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Woman on the Edge

We were up super late last night (about 3 hours after my bedtime) getting ready for our camping trip. So far today, going on less than 5 hours sleep, I’ve … 1) held plank for 5.5 minutes, 2) done over 100 pushups, 3) run over 2 miles, 4) had my teeth drilled, 5) braved Walmart to purchase a water jug and some batteries, 6) all without any breakfast (I can’t eat for another hour).

Those mountains better be freaking awesome, because I am exhausted and cranky!!

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What’s Cooking: The Camping Edition

So … we’re going camping this weekend. Well I’m still not entirely sure I can call it camping what with our fancy “Rolling Ramada” as my dad calls it. Ha. But I’ll go with “camping” in the interest of simplicity.

Previously when we’ve done these things, my dad plans it all. I just show up. Now I have to figure out what we will be eating for 2 dinners, 3 breakfasts and 2 lunches. I have to figure out how it all gets there and stays “safe” from food-borne baddies.

Happily I have a few resources. For my b’day I received The Camping Cookbook. Oddly enough, it’s not the one featured on the left. It’s actually another book with the same title put out by the “Love Eat” press and I cannot find a link to it ANYWHERE on the interwebs. Anthropologie apparently has it though. I also have the latest edition of Sunset Magazine where they do a whole “gourmet cooking” article and also have some really handy tips on packing a cooler and storing food for a few days. Lastly, I downloaded a copy of The Real Family Camping Cookbook to my Kindle (app on my phone). Unfortunately, a lot of what is proposed depends heavily on doing some prep at home and then doing the rest at camp. But the way this trip came together means I don’t have much (any) time for that. But I did my best. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Breakfast

  • day 1 – scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese, toast
  • day 2 – banana pancakes
  • day 3 – cereal … cuz we’ll be packing up camp and mama didn’t raise no fool

Lunch

  • day 1 – tortilla chicken bowls
  • day 2 – sandwiches, etc.

Dinner

  • day 1 – turkey bean chili with cornbread
  • day 2 –  salmon, green beans, rice

Extras

  • smores (of course)
  • popcorn!

Hopefully no one will go hungry!!

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For My 31st Birthday I …

  • received a card from my darling daughter on which she had printed every letter of the phrase, “Happy Birthday Mommy” and signed her name and drew about 50 little flowers (heart melt!)
  • completed 10 rounds of Cool Hand Luke (CrossFit workout involving rounds of 200m run, 10 pull-ups, 10 burpees, 10 kettle bell swings) scraping in right at the 45:00 min time limit
  • found a note in my purse from my hubby telling me he bought me a new macro lens for my camera
  • had a lovely lunch out with my husband, conspicuously free of the need to cut up food, clean up spills and referee battles, followed by a few stolen minutes exploring a nearby town
  • had a mom who was generous enough to watch the kids so we could have a lovely evening playing Geeks Who Drink Trivia with some good friends
  • received birthday wishes, greetings, notes, emails, FB shout-outs, cards and gifts from lovely people near and far
  • had a wonderful birthday party on Sunday where my whole family made me a super delicious meal of fried chicken, green beans, corn, fruit salad and lemon blueberry cupcakes
  • received lovely gifts including a new gym bag, some cute clothes, and a necklace (Tabby’s selection)
  • delighted in listening to my darling son sing umpteen rounds of “Happy Mommy! Haaaaaaappy Mommy! Happy happy mommy”

… and Happy I was

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The Pop-Up Has Landed

Last night while I was slaving away over a hot stove making the kids some fried rice for dinner and cleaning up the house, Matt was picking up our new (to us) pop-up camper.

It is a nice 12′ size with sleeping room for 8 (if most of those sleeping are kids). We put it up and put it down and it was pretty easy and quick. Hopefully soon we can stock it up and hit the road. We’d like to get a couple trips in before the weather starts getting too cool, possibly to The Great Sand Dunes. Matt also has designs on a trip to the western slope to do some apple and peach picking.

But of course before we can do any of that we need to get it all stocked up and ready to go. I think that will be a project for the weekend. And I’m hoping this will be a wonderful way to get the kids out into nature and spend time together as a family!

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A Big Ol’ Weekend

Quite a bit happened since my last post 3 days ago. For one thing, it is now August. Beyond that …

  • Friday Morning I ran N Table Mesa (this is a redundant phrase since Mesa = Table, but that’s what we call it around here) with Kelly in the AM. It was beautiful. Then I got to sleep while Matt took the kids to the gym.
  • I spent most of Friday cleaning the house. It was quite a slog with the kids to contend with, but it did improve.
  • Friday night we had the family over Movie Night. Matt and I made Chicken Parmesan salad which was AWESOME. Everyone liked it. Then we watched Freaky Friday (new one with Lindsay Lohan as specified by Tabby, though I still prefer the old one) and Tabby got her movie snacks. Not sure which she likes more: movie or movie snacks.
  • Saturday morning we hung around the house and had breakfast and then eventually went to Costco. After Costco, we dropped the kids off with my parents so we could have date day.
  • We had grand plans for FUN but as we are OLD, we spent a few hours organizing the house. We cleaned out both kids’ closets and bookshelves (our new niece has a box of books heading her way) and their playroom.
  • After that we went to Good Will to do a drop off. I almost lost it when I put Tabby’s old crib bedding in the bin. Of course it’s not the bedding … it’s what it symbolizes. *sigh*
  • After that we went to IKEA (you know, the one that just opened a couple of days ago) to embrace the insanity (we stood in a Disneyland style queue, only longer just to get in) and buy stuff for the pop-up camper and a new peppermill that I am in love with. Also we looked at beds for our kids who are officially growing up TOO FAST.
  • Of course after IKEA, we were starved, so went to dinner at Smash Burger (best burgers EVER) and then to Bass Pro (gag) and Target.
  • We came home, unloaded the car, gathered running stuff and passed out.
  • Because next morning we were back up on North Redundant Mountain running again.
  • We picked up the kids. They had an awesome time, of course. Ben was the life of the block party. Tabby got stung by a wasp. They both got pancakes, snuggles, and thoroughly spoiled.
  • We had to stop by Walm*rt on the way home. I spied the super-delicious food-like product you see on the right (it has not only slim-jim style beef jerky but also mini ritz crackers with cheese-product sandwiched between them) while we were in the check-out line. I did not buy it.
  • We had lunch then naps (for the kids). We thought they’d never wake up. But eventually they did. So we took them to the pool (it was SUPER HOT yesterday).
  • They didn’t want to leave, but we had to go home and have dinner. We made steaks and super super awesome zucchini feta fritters (highly recommend).
  • Amazingly after all of that, we could do little but put away some laundry and then put away the kids in their beds. We followed very shortly.

It was somewhat difficult to get out of bed this morning.