The Old Me

I.need.a.haircut. (Yes Jim, only one - it is in the bottom left quadrant.) There I said it, now maybe it will happen in the next 6 months. I know it is time to get my hair cut when I start wearing it in a pony tail every day and I have been doing that for oh, the last 2 months at least. And, as I was standing in the shower washing my way too long hair, I was thinking about my shampoo. 5 years ago (I'm not kidding) Doug bought Wal-mart out of clearance Herbal Essence shampoo and conditioner. 5 years later, every medicine cabinet is still full of the stuff. Love it, but hate to store it.

And that got me thinking (oh, the trailing thoughts of a woman) about the me I used to be.

I used to be all laid back, open to try anything, and on no form of an agenda. What happened to me? Sometimes when I fill out silly personality surveys, that's the person I pretend to be.

This weekend, for the first time since July 1, 2006, we went camping - how sad that I remember the date. Nolan was tiny, Ethan was non-existent. Cosmo had a run-in with a skunk and we had to sit in the car with him for hours afterward.

Now you're wondering how I got to this thought from needing a haircut - stick with me now. I have been filling my new garage shelves and finally, for the first time in WAY too many years, I know where ALL of my camping stuff is. I can't handle it all over the garage and when it is, I can't go camping. And so, storing shampoo made me think of camping. (I know, good grief... try being married to me and my random thought process...)

For the first time in years, I felt like the me I know I am. I LOVE to camp. I'm not talking about RV, pop-up trailer, or "Camping World" (long story, well, sort story for another time) camp. To me, there is nothing better than cuddling up in a sleeping bag shoved into a tent with too many people who you know and love, and on rare occasions, people you don't know - it HAS happened. I used to call Doug at work and say, "I'll pick you up after work and we'll got camping." We went on a totally last minute 3 day camping trip to Zion National Park once. Brenden slept through the night for the first time on his first camping trip.

And so, Friday, Doug called me from work and said, "Pack up the car and pick me up and we'll go camping." Ok, I'll admit it, at first I was like, "What the heck do you think I am?" And then I remembered ME. I found all of my perfectly arranged camping stuff and put it in the back of the car. Easy peasy. (Packing the fishing stuff was slightly harder - ew, and touching cured salmon eggs is disgusting.)

It was so much fun - I never realized how much I missed it. We camped on the beach in Homer. We got a late start and most of the "camping spots" ("spots" is a very loose term because on the beach, there are no "spots" - maybe I should say "space") were filled, so we shoved our little tent between an RV and the "Day Use Only" sign. It was fur-eezing.

Brenden had never heard of a mummy bag - he HAD to try out being a mummy.

(Ahem, yes Dustin that's your sleeping bag and yes, 9 years later, I still have it.)

There is a funny story that goes with the next two sleeping bags. I told it to Brenden for the first time as I was packing the car. Brenden's first Christmas - he was 9 months old - Doug and I decided we would each get him one present the other didn't know about. Christmas morning, Brenden opened 2 tiny sleeping bags. (Doug and I also got each other the exact same gift - Apples to Apples.)

In the morning, we went fishing in the lagoon.

And then played on the beach.

The wading started out innocent...

... and then, not so much.

Nolan, in the end, fell into the water up to his chest.

As I was organizing the camping stuff, (only to take it out hours later) I came across a portable hammock (which Brenden pronounces with 2 very distinct syllables: ham-ock) and stand that we have had for years and never used. Wow, half of that sentence was (in parenthesise). It was inevitable that the kids would fight over it, so I dug through some more camping stuff and came up with another hammock.

Brenden says this is him saying, "Where's Nolan?"

There he is!

I failed to mention that on the day Doug, Greg and I went bear viewing, I came home to this:

That glass door has been in the garage begging to be hung for a year. Thank you!