finding someone to keep my kids all day could be an issue.  My sister says she’s going to attempt to take the day off from work.  I hate asking her to do that as she really can’t afford it right now and she will not allow me to pay her for anything.  I’m going to see if DH will be able to stay home then I don’t have to worry with it.

I can’t seem to get back into a regular routine of writing anymore.  I’m frustrated because I know it helps me with focus and I also miss my blogging friends. 

I’ve been having some trouble with someone spamming my guestbook.  It really irks me when they start bombarding you with all that “crap”.  I had to get rid of my most recent book, but I found one that I think may do the trick.  I’m hoping so anyway.  It’s one that is placed on my own webserver.  It’s easily customizable, uses skins, will block certain words, limits people to one post per day from an IP address, tracks IP’s and blocks if necessary.  I’m hoping this one will work for me as this is the third book I’ve tried and all manage to wreak havoc on my email box once the spammers find it.  I really enjoy having the guestbook, but it’s not worth the bother if I’m constantly having to deal with the spam.

My kids and I are headed on an adventure today.  19 local (I use the word local loosely) scrapbook stores are having a contest.  If you visit all 19 within a two week period they will put your name in a drawing for $50 gift certificates from each.  That’s almost $900 worth of scrapbook goods.  What will I do with myself?  ROFLOL  Well I mapped out all of the stores and we need 4 days of trips to hit them all.  I wanted it to be fun for the kids so I’ve tried to set up fun activities for them on each trip.  Today we’re going to go letterboxing.  Here’s the web site if you aren’t familiar with it.  http://letterboxing.org  I’ve read about it before but have not managed to get out and do it.  So today we’ll start while we’re out on our excursion.  On the other days we’ll visit the beach, Bok Tower and Brevard Zoo.  That should keep them happy and me too.

We finally made it home.  I am still pretty tired but things are beginning to return to some normalcy.  We had a good time.  As we were driving back into town DS  10  said, “I had a really good time on this trip!”  We all had to agree.  We did lots of outdoor activities and enjoyed some quality family time together. 

At my sister’s house we did some fishing, went to the lake  to swim and picked strawberries.  On the last night there DH caught a fish worthy of keeping, but we took a pic and threw him back. 

 

 

The rest were all to small to mention.  Although both kids did catch something.  DD’s bit the line and  was gone.  We never got a look at that one, but she was satisfied to have had a good BITE. 

We travelled from my sister’s in S. Illinois to my inlaws in Louisville, KY.  The funniest part of that adventure was DD’s spending the night with her aunt and uncle.  They asked her why she was so pretty.  She responded, “Because I’m adopted!”  Of course we all got a good giggle from that. 

We got to see quite a  bit of wild life on this journey.  We saw a coyote, several deer, rabbits, chipmunks, birds, bats, and too many spiders.  I took both kids out in a little paddle boat.  We got a few yards from shore and this huge boat spider emerged from DS’s side of the boat.  He is terribly afraid of them.  So  I  take my shoe and reach across to attempt to do the spider in.  No luck.  I finally get DS to trade sides of the boat with me so I can get the  spider if he shows his face again.  We travel a few more yards and the spider pops back up on the other side of the boat (where DS just moved).  ROFLOL…I couldn’t win.  I finally said, okay…just let me get you to shore.  So DD and I finished the boat ride.  The spider did surface once more but that was the last time he’ll ever bother my children again.  Seems like everywhere we went though…we encountered the eight legged creatures. 

On the way  home we stopped to visit Mammoth Cave.  We really had a great day there.  I’d like to go back in the future with more time to explore.

We’ve been travelling this past week and a half.  It’s been eventful too.  We left Orlando on Thursday and made it as far north as Macon, GA.  The smoke between Valdosta and Macon was pretty bad in spots.  I really had to feel for those who have been living in that for awhile now.  We got up the next morning with thoughts of swimming before heading out on the road again.  DS was playing his DS game and not paying attention.  He learned a hard lesson.  We walked right into the deep end of the pool with his little electronic game and came up fast but not fast enough.  Luckily once it dried out (about 10 hours later) it still worked.  He was fretting all day long though.  On the second leg of the journey we saw a coyote and deer as well as a nasty wreck.  We were very thankful for safe travels and prayed for whomever was in that car. 

When we arrived in S. Illinois at my sisters we settled in and had some great time to visit.  I’ll share more on that next time I write.  I’ll be sure to share the story of the big fish, the fish that got away and the spider that convinced my son to stay off the boat.