The Reddy Rambler

We have had a great weekend. The weather has been wonderful, with highs in the 60s, and our snow is almost gone. Last night we even had thunderstorms, which you all know I love! Today it started out rainy and foggy, but we did have some sunshine this afternoon, before it clouded up again. I think we are supposed to have more storms tonight, which ought to get rid of any remaining snow. It's funny though, because even though it's nearly 70 degrees, you can still drive by lakes and see people out in the middle of the lake ice fishing. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that!

Friday night we all went to Wausau for Anna's gymnastics. Her lesson was from 5-6 and then she stayed for the open gym from 6-730. The rest of us headed to Sam's Club to get a membership, and spent over an hour looking through the whole place and stocking up on some staples. Spent more than we thought we would, but really got a lot of stuff that will save me from picking them up every time I go to Walmart...you know stuff like dish washer soap, toilet paper, detergent, fabric softener, dog food. We also ran to Old Navy real quick to pick up a jean skirt for Kindra, and then back to pick up Anna. We all went to dinner at our new favorite restaurant, Hudson's. It's sort of like a 50s diner, and has a full sized Hudson car inside. Noah calls it Doc Hudsons, after the character in Cars. By the time we got home it was 1030PM, but Noah was adamant on taking a bath. You see, Pavan had picked up a kids snorkeling set for Noah at Sam's and Noah was so excited to try it out.

On Saturday we had Noah's swim lesson at 920 and then Anna's indoor soccer from 10-11 at the YMCA. Afterward we went to Shoeder's, a boat and RV dealer in town. They were having a big spring sale, and had food and a petting zoo. Kindra stayed home with Amaya...Amaya had been running a fever Friday overnight, and Kindra offered to stay home with her. She's saving her babysitting money to buy a new cell phone.

Anyway, we've been talking about getting a camper for the last two years. We never could decide exactly what to get though. I liked the travel trailers, but decided we should look at pop up campers. We found a great camper that was sort of a cross between a travel trailer and a pop up. It had hard walls, but the beds popped out. This one had a bed at the front, a bed at the back, and a third bed at the side. We went inside to talk with someone about it, and then decided to look around a little more. That's when we saw it....a 2007 Winnebago Voyage. Noah was just dying to take a look inside "the bus" so Pavan asked someone for a key. Next thing we know, the owner comes out to give us a tour. Apparently, he had bought it in Iowa for a 6 week, 6000 mile trip he took with his wife. Then when they got back to Rhinelander, he put it up for sale. That's the life huh? We absolutely loved it, and next thing you know, we're buying the thing!!

That's right, we are now the proud owners of a Winnebago Class A Coach! We are so excited! They let us drive it home yesterday to make sure it would fit down our driveway, and then around the circle drive to head back to the road. When we showed up at home, Kindra and Amaya were so surprised! We loaded up Amaya's car seat and all drove back to the dealership together. Noah was in heaven, he actually said, Dad this is my dream come true! We will pick it up on Thursday to bring home, and cannot wait to take it out camping. Pavan is on call this weekend, next weekend we head to the beach....but as soon as we get back in town, I'm sure we'll be heading out for a weekend!

Today we went back to Shoeders to take some pictures of the inside, and pick up the huge bag full of owner's manuals! When we sign the final papers on Thursday, they are going to have a man meet with us to go over every last detail of how to take care of it and such. After we took all the pictures we wanted, we went to DQ for lunch, and then to the YMCA to go swimming. Then we rented some movies, and headed home to relax. The children don't have school tomorrow, and Kindra actually went to her friend Jenny's house to spend the night. (We ran into Jenny at the movie rental store) Anna and Noah are currently outside playing...they found a caterpillar and are making a home for it. Pavan and Amaya are watching TV in the bedroom (Spongebob, what else?).

Enjoy the pictures of The Reddy Rambler....if any of you have ideas on good camp grounds, we'd love to hear from you! Oh, and I also took some video of the inside of the camper. You can go to You Tube, my user name on there is BeccaKC. Try this link...

http://www.youtube.com/v/SMV4HRECsCo

Or you can check out the Winnebago website.... http://www.winnebagoind.com/products/winnebago/voyage/

Our floorplan is the 35A.

More later,

Rebecca

Time marches on....

Wow I cannot believe it's been so long since I made a journal entry! Truly, noting extraordinary has happened, so I guess it never felt driven to make a new entry. I finally realized I have several photos from the last few weeks that I should get online and share with everyone.

For those of you worried about Anna drowning in the bathtub, let me assure you that she was not actually sleeping. She was honestly just resting her eyes, I promise! Once Pavan caught her looking so sleepy, she got right out of the tub and headed to bed.

As you can see, Amaya is becoming more "girly" by the minute. She now insists on pretty painted nails along with her pretty dress, tights, shoes, and hair. She is something else, and when I describe her she sounds like a spoiled brat. But I assure you she is nothing of the sort. She is such an amazing little girl. So smart, and funny, and cuddly. But she does love to look pretty! Her newest obsession is the bottom of her shoes. I've been buying her several new dresses and new shoes in preparation for summer, and our trip to the beach (only 3 more weeks!). Every time I show a dress or shoes to her, she gets so excited and says OH WOOOOW! After I get her dressed, and get her shoes on, the first thing she does is look at the bottom of her shoe. Then she makes sure everyone in the house admires the bottom of her shoe. And then she protects the bottom of her shoe by refusing to walk outside. She will walk to the door leading into our garage, takes one look at the garage floor, and then says, Mommy will you carry me? Same thing when we stop the car, she takes one look at the ground and says Mommy will you carry me? And if she does have to walk and the bottom of her shoe gets dirty, she will come home and insist on washing them first thing! She is something else!

