Cousins Camp

Sunday: The girls went for a 'Nature Walk', came home sweaty and then we had lunch and pulled out a jigsaw puzzle of Christ for them to do. Church. Our church is late, so that gave Errolyn and Clara time to do each other's hair. Errolyn had to wash hers twice since whatever was originally put in it to curl it didn't work...so they weren't ready when I had to leave for church (I had to be there early.) Unfortunately, the hair braiding continued during sacrament meeting (I was on the stand). When we got home, we had dinner, scriptures, and they told what they learned in church.

Monday: Woke up to the girls fixing cinnamon rolls.
                We went to pottery land. All of us painted. I forgot my camera, but we had fun. Clara finished way ahead of us, so her product kept getting add-ons. We kept telling her to quit before it had every color in the world on it, so we kept giving her stuff to help us finish to keep her busy.
                 We ate a Taco Bell so we could go straight to shop for the week, but I left their grocery list at home so we ended up going home to eat.
                  I decided to do the fractal art with them. It involved shaving cream and food coloring. Just imagine those ingredients and those girls. It seemed like colored shaving cream was everywhere. The food coloring colored Errolyn's hands pink and Clara's hands blue. We tried several things to get the color off, but to no avail. Someone spilled blue food coloring on the rug by the sink, so whoever was trying to clean up (usually me) would get blue on their feet and it would track all over the kitchen. I kept checking the girls' feet and cleaning dots all over the floor, then I finally found the source of the blue and that it was me that was tracking the blue dots as fast as I was wiping them up.
                  Then we went to Walmart and the blue and pink-handed girls saw a cute boy and left me in the dust. When they lost the boy, they looked around and discovered I was nowhere to be found and they looked back to see I was still at the cart place laughing.
                   The shopping went pretty fast once we got to the food and Clara and Errolyn would run all over to get what they missed, giggling with their pink and blue hands. (They saw another cute boy at the chip aisle.) When we got home and put away the groceries, we collapsed and got out our ice cream snacks and watched Adventures in Babysitting. Very funny.
                   The girls made Alfredo with broccoli and had fresh strawberries with real whipped cream all by themselves for dinner.
                   We had Family Home Evening. I gave the lesson on accepting counsel from your parents, family, church leaders, and Heavenly Father. We played Scattergories then Mike went to bed, so I explained the pen and ink/water color wash art project for the week. Both Errolyn and Clara got a good start on drawing their homes. We also prewashed their fabric for the sewing class.

Tuesday: I woke those sleeping girls up at 11 a.m. We booked it to the Genealogy Center which was crowded to the max. Every computer except one had 1-2 people at it. Errolyn worked on indexing. I showed Clara how to input info about her family on my pedigree chart in Ancestry.com. We tried to get a number for Clara so she could get her own account. Both girls have their Genealogy booklet to fill out from the church. I showed them how to fill it out.
               We came home and the girls made subs and I cut up the watermelon. (I keep telling you what they eat because they had to plan balanced meals for the entire week and cook/fix it.) They were so excited to go swimming, but it poured down rain at lunch.
                Next, they made their cakes (Clara chocolate, Errolyn, vanilla) and we put them in the freezer. It was still raining so Errolyn watched a movie. Clara, her phone. Then they inked their house drawings and finished just in time to go to the quilting class.
                We stopped by Whataburger for dinner on the way to the class. It was not a hands on class and the girls wanted to get quilting, but there was only one sewing machine available and the tension was off. They traded sewing the quilt squares on the sewing machine and tying the quilt squares so they could both get a chance at the machine.
                We came home and the girls ran to get their swim suits, but alas, there was thunder and we had to wait 15 mins. but we finally got to swim. We had the pool to ourselves and it was very warm water.

