Everyone has already been flooding the Facebook feed with images of their little munchkins on with their first day of school glamour shots. My kids start school two weeks from today, so obviously there are no ‘first day’ pictures. Yet.

They’ll be the stragglers in a couple weeks, hopefully enough time for people to no longer be annoyed by the first day shots. It’s worth a shot, no?

So the hubby’s first cataract surgery went swimmingly last week, aside from us camping at the ocean over the weekend and him being in the salt air (which, I imagine, only aided in the slight irritation he has in that eye at the moment).

The irritation aside, his vision in that eye is now stellar, and he’s been like a kid marveling at what he finally can see (from one eye), and how amazing the world really is. He goes in for round 2 tomorrow, so his marveling will be twice as emphatic, I’m sure.

Speaking of camping… I did take the other tent back and picked up a new one – a non-insta one that I could set up by myself if necessary, though I did recruit Princess Nagger’s help since the hubby is on doctors orders to ‘take it easy’, not lift more than 25 pounds, and not bend over to do stuff (since it could cause pressure behind his eyeball). It’s a nice roomy tent, and worked out perfectly, so third time ended up being the charm.

The first night it was a bit rainy (mostly drizzle and fog in the early hours of the morning), so that contributed to some cool haze in the morning:

OceanCamping2015

I especially liked how the sun was coming through this grove of trees at the back of our site:

OceanCamping2015a

Of course we had to have our coffee, so I ended up getting this cool propane coffee maker (I got a different one that goes directly on top of the camp stove, but wanted to be able to utilize both burners and have coffee, so found this independent one instead):

OceanCamping2015b

We plan to do a lot more camping next year, especially since Washington State has so many cool places to camp. This year I wanted to keep it to a minimum to see how the hubby and kids would like it without burning them out on it too fast, and they’re all looking forward to it from the last few successful foray’s into the wild-ish.

With camping at the ocean over the weekend, the kids and the hubby finally got to experience some of the fun I always had growing up here and camping at the ocean for a week at a time. They’re looking forward to going back, and all but The Nag have expressed an interest in camping for a full week there, since there’s so much fun to be had, and a weekend wasn’t enough time to explore everything.

The Nag will agree to a full week if she’s allowed to have data while she’s there to keep up on her kid-version social media. She was apparently going through major withdrawals this weekend, lamenting about the lack of data (I didn’t tell her I actually had signal and data on my phone where we were, I decided to stay off the ‘net and enjoy myself instead, hoping to set a good example).

But you know, I’m a mom, and moms are lame. Yeah, just you wait, kid. Just you wait.

Speaking of waiting… I don’t know what happened earlier in the day on I-5 Northbound, but our normal just-over-2-hour-drive from the ocean back home turned into a nightmarish 7 hour ordeal. Seven hours.

I’m sure that had some bearing on the hubby’s subsequent eye irritation after exposing it to the salt air, since we drove separately to transport two kids, two dogs and all our camping gear more easily.

We ended up getting off the parking lot of a freeway still about an hour from home, but then sat in the side street traffic for over an hour, only advancing one measly mile during that time. So not fun.

We finally extricated ourselves from the continuous parking lot and found some back roads home that took us further West before doubling back to finally get home. We never did find out what caused the issue, looking for that after the fact on local news sites online wasn’t helpful, since by then it was no longer ‘breaking news’. 

Hopefully our next ocean trip in the fall will be less traffic stress induced for the return trip. Or either direction, for that matter. *fingers crossed*

Now that summer is winding down… Princess Nagger has her pre-school tour of her new school this week (7th Grade! GAH!) – I’ll have to be sure to curb my enthusiasm as we find her new classrooms and locker and meet her teachers – she’s at the age of not wanting any kind of public displays of attention.

I’m gonna do it. She can’t stop me. It’s my job as her mother to embarrass her, right? Right??!!

Princess Nagger already hates me right now, because she’ll be acquiring braces in September. We tried to get it scheduled before school starts, but the orthodontists schedule didn’t mesh with ours, so September it is. I’ve heard the words “I hate you” no less than 10 times.

I know she really doesn’t mean it, and I know she’ll thank me later. But right now? Apparently I’m not only a horrible mother, I’m a horrible person. This too shall pass.

Switching gears… Have you ever thought about how crazy the English language is, what with many similar (or same) words meaning different things? Case in point:

The doctor was patient with his patient which made his other patients lose their patience.

Queue: A word in the English language with five letters and we only pronounce the first one.

If he could read, he would have read that book.

The bear could barely bear it.

If a building is already built, why isn’t it called a built?

In other news… Did you see the video of the dude who shocked his wife with a pregnancy announcement before she knew she was actually pregnant? Totally worth a look-see:

 

That’s a wrap for this week – you know the drill, link up and join in the fun, everyone is welcome, random or not. And that means even if you don’t have a specific Random Tuesday Thoughts Rebel post posted, you can still link up, I’m not picky. You don’t even have to add the badge, just link up so I can come harass you on your blog. I promise to play nice.

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12 Comments

  1. So glad the surgery went well. I’m envious that you have two more weeks of summer! We started today, and as a teacher, I went back last Monday, sort of. If you read my post, “sort of” will make sense! Love that proposal video!

