Crochet Me Crazy

We're back from our over a week long RV camping trip. We spent the first two nights at McKinney Falls and the next week at Garner State Park. We had a hugely great time! The river was down at Garner but that park is good no matter what the weather. We were busy on the river swimming, floating, tubing, fishing, or hiking our every waking hour. The kids swung from the ropes into the river. The worse part of the trip was the rudeness of the other campers. This is our first trip to Garner while school was out. We usually go after school starts to avoid the crowds. We couldn't do that this year though because this was Michael's birthday trip and he invited one of his friends. He had to be back to start school today. People and kids don't seem to have any manners anymore. Of course, we met some very nice people too but its always so sad to see the disrespect of people these days. The beautiful river was strewn with trash from the busy weekend before we got there. People walked through our campsite all week long when they could have taken a few steps another direction to avoid it. People actually used our picnic table pad site as a walkway...I thought about putting out a bowl of chips for everyone as they passed by. Even my kids were shocked...probably because we've always taught them its rude to walk through peoples campsites. The last two days our new neighbors moved in and the mother did not watch her kid at all. Her son was in our campsite more than he was in theirs and she was no where to be found. He couldn't have been more than 4 years old. He was over picking up all of our stuff and asking us questions constantly. He picks us my husbands ax...I'm having to tell him "Don't touch that...Don't touch that...." I kept telling him he needed to go back to his campsite but he would be right back. Where is this kid's mother?? Every now and then we would see her come out and see him wandering around our campsite and she would just go about her business like...oh, good someone is watching him! Geez.... Oh, and the Torres and Reyes family made me proud of Houston...they left their mark on the mountain with their Sharpie markers....apparenly just a few days before we got there! So anyway, despite it all, we had a great time but there was no phone service there so I wasn't able to call my mother in the assisted living. I went to see her yesterday and boy, was she glad to see me. There was some trouble with her not eating while I was gone. Two different neighbors of mine went to see her while I was gone. We are very close with 3 of our neighbors...almost like family to us. And I got some really great news when I got back...My neighbor, Stephanie, got hired as a housekeep at the assisted living while we were gone!!! I had recommened her to them because their housekeeping stinks. It's going to be great because she can keep an eye on my mom while she's there and my mother loves her. My prediction is that the residents are going to love Stephanie so much that they are going to want to send her for training to be an aide and they couldn't pick a better person for that job.

Now here are some pictures from our trip:

A View from our campsite

Those are my kids in that tree getting ready to jump


Some really big trees

Unusual Life � Blanket covered gas station


$29,000???????? Interesting indeed.

A Christmas Tree Skirt:



Two Mini Doilies:

A few weeks ago I made my own laundry detergent. I wanted to see how it worked before I passed the idea onto anyone else but it seems to be okay but I think I need to tweek the recipe I was using to make it a little stronger for the sweaty stuff. So I am about to make my second batch but I am going to use the recipe on this site instead:
The Simple Dollar � How To Make Your Own Laundry Detergent - And Save Big Money
These are the same ingredients and the same process but this recipe calls for larger amounts of all ingredients but less water. I'm expecting a stronger detergent from this and that will be the end of it. I won't ever have to buy detergent again and it will save lots of money over time. I do at least 1 and sometimes more loads of laundry a day to keep up. Just thought I would share this success story since it seems to be working out great for me. If anyone decides to try it, you might have a little trouble finding the Washing Soda. I found it at Kroger. Lots of people say Wal-Mart has it but I checked 3 Wal-Marts and they didn't have it. Also, I used ZOTE soap which can be found on the laundry aisle for $.97 for a bar which is a laundry soap bar for stains. That was my choice for the bar soap called for in the recipe.

We did school today even though its early. I want to get an early start so I can be more flexible during the school year. Alison is so excited about school this year. She is eager to do everything we've done so far. She's so relieved not to be doing her school on the computer this year! Last year we used a computer school and she hated it.

I went to visit my mom who is in Hearthstone assisted living today. I visit her at least every other day and many times its stressful because I have to stay on top of them constantly to make sure she's being taken care of. My mom has Alzheimer's and she is very limited on how much she can communicate to you. Today, I was really really mad when I got there and found out she had not had a bath. I had a talk with the management about them not giving her a bath. I thought it would be taken care of over the weekend. Saturday should have been her bath day. Needless to say, I was flabbergasted to find out that she still hadn't had one! I helped her with her shower and got her all cleaned up and she put on a pretty dress. Of course, I went to talk to them again and let them know I was upset. Her bath day is tomorrow so her soap better be wet when I go see her on Wednesday!

Well, Alison burned herself really bad on hot tea yesterday evening. I have pictures to memorialize this childhood accident but I will spare everyone the details. It definately 2nd degree burns. I thought she'd never stop crying and she had to hold something cool on her lip for hours. She has a big blister on her lip and her chin is less burned ...just red. Her leg has a red spot about 4 inches and about a 1 1/2 part in the middle where it is the worst where her skin sorta just wiped off when she rubbed it. She's better today but her leg is bandaged up. Why my son served my daughter just hot tea is beyond me. She was drinking it out of a thermos with a weird type lid which is why it happened like that. It just sorta poured out. Your not supposed to drink out of that type of thermos.

Today we went out and bought Michael some fish for his fish tank that he's been wanting and ate chinese food. I'm suffering from the carbs now.

I've started crocheting a Christmas tree skirt that is fun and easy to make. I'll post pictures soon.