Wednesday: Girls were up earlier...partly because Errolyn was out of clothes and had a load of wash to put in the dryer. After breakfast, I showed them the watercolor wash techniques and they finished their art project of their homes. They did a wonderful job. Then we had the glass crash. Next the girls fixed quesadillas and raspberries with whipped cream for lunch.
                   I had the feeling to call Jo Ann fabrics in Old Katy about the cake class since I didn't get a reminder. Long story short, the class had cancelled and refunded my money and I didn't know it. So we drove to the Woodlands to get our pottery that had been fired. We went to Walmart to get some frosting tips and I taught the class at home. The girls each frosted their own half round of cake. Clara made hers for James since it was his birthday today.
                   After we got that finished and cleaned up it was time to fix dinner. The girls fixed a wonderful spinach, mushroom quiche. We had watermelon with it.
                   Lastly, we went to the swimming pool again. It's been years...perhaps decades since I have swam and a public pool. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to swim, but I am self-conscious about my weight, so I have not done entered that arena. Well, I love my granddaughters more than I love me, so I have been taking them to the pool. I have my methods, though...I get them to go after dinner, hoping the crowd has died out and then I enter the water immediately and stay there. All was going well yesterday (we were the only ones cuz it was overcast). Today, however, after about 45 mins. the whistle blew and the lifeguard yelled, "Break". Yikes. I had to get out. I immediately went to a corner to get my huge towel, but in my case it was not huge enough. There I was...hoping to blend into the corner and have no one notice the rolls of blubber and varicose veins spidering my huge white legs splaying out of the towel. Yep, the extent of my makeup was only the black bags that had settled under my eyes from the eyeliner. Then I heard it. "Mrs. Wideman!" "Er, uh, were you at Metzler?" Yes, both of us. Now we're here. " I appears they used to be at Metzler, then moved here. They are in the 7th grade now. It also appears they have cousins at Metzler now. Cousins, who probably will come to the pool now that they know I might be there. I am doomed. :( Anyway, we left to come home in time to read scriptures at a decent time tonight.

Thursday: The girls slept before scriptures last night, so I had scriptures and family prayer with them this morning and Mike came home to go to the doctor and his car was overheating so I let him take my car and we watched a movie (Bridge to Terabithia) while he had our car. Then the girls made lunch (baked potatoes and fruit yogurt). Mike came home and put water in his car so he could go back to work.
                   We drove to Katy for the sewing class. The girls each made a pillow case. I was a little perturbed that the class didn't teach them to press or finish seams as was listed in the course description so I guess that will be what I teach them tomorrow.
                    We went to Janet's house to celebrate James's birthday. They were at the swimming pool first and although Janet had forewarned us that would be the case, the girls forgot their swimsuits. They made due with extras from Janet's house and Thiago drove them to the pool After that we ate and had cake.
                    The ride home was not good. I had traded who sat up front (both girls supposedly get carsick in the back seats) so I thought it was fair to finally give the one who had been in the back all week a chance. It was clear the other girl was ticked. Then, there was this beautiful sunset. One girl took the pictures on another girl's phone. The one who had the phone sent a picture and deleted the rest while the other girl was yelling at her to not delete them because she wanted a different one sent to her mom. The rest of the ride home was horrible. You could cut the tension with a knife. I tried to talk with them at home. Obviously there was no softening of hearts, so they slept in separate rooms. I pray that our last day tomorrow will be better. It would be a shame to have put this effort into being with them and have it all for naught. Although there was much I wanted them to learn, I really just wanted to bond with them. When they are at odds, I feel like a parent figure instead of a grandparent.

