You know what I will never get tired of?

This. This sweet girl who tests me and pushes me and makes me pray a lot every day. 

The way the kids come down the steps in the morning, fresh from their rest, full of anticipation for whatever the day's fun is going to be...and the way they come to me first, before anything else for their hug and snuggle. 

The simple joys of summer-- when late bedtimes and too much ice cream takes the place of the normally (probably too) rigid schedule.  Where we run outside in the yard catching lightning bugs in our pajamas because I took the time to notice them. I can tell that I am not spontaneous enough based on the surprise in the kids' eyes when I called them outside at 9:00 to run around with me. 

Walks to the beloved "orange playground" where the kids had an epic Nerf gun battle on Tuesday night. Although hot, it was worth it for a walk with Toby and some adventure for the kids. 

We are really trying to enjoy what is left of the summer-- as I can feel it slipping out of my hands.  The planner page is turning to August all too soon with its list of back to school tasks that require our attention and I am just not ready. 

When Daddy is away...

It is Day #2 of Jason's trip to Chicago. There have been trips of his that I have dreaded, some thst have left me feeling lonely and sad and others that made me feel exhilarated by the challenge. So far, this one hasn't been bad. But it is a completely different animal than when we are juggling school schedules and non-flexible morning departure times. Last night the kids and I had a pancake party for supper (a tradition when it is just us during Daddy's trips) with bacon...of course. And then we had lots of snuggle time on the couch before bed. 

Today was a bit more hectic.  We had to all be up and out this morning in time to get Josh to basketball clinics. We then took the girls to Weis to pick out a donut for breakfast. They always think thst is a special girls' treat, but I can only do it with them when Josh is otherwise occupied due to his allergy. They were thrilled because they got to ride in the "cart cart"  (that's Mara for the 'car carts' at Weis).  I was, on the other hand, heartbroken because the two of them barely could squeeze in there together.  It seems like five minutes ago that I was needing to tighten the buckles in the seats to keep them from rattling around in there. Grandma was arriving later than normal so that I could work a little longer than usual with a 5:00 appointment in Mifflinburg. Which was plenty of excitement for me until we got the announcement that a fellow State Farm Agent had passed away and his viewing would be held tonight. And so, on top of the day's work, and late appointment, I needed a babysitter and to stay in my work clothes for an extra three hours to attend the services for Jack. It made for a bit of a wild ride today. But here I am, at the end of it, grateful for the day and all its challenges, and prayerful that tomorrow will be another opportunity to do it all over again. 

It was like climbing Mt Everest.

I can't let the summer go by without a post summarizing our week at VBS. This is always a tricky week for us just based on scheduling and logistics, but I have to say that this year the kids had an absolutely fantastic time.  Our church family went all out again this year with decorations that helped all of us to get into the spirit of this year's theme-- Mt Everest!  I am always amazed and so thankful for the people in our church who spend so much time and energy to make this week special for the kids. 

There were close to 150 kids who attended during the week. And whatever poor attitude I may have had going into it was quickly resolved when Ingot the opportunity to man my station in the Kid Vid cinema where we watched a real life story that helped to drive home the message from the evening. I soent my week with the preschoolers- 40+ of them. They were an energetic bunch, but made my heart so happy as we all learned together about all of the things God is powerful enough to do. I love how He works-- providing growth and learning for the adults as well as the kiddos.

One of the daily joys I had was watching these two sweet little spunky girls dancing and singing their hearts out to the music each night during opening and closing. And all the way there and all the way home. And everywhere we have gone in the car since then. For goodness sake...

We had the joy of bringing our friend from up the street, Katelyn, with us each night. She and Lauren got to be in the same group and seemed to have a fun time together. 

After the long week, I think I may have been the only one ready for it all to be over with.  But I guess that's a good thing- we all got to know Jesus better that week, and even earlier bedtimes and fewer cranky morning are worth that. 

Squeezing it all in...

