Camping trip
9:54 p.m. x May 31, 2004
So I took my kiddos camping this weekend. It was nice, although I'm kicking myself for forgetting my camera. I got the email addy of someone at the campsite behind me and if she sends me any pics of Kimberley and her daughter, I'll share them here.
I was originally going to go tent camping but Ronda offered to let me use their pop-up camper, so I jumped at it. it might not be fancy but I don't see too many tents with stoves, fridges, beds, tables, and closet space. She'd like me to buy it but I don't know. She doesn't want much for it and it does need some work that wouldn't cost nearly as much as what it would end up being worth, but coming up with that money in the first place is tough.
Friday night, I spent the evening getting stuff set up and trying to light a camp fire. It was cold as fuck though so we ended up going in and covering up with blankets. The kids fell out at about 10, I think, maybe a little later.
Wouldn't ya know I found a heater the next day?
Saturday, the kids woke me up at 3:30 am. One had a sore leg, one had a sore foot and hand, and I had a migraine. The only one that stayed asleep was Kimberley. We got up and did camping stuff, and the kids went off to make friends on their bikes. I was trying to talk to John on my phone but it kept going out on me because I was at the very edge of the coverage area, and I was waiting for it to switch off roaming, and next thing I know, it's 45 minutes later and I had fallen asleep. Thankfully the kids were okay. They wandered off to the community center thing while I was snoozing with Kimberley and made these red, white, and blue things that hang from the ceiling. It's hard to explain but I'll take a picture when they're unpacked.
They had bingo and a band that night too but bingo is too hard with 3 kids to watch and the band started too late for my kids to enjoy.
Kimberley befriended the couple behind us, and kept calling the woman Grandma. She technically is a grandma, I later found out, but there isn't even a close resemblence to either of her real grandmas. She'd open the door and yell "Hi Gramma! Look mommy, there's gramma. I say hi gramma?"
Sunday, the weather was warmer during the day and I decided to go out and be social, and play around with the kids. Kimberley went over to "Grandma's" and made friends with her granddaughter that came to visit and is about a year younger than Kimberley. She ate hot dogs, tomato, and green pepper off the neighbor, then came back and had cheddarwurst and strawberries from me. I was bashful at first because that's just me so I watched her outside from a distance and had Brittany keep an eye on her while I went inside to do this and that while I made lunch. I eventually warmed up to them and went over there and talked with them most of the afternoon and evening. The daughter and her hubby and baby don't live too far from me, so we're going to get our little ones together for a playdate, and she does the sex party thing where they sell toys and such so I finally have access to my DP vibrator that Lizz swears by. I just have to get the money and buy it, more or less. Anyway, the little ones played in the mud and got filthy and Kimberley ruined a brand new outfit that I just bought yesterday when I was getting some more food for us at the Wal-Mart in Alliance, but that's okay. I only mention it because I think it was cute. It was only $5 and it was worth that to see my little girl playing in the mud with someone her own age, rubbing it on the picnic table and yelling "Mommy! I makin'!" and seeing her go back to stomp her feet in the mud when she went back. It was too cute. The older kids rode their bikes and made their own friends that they played with the entire weekend, and Ronald got too much sun, so he was feeling sick. I made him drink a bottle of gatorade and he was fine by this morning but he did get to go on a hayride and he got ice cream at the ice cream social. The hayride and the ice cream were the extent of their night, and then I put them to bed and chatted with John. I talked to him on the phone for about 5 minutes but with Ronald laying beside me sick, and needing to call my mom back, it didn't last long. We chatted on my mobile web most of the night, and I went off to go to sleep, then got a text message and woke up to see what was going on with that, chatted with him again, and fell asleep as I was waiting for the next page to load. I laid it down to wait and thought I'd rest my eyes, and next thing I know (after an interesting dream spawned from a radio commercial, and a few others) it was like 7:30 or 8. Oops! I felt really bad but he wasn't upset with me.
So I took my sweet time loading everything up today because I was supposed to be out by 2 but they told me to take my time since nobody was waiting on the spot I was on, and I left there at like 5, took the camper to Ronda's, and then Ron called and wanted to take Ronald fishing, so I said I'd wait there for him, and I waited and waited and waited, and finally was able to get home about 7:30.
Ron's going to take Ronald to school tomorrow and the girls are in bed, so it's just me for right now.
I was thinking a lot about how my kids were off on their bikes, socializing and having fun, and that's how it should be. I shouldn't have to ground them simply for wanting to go outside, because I'm afraid of the neighborhood. It really isn't fair to them and it's robbing them of their childhood. I really want to move, but my lease runs out next July (2005) and I plan to move to NC shortly before that and break the lease then, so I guess I'll wait it out, but I still feel bad about it. They should be able to get on their bikes and go (within reason) and just be home by dinner time, and check in every so often. It shouldn't be like it is right now and they need a better life. Not to say I'm giving them up... that's not at all where I'm going with this. They just need to be in a better neighborhood. We all do. I wish I could turn this neighborhood around but I'm only one person and nobody else seems to want to do anything beyond complaining about it, so I guess I'll stay with them and bitch about it til I can get the hell out of here.
That's part of the reason I'd consider buying that camper, or if I could get a good deal on one, a regular one with a seasonal lot so they could go out and play every weekend. I'm not saying I will, but it's a temporary fix that I'm thinking about. I can always sell the camper before I move down south if I have to. In fact, I know someone that is a sucker for anything like that and I know he'd buy it if I was to not want it anymore. Then again, if he were to take them on the weekends like he should, they might be able to go out and play more. He lives in a big ol' apartment building but they could at least play with kids in other apartments or something. It's better than getting yelled at for sitting on the porch because there's a pervo sex offender less than 2 blocks from my house.
Anyway, the weekend with the kids was nice, and I want to do it again soon. It's hard to communicate with John, but I'm sure I could find another campground that's closer to my phone service area and that'd make it a lot easier. We did get to talk but I missed him, even though he really wasn't any farther away than he always is. It's nice to be home so I can type things out on the keyboard instead of on the keypad on my phone, and my phone doesn't lose its signal every 2 minutes in Akron. *sigh* what's it say down there? 33 days? It's getting closer but not close enough yet.