Category: travel

health, travel

Harrison the Mouse, and our trip story

criscollrj

and other every day occurrences!  In a life that’s so unique sometimes, it’s kind of liberating to know we have problems like other people’s. 😉

After our oldest son Chris enjoyed quite a bit of a movie downstairs with us (RV – pretty cute!) we were getting ready to go upstairs (he had wanted a shower a few times during the movie and had gone up for his 2nd or 3rd one).  I was going in the laundry room to check on the towel load (it never dries in one cycle) and Rog drew in a deep breath and I said, “What is it?”  He replied that he saw the mouse (the phantom mouse that we’ll see once or twice and never see again so we think it’s gone).  Colleen had already named it Harrison.  We had half-heartedly bought traps last early winter and set them, but then de-activated them when we’d seen nothing of Harrison(s) for weeks and our lovely Spice escaped down into the basement and in her 8th life did NOT get trapped by one (she later did die in the basement in the sump pump though). 

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college, relocation, travel, weight

short update

criscollrj

things are fine – BUSY!

We went to Port Clinton on vacation last weekend and it was GREAT! Busy though – 3 kids, 2 with kinda special needs, tends to keep one running on vacation! Soon I’ll post a few pictures.

I decided NOT to go to school at this time. It was a very hard decision. However, we are talking MORE and M O R E about moving, and that overwhelms me anyway (12 years in this same house and our possessions increasing during that time from those of 3 people (one a 2 year old) to those of 5 people (14 year old, 11 year old, and 3 year old children), and that makes a big difference when moving!! So we’ve been seeing houses and planning when and if and where to move, so school on the top of that just seemed too much. So once again it’s on the back burner.

More of an update soon — the summer is flying by!

I have lost 7 1/2 pounds now.

 

photos, reflections, travel

Thoughts on Summer 04

criscollrj

TEN Things You Did
01. Obtained necessary psych. hospitalization for our son through God’s help.
02. Finally slept second half of the summer after being up all night most night’s first half of the summer while Chris’s meds were so off.
03. Went to Port Clinton/Put-in-Bay on vacation for first time ever!
04. Camped in a cabin for first time ever.
05. Stayed up all night in cabin first night with son who wouldn’t sleep (strange place!).
06. Attended 2 “95.5 the fish” functions (radio) that were so cool with great bands and fun people!
07. Went 8+ weeks (still going) with NO money except bare minimum due to job stoppages for hubby (Luckily had saved $300 before that for Put-in-Bay).
08. Lost 15 pounds (hubby did too!) on South Beach Diet!
09. Collected unemployment all summer but never found a job even though I diligently looked for good job with benefits.  (Actually been looking since Jan.)
10. Grew tomatoes and peppers for first time in 3-4 years!

NINE Favorite Bands/Singers Of The Summer
01. Third Day
02. Chris Tomlin (U2’s Where the Streets have no Name!)
03. Sarah Groves (cool concert!)
04. Rebecca St. James
05. The Newsboys
06. Selah (You Raise me Up)
07. Amy Grant (has been favorite since 1979!)
08. just to be eclectic, we love hearing that one song by The Darkness when it comes on 😉  http://www.thedarknessrock.com/media/audio/ (I believe in a thing called love, just had to DOWNLOAD IT NOW!) though it’s just a sample ;
09. AND we loved 98 FM’s WNCX’s pretend Woodstock the other week when they played endless old progressive and other rock tunes INCLUDING IN THE CAGE BY GENESIS!  Yeah!

EIGHT Places You Ate At
01. Outback Steak House
02. New York Deli
03. East of Chicago Pizza
04. Walmart
05. KMart
06. Dairy Queen
07. McDonald’s
08. Burger King

SEVEN Inside Jokes
01. None that I know of?
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.

SIX Things You Bought
01. Rented vacation cabin at Port Clinton!
02. Food
03. New earrings (Avon demos)
04. Dirt for our yard (boy it’s looking spiffy!)
05. Microsoft Money 2004
06.

FIVE Things You Accomplished
01. Well, technically after school started, BUT finally got my dailies going again where I straighten whole house every day.
02. The Lord accomplished getting Chris’s meds regulated so he’ll SLEEP…
03. Lost 15 pounds.
04. Cleaned out entire 3 drawer legal size filing cabinet.
05.

FOUR Movies You Saw
01. Just Married
02. Freaky Friday
03. Cheaper by the Dozen
04. The Lion King (again for Ryan, first saw in 94 with Baby Colleen)

THREE Things You Wish You Did
01. Got on an exercise program (but I AM walking 2 miles a day taking Colleen to/from school)
02. Been able to buy or win tickets to Third Day concert.
03. Read Bible every day (I need to START a devotional quiet time!)

TWO Rules You Broke
01. Cheated on my diet whole vacation time and like a week before and 3 weeks after!
02.

ONE Thing You LOVED About This Summer
01. sleeping WELL the second half of the summer and seeing Chris so much more healthy in the meantime.

That was a fun survey.  This summer was not bad.  The beginning and middle were horrible but the greatness of the end really made up for it!!  It was wonderful to go on a vacation with our friends to an area we’d never been to before.  We are lucky here in NE Ohio to have the lakes and rivers all around us – I know we take it for granted.  Here Mosquito Lake, Mecca, Ohio


is a picture of another State Park area where we went picnicking Labor day.  Far away you can see Chris splashing and Colleen playing.  Many times I do want to live in North Carolina near the mountains, but we are blessed here with a nice place to live as well.  We are blessed.

sleep, travel

Gotta try and stay awake…

criscollrj

My oldest is still awake – yeah, it’s only 10 but he seems REALLY REALLY awake like the nights he stays up all night… sigh.

DH is in bed – he has to get up at 4 to go to work tomorrow. I have been getting some REALLY nice sleep lately so it is my turn to stay up with Chris. Chris has been sleeping well lately, but last week he did not. He use to stay up ALL the time all night. We were counting our blessings. Not sure why he’s staying up again ?!

I saw this map on a friend’s journal and made one myself! Fun!

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