High Five for Friday! Snakes, fireworks and a prize...

What a week!  The first week of my summer vacation has been an eventful one...just to my liking.

I found many adventures this week and if this is an indication of what my July will be like, I will be super happy.

5 awesome things that happened this week

1.  Sort of went camping a couple days at the Heartland Conference Retreat Center in Marengo, Oh.  I have a rough time with camping.  I very much enjoy the campfire, the campfire food, the company of friends and the fun adventures one can find.  

 

{Campfire breakfast, bacon, sausage, steaks and eggs...yummy}

One thing I don't enjoy....the bugs.  6 bites on my legs and counting.  If I can go camping without all of them joining me, I think I would go a lot more.  {As long as I sleep in a camper... with heat or air conditioning.... and have a real bathroom and shower.  My demands are small.}  I had a fabulous time, despite the creepy crawlies....

2. Speaking of creepy crawlies...I'm a little weird when it comes to that.  Bugs, spiders and the such creep.me.out.  As witnessed by my friends when a beetle was flying around the car, dive-bombing at my face on the way home from fireworks the other night.  To quote my friend Rachel "Jenny, I wish I could get my voice up that high."  I apparently go up a few octaves when I am having a freak out session.  Now you might be saying, I don't see how this is weird. 
Wait for it...

Snakes, lizards, frogs, basically reptiles and amphibians....LOVE them!!

At the campground I went to they have a nature center with all sorts of animals.  Well, mostly reptiles and amphibians.  They also have a couple possums, a skunk and 2 chinchillas, but everything else is scaly and possibly slimy.  Does that bother me?  Not at all.  I'm so mad I didn't get a picture.  {We go to the same place for kids camp, so maybe I can get some then.}  I held 3 different kinds of snakes, a salamander, a gecko and a frog.  If I ever have a pet, it will probably be some type of turtle...or frog...or lizard.

Now do you see how I'm a little weird. Bugs- no way, even though they are usually small and can be sqquished.  Snakes and frogs- yes...they are so cute. 

3. Remember how much I love the 4th of July? So far I have seen 3 nights of fireworks.  Hoping to find at least one more.  Went to the Mud Hens game again this year for the 4th and saw two fireworks shows in the same night.  Double score!   P.S. Mudhens people....you did an awesome job with the new fireworks show.  Really enjoyed the new types of fireworks.

If you are in the Toledo Area and are looking for some family fun tonight, the Mud Hens play at home and will have fireworks again.  As an added awesome bonus they are showing The Sandlot movie after the game.  How AWESOME is that!!!!  We are so cool.  Here is the link to get tickets.

4. Besides enjoying America's favorite pastime, I won a prize!

I don't know about your local ball team, but we have little games and such between innings.  Every game I go to I sign up.  It totally pays off.  I have fun and win something....heck yeah I'm signing up. And because of my "being bold" post the other day I talked my roomie to sign up too.    We played a base shuffle game.  On the giant screen they show 3 bases with a logo under one, then switch them all around and you have to know which one had the logo.  We have gone to so many Mud Hens and Walleye games (there it's the puck shuffle), we knew we had this.

$25 gift card and our new friend Anthony

5.  You can now call me Katnis Everdeen.  Heartland also has a little archery range.  {How cool are they.}

Ok, maybe not quite Katnis just yet, but not bad for my first time.  I really liked it, and think I would like to do more.  Wait!!!! I think that is on my bucket list!  I need to go a few more times before I can justify crossing that off.  

Well there you have it, my week.  What adventures did your week include?  

Blast from the past...

Before Beanie Babies, before Ferby and before Tickle Me Elmo there was a bear....

Teddy Ruxpin

I remember being very little and being very exited when I received a Teddy Ruxpin as a present.  He was so cool!  I loved Teddy Ruxpin.

We played, he read books to me, and I was completely fascinated that his eyes and mouth opened and closed when he talked.Teddy and I had a great week together.   

And then tragedy struck..... Teddy was broken!!!!

It might have had something to do with me being extremely curious about how he worked.  I needed to know.  

I might have ended up poking his eyes out. 

I laugh now...but then, I was heartbroken.  It must have been a traumatic experience since I can still remember how sad it was when I asked....

"Maybe..sniff sniff...we can fix him?" Poor little me.  Poor little Teddy!

No, he was a goner.  

Then yesterday, my dad brought home his latest garage sale find...Teddy!!!  It was a beautiful scene as I embraced the little guy.  

First it was a little creepy since my dad thought it would be funny to peek the little Teddy head through my window, but then it was a happy reunion.  

Seriously creepy, dad.

I quickly put batteries in and pressed the magical button.....and nothing happened.

I guess I'm not destined to have a working Teddy Ruxpin.

Why I don't like bridges....

I can't remember how this story came up the other day, but when it did I knew it needed to be shared with y'all.  

Once upon a time when I was... I don't know... maybe 8 and my sister was 6.  We were walking in a parade of sorts through downtown.  My dad being the kind, loving and ornery dad that he was/is decided to tell me about the lady that had fallen through a bridge.  

Yes, through.  

The real life story had something to do with a drawbridge, but he didn't tell me that part.  He just said to be careful because the bridge that was in our parade route was partially grated.   So naturally I am freaking out.  

And I mean Freaking. Out.  

But I'm the big sister so, I'm trying to act as cool as possible to save face.  As we make our way closer and closer to the bridge I couldn't believe the adults weren't worried about this at all and were going to let us just walk across the bridge of death.  

Finally the moment of truth....

Oh no.  

