So much has happened over the weekend its not even funny. I am sure you have heard about that tornado that hit in Parkersburg,IA over the weekend. And it was confirmed to be a F5 tornado. It would not of been so bad if my Son had not been camping up in that area. Camping as in, camping in a camper with no safety shelter available. It concerned me because I didn’t hear from my Son’s Father at all. I had to call and make sure they were safe. Well I must of worried him because they left within an hour of my call. My Son said the DNR announced that a tornado was within a mile of them. They lost power…and that was it. My Son was outside playing when this was going on. OK…now you see why I am worried. My Son also said when they got back on the road they got hit with some really bad rains. Another worry was my Boyfriend’s Parents live within a mile of where my Son was camping. So we called his Parents they said it was ok there but scary.

Well….life is weird and with the way the weather is going…I am scared. Really scared.

During our camping trip, I had my mind set to one thing. That one kid was a total brat and out to get me. BUT…this is where I learned something that all parents need to know.

Not every kid is perfect, Not every kid is lucky. What I did not know was one kid in particular has Autism. And this one kid is the one I thought was out to get me. I didn’t understand him. I didn’t know what he was trying to do. So during a conversation with his Dad, we were discussing the one kid. He told me, NO MATTER WHAT do not treat him differently. He told me that having Autism isn’t a life sentence of limited activities. So me being curious I wanted to understand him and I asked more and more questions. I thought having Autism meant, these kids are in there own little world doing all sorts of out of the ordinary things.
BOY was I wrong. He is a normal kid that just so happened to run into a road block. Nothing he did. I also found out too that he has Aspergers. Which explained it all. A good friend of mine has a child who has that and I have learned a few things from her. Besides having patience. You have to understand the child involved. Apparently, I didn’t at first.

And I feel so guilty now for not understanding him. One of the things I noticed is, he likes to say unappropriate things. Which he thinks is ok. You know how Gene Simmons like to stick his tongue out? Yah well he did that to me numerous times, then to a total stranger out of the blue. I asked him politely not to do that again as people can be offended by it. He then argued that if Gene Simmons can do it, so can he. I left it at that, and changed the subject almost immediately. This was before I found out he had Aspergers. Well later on that night, the other boys and leaders were arguing with this kid. I was getting upset. So here I would talk about something else to the boys and this kid. I purposely changed the subject to get them off of arguing with him. And would you believe this kid called me on it. He caught on to what I was doing. He called me the PeaceMaker. You know how good that made me feel? I asked him if that was a good or bad thing. He told me, it was a great thing. That it was the first time someone stood up for him. Then it was later when I found out exactly what his life had been like.

He changed me. He changed my outlook on life. He changed ME.

I managed to survive a camping trip with my Son and his Boy Scout troop. You simply cannot imagine the stuff I heard? Or can you? A group of young boys and teens…..lots of flatulence.  Well I tried to write down things from the trip.  But it was so cold…it wasn’t even funny.

Road Trip to Galena with Pack 119.  Was interesting road trip up.  I was third in a convey of 6 vehicles.  We left the Quad Cities approx. around 7pm.  We were debating the whole trip due to the line of huge thunderstorms that had previously went thru the QC area about an hour before we were scheduled to leave.   There were tornadoes, and other fun weather stuff involved.  Well no matter what the trip was on.  We left and arrived up here at the Mississippi Palisades Park, to our camping area which by the way was clear in the back of the park, in a remote private area on a turn about.  How cool is that?  Well, we got here and the boys had to get their tents from the trailer and get their tents set up.  Two boys to a tent and those two had to set up their tents.  They had previously worked on their tents at the school for practice cause our Webelos  had never done it before.  So they did a good job, and even did it in the dark. 

After that they got their camping gear and put it in the tents then it was Cracker Barrel time.  Let m tell you it was my first time ever for one of these events and it was a blast.  They had Smores!!!!  The boys were still full of energy at 10:30 but it was time for bed.  It took awhile for all of them to finally make it asleep.  Cause morning sure comes early.   I was up at 6am..wishing for more sleep.   We got up, all the boys slowly made it up.  The pack assigns each boy a job.  There were two food preparers cutting up green peppers.  I was able to help this morning with our breakfast, I was the official Egg Cracker.  Oh yay!  My first time eating Eggs in a Bag.   OMG, so delish.  You have to try it. 

Then off to Galena for the Grant Pilgrimage.  It was a scavenger hunt of sorts.  Then lunch, then the parage thru the entire town of Galena.  I have so many pictures of the entire town, SO NOT FUN walking everywhere but it’s a scout tradition no matter where you go.  So I am sitting here, thinking about the most delicious dessert I have ever had.  It was a apple cobbler, Boy Scout way at that.  Its late Saturday night at about 9:36pm.  Cracker barrel is in twenty minutes.  I am going to go bathroom one last time cause it’s a half mile down the road, and I don’t want to go in the middle of the night.

