Jim has had two weeks off between the fellowship that just ended and going back to his private practice.
I need a vacation from his vacation. We will be back home soon and I might make out with our washer and dryer.
I posted this picture yesterday I took while sitting in my father in-laws backyard in Michigan.
Peter has dragged his net from the back of a kayak in the mountains of North Carolina to the ditches of rural Michigan.
I am not kidding when I tell you he jumped outof a boat in the river to catch a water snake. Seeing that snake wiggle back and forth through the water towards the banks made me happy that he had a net in his hand and couldn’t swim after it.
Here is Peter with his only catch from Michigan. A praying mantis. He longed to catch a newt at his Papa’s marsh but it had been so dry he was probably more likely to catch a desert lizard.
Our friends all learned to never go canoeing with me and if they do they better be faster than I am in a kayak.
The teenagersall learned that I won’t baby them, as I am an equal opportunity canoe flipper.
FYI, if you ever decide, (after flipping everyone’s canoes) to float the rest of the way down the river next to your kayak so as to foil anyone’s attempt to “get even”…DON’T!
I was on my back, not looking where I was going, with “Crazy Sarah”, (whom I had recently left canoe-less due to a water problem her canoe had after I rolled it he, he, he) when a field of underwater seaweed-garbully-gook-icky-BEsgusting-man-eating-venus-fly-trap-under-water-human-eating STUFF enveloped me.
If anyone in the entire southeast section of America heard a grown woman screaming like a baby girl relentlessly and without shame last week between the hours of approximately 4-4:30, it was me.
What you didn’t hear was our entire pack of friends laughing at me. “Crazy Sarah” was smiling her evil smile while saying, “There are probably snakes that live in that stuff too!”
I kicked in place. I was stuck like a fly in Jello with a fountain of water spewing above me from my futile swimming. I was screaming in tongues.
Crazy Sarah was probably secretly hoping to collect my bones when the carnivorous river vegetation was done with me.
Crazy Sarah and her bone collecting and zombie apocalypse story here…
Karma will always give us a good kick in the pants if we deserve it. I soooo deserved it!
The older boys have “pool noodle battled” all of their cousins in Michigan and discovered all the attention a scratch on the neck gets you when people think you have a hickey.
They also learned what a hickey is.
I cannot believe how much I have missed sharing stories. This blogging thing has really surprised me.
Thanks for letting me share,
Abbie
allthatmakesyou.com
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Milfoil? Good swimmers drown in that stuff because it gives you the sensation that it’s dragging you under. I actually love swimming in it.
I have no idea! My first inclination was to go and google it to see a picture to answer but then I was like…WHY WOULD I RE-TRAUMATIZE MYSELF! Ha ha! I grew up on Lake Erie and my mothers parenting strategy was to traumatize me with a horrible story and I heard many about swimmers drowning in seaweed. I am pretty sure I could have just stood up! ha!
I’ll step out on the limb and say, on behalf of all of us here, that we’ve missed you as well.
Well, that is very sweet and I won’t feel BACK until school is in session in fall. It is hard to find the time to do this they way I would want, (more time on replying, reading others posts, formatting and rewording) with the kids home. Thanks for coming back by!
I would have had a heart attack if that “stuff” would have touched me and then someone mentioned snake!! I am glad you guys had a good time though.
Ok, I love plants. I consider myself a gardener before nearly any other extracurricular activity, excluding like being a parent, but dude there was no getting sea monster out of my head!
LOL! OMG Abbie, I’m so sorry … but I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair! Carnivorous river vegetation notwithstanding, it sounds like you guys are having a blast! Hahahaha! 😀
Sure, blast…I’m dreaming of dying in a river. ha ha! Goog, good, good to be home!
Love, love, love this story…I read it to my friend while talking with her. Thank you for sharing this story filled with Southern Charm.
Peach State
Ha, ha thanks and I was the loud midwesterner screaming down the river. I wasn’t born in the south but I got here as fast as I could. 😉
I got caught in kelp once while swimming in the ocean. You’re right, it’s a scary feeling, like a thousand fingers pulling at you. Glad yiure okay. What a cool adventure! But you’re going to be exhausted by the time youy get home!
Was soooo exhausted and THANK YOU JESUS JIM WENT BACK TO WORK THIS MORNING. Love him butI need more of a schedule and less “sure, we can go there and do that!” I brought my niece back for an extended visit and the child doesn’t sleep before midnight! Ahhhhhhh!
Oh and if it were in the ocean I would have drown! I am a terrible swimmer. That must have been way scarier.