Memorial Day Weekend 2018

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Better late than never, right? I guess taking a week off from blogging last month didn’t help and then needing to blog like 5 times per day to either keep up or get caught up… whew! So we’re going to learn about Memorial Day Weekend today, the first day of July because that’s how I roll. I also woke up this morning to thunder and rain. OMG, we sooooooooo need the rain!

Memorial Day Weekend 2018

Going into Memorial Day Weekend, we weren’t sure where we’d sleep. Maybe the bed of my truck. Seriously, no idea, but then Jared bought a horse trailer with living quarters and BAM! he let us borrow it and we got to sleep in a bed. Whew!

Like most of our Memorial Day Weekends since 2014, we’ve spent them at the lake. This year was a bit different because Tbug didn’t get to go with us. Bummer! This is our first MDW without her since 2014. She started working on her SCUBA certifications that year. And prior to that year, we were elsewhere.

Confession time

So… a lot went on in our lives around MDW. A lot! Wow! In fact, some of it was happening while we were on the road headed to the lake. I was a little on edge, to say the least. What? Okay, I guess I’ll spill the beans now… This is what I’ve kind of been hinting at most of the spring… hubby got a new job. Hubby started applying for new jobs last December. This whole spring has been nothing but interviews and waiting games and more interviews and more waiting games. It’s been stressful!

Then add in the house on top of that and ugh! So, it came down to two jobs. He was back and forth on which job he’d get/take. In the end, he accepted one. But… then he got offered the other one, and quit the first one he accepted before he ever started. He then took the other one. His last day at his current employment was the Thursday before MDW. He had put in his notice for job number 1. Then was offered job number 2 on that Friday and accepted. The real kicker was he had to turn down job number 1 that he originally put his notice in for. Let’s just say I was ON. EDGE. Even typing that all out I’m shaking a little.

I was so nervous packing for the lake I kept having to remind myself it would all be okay. Then I had to convince myself not to have some weird panic attack. So much change in such little time. I was almost sick to my stomach.

Needless to say, this has been an extremely good move for us (not physical move other than company move). I think I’m getting my husband back. The last year has been quite stressful. There were weeks at his old job the only time I saw him was on weekends. He’d leave for work at 5 am and came home anywhere from 5pm-3am. In fact, a couple weeks before he quit said job, he pulled an all-nighter. He left at 5 am and came home the next morning at 7 am.

Back to Memorial Day Weekend

Friday

So going to the lake was a good thing. This is the least stressed hubby has been. He was a completely different person. Friday when we pulled in at the lake we parked the camper and then went down to the dive site. Abug was mad because she didn’t have her swimsuit on and couldn’t get in the water. And none of us would put ours on either. So she threw sticks in the water.

After they were done with classes, we went back up to the camper area and had dinner. Deb and Grady got a new camper and everyone wanted to see it. Abug took it upon herself to show Carlene. Then slammed her finger in the door. Let’s just say, a month later, she still has a black spot on her thumb and I’m surprised she still has her thumbnail. She cried for over an hour. It was awful. Hubby wound up having to sing her to sleep because she wouldn’t sleep.

Saturday

Saturday morning we were up bright and early. Hubby was up before 7, I was up around 7, and Abug was up sometime after that but before 8. We sat around the picnic table and gabbed. Some people ate breakfast. Then it was time to head to the dive site. The day before Jared’s truck wouldn’t pull the dive trailer up the hill, so we swapped hubby’s truck out for Jared’s trailer, on a huge incline. It was stressful. (Me and stress… oy!)

I was just going to walk down to the dive site, but hubby drove off with the dive trailer and forgot our 3 bags, so I drove Jared’s truck down to the dive site.

When I got down there, he forgot his sunglasses so I walked back up and got them. On the way, Memaw pulled in so she drove me back.

These… are Seawing Nova fins. I have a pair in purple. Most everyone else seems to have orange. Orange stands out underwater btw. I hate mine. I saw on TimeHop the other day I’ve had mine for 3 years now. Crazy, right? Anyway… they say you have to try these 3-4 times before you fall in love. I guess I’ll keep trying mine. I’ve only dove with them 1 weekend and wound up having to trade because my ankles hurt so bad.

Deb and Grady had classes. My ears had been bothering me all week so I wasn’t sure I wanted to dive. Hubby wound up going out to dive, but only made just a few dives.

I just hung around on the surface and eventually Abug convinced me to put my swimsuit on and at least get in the water with her so she could swim.

We learned a valuable lesson… The concrete picnic tables were Sooooooo hot in the sun that Doug’s mouthpiece actually melted. It was just a spare but it totally melted.

They were done with classes around noon. We packed up and headed back to camp around 2. I started by decorating the Chocolate Dulce de Leche cake and the Funfetti cake for the birthday dinners that night.

I got a little impatient that my buttercream wasn’t coming up to room temperature fast enough.

Once the cakes were decorated, I went outside where food prep was happening. Saturday night of Memorial Day Weekend we have a big shindig with lots of food. Doug bought 2 new knives and I got to play with one. No one had any onions I could dice up (I love to dice onions, no joke) so I cut up other things…. tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, watermelon, anything I could get my hands on. Beautiful knife!

We usually celebrate birthdays at the lake. Shaye’s is June 4, Deb’s is May 24, Shirley’s is May 29, and MS’s is May 26th.

Beautiful evening! So peaceful and relaxing!

Sunday

Sunday morning started out much like Saturday morning. Abug also had her “coffee.” It’s the Starbucks Iced Coffees in a glass bottle which is more milk than coffee. That’s one of her favorite treats when we go camping or on vacation. The kid also likes French Onion Soup.

Dan convinced me to go diving on Sunday. I watched my ears like a hawk. I didn’t want to deal with ear infections and with the way they had been bothering me…

There were new fun things to see in the lake. I wanted to go search and see.

I felt like I also spent a lot of time SCUBA standing too. Doug got on the Diviake and so did Abug. It got its workout this weekend. Abug’s favorite thing was to jump off of it to us.

The lake water was cold. It was also up. But it was cold. The first thermocline was at 15 feet. You can see that in this picture. Part of Dan is darker and lighter. That’s due to the thermocline. It was 10˚ different above and below. DW dove with his arm above and below so his dive computer would register temperatures. One was 80˚F and the other was 70˚F. Dang… The second thermocline happened around 30 feet. I could hardly drop below that. It was in the 60˚’s and cold.

This year it didn’t rain on MDW. It was kind of nice. We got a light shower on Friday night. There were predictions of it downpouring. Nope, didn’t happen. It bypassed us.

We were all hot and tired Sunday afternoon that we were napping in weird places. That’s a huge stone he’s sleeping on.

I wish our cooler had been longer. It would have been more comfortable.

They then sent Memaw, Abug, and me up to the camper. Abug was tired and we thought she might nap. Once at the camper, no such luck. I worked on the cookbook we’re doing as a fundraiser for Trails for Kids. Abug pestered Memaw. Finally everyone returned around 5pm.

After dinner, hubby got some hints that my dad was going start mowing hay on Monday, so we decided to pack up and drove hom Sunday night. Hubby helped mow hay on Monday while Abug, Mom, and I went to Springfield looking for some material for a baby present for one of mom’s coworkers and clothes for me to wear to my uncle’s induction ceremony the next weekend.

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