The grated part.  

I grab my sister's hand and I tell her to be very careful to not step through the holes.  Wait a second.... our feet are bigger than the holes, and there's no way our whole body will fit through there to fall in that water.  Huh.  But dad wouldn't make something like that up, so it must still be dangerous.  Yep. Definitely dangerous.  I'm pretty sure I prayed the whole way across.  After what seemed like forever we made it across the bridge.  We lived!!  Phew!  

I'm pretty sure this is why I'm afraid of heights and bridges.  

I love my dad.

It's not easy being me

I mean really.   I find myself in the weirdest situations sometimes.  Here is something that happened last week that proves it....

Once upon a time I was in a pizza joint waiting on my order.  I always feel a little awkward just sitting there, sometimes I pretend I'm doing something incredibly important on my phone, sometimes I read the random papers that are on the wall.  This particular day the pizza place was hopping, so I was just watching them make all of the magically delicious pizzas.  If people looked my way as they came in, I would smile as they went on to placing their orders. 

Then came Earl. 

I don't actually know what his name is, but Earl would fit.

So in comes Earl with his scraggly beard and kind of scraggly hair.  Me being the nice person I am, smile.  He orders his pizza and then decides to come chat with me.  Now me being a sanguine, I enjoy meeting new random people and have no problem talking to whoever wants to chat it up in the pizza place.  I was not ready for this conversation though...first line...no joke..."You look beautiful today." 

What I say: "Oh, thanks."  smile.
What I think: That was nice...wait how old are you like 60? Creepo meter just jumped 10 numbers.  Pizza, please be done soon.

He continues on a more normal note... I was still in shock, but it went something like this: 
"Man, am I hungry!  Doing work on my house...took guy home that was helping me...I watch a lot of TV....not very productive." Meanwhile I'm mmmhhhmm, oh and okay-ing.   

And then he hits me with another random line.

"Not much is happening in my love life right now.  I would like to get married again, and give that another shot."

What I say: Oh....awkward smile.
What I think:  What did he just say!!!!  OMG who says that to a stranger in a pizza place?!  I hope that wasn't him hitting on me!!!  Has it been 15 minutes yet?  Someone give me my pizza.


So awkward.  He just keeps talking.  "Addition on to house...lives with 92 year old mom....wants to visit his kids and grand kids in Florida." 

I don't want to be a jerk, I mean he hasn't like tried to make a creepy move on me or anything, so I just continue with the smiling, mmmhhhhmm-ing, and okay-ing. 

And then the moment I was waiting for..."Miss, your pizza is ready."  I jumped up so fast and I'm pretty sure angles were singing, and a bright light directed me to my pizza and then to the door.

"It was nice talking to you." he says.

"Yeah, you too."  smile.

"Maybe I'll see you around here again."

What I say: Smile....as I walk out the door.
What I think: Thank goodness I live a half hour away.

See it's not easy being me.

A giant bug tried to eat me!

Giant bugs and I don't get along.  If they leave me alone, they have a better chance of living out the day.  Remember the spider that was in my office?  He lived. 

Here is another Florida mini-adventure. If you missed the last mini-adventure you can catch up here.

One day I went to watch one of the girls I used to babysit...who is now 14...sniff sniff...play some softball.  It was of course a beautiful day.  I'm just standing there watching her play when I feel a little tickle on my leg.  I look down to find....EEK!! 

Can you find him?!  He was about 1-1 1/2 inches long, no exaggeration.  Creepy bug tried to eat me!  I quickly flicked him off and the dad of my grown up little girl (sniff) killed it. 

DIE bug!!!  

Why do the giant bugs always find me?

I guess there is at least one bad thing about Florida. 

I had a bad experience...

Thursday I worked at the tree lighting ceremony/party for the city of Holland.  It was a great time.  We had it all...cookies, a tree outside all lit up, me inside where it was nice and warm, cookies, Santa, Christmas music, fire in the fireplace, and cookies (they were REALLY good cookies!!!).  Our church was in charge of the kid's craft area and the Angel Tree.  Our volunteers were amazing and we all had fun. 

At the end of the night all of our volunteers gathered around Santa and Mrs. Clause for a picture.  Someone suggested I sit on Santa's lap.  NO WAY!!!  Never again....I think I am scarred for life. Here's why....Ready for my Santa story? Good.

One Christmas season I went with my family, a cousin and a friend to a theme park where we ate tons of sugar and were completely silly.  We were walking around and saw that Santa was there.  We went in and waited in line to sit on Santa's lap and get our picture taken.  Now mind you I was either 18 or 19 when this happened. Finally it is our turn.  My friend sits on one knee while I sit on the other, my cousin stands behind me and snap, snap...pictures are taken.  I try to stand back up to move on, but Santa's arm is still wrapped around me, so I sit back down. Santa says, "What do you want for Christmas?"  Being the silly girls we were, I believe rich boyfriends and jewelry were mentioned.  Ha ha ha cute.  I try to stand back up again...no such luck.  I sit back down.  AWKWARD. He carries on the conversation with us a little while longer and again I try to stand up.  I'm telling you it was crazy.  So now I'm thinking Santa is beginning to creep me out.  After a couple more seconds he finally lets us go. We left and started laughing about how incredibly weird that was.

The really funny part is my sister was video taping all of this.  You can see me and my friend trying to get up several times and he just pulled us back down.  Creepy Santa.

So there is my story.  Never again will I sit on Santa's lap.  I'm pretty sure that someday when I have kids, their dad will have to take them to see Santa, because no way will I take them.