I wish we'd all been ready...

Back in May, I blogged and included an article about a motorcycle accident that occured as I was trying to get home from a day at the lake.

Well, yesterday as I walked into work with my co-worker, she mentioned she remembered my sharing with her about the accident. She had spent the weekend with some girlfriends and one of the women's daughter's boyfriend was the victim of the accident. Well, he actually died when his bike went off the road.

How sad.

What is the point of drinking and getting behind the wheel? I mean, even in my own drinking days of the past, I knew better than to get behind the wheel, no matter how drunk I got. I knew better. True, alcohol can really be a big mess with your brain, and impair your judgment. I know it varies with certain people, and how they can handle their drinking or not.

Life is truly short. Let's not be careless.

The other week, I had been asked to do a solo for my church. Well, because of my daughter's accident with her bike and the van that hit her, I was unable to perform the song. But someone was generous to sub for me.

"I Wish We'd All Been Ready" was written in 1969, by Larry Norman.

Life was filled with guns and war
And all of us got trampled on the floor
I wish we'd all been ready
Children died the days grew cold
A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold
I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind
The Son has come and you've been left behind

A man and wife asleep in bed
She hears a noise and turns her head he's gone
I wish we'd all been ready
Two men walking up a hill
One disappears and one's left standing still
I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind
The Son has come and you've been left behind

Children died the days grew cold
A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold
I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind
The Son has come and you've been left behind

The Father spoke the demons died
How could you have been so blind

There's no time to change your mind
The Son has come and you've been left behind

I hope we'll all be ready you've been left behind
I hope we'll all be ready you've been left behind
I hope we'll all be ready you've been left behind

Post 4th...

Tent: The new tent was quickly and easily put up within 20 minutes. Not bad for someone who hasn't "tested" it beforehand. And it kept the morning dew off of us.

Air mattresses: they were still good, and still sturdy. Except for Ashley's, where we're missing a cap BUT it did have a plug so Ashley didn't rough it up. Only had to inflate it once.

Camping gear: got most of everything. Of course, I left w/o flashlights OR dishpan, or dishsoap. This is pretty typical for me to forget those very important items.

Laundry: well, we pretty much lived in our swimsuits or shorts & tshirts. At least there is still plenty of clean clothes....

Food: ooh la la. Yum. Was able to get fresh cut bacon and beef strips. Fresh corn on cob, fresh potatos for baking in the campfire. Fresh deli ham and salami, with fresh sliced cheese and of course a couple loaves of bread.

Misc. stuff: We brought along a small tv with Josh's XBOX and our dvd player. That was to be used for rainy days or when the moms want to nap or something...

The whole weekend was spent at Sugarloaf Campground in Waterloo. I felt like I was far far far away from home, when it was only 40 minutes' drive away. Very nice. It was off a dirt road, but still a gorgeous state park. The lake was just perfect.

We showed up Thursday afternoon, and my friend wasn't there yet with her daughter. So Ashley and I were able to set up the tent so quickly. We were very pleased. Then she proceeded to set up the canopy tent...which will become her job next time we camp. While waiting further, we made sandwiches and ate chips...and just pretty much hung around the site.

Couple hours later, my friend and her daughter showed up. Pah. Then we really started our camping vacation.

We had shish-kebobs of chicken and some vegs over the campfire. It was really delish. Then we had forgotten something ... smores. Oh no. So decided in the morning to visit a store and pick up the supplies for making smores.

Friday morning woke up to a beautiful sunny day and we had french toast with my bacon...yum. Cleaned up a bit and the kids put on their suits and my friend and I hiked down there to the lake. I guess I wasn't really in the mood to swim...but wanted to float. However, it's hard to stay in one spot...so I came up with a new invention (soon to be revealed...).

Went back and made my yummy teriyaki beef strips...with the corn and the potatoes that I cooked wrapped up in the foil and in the fire. Wait, the corn cooked in a big pot over the gas stove. It all turned out so great. We were a bunch of pigs.

Then we did smores for dessert. Hee hee.

Saturday morning pretty much same, but having pancakes and bacon for breakfast, then I attempted to make grilled tuna sandwiches but I missed some ingredient in it ...and I don't think anyone liked it too much. That's ok. Then for dinner, my friend had invited another friend out and she made some grilled chicken and some yummy pasta salad. Too rich for me but it was very good.

We did go back to the lake, and my invention? I took a string rope and loosely tied around my ankle, then climbed on my floating raft and got out to one of the buoy and lassoed the other end to it. That way, I was floating but still in the safe swim area. It was really nice to chill out and relax there. It was just the perfect weather, the lake was perfect and my son was happily playing with other kids....

Sunday morning we took down the tents and loaded up pretty well. However, my van wouldn't start. So my friend had to jump it for me, and that got me going. I noticed one of my brakes were bad, so I had to drive carefully home. It was sad to leave but it was such a lovely weekend, very relaxing. My friend and I are really great camping buddies. We are so flexible and so easy to get along, it's a rare treat.

Now I'm back at work, and life goes on, right? I dropped my van off with a mechanic and they just need to replace the rotor and replace a bolt for the tire that my husband broke off last year...and do some cleaning up in there. It should be nice to be able to drive without that gosh-awful scraping sound. Think of nails scraping down the chalkboard kind of feeling. Ech!

Almost vacation time!

It's Wednesday and I've done NOTHING to prepare for my camping trip this weekend.

I have a brand new tent that I never got around to practice setting up. I have not taken out all my air mattresses to test if they're still usable. I have not done any laundry. I have not put together the camping gear yet. I haven't even gone food shopping!

So I will do most of it tonight and some in the morning. I don't plan to leave for the campground until tomorrow afternoon. My friend and I are very excited about this weekend.

Some people have asked me how Ashley is doing. She is doing just super. She has started biking again and of course, wearing helmet!

Yesterday was funny, though. She came home and told me she met the guy who hit her. I was like, wow! So what happened? Well, the man recognized Anna, but not Ashley who was standing with her. Asked Anna, "how is your friend doing?" Anna laughed, and said "she's standing right here!" The man was so thrilled and so happy to see Ashley doing so well. He was praising God for this miracle. Ashley and Anna did not stay long to chat. Ashley shared with me that the man got on his motorcycle and took off...of course, wearing a helmet.

I'm glad the man is okay, and that he got to see Ashley alive and well. I'm sure he had been worried and feeling guilty.

No, I haven't gotten the police report, as I've told some people, I am not ready to read it. I don't think I will ever request it. Ashley is still here with us, and there is really no need for me to rehash the whole experience.

Happy news---my landlord is working on creating some kind of pad? for the central ac he will install for our apartment. It's about time!

I have noticed, though, the hallway lights are out (bulb burned out?) and there's something weird going on with my bathroom lights...and some other things that are showing up that is just too gross to mention in here. I'm keeping my eye out, but I have a suspicion there is something in the attic (that I have no access to).

My husband seems very happy with his job. He's content. He's excited. He's motivated. I'm very happy for him. I tried working with him on an assignment...his boss made a request regarding the logo for the company...but his sentence was so confusing, I spent time trying to translate in a way we both could understand. So when I got home, I found out the boss did come over to explain clear to him. So that was good. I am also very thankful the house was already picked up ... whew!

Well, if I don't blog again before this weekend, I wish you all a very happy 4th of July. Please be safe...and nothing foolish, please!