Camping

Does anybody remember their fourth of July adventures? I do. Since I never let you in on all the fun when it happened I figured I’d do a little game of catch up now. Well it all started one dark stormy night…. No I’m kidding. I had you scared there for a minute though right? Ha, okay I’m getting serious now.

Well our Fourth of July weekend was spent lying in the dirt, eating delicious foods, smacking mosquitoes, catching wee itty bitty fish, spitting our food out in front of people, performing social experiments and just having a grand ol’ time.

We went camping in Michigan. The End!

Oh that’s not the kind of story you wanted? Oops. Ok I’ll elaborate just a little bit. Just for you.

We found ourselves camping deep in the woods of Michigan because 1) Rob had spent a month in Detroit, MI doing a rotation, 2) we were tired of camping in a grassy park and calling it camping, and 3) we were ready to have an adventure and we hadn’t done any camping yet this summer. So the Bowlers and I packed all the goodies and headed out to meet up with my hubby on Thursday evening.

As Rob was already in Michigan and closer to our final destination than we were, we had to guide him in the right direction to where we wanted to go camping. He was a little concerned with us when he saw a sign that said “Do not pick up hitch hikers, prison nearby”. I don’t know what he was so worried about. We never heard any sirens or anything. Oh and that man I met wearing that beautiful orange jumpsuit was a very nice person. He really was. *Those of you who don’t know that I’m yanking your chain right now, I am. Rob did see those signs but we never even saw where the prison was. We really were completely safe.

The campground was awesome. It was a small campground with trees and dirt, nobody was sleeping right next to us and the river ran right next to us. It was sweet. We spent the weekend thoroughly enjoying ourselves in our little campground. Friday morning when we woke up and familiarized ourselves with the layout of everything we headed out for some fun. We drove into the nearby city and found some maps and fishing poles. We spent the rest of the day hiking up and down the river a little bit pretending to fish. I say pretending because we didn’t catch anything. That poor little river must not have any little fishies in it. But even with our lack of success in the fishing department, I had a good time. I found myself a nice tree to sit on while the boys tried their darndest to catch something. While we were there we had a good time laughing at all the people floating the river too. They kept getting stuck on a fallen tree. It made for some very good entertainment. After our failed attempt to be good fisherman we went back to camp to make dinner.

While Diana’s idea for dinner was well, a good idea, it didn’t taste very good. I don’t think any of us would recommend making pizza in a dutch oven. Ick!

The next morning was full of all kinds of excitement. Little Miss Diana had found an article for a Cherry Festival in Traverse City that she wanted to attend. Since we all love Diana, we went along with it. We walked the streets of Traverse City and saw some volleyball tournaments, sat on the lawn and watched part of the air show, tasted the many different varieties of cherry mixes (I don’t really recommend putting cherry in everything), ate some yummy cherries then we had a cherry pit spitting contest into the lake. Jason sure knows how to launch those pits. He was the champion that’s for sure.

After our adventures at the cherry festival we went on the search for a lake to fish in. When we neared the lake and realized it was quite busy Jason decided to try and find his own lake front location. We ended up in some crazy secluded spot that was only good for a thrill for the boys and their desire to drive a jeep like it’s a big 4x4. Boys will be boys. Needles to say, we didn’t stay at that lake. We drove around a little more, asked some locals and ended up at a nice quiet little lake. Ahh… it was a breath of fresh air. It was so quiet and peaceful.

Here at this lake is where we caught our fish. They weren’t very good fish, I don’t know anything about fish and I can’t remember what they called the fish we were catching but they were very little and spiky. But no matter what kind of fish they were, it was fun and now I can officially say I’ve been fishing, caught a fish and gutted a fish. Whew, it was a blast. After I caught a few of those little guys I turned the pole over to Rob and let him have at it. Diana enjoyed a little fishing too. She even ended up in the water up to her hips. Actually she had only waded in up to her knees until I got the hook stuck on the one and only stick in the lake. She went in deeper to help us out by un-snagging the hook. She sure is a great friend.

Later that night after we had eaten our yummy chicken and potatoes dinner, the boys put the two dead fish in some trees. They wanted to see which fish our little raccoon friend would go after. It was their “social experiment.” However they performed the experiment a little backwards. They marked their territory around the wrong tree. So of course the raccoon took the fish from the lower tree that wasn’t marked. Once again, boys will be boys.

