My. Spot.

This is Willoughby's spot on the couch. You'll notice he is oozing into the couch. He is literally becoming part of the couch. 

I sat on the couch last night. In HIS spot. Wow. That really confounded him. 

I'm just thankful he hardly sheds. I really like that couch. 

Cash or charge?

We stopped at the grocery store on our way home from church today. I needed some ground turkey for dinner and I had forgotten to pick it up on my weekly grocery run. I found the turkey and then pondered my dilemma: I had no cash on me. I knew I could go through the self-checkout lane and no one would know I was charging $2.50 worth of fresh ground turkey. But I felt guilty. I know the store pays a fee with every credit card transaction and I felt like I would be ripping them off with my measly purchase. 

So I decided to buy something else, to make my credit card purchase more worthwhile. I have been slowly collecting items for our vacation home in the Upper Peninsula (more on that once we've closed on the house), and one thing "must have" that was still on my list was a plunger. So I grabbed one, checked out, and headed back to the van where Bill and the boys had been waiting. 

Bill looked totally baffled by my purchase so I reminded him that we needed a plunger for the house in Laurium and I didn't want to charge just turkey, because that would have been embarrassing. Bill's comment was, "Yet you thought it was LESS embarrassing to buy only ground turkey and a plunger?"

Oh. I hadn't thought about it that way. We had a good laugh over that. 

Can't sit still

The boys and I have been gone for eleven days. We all camped together for a week and then Bill headed home. The boys stayed at the campground with my parents for another four days and I worked in Grand Rapids this week. I made a couple trips back up to Cran-Hill this week, at TJ's request. He was worried about being homesick, but he did absolutely fine. 

I left work early today, drove back up to Big Rapids, picked up the boys and all their gear, then drove home. I was exhausted. I made four trips from Big Rapids to Grand Rapids over the past 11 days. I've been living out of an overnight bag. I had to make one emergency stop at Meijer for a pair of underwear because all of my clean pairs were in a different location than I was (thank you, clearance rack. That was only a $2 mistake!)

So...I was absolutely thrilled when we pulled in our driveway at 7:15 tonight. I am SO ready to sleep in my own bed (and be in the same location as ALL of my underwear!) Sam was thrilled as well. He immediately started wandering around the yard, checking on the progress Bill has made this week on the underground sprinkling. TJ was happy too. He immediately sought out Katie, gave her a thorough brushing, then weighed her (he weighs her a lot. No idea why. It's always the same number). 

Nolan was a different story. After we had been home for about a half hour, he said, "We need to go somewhere else. I don't want to just sit at home for the rest of the summer." We do have a few fun family events coming up this weekend with Bill's family, so I filled Nolan in on the details. Nolan nodded, then said, "What else? You've got to come up with other fun thing to do, or you need to line up some play dates with Will."

Or perhaps the child needs to learn to entertain himself! We do have more fun activities lined up this summer, and he will certainly have some play dates with his friends, but he also needs to learn to enjoy just being at home with his family. 

An upgrade to dorm life?

Sam asked me the other day how old he had to be before he could buy his own camper. I told him he needed to be able to pay for it and be able to drive the truck that would pull it. 

I then started thinking about this. I can totally see Sam graduating from high school and buying a truck and a camper. He wouldn't live in a college dorm, he'd have his camper. His friends would either think he was totally crazy or super cool. I guess as long as he showers occasionally and does some laundry, his mother could cope with this. 

Yesterday was Sunday, the day when many of the campground lots at Cran Hill change hands. Sam spent most of the afternoon riding his bike slowly around the grounds, monitoring which units were coming in and which were leaving. He also had a rather lengthy discussion with an elderly gentleman down the road about his unit, what the gentleman's wife wanted in a camper, and why they finally made their choice. 

I wonder if that guy had ever had such an in depth trailer conversation...with a seven-year-old. And one who really knows his facts!

Sam's second favorite thing

We are camping at Cran Hill this week. It's a tradition that goes back over 20 years and my boys look forward to it just like I did when I was a kid. 

We left Sunday afternoon. That morning there was no children's programming at our church in Brighton, since it was a holiday weekend. The boys were extremely well-behaved, other than the occasional wiggle and whisper. I had three different women come up to me after the service to compliment the boys. And here I had been cringing over every little noise they made. Those compliments told me that I need to relax a little. Anyway, Sam spent part of the service making drawings of campers for each of us. 

Sam didn't ride up to the campground with me. He was determined to go up with Papa, his brand new truck, and the Jay Flight camper. My dad said that Sam talked nearly non-stop the whole way there. When I arrived, Sam immediately started helping me unpack and set up our unit (we borrowed Jared and Sarah's camper for the week). Sam gave me the biggest smile and announced that camping was his second-favorite thing to do. I asked him what his number one favorite was. He told me it was going to the Upper Peninsula with his family. 

Have I ever mentioned how much I love that boy?