    1. Thank you! I’m very happy the hubby hasn’t had any funky side effects – he’s recovering nicely! 🙂 I think it’s a trade-off since they don’t get out in the summer until mid-June. Though I still much prefer the start of school being after Labor Day, since that’s how it was for me growing up here. I didn’t like the August start in PA that we had to deal with, especially when it was so hot and humid!

      I do feel bad for you teachers having to go back even earlier – totally cuts the summer short!! I’ll be over your way shortly to catch up on your posts! 🙂

  2. Super happy the surgery went well and may the 2nd go just a stellar!
    Camping looks amazing and that coffee pot is pretty awesome!

    Here’s to a good one!

    1. Second one went off without a hitch! Now he’s just waiting for the healing process to complete – he can’t do any heavy lifting or bend over to pick stuff up for a week or more…so next week should be interesting with him flying solo with Little Dude while Princess Nagger and I are living it up in Hawaii! (mwahahahaha!)

      Camping is so much fun here in Washington State for sure – so many cool places to explore! And yeah, I’m loving my new coffee pot, I really need my morning coffee – the hubby even more so than me, so it’s a win/win! LOL!!

      Thanks for stopping by – here’s hoping you have a great weekend! 🙂

  3. I used to love going camping but since I’ve become a mom my amenities have become important. I could probably do a day but definitely not a week! And a 7 hour trip home. Yikes! Leo was desperate for braces and he got them. I don’t think they are as fun as he envisioned. Hopefully PN can get used to them and one day realize that you were doing the right hting. 🙂

    1. LOL! I know what you mean, Kendra – one of the reasons why I put off camping until I managed to collect a lot of ‘amenities’ to make camping more convenient and fun for all. 😉 We do the weekend thing – we might do a full week next year just to see if we like it enough (though I’m thinking a week in a tent might not be as fun as a week in a trailer…something I’m working on the hubby about getting eventually…heh!!)

      How’s Leo doing with the ‘not so fun’ braces? I’m hoping PN will get used to them quickly and not be so adverse to having them (and realize later that it’s good to have them now vs. when she’s an adult like when I got mine). 🙂 We did her ‘back to school prep day’ today – there were probably a good 50% of the students just in the group that were there at the same time as us that have braces, so at least she won’t feel like the odd one out. 🙂

      Thanks so much for stopping by!! 🙂

  4. You happy campers sure don’t mess around! My daughter starts tenth grade in two more weeks as well, so kind of glad the posts break me into the thought of it gently! (and then there was that college thing…yikes!) Glad the hubs had a good experience, certainly makes the return trip back less intimidating!

    1. Definitely don’t mess around – I guess in some ways we sort of do that ‘glamping’ thing… glamorous camping! LOL!! I even picked up a propane fire so we could have a fire (and roast marshmallows for s’mores) – in spite of the burn ban, they did allow propane fueled fire, so I was all over that! Camping is so much better with a campfire, even if it’s composed of lava rocks instead of fire wood! 😀

      10th grade?! Why must time fly by so fast?! And I got all misty-eyed with your FB posts of the college thing – I better not blink or Princess Nagger will be starting college instead of 7th grade! 🙂

  5. Love the tent, and that coffee maker ALRIGHT!!!! GOTTA HAVE MY COFFEE!!! Okay where do I sleep??? That tent is too cool. Looks like a little house. Now did you spray the area for bugs… I HATE BUGS… Okay… now that video is tooo tooo cute! Thanks for sharing and I hope you share more pics of camping… Did you get my goodside???? bwahahha … just kiddin’!

    1. The tent really is roomy – and has room dividers to create 3 rooms so the kids each had their own space, and me and the hubby had the biggest room of all! LOL! That coffee maker was definitely a life saver – gotta have my morning coffee! Amazingly enough we didn’t have to spray for bugs – I’m betting the severe drought we’re currently in had something to do with that. In fact, behind our campsite there usually is a body of water (like a bog), but it was bone dry, hence no bugs in sight! Not even any mosquitoes, which I was thankful for, because they sure like munching on me all the time!! Will definitely share more pics from our camping fun – I’m way behind on doing Wordless Wednesday posts, and next week I’ll be filling my camera memory with even more pictures in Hawaii! 😀

  6. That ia sawesome that your hubs can see. I hope the second round of surgery will be even better. Sad about the irritation. Hope that calms down before him having to go in.

    What an adventure you had eh. Glad you are all home safely!

    1. He did great with round 2! Went to his follow up appointment this morning and is on track for full recovery (and sight!). I’m kinda hoping I get cataracts early like he did so I can ditch the glasses and see clearly…heh!! But I suspect I’ll have to wait until I’m almost 70 like my mom did – darn those great genes sometimes! LOL!

      We had fun camping – we’ll be doing more of that next year now that the family is all on board with the fun that can be had ‘roughing’ it…heh!! Next up, Hawaii for me and The Nag! Meanwhile I have SO much to get done in the next few days since I need to make sure all their Back To School stuff is done as we’ll be back the night before the first day of school. Wish me luck! 🙂
      StacyUncorked would like you to read ..Romantic As Hell by Rodney Lacroix is another winner!My Profile

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