Well I made it down to the restroom and guess what was sitting in there waiting for me?  The most scariest black spider ever.  So I went and came back, walked over to the garage area to see if they needed any help.  Of course no, they always have the boys doing the work.  It pretty much helps them along in their lives of learning to depend on themselves.  All the boys had to wash their own dish and utensil. 

Anyhow, I went ahead to my sleeping area…yep my Van.  And my Son joined me.  He was begging to go to sleep.  Here it was 930ish and he was begging me.  I told him, go to your tent and go to bed.  Sure enough.  He went, he said he don’t remember anything after getting into his tent.  Then Sunday came too fast.  We got up, I helped the boys with their pancake making.  Some of the boys have never done it so I got to help them, taught them how to measure the mix and water.  They thought it was pretty cool.  After breakfast which consisted of pancakes, bacon and sausage, milk and OJ.  We got our dishes washed and it was time to pack up the tents and head home.  It took awhile cause the boys were NOT wanting to leave.  So we finally managed to get on the road back home, during which we lost one of our vehicles.  And I couldn’t leave a man down.  We had that issue when we first arrived, we lost one of our guys and I felt awful.  When I passed him he gave me the look of death.   So I went back and found him, and off we went again.  We made it home, and honestly.  I was beat.  I got home.  Brought my stuff in, sat down and woke up around 530ish…I think…lol.  I hate to say it, I am still frozen to the inner core of my body.  I spent the majority of the day trying to get warm.  My legs are still sore from the 21 mile walk on Saturday.  I surprised myself in doing all this walking, I watched all these boys keep going and going.  By the time we were done at 3:30pm on Saturday.  I was beat.  My feet hurt, and that’s all that hurt.  I could barely move on Sunday.  Felt like I had a crazy night of …um…can’t say.

I am sorry this post has taken so long to get posted.  It seems, I haven’t been warm enough to sit on the computer to do anything at all.

Waiting on a miracle.

But I am still taking tons of a pictures of my niece and nephews.  I have taken quite a bit this week.   I bought a macro kit for my camera last week that I love, LOVE.  I think tomorrow I am going to find objects, small objects and take tons of pictures.  I need lots of practive.  One person can never be good enough as a photographer.  I am actually browsing my flickr right now to get some ideas….  I love how people take pictures of paper clips, pennies, dimes, nickels.  But I have errands to run in the morning first thing.  Oops I forgot to do something….

I told the kids yesterday that if today was really nice, we would go to the park so they could play.  I figured it would be a good picture day, with all the sunshine and them just having fun.  Ya know?  I already packed some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for snack and I have some drinks for them.  So its going to be a good day.

For all of Moline Schools grades 3 thru 8th grade. It means a week of NO homework which is nice. I made sure my Son had a good breakfast this morning. They told the kids to eat a good breakfast and to get plenty of sleep. So last night we made sure my Son was in bed at a decent time and got up, wasn’t rushed to get to school and ate a good breakfast.

I am watching Melrose Place right now…lol. Its an old episode though. I don’t mind, it takes me back to when I was younger…like 12 years younger, back before my Son was born and I didn’t have a life…lol. Its really sad, when you try to think back to when you didn’t have kids and you sit here and think about what you did with your life, what your goals were, and where were you heading? Back then, basically my life was dull and boring. I had no sense of direction. I had me and my then Husband. Which we drifted apart by the way, things were coming out of the woodwork, things didn’t add up and he wasn’t the same person I married. That was then when I joined the fire dept. in the city we were living. It was volunteer firefighting but it didn’t matter, I was someone. I was a part of a team. I made a difference. I also relaxed my life and ended up pregnant. Yes, I was pregnant and still volunteering. The guys watched out for me and I never was in harms way. Anyhow, back to my show…

Most people will think I am completely nuts when I say I love this time of year.  I love helping out my friends AND family this time of year.  I have already done my Mom’s, my friend Brenda, mine and started working on a few others.  I usually do anywhere between 5-10 people.  One person in particular I have done theirs and gotten them back a good chunk of money because they forgot about the Earned Income Credit thing for their kids.  Last year it was a huge amount.  SO good for them.  I never, ever charge anyone for doing their taxes.  I can’t.  Not when I know its being done for free online.  I don’t feel right doing that to people.  If people offer, I say give it to one of their kids or grandkids.    I guess its how I am.  Now for my Mom…its another story.  She can buy my dinner or something…lol.  Cause I know she loves me!!!!

Well, as you see the wordpress theme is still the same.  I for the life of me cannot figure out the FTP thing.  Either that I don’t know how to copy the files into the directory.  I get to that point but my computer is being a witch and not cooperating.   What happens is, I get into my FTP program which is FileZilla.  I go to the directory of where I am to put the file.  BUT where I have downloaded the theme its in a ZIP folder and my ZIP program keeps shutting down on me.  Piece of crap.  So, I guess I have to find a program that will let me open them. 

**Update** Note to self…reboot once in awhile…it helps.  Now I feel like a lush!

Still tweaking this crazy thing.    I need to find some things out real quick.  But my Son is mad at me for waking him up today.  He’s off til’ tomorrow so he wants to sleep.  Unreal?