Camping-Last
week we went camping at Fall Creek Falls State Park. It's about a 3
hour drive from here. A lot of it was one of those comedy (and
sometimes not-so-funny) of errors trips. I was sick the week before we
were supposed to go, so I didn't get ANY packing done until the day
before we were leaving, including catching up on the wash. Ashley and
Briana were gone a lot that week, so they couldn't help me as much as
usual, but did help on Sunday while we were trying to finish. But, we
had so much left to do on Sunday, that it took us forever to get out of
here. Since we had an injured Shadow, Betsy graciously
offered to cat-sit for us. She is pretty much on our way there, but we
barely made it there in time for her to get to go to church. Then I
had forgotten to get some things from the grocery store, so we had to
take a little longer route into Crossville to stop at WalMart. It was
9:30 by the time we got to the campground. Thankfully, with our walkie
talkies (that Betsy found humorous) we are quite proficient at getting
into a campsite in the dark. Monday and Thursday were good days. We
had a great time--campfires, walking, biking, playing games, going to
the playground. The whole state park was almost deserted, so it was so
quite and peaceful. Remember me saying that we were keeping an eye on
the weather to make sure it wasn't going to rain much before we made the
decision to go? SUNDAY MORNING, as we're getting ready to leave, they
up and change the forcast! UGH! It rained ALL day Tues. and Wed. My
parents were camping there, too, over on a different loop. Marissa
and Daniella went over and spent a few hours with them on Tues. in
their camper, because ours was getting a "little" claustrophobic with
all 6 of us. And, those two were wild that morning. They had the
sillies and were bouncing and loud, mixed in with some occasional
squabbles, so it was time for grandma's (Sorry Mama!). Anyway, we
survived all the rain-played lots of card games. Thursday was back to
beautiful and sunny. But, like as soon as the sun came out, so did the
ladybugs. By mid-morning the camper was filled with them. That was
funny. Thankfully they left when it got dark.
Daniella bike riding
Marissa relaxing in the hammock, enjoying a classic.
My little monkey, Daniella
Okay, you absolutely
cannot roast a marshmallow well, if you don't stick your tongue out!
Notice the marshmallow already on her nose and chin! 
Okay-this pictures
cracks me up. This is my 20 year old daughter and her grandfather
coloring. I told you it rained for 2 LONG days!!!
My girls at the overlook.
Fall Creek Falls. This was taken into the sun, so the lighting is rather poor.
Marissa and me bike riding. She has her own bike, too, but this is a cool tandem bike that can hook onto mine.
Eating ice cream at the camp store.
Snuggled around the campfire. It was COLD at night.
Crashes-Check
out time this time of year is not until 3:00, so we were taking our
time Friday morning, trying to get in some bike riding and "camping"
time since it had rained for 2 days. We had gotten back from biking
over near the falls, but James, Briana, and Ashley were
still out. I'm sitting outside the camper, and I look up and see James
coming in pretty fast. Comedian that he is, I assumed he was racing
and horsing around with them. But as he kept coming, I saw that they
weren't in sight, and I knew something was wrong. Briana had wrecked
over on a closed loop. We all jumped in the truck, and drove over close
to where they were. They had actually both wrecked. Briana's bike got
out of control somehow, and she hit bad. Ashley was right behind her,
and had to slam on brakes to keep from running over her, which threw her
off of her bike, too. Briana hit her head, but thankfully had her
helmet on. She has some nasty, nasty scrapes all over the place--her
right shoulder, tiny one on her right elbow, a big, bad one just below
her left knee, a big, bad one on her left arm, and several small bad
ones on the back of her left hand, plus some misc. others scattered
around. She has a huge bruise on her right thigh, along with both
knees, and she hurt her ankle. Ashley got a couple of minor scrapes,
but her knees have continued to be achy. I took them to the
chiropractor yesterday, so I hope that will help her knees. I am SO, SO
thankful to the Lord that they didn't have any head injuries or broken
bones. I am thankful, too, that they respected my wishes and wore their
helmets even though they would have preferred not to. Now they
understand why. Briana's has a big soft spot in it, along with scrapes
across the front of it where it hit the pavement.
Ashley and James rode
the bikes back home, while I got Briana into the truck and took everyone
else back. We got her doctored, but that made us very late once
again. Plus, because they were hurt, they couldn't help us get
everything packed back up, so it took forever. Then we had to stop at
my mom's and dad's to pick up one of our dogs. I think we were 9:00
getting back to Betsy's to pick up Shadow. Told you it was a comedy of
errors. We managed to have some fun times anyway.
Briana being doctored by the park ranger.
Cats-Today
is the first day Shadow has been able to stay out of the kennel most of
the day. He's slept on the couch most of it anyway. But, he has tried
to walk around some. The muscles in that leg will take a long time to
heal and "regrow", since they had to cut a lot out. The nerves seem to
be healing well, and he seems to be able to make it go where he wants
to. He just can't put weight on it. But, boy, the vet shocked us
yesterday by saying that it will probably take 18 months for it to be
fully healed. This is an outside cat, and he's dying to get outside.
Not to mention the added loveliness of a litter box. 18 months--that's a
year and a half! That's a long time!
Bears-Well,
just before we left for camping, we got quite a surprise. Our
neighbors 2 houses and 2 big yards over had a bear in their backyard.
Hello, we don't live THAT close to Gatlinburg. We are NOT supposed to
have bears in our neighborhood. I do know they have had them not too
far from here before, but we've lived here for almost 17 years and never
had one, so we felt kind of immune. BEARS!!!! Also, the consensus
seems to be, including from the vet, we think there is a high
possibility that that is what happened to Shadow. There were no tears
in his wound like teeth marks. It was just one big "swipe" all the way
down his shoulder and leg, all the way to the bone. The worst part is
the Wildlife people didn't catch it with their trap, so it's still out
their wandering around somewhere. BEARS??!! Thankfully, my little ones
usually make so much noise squealing when they are outside playing, I
doubt a bear would be brave enough to come close. At least I hope not.
Okay, this is already terribly long, but one more thing. Ashley is going to get to go to the writer's seminar in Gatlinburg this weekend. Gena is
going to be speaking there, along with several others. She is really
excited. She wants to write--to be published one of these days. She is
a great writer, especially inspirational and "creative non-fiction"
type stories. I feel very inadequate at helping her figure out how to
be published. I hope this weekend will be very helpful to her. She is
also taking some writing classes online through Writer's Digest. She
has gotten very good feedback there, also.
Okay, I'll quit my rambling now. I'm trying to catch up on reading everyone else's blogs, so I'll be by to see you all soon.
Letitia
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