Friday: (Cryptic)... Scriptures and prayer...breakfast at Denny's. Walmart pictures turned in. Went home to make the cake for the cake balls. So full from Denny's, no lunch fixed, just a snack. Definite one-upping on helping grandma. I knew what they were doing. They did, too. I was almost in tears.
                Picked up pictures from Walmart. Started scrapbooking with them. I thought all was going well, then when I came out from printing, no one was at the table and when Clara came in she didn't want to talk about what happened. Eventually Errolyn came back and then things seemed to get better.      
               We made coconut icing for dad's cake, but I frosted it. Next I showed the girls how to trim seams and finish them and supervised while they did that to their pillowcases. Lastly, we made the cakeballs by putting on the candy coating. I had added food coloring so it seized up and Mike (who was home early for the holiday) ran to the store to get shortening to fix it. We watched Cupcake Wars till Janet's family and Clara's family came to go out to Los Tres, then came home to have cake, cakeballs, and ice cream.
               Janet's family left and I didn't even get to say goodbye to Clara. I have heard that unfulfilled expectations make for unhappiness. I had expected to have bonded with both girls. I had expected to have them bond. I am very sad as to how this has turned out.
               On paper, this was looking like a wonderful thing. On paper, this was my way to teach and work with my two granddaughters. On paper, I thought I could do what Grandma Albertson and Carol did with my children every year. My children love both of them for the time spent. On paper, I thought that since I have had no time to do anything remotely similar with my grandchildren, that I could plan a week for two of them. In my head, I imagined that we would get along fine, that we would all be on our best manners, that no one would be mean, that there would be no tattling on each other to parents. I assumed too much...because what really happened is that I gave up a week of my precious vacation, I spent at least $500 on the things I did and paid for them to do, and what really happened was that two lovely girls competed for my love so hard that they became enemies and they blame me for taking sides when all I wanted to do was help them know how they were perceived by the other. What really happened is that they hate that this camp happened and they hate me. I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN!

Things I want to remember about this trip

1. The trip. The stewardess knew my name. The food was the best. It was very comfortable.

2. Mike stumbling around in the dark on the way to the bathroom and feeling the lamp shade and saying aloud, "Oh, I didn't know you were already up?" Yes I woke up to that...laughing. :)

 3. Cheryl telling her girls that they couldn't get on the Ipad until grandma and grandpa were gone. Pause. "When will grandma and grandpa leave?" asked Abigail. :( :)

4. The baptism. The bishop asked Hannah if she was ready to be baptized and she shouted out, "I can hold my breath for 10 seconds!" Cute.

5. Food. Food. and more food at the after luncheon.

6. Will's talk at Hannah's baptism. The story he told about Linda listening to the Holy Ghost to look in the trash for her lost wedding ring, then, when she had gone through every trash bag, not finding her ring, calling on Heavenly Father as to why she had heard to go look in the trash. Then she heard it again, only to look in the trash bin...and there on the bottom was her wedding ring. At one point, Will lost his place and became so embarrassed that he was in essence 'freaking out', but a kind dad (Dave) came up front and gently coached him in to continuing, which he then did, while Dave stood to the side to give him moral support.

7. Watching Linda direct her choir. She did a great job.

8. Watching a beautiful Hannah, on the stand with her bishop, be welcomed into the church. Sitting next to Abigail and hearing her sweet soprano voice ring out as she sang the hymns with me, then softly singing Silent Night while the sacrament was being passed.

9. The best steak dinner ever! We had a 'grill your own steak" and bring your own pie meal at Linda's Saturday before Father's day. Kevin, Cheryl, Linda, my mom, and Mike and I were there with all their families. All the withits were wonderful. I thought it was funny how everyone grilled them a bit differently and everyone was taking bites of each others and comparing the rubs, marinades, cuts, etc. The kids were outside repeatedly with the water slide/pool/water pump,etc. Good/fun conversation.

10. Finding out about Dave's new job with the church.

11. Josh going back and forth the entire sacrament meeting at Cheryl's to hug every single person on the row repeatedly.

12. Blueberry pie and ice cream for my Dad. :(

13. Linda's family coming over to share FHE with us. Maddy conducted...Will gave a professional lesson complete with questions, a skit, examples, a testimony, and color sheet.

14. Can't forget holding George.

15. The trees and breeze, sitting in mom's back yard. Watching Will and Maddy play chess, while Dave is an airplane running behind Josh--also an airplane.

16. After Linda go covered by a glass of fallen water, Dave got hit by milk...being blown at him through Josh's straw. He took the straw away and Josh found another straw and began blowing milk at him all over again. Yep. That meal was 'over and out'. They couldn't get out fast enough.

17. It is good to know the families hold FHE and read scriptures.