The next morning Diana and I stayed in the tent to sleep in a little while the boys woke up early to go fishing at the lake. When they returned they were acting a little silly but it didn’t really register with Diana and I since our boys are always acting silly. However, when I became a little more cognizant and was able to focus on what the boys were saying I realized they weren’t acting silly just because they’re silly boys. They had been trying to show us something without actually pointing it out too us. Rob talking to Jason like he was a patient and instructing him to sit down is when I finally piped up and asked “What happened?” you know with that “Ok boys, what did you do this time?” kind of tone. They immediately started giggling and Diana sat straight up knowing that it was her husband who was the one needing medical attention. Yep, Jason caught the biggest fish that morning. He caught himself. With a fishhook stuck in his finger Dr. Rob started the procedure of extracting the object. All I can say is it’s a good thing I had followed the feeling of needing the medical bag when I was packing. So we performed surgery right there next to the fire pit. Thank heavens for Dr. Rob.

Shortly after the operating room was cleaned up we packed up camp and headed home. Not without stopping for some lunch first though. When we stopped for gas we pulled our lunch out and ate right there in the parking lot of Meijers. It was delightful.

And there you have it folks, the Fourth of July camping adventures of Rob, Tiff, Jason and Diana. There never is a dull moment with the four of us together.

A VERY Pressing Matter....

We apparently have a very pressing matter to attend to at my house. Let me start by asking this, have you ever laughed at something and unexpectedly passed gas? You know the ones where you let out a “HA” and at the same time think “Ack!” because you felt a slight rumble down under. Oh yes, you know what I’m talking about. You even know the exact place and time it happened because it was so embarrassing. You were surrounded by friends, family, or here it is… your boyfriend/girlfriend. Or maybe you were lucky and this happened to you in a room full of strangers. I don’t know but I do know that just about everyone has had it happen to them, at least ONCE. And that includes you girls who still somehow believe that girls don’t do that kind of thing. THEY DO!!

Yes, my little hiccup of embarrassing “pass gas” moment was like that. Mine however was a little more traumatic. I happened to be sitting on Rob's lap when it happened, and we were at his parent’s house with his family, before we were married. Oh sure we were engaged and very close to becoming husband and wife but by golly it was still embarrassing.

Now almost seven years later, my dear sweet husband has thought it funny to ask a question that I honestly don’t know the answer to. I refused to answer the question last night when he asked it because I didn’t know the answer to it. Quite honestly, I didn’t want to condemn myself to such a title by answering it in such a way when I didn’t know the answer. And what is that question you’re wondering. It’s this.

Do I, Tiffany, fart on Rob more or does he fart on me more?

Now how can I honestly answer such a question? I’m obviously throwing all caution to the wind by sharing this with you but let’s just put it out there. I mean what the heck right? We all know every single individual on the face of this beautiful earth has to pass gas, FART, toot, or whatever else you call it. Just because my mother, the sweet dear, passed her genes on down to me and in so doing passed the unforgiving gene to fart, doesn’t mean I fart on him more than he does me. It doesn’t. And I would give that gene back to my mother if I could, but then she would have to give it back to her mother and she back to her mother. It just isn’t going to happen. So I’m stuck here living with a genetic deformity.

And let me just tell you, Rob can let ‘em lose just as well as I can. Yes, I did fart on him but in our almost seven years of being married, he too has let his fair share of farts out on me. So how does he expect either one of us to honestly answer such a question? He doesn’t. He just wants to get a riff going. He just wants me to admit to something so he can laugh about it. He is very devilish in ways such as this, especially when he takes it one step further and sends a text to our friends and family to tell them to email or text me and ask that “who farts on who more” question.

To Rob’s mom, I’m sorry you had to hear this. I’m sorry you had to see the good for nothing things your son is up to. But when I receive emails from friends with plot charts and diagrams labeled Toot Tracker, with totally made up numbers mind you.......I had to rat him out.

You girls out there seeking a good, kind, loving husband, you better have a true sit down, heart-to-heart with the guy’s mother before you commit to anything. You might end up with a husband who thinks it’s funny to throw his wife under the embarrassment bus. Or you may just end up with them anyway. I can’t really blame their mothers for wanting them out of the house if this is how they act.

Good luck to you and may the genetic deformity of passing gas NOT be with you. Peace out! Gas Out! Or just go ahead and Pass Out! I think I will.

Toes

Well here it is. Those two innocent looking blisters on my toes from the marathon have worked their course.

My toenails came off this past weekend. It didn't hurt at all. It was as if the nail had just been saturated in water for way too long. They were nice and soft and pulled right off, along with the dead skin where the blister had been.

I thought it looked pretty cool but I am weird like that. So of course I took pictures to share with the rest of you.

You can see that I still have what looks like a toenail on both toes. It is in fact a toenail but it is very, very soft and very thin.

As a side note, I am so STOKED about the response I've received about the Wasatch Back run. So far I have Mom, Jamie, Morgan, Rob, Christa, Michelle and possibly Alisa committed to running this crazy run with me in 2011. You guys (well mostly gals) rock! I can't wait. Crap, too bad it's not for two years. I'm going to go crazy waiting. :-)