I feel like such a broken record.  Can't find time to blog.  Can't seem to keep my head above water with  most things right now.  Can't believe that I am staring at the page in the planner that says August at the top of it, or the list along the side of all of the back to school jobs that need to be completed as soon as I turn that page.  Can't seem to believe that the kids have grown as much as they have, even in just the past month or so.  And how I can't seem, no matter how hard I try or pray or beg, to get it to all just slow down.  And so, that is how I find myself a week and some days past this actual event, but still sharing pictures and a few stories from what turned out to be a pretty special day with our favorite PSU football fan.

 

Last Saturday had been selected as the day that we were going to host a picnic for Jason's co workers.  One of his team members had reached a major milestone by passing all of his license exams, and so, we thought it a perfect excuse for a picnic.  The weather reports were showing sunshine where we have seen mostly gray clouds in the forecast, and so it appeared that Saturday the 11th was a perfect day for a party.

 

Until...Jason was invited to bring Joshua and I along to the PSU Lift for Life event that is a fundraiser to raise money for cancer research through an organization run by the athletes themselves.  Knowing that this might be a once in a lifetime chance, we decided to try to squeeze both things in to the same day.  I wasn't so sure it was even feasible, but Jason said he thought we could manage.  And so, try we did. 

 

Joshua brought along his helmet, hoping for a few autographs by the end of the day.  He has had this helmet since he was about 4 years old and asked Santa for a PSU helmet.  Unfortunately, he was a disappointed boy when we all realized that Santa had brought him a display helmet instead of one that he could actually wear on his head to play football.  Silly Santa.  But it sure did come in handy on this day!

 

 

 

Be still my heart.  This is Josh with a very large, and very nice Anthony Zettel.  He is by far my favorite Penn Stater right now...as evidenced by the fact that every time we hear his name announced over the loud speaker, or we see him do something cool, I always say, "He's my favorite".  He talked to Josh for quite a while and we had a chance to tell him about meeting his mother on the day of his first collegiate start during the now-famous 4 overtime win over Michigan (without a doubt, my all time, probably never going to be able to top it, favorite PSU game that we've attended).  Libby and I were standing outside of the tunnel awaiting the arrival of the blue team buses when this woman we were standing beside was literally not able to control herself or her tears or her general excitement about the whole thing.  We ended up talking to her and found out that her son was Anthony Zettel, a virtual unknown at the time, but she was the proudest Mama I had ever seen.  And we've been cheering for him ever since.  I think he is going to have a great season, and potentially a great career post PSU.

 

This picture was one of my favorites with Josh and Angelo Mangiro and his friend Carl, whose last name is escaping me at the moment. He came over to Joshua and started talking to him-- a definite people person.  He told Josh that he was hoping to be a first or second grade teacher when he graduated.  He said he had been practicing his stern teacher face for the classroom, but Josh asked why he wouldn't just tackle them if they weren't listening.  Evidently tackling is the method of choice for classroom management at Meadowbrook Christian School if that was his idea of appropriate.  Just kidding.  I hope.  Angelo was really sweet too because he asked Josh who else he wanted to sign his helmet and then went to get them from the part of the field we weren't allowed to go to.

 



 

During the event, there was also a Kids' Combine that was going on where kids could do exercises and drills with members of the team.  I thought Joshua would get a real kick out of this part, but he preferred to watch the guys do the lifting events instead.

 

This was the autograph line at the end of the Lift for Life event.  He filled his whole helmet and got the autographs of most of the 2015 team, plus Jesse James who graduated and now plays for the Steelers.  Jesse was a little hesitant to sign his helmet, but agreed to do it.  He was the only person who was reluctant in the least.  Just goes to show what the NFL does to people...and why I have no time for it.  

 

After we returned home around 3:30 we had approximately an hour to set everything up for the picnic before people started to arrive.  Let's just say we were moving with purpose.  But before everyone arrived, we managed to set up Emily and Earl's bounce house (thanks so much, again, guys!) for the kids, set up tables and chairs, and do final food preparations.  All in all, we had a wonderful, albeit exhausting day.

What an adventure!

