Home Sweet Home

Wow...those eight months with Keaton away at college certainly flew by.  Keaton is enjoying his home-sweet-home again.  The move back was interesting.  I think the stuff in his room multiplied.  I know he didn't pack all of that stuff when he moved into his dorm back in September.  We were able to pack all his stuff into two vehicles when we moved him in...it took us two vehicles AND a trailer to get his stuff home again.  (And that's with a few carloads of non-essential stuff he already brought home over the last month.)  Unfortunately, Keaton developed some hive issues the last week at school.  His elbows and hands were covered with nasty hives due to some mold and dust in his dorm room.  (I told those boys they have to dust at least once a quarter.  This is why I may have to live in the dorm next year.)  While Keaton and Matt loaded the vehicles and trailer, I cleaned and mopped.  So, of course, I was covered in hives before we left.  Needless to say, Keaton and I toasted the end of his freshman year by sharing a bottle of Benadryl.

Speaking of Benadryl, I kept the bottle handy over the weekend while traipsing through the Huron National Forest during our Geocache Road Rally.  We went with our friends up north to Roscommon for a weekend of camping and caching.  (For those of you who don't know about geocaching, it's like a treasure hunt using a GPS.)  We had 52 caches to find in 24 hours throughout Roscommon County.  We spent a lot of time driving from cache to cache on two-track roads and then hiking through the woods.  (They call them roads...I definitely think they should be called trails.)  Oh, and did I mention that it poured the night before so everything was especially wet and muddy?  Our friends' Jeep had a few inches of caked-on mud by Sunday, but luckily we didn't get stuck once.  Whew! (I called dibs on driving and not pushing if we got stuck. There was no way in hell I was getting covered in mud.)  We had a lot of laughs and found all 52 caches in 15 hours after driving about 200 miles total.  (Well, the guys did.  We girls stayed in the car when it got dark because I didn't want to lose any more blood to the mosquitoes and I especially didn't want to stumble upon a bear.  Remember, I wear lotion that smells like cotton candy.)  All in all, it was a fun adventure.  The best part of it all is that I never once had to pee in the woods.  Thank God.  The guys were kind enough to find us appropriate restrooms to use.  Matt knows me well and was happy I was willing to spend a weekend out of my comfort zone...I don't like bugs, I don't like to get dirty, and I refuse to pee in the woods.  Overall, I guess I really didn't get out of my comfort zone much:  I didn't go after the caches that looked muddy or were deep in the woods; I enjoyed hot showers and the comfort of our heated motor home at night; I enjoyed eating in a restaurant; and I slept in on Sunday while Matt was up at 7 a.m. to find the last seven caches.  Now they want me to go geocaching more with them.  We'll see...I still think geocaching would be more fun if there was jewelry in the caches.

Happy 21 Years to Us!

Wow...has it really been 21 years since our wedding?  The years just fly by when you're having fun.  And we've had a LOT of fun, mishaps and adventures over the years.  (This gives me lots of writing material whenever I decide to publish our memoirs!)

How did we celebrate our anniversary?  We moved Keaton back home from college.  Yay!!  Keaton was pretty anxious to move back home and get into some cool, air-conditioned air.  (His room was about 110.  It's a good thing he wasn't on the third floor!)  So, after we all cooled off and enjoyed a nice home-cooked dinner, we had a good laugh at how much weddings have changed over the last two decades.  But, one thing from our wedding day remains the same...we're still happy together after 21 years!

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Tall Guys Lawn Care

Matt and Keaton have their own lawn care business...aptly named "Tall Guys Lawn Care".  They started their business last year as a way for Keaton to earn some money for college.  We knew the summer jobs would be gone by the time Keaton was finished with the semester.  (K's semester doesn't end until June...most college kids are finished with classes in April/early May.)  Since Keaton is away at school until June 8th, Matt has been solely responsible for maintaining five lawns all spring...six, including ours.  And, we've had a lot of rain.  A LOT OF RAIN.  So, that means more and more mowing for Matt.  I think he's counting down the hours until Keaton is home next week so he can take the reins...I mean the lawn mower.  Keaton should be an expert mower by now.  He's been "mowing" the lawn since he was 18 months old.  Of course, it may not be as much fun as it used to be for him, though...our mower doesn't blow bubbles.

Covert Camping

Memorial Day weekend found us camping over in Covert (near South Haven).  It was a rainy, chilly weekend...except for a hot, sunny day on Monday which allowed us to dry out before we packed up to return home.  We had a pretty good storm on Sunday which really scared poor Cyrus.  He slept all day on Monday and Tuesday, recovering from his ordeal.  The weekend wasn't a total washout, though.  We went into South Haven to do some shopping and I found the sign for my scrapbook room that I've been trying to find since our last camping trip to South Haven...three years ago.  I was one happy camper when I stumbled upon it!  It looks fabulous on its new throne.