S’mores, sadness, & smiles...

I’m not sure where to begin. So much has happened since my last entry. For starters, I had my birthday. The first birthday of mine in PA. My birthday week started off with receiving a present in the mail from my sister and throughout the week the gifts continued. On my actual birthday, Sept 30th, my husband cooked me a special dinner and greeted me with a custom bouquet of flowers he picked up on his way home from work. My in-laws, Dave & Nancy, stopped by that evening with a delicious dessert and a gift certificate for the beauty salon and free babysitting for the girls so I could get my hair done - something I’ve wanted to do for nearly 2 months!

 

The following weekend we went on our first ever family camping trip in our camper. The trip started off with a fun girls drive of myself, my mother-in-law Nancy, Grace, and Joy. We had plenty of girl talk along the way and plenty of beautiful scenery. Our campground was in Ithaca, NY and it was gorgeous this time of year! 

(Photo below: me, I’m holding Joy, my mother-in-law Nancy aka “Nananan” holding Grace and lastly is miss Jaeda) 

We were just down the street from a pumpkin patch, so the girls got to pick out pumpkins along with the other kids and decorate pumpkins one day while we were there. There was also 2 parks on our campsite that the girls loved playing at. I’ve really noticed Grace get out of her shell since moving to PA. She was always a shy, quiet baby and toddler but now, while she’s only 3, she’s much more outgoing. 

There were moments of family drama, mainly stresses I put on myself of ideas of perfection or expectations I had in mind that when I failed myself, I’d become incredibly upset and take it out on my poor husband. I couldn’t figure out why I was so emotional and all over the place.  Usually it’s due to the stresses of being a stepmom and the feelings of “failing” my stepkids. I know I have a lot of stepmom readers that can relate in this area. But this time was different. The big kids were with my in-laws so I couldn’t figure out why I was still feeling this way until it hit me - it’s THAT month - it’s October. This is the most difficult month of the year for me, perhaps that’s why over the years I’ve grown to almost dread my birthday because I know right after my birthday it’s the dreaded month as October 23rd is the day my mom took her final breath on earth and went to Heaven. Once I realized why my emotions were all over the place, I apologized to my husband and he lovingly understood just like he always does this time of year and we spent time in prayer. He requested that I take time each evening when we get home to pray for 30 mins and we started as soon as we got home from camping and it helped immediately. 

(Photo below of the guys & our camper in the back view: in back with glasses my husband Bill, below him is his son Andre, next to my husband is his dad Dave, below Dave is his son Jimmy - and of course the girls are photobombing, Joy’s being a kitty cat and it was too cute it ended up being all of our favorite picture) 

Back to our camping trip - it was full of family fun (fire, s’mores, pumpkin carving, home cooked meals sitting together, laughter, tears, joy, and moments of anger, just like any other American family camping trip - we loved it and can’t wait to go back next year!). My in-laws (Dave - father-in-law, Nancy mother-in-law, Jimmy brother-in-law) and Andre (11) & Jaeda (13) all stayed in a camper together. They were the “hub” for all the meals, camp fire, and hangouts. Nancy did a great job of organizing the trip for all of us (and there were a lot of us) and she cooked many, many delicious meals in her camper for our big crew! Bill, Grace, Joy, and I all stayed in our little camper together. Grace slept in her own bed with her special bedding that she picked out (it’s pink of course!), Joy slept in her pack ‘n play as she’s too small to sleep in the bunk beds with Gracie, and Bill and I slept in the queen bed up front. To say it was cramped is an understatement BUT I loved it. It was cozy and I was thankful we had our cute little camper.  It’s more than enough and I thanked God every morning and every night that we are blessed to have the camper we have. I can’t wait to use it again on another family trip!  To have my girls and husband that close and cozied up to me - if you know me at all, you know that makes my heart so happy and peaceful! 

The weather throughout our time there was unusually warm (I, of course, packed for cold weather). The last day of camping, however, it started to cool down. After we all packed up, all the girls (same as before that drove up together, plus Jaeda this time) all drove home together so that we could stop at the outlets and shop til we drop (boy did we shop!). We had so much fun! Well, us grown ups did - the little girls were pretty tired and poor Grace had tummy troubles most of the time due to the fact that she gets car sick constantly these days! But this mana was in her element and had a blast! I’ve always loved bargain shopping and that’s exactly what we did. 

When we got home that evening it was pitch black dark when I realized I had lost my cell phone at the outlets in NY! After many phone calls and some research, my in-laws were able to pick it up the following weekend for me (they are so kind, I don’t know how I’d survive out here without them - seriously! This isn’t the first time they’ve helped me out when I’ve needed it. They’ve been my saving grace out here along with my husband of course). 

A few days after we got home from camping, we had just enough time to clean out our camper and prepare it for our first guest to sleep in it. We were going to be having my mother-in-law, Andi, visiting all the way from CA and she’ll be sleeping in the camper. As I’m writing this it’s already Oct.26 and her visit has come and gone, but, I will be writing another entry about her visit as it’s too long to include here. I meant to write all of this a long time ago but as you can see it’s been a busy month for us! More to come...