It has been made a formal Dugan family decision, sworn, sealed and enacted into law that if anyone gets the bright idea to go camping over the 4th of July ever again, they will be immediately struck by lightning. You may recall the Poe Valley debacle last summer where we sat along the road for the better part of half a day due to a storm that had trees down blocking the roadways?  Well...I now enter into evidence the story of Nemacolin 2015. 

Everything was going great when we left on Thursday morning. This was our maiden voyage with Jason's new truck- specifically ordered with max towing capacity to be able to handle our trailer and all of the stuff we lug along with us. In all of the ways his Ram had struggled, we were noticing huge differences in gas mileage and overall ease that we could pull the nearly 10,000 pounds behind us. Until...

Somewhere before Bedford (and still 75 miles or so from Nemacolin) both of us heard a sound. To me, it sounded like we hit a groundhog. But it became very clear that that was not the case when the truck engine all of a sudden sounded like it was going to take off. Our 2000 rpm's quickly jumped to 6000 and the engine was shutting off at about 20 mph. We pulled into a Sheetz (and it isn't easy to just pull off when you're as long as we are) to think about what to do. Jason called the dealership to ask for advice and they didn't have any suggestions other than that maybe something had come unhooked. So we tried to keep going-- only to discover that it wasn't going to work to do so. Thank goodness for phones because we searched and found that we were 2.8 miles from a Ford dealership. So we went there. 

God bless those people at Shaffer Ford.  They came out to us in the parking lot and diagnosed and repaired the issue (the hose from the eco boost part of the engine) within a half hour. After that was fixed, we were back on our way and arrived at Nemacolin around 3:30. We were so relieved to be there safely and thankful that the excitement was over. 

Until...

Around 7:00 that evening, just as we finished supper, Mara came to me and climbed in my lap and fell asleep. Very odd for my little night owl. Jason observed that she looked awfully pale. Before an hour had passed, she was burning up with a fever and had declared thet her throat was hurting her when she swallowed. Fantastic.  

The rest of Thursday night was miserable. She couldn't sleep. Wouldn't eat. Was throwing up. Couldn't keep Tylenol or Motrin in her to help with the fever. So Friday morning we had to figure out what do. We thought about heading home, but I figured with the holiday weekend we wouldn't be able to see our doctor and would have to opt for a Med Express type option. So I searched for one of those nearby and found one in Uniontown- about 20 minutes away. So we got ready to go. The only challenge was that the only vehicle we had was Jason's huge and very NEW truck-- the same one I had vowed never to drive. But drive it I did. We made it to Med Express, and as it turns out, so did the rest of the population of Uniontown. We waited there for a few hours and finally saw a doctor who suspected strep throat even though the strep screen was negative. So they gave us some amoxicillin and away we went. So Friday was basically a wreck. Jason had kept the big kids and Toby at the campground to go swimming, and they had a blast. Me and Mara, not so much. 

Friday night the rain started. Like "Noah, build your ark" rain. Cats and dogs falling from the sky rain. And once it started, it didn't even let up until Saturday around noon. And so, the Dugan five plus active four month old puppy occupied ourselves inside of our 30' long tin can. We couldn't cook our supper as planned because we needed the fire to do so. And so we decided to take advantage of being at Nemacolin and see if we could find a restaurant to accommodate us, the Sherrells and their friends who had joined them for the weekend. A group of 12. Good luck. But we managed to eat at The Caddy Shack - a casual bbq restaurant on site. So that sure beat the Easy Mac and Chef Boyardee options I had in the camper. After dinner I headed back with Mara who was still fevered and miserable while Jason took the big kids to play at the arcade for a while. There certainly was no campfire sitting. 

Saturday morning it was still yucky and cold so we headed for the Gymnastics Center. The kids always love bouncing on the trampolines and jumping into the foam pit. This may have been our saving grace because I think one more minute in the camper and we might have all lost it. 

Lucky for us, the sun came out while we were jumping so we hurried up to the pool to swim for a while. The kids absolutely love the water slide and had a ball playing in the pool. Seats were at a premium because as soon as the sun peeked out and the temperature rose beyond 70 degrees, the people came out of the woodwork for the pool. 