Another funny funny thing that she's been doing lately has to do with washing her face and mouth. Now, after hearing about her insistence on keeping her shoes clean, you'd think she'd appreciate a clean face. But no....it has to be HER idea to clean her face. One day she was eating cinnamon toast, and when she was finished I washed her face and hands with a baby wipe. She got so mad, and as soon as I walked away, she grabbed that piece of toast and smeared the butter all over her hands and face again! Same thing with a candy cane she was eating at the coffee shop one day. Pavan wiped off her hands and face, and she grabbed that candy cane and wiped it all over her face and hands again! Like I said, she is something else! She keeps us laughing though!

Noah is doing well. A couple of weeks ago I enrolled him in the 4K program at Nativity Catholic for next year. He will be going 4 full days, we are going to take Monday's off. He will start Kindergarten the next year, and at that time Amaya will start preschool. We plan to keep Amaya Noah and Anna at the Catholic school, we just love the atmosphere and learning environment there. I have actually been taking Amaya to Mass at Anna's school on Thursday mornings. Anna loves that I come, and the service is actually enjoyable to watch. Like I've said before, it's much different than any service I'm used to attending....but it's so symbolic and meaningful, and is giving me a completely different understanding of Catholicism. In Protestant churches, you hear so much about Catholicism...much of it from ex-Catholics who bad mouth the church. It's nice to learn about it on my own, and come to my own conclusions. I've also been reading the book Catholicism for Dummies, to get a better understanding of the words and ceremonies I keep hearing about.

Noah is really enjoying himself in dance class. I can't wait to see how he reacts to recital! You never know how any child that age will do when they get thrown onto a big stage with all those lights and all those people watching! He is also taking swim classes on Saturday mornings, and indoor soccer on Thursday evenings.

Anna has started taking private gymnastics lessons on Friday evenings in Weston, WI. She absolutely loves it! Her coach is named Kris, and we go to lesson from 5-6PM. Then they have an open gym time from 6-730PM where the kids work on the equipment and play some games, all supervised by several coaches who are available to help them out. Of course the week after she started her private lessons, we learned that Rhinelander is finally starting their gymnastics lessons again. Looks like Anna will be going on Monday evenings for general training, and Thursday evenings to work on a routine for competitions. But for now I think we'll keep taking her to Weston for her private lessons. She enjoys them, she's learning a lot, and we love getting to Wausau once a week! Last weekend we stayed overnight in Wausau after her lesson. We got a room in a hotel with a great heated pool and water slide...spent the evening in the pool, and then spent the next day doing some shopping. It was a great time.

Anna keeps busy with dance classes on Tuesday nights (Anna and Kindra and Noah all have dance on Tuesday nights), school choir on Wednesdays right after school, swim class on Thursday evenings, gymnastics on Friday evenings, and swimming on Saturday mornings. The good thing is that this session at the YMCA ends the same week gymnastics in Rhinelander starts, so we will drop her swimming classes for now to make time for gymnastics. It sounds like a lot, but Anna is the type of kid who loves to stay busy and active. We make school work a priority, she has chores to complete at home, and we make sure she gets plenty of sleep at night!

Kindra stays pretty busy too! I don't know what I'd do without her help, and she has quickly learned that she earns time with her friends (at the movies, sleepovers, YMCA) when she helps out without complaining! On Mondays she babysits the other three kids while I attend a step class at the YMCA. (By the way, I thought I was going to die after that first week of class, I literally could barely move for 4 days!! But every week it's gotten easier, and I can tell a huge difference in my energy level) On Tuesdays we have dance, on Wednesdays she has youth group at church, on Thursdays she goes to the YMCA after school with a bunch of friends and then helps out with Amaya while I take another class at the YMCA (women on weights) if Pavan isn't able to get there on time. Fridays we all go to Wausau, and then Saturdays Kindra usually does something with her friends. Sometimes they go to a movie, sometimes she has a friend come over to stay the night, last weekend they had a lock in at the highschool sponsored by FACT, an anti drug group and the Oneida County Health Department. There were games, dancing, food, swimming....they had a great time.

The weather has been getting better up here, Spring is slowly making it's way to the northwoods. It's one step forward and two steps back though. We had a few really nice days near 70, and then two feet of snow the next week. Then we had some nice days around 50, and this morning woke up to a few inches of snow. Personally, I'm ok with the cold weather and snowy days....it will make our trip to the beach that much more enjoyable! But once we get home, watch out! I'll be ready for spring!

I'd better get going. Monday is my day to catch up on laundry, and that ought to take the rest of the day! My washing machine is acting up, and I hate to call anyone to take a look at it. It's one of those computerized kinds, so I'm afraid it will cost a fortune to have it repaired. Note to self...buy one of the old fashioned kind of washing machines, with the knobs, next time!

One last thing....I would like to ask you all to keep my friend Romney in your prayers. A couple of weeks ago she suffered her 5th miscarriage. Only this time it was so much more traumatic than the previous 4 times, because she had made it halfway through her pregnancy. She had felt the baby moving, and had thought they'd made it past the critical time when she had miscarried the other four babies. She is understandably going through a really hard time, grieving their loss, while still trying to make it through every day with their two daughters, Kate (4) and Sadie (7 months....remember they adopted her in August?). So, she and her husband Todd could use all of your thoughts and prayers.  

More later...

Rebecca