We redeemed the day- and frankly the weekend- with weather that was agreeable to an outside cookout on the fires. We made our steaks over the fire and had lots of yummy things to go with them. We sat outside, the kids rode bikes, we ate apple pie and then watched the fireworks show from the campsite. Only one tree blocked our view. Lucky for us, there was a wedding taking place just up the hill from the campground and they had arranged for a special fireworks show at 11:00 pm.  Although it sounded like Vietnam at our site because they were setting them off so closeby, it was amazing to see the fireworks so close.  The entire sky above us was gorgeously lit up. Somehow, Josh slept through it and Mara fell asleep in my lap during it. But a great ending to the weekend it was, indeed. 

We packed up and headed home Sunday morning. Followed by a ridiculous amount of laundry that still remains un-put away.  Glad that trip is in the books. And looking for plans for next July 4th that don't involve camping!

24 hours and counting...

We're in the midst of gearing up to head on our next camping adventure of the summer.  This time, we're headed to western PA to the campground at Nemacolin Resort.  This was a super find last year by Jason, and allowed us to enjoy all of the amenities of the resort without paying the price tag for staying there.  Jason and I have been there a few times on a nice getaway for just the two of us, but the campground seems to be a great fit for us with the kids. 


In the meantime, things are reaching a fevered pitch in terms of preparations.  The camper is parked out in front of the house so that the fridge can get cold.  But it is also mocking me out there.  This morning when I woke up, I swore it was actually saying to me, "You think you're going to be ready to go tomorrow morning by 9 am, huh?  Yeah right."  And so, I am accepting the challenge.  Sometime between this afternoon at 1 when I get home and tomorrow morning, I will load it all up, make all of the beds, put all of the groceries in the cupboards, take an inventory of all of our needed supplies (who wants to get all the way out there and then find out they're out of Kleenex or garbage bags...not me!), bring our clothes out (which, by the way, are all likely in a variety of laundry baskets scattered about the upstairs of the house), and finish cooking.  Last night I mixed up a batch of baked beans that we can cook with our burgers on the 4th of July in a crock pot that I'm going to take, as well as a big batch of pasta salad.  Whoopie pies are in the freezer...because it isn't camping if there aren't whoopie pies, say the kids.  Today I need to mix a batch of Neen's famous dip, make Lauren the banana muffins that she requested, make a zucchini bread (because apparently I am a glutton for punishment because I have my heart set on this), and bake an apple pie. 


Jason will handle the outside preparations like packing the truck with the kids' bikes and the grill and the coolers of drinks.  And then we'll have to get all of Toby's stuff around (crate, food, treats, toys) since he will be coming along. 


Oh, and then tomorrow morning we'll load up all of the toiletries and enough snacks and activities to *hopefully* entertain everyone for the 4 hours we'll be in the car.


Maybe the camper is right.


But I'll say this... When we arrive, it'll be awesome.  We'll be swimming by tomorrow afternoon (I hope).  There are all sorts of July 4th activities that have been planned including a kids' carnival that we're hoping to check out.  There are fireworks planned for Saturday evening that we're hoping to be able to watch from around our campfire (that'll be a first...and hopefully won't scare Toby half-way to death).  And then there are all the other things that there are to do out there--- the zoo, playground, bowling, gymnastics center for jumping on the trampolines, etc.  We're really looking forward to a great weekend.


I'll see what I can do to get some good pictures along the way.  Hope to be back with a good post on Monday.

It's not the weekend yet, so...

I started the week awfully proud of myself because I felt "caught up" on the blog.  And I even had a post planned from all of our weekend activities last week.  But then Monday happened.  And Tuesday after that.  And now it's Thursday and I somehow still feel OK about this because it isn't the weekend yet so I'm not completely untimely.

In my defense, this week has been a little wild with Lauren's dance "camp" each evening this week.  It has been better than Bible School because there are only about 12 kids in the classes, so I haven't been close to a nervous breakdown...yet.  Saving that all up for VBS week.  (I know you're all looking forward to that.)

Last weekend was a good one...well, sort of.  We were finally out of our beach funk, where you have to get readjusted to wearing clothes other than shorts and flip flops, and where it is no longer acceptable for a meal to be a sandwich and some fruit and cookies.  It was a rough go of it there for a while, but I think we made it back into the land of the living.

I had thought and thought for the past month or so about what to get Jason for Father's Day.  He's nearly impossible to buy things for because a. his wants are not generally the small little things that you can pick up at the store while you're running errands (he gets all of that little stuff for himself, generally a week or so before any major event for which a gift would be customary).  Thinking of getting him some new ties for work...don't worry, he'll get them himself.  Penn State t-shirts, not to worry...he'll get them on a quick trip to Dick's on the way home from work one day.  I adore him, but gift buying can be tricky.  While we were away at the beach, we had been talking about groups we would like to see in concert.  And the Zac Brown Band was high on the list for both of us.  So I got searching.  As it turned out, they were coming to Hershey for a show on 9/5 and tickets went on sale last Thursday.  I checked the PSU schedule...away that day.  Score.  So I booked the tickets.  And I was thrilled.  Even checked with my Mom, who was graciously willing to spend the night with the kids so that we could even stay overnight if we wished.  Booked a hotel room just so we had one.

And then...on Friday morning I got to thinking.  Labor Day IS, in fact, the the week before that, right?  RIIIIIGHT?  No.  It isn't.  It's the weekend of 9/5.  And ordinarily that wouldn't be an issue, except for the fact that we had booked a camping trip for that same weekend in New York.  So, as of Friday morning, I had two tickets for the concert that we couldn't use, as well as no Father's Day gift for my husband.  I had fallen fast and hard from a super awesome wife, to a big fat failure with no gift for her husband.

We did our very best to make Father's Day special for Daddy anyway, but I still know he was disappointed.  We said we would try to make it to another show the next time they come around.

As for the rest of the weekend...

Look how Toby is growing!  Lauren was initially pretty much terrified of him (which cracks me up because WHO could possibly be scared of a golden retriever puppy, of all things), but she has been working hard.  She still doesn't prefer when he is running full speed or playing like a crazy pup, but the two of them are working on their relationship.  Or should I say, Lauren is.  Toby loves everyone and never knew there was a problem. 

On Saturday afternoon, all five of us packed up and headed to the movies to see Inside Out.  It's like a whole new world has opened up to us now that Mara can be trusted to behave like a semi-reasonable child at the movie theater.  They were a little silly on the way, though.  As evidenced by the above. 

We really liked the movie.  I will say I was a bit surprised how deep it was for being a kids' movie.  I think the kids were totally entertained by the characters, but I definitely left there feeling introspective.  I can honestly say that this was the first animated kids' movie that has made me cry in a very long time.  And I was glad that I was wearing 3D glasses so that no one else saw it.  But my guess is that psychology classes are going to be studying that movie for a long time to come.  It was definitely worth our time to go and see it.

I was thrilled to have gotten a few of the last couple quarts of strawberries from our favorite Amish stand in McEwensville on Friday evening.  And I am ever so grateful for Pinterest and this recipe that I found for strawberry pie.  I am telling you--- it tasted so much like my Gram's that I would have sworn that she made it herself.  The kids each ate two pieces on Saturday night after supper.  And then two more each on Sunday.  And I probably had at least two before the weekend was over.  Or three.  But just look at that pie!!  It was so yummy!

Since we had blown Daddy's gift, we had to work hard to make sure Daddy had a good Father's Day.  We made him breakfast in bed, and then were thrilled to have him join us for church.  In the afternoon, he did some yard work, but then we all played outside together too.  We made steaks for supper, and then he played games with the big kids while I cleaned up.  Mara was busy with Play-Doh because Battleship was a little out of her league.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend with lots of family time together.  Always my favorite kinds!

More of the beach bullet list.

 8.  I can always remember that my Uncle Butch loved waking up early on one of the mornings that we were at the beach so that he could drive over to sit in the sand and watch as the sun rose.  And he would always recruit us to come with him.  So maybe I was channeling my inner Uncle Butch, or maybe I'm just learning to stop and notice when there is something that can just take your breath away.  With a hot cup of coffee in my hands, this sunrise was one of my favorites.

 

 

 

 9.  Being in a few pictures.  I can't tell you how much I despise the idea of putting pictures of my in a bathing suit anywhere close to the internet.  However, I don't often find myself in too many pictures when we go places because I'm always the one taking them.  Jason snapped a few pictures while I was in the pool with the kids one of the afternoons, and I love that there is actual photographic evidence that I was along for this trip.

 

 

10.  The kids ended up decked out in OBX gear one day because their little shoulders and cheeks had seen a little too much sun the day before, despite my best efforts to keep them adequately slathered with sunscreen.  There are very few things that I am super crazy about with the kids-- I don't freak about germs or sugar or tv time or a lot of those other things-- but don't get me going about sunscreen.  We had gone with about half a case of it, and left with very little in our stash.  But that hot beach sun got the best of us anyway.  So we found a few hats to protect little faces, and some swim shirts to keep their shoulders covered, and away we went to the beach (with an inch of sunscreen under the shirts, of course.)

 



11.  The kids had ice cream cones pretty much every night, but we got a little wild one of the nights when all of the kids accompanied Libby and I to the Food Lion to get supplies for the "best ice cream sundae party ever".  See above how I don't get too worked up about sugar when you consider the list of toppings they chose--- waffle bowls, chocolate syrup, sprinkles, chocolate chips, marshmallows and whipped cream.  I wonder why they had a hard time going to sleep. 

12.  There is a great little shopping center that was right across the street from the entrance to our neighborhood called Timbuck II.  And in that area are wonderful things like the Brew Thru, 8 million clothing shops, ice cream shops and restaurants.  But what the kids were really interested in was driving the Go Karts.  They had waited all week- and on Friday we finally took them to drive.  Josh was old enough and tall enough to drive his own car, and he was seriously in his glory.  I think it was like MarioKart in real life for him.  His faces were cracking us up.  Also, Libby and I nearly peed our pants when he wrecked into the car in front of him (clearly marked "NO BUMPING") when it was time to park.  Evidently, the way the story goes, his stopping pedal wasn't functioning correctly.  Sure.

Lauren and Brooke wanted to ride, as well, but weren't big enough to drive on their own, so Jason and Zig did the driving.  I think everyone had a great time.  We did this at around 9:30 am and I believe it was close to 102 degrees at that point.  We very quickly returned to the house and got ready to swim.  No screwing around in temps like those.

13. The basement game room was a huge hit with the kids.  They loved playing pool, and thought about it as their own little club house.  We were very pleased that there were door alarms that made a horrible racket if they were opened, because the door in the game room led directly to the pool.  So that alarm gave us some peace of mind since we were three floors up from there most of the time.

14.  Friday evening, we headed to the beach to attempt to fly our kite.  Lots of people seem to do that on the beaches there, and we enjoyed it last year.  While we were there, we looked up the beach and saw black smoke rolling toward the water.  Jason immediately knew that it had to be a house fire.  He yelled for Zig and then we all went to the house to see if we could find their scanner app to find out what was going on.  Oddly enough, just the previous morning, we had been to the Corolla Fire Department for the guys to buy a new tshirt there.  The person they talked to, when she found out they were volunteers here, said that they have a terrible time getting enough help when something happens.  So the guys were concerned and wondered if they could help.

 

 

 

Before long, they decided to go and see if there was anything they could do.  They were there for a few hours, but didn't end up working directly with the fire.  But I was super proud of them both for being willing to help when people were in need.  One of Jason's fellow fire fighter friends from Warrior Run was also there the same week, and the house he was staying in was a lot closer to the fire, so he ended up getting there in time to be able to help evacuate houses.  8 houses ended up being involved-- such a tragedy for so many.

 

 

15.  This was the sunrise on the morning we left.  Everyone was a little sad-- and frankly, Lauren was breaking my heart because she was a puddle of tears about the trip being over.  But we looked outside and saw this most beautiful sunrise.  And I somehow felt like God had put it there just for us.

 





Until next year, Corolla.  We're already looking forward to our return.