4th Grade Outdoor School

It's been a while, I know. Sorry. Hold on a second, Kate's sitting at the tv flipping channels watching something on Lifetime. I think she's bored. I need to go monitor. . . .

Ok, I'm back. Replaced with Peter Pan. So, this morning, Sarah left for her 4th grade Outdoor School. She'll be back on Friday. Oh, she was excited! She loves nature, animals and science, so she's pretty pumped. Hopefully they are able to see SOME nature up there in the cold and rain.

Preparing to send Sarah to outdoor school reminded me of my own experience at outdoor school in the 4th or 5th grade. The camp was called Mill Hollow, and it was fun! The most memorable thing was the vending machine. You see, growing up, we Hansen children were not allowed to drink caffeinated sodas. Probably a good thing since I had plenty of energy without help from Coca Cola. Anyway, I had about 5 or 10dollars and naturally, it was burning a hole in my pocket. Since I didn't dig boondoggle key-chains much (I sucked at them. I could only do the straight square pattern, not the cool cork-screw. The beginning of my aversion to crafts probably had something to do with the boondoggle craze) I was naturally drawn to the soda machine. I love soda. Always have, always will.

What do you think I did with all of my money on the first day? You got it! Dr. Pepper!!! And maybe a few Fanta Red Cream soda's dispersed throughout. I drank Dr. Pepper all day long. Seriously. I vividly remember going to the vending machine many many times during the day. It was awesome! None of my siblings were there, and I knew Sam didn't care, so he wouldn't tell. And Becky was allowed to drink caffeinated sodas, so I knew she wouldn't tell my parents.

That night was a long, dark, heart-pounding night. I seriously didn't sleep a wink. A just sat there, listening to Becky talk in her sleep. The next morning, breakfast didn't sound good, so I skipped it. Then, we went on the long, hot hike to Yellow Lake. Very aptly named because it looked like stagnant pee water. A few kids went swimming! The Case kid was one of them. Sick. Well, towards the end of the day, I was going downhill fast. No food, no water (I swear we never drank water when we were kids), and no sleep. By the end of the hike, I was dehydrated and shaking. Mr. Frasier had to piggy-back ride me the rest of the way down. Come to think of it, I hope he wasn't a child molester. He DID have a cop-stache. Hmmmm. I spent the rest of the evening throwing up in the sick room and watching "The Swiss Family Robinson." That was a cool show.

Well, I shared the story with Sarah, and she thought it was pretty funny. Luckily there are no vending machines at the camp she's attending. I did tell her, however, that if there was Coke, she may have ONE can, and it had to be before lunch. She laughed and said, "I won't drink ANY! I don't want to be like you!"

Good times.

Sarah-ism's

Oh my Sarah! She has cracked me up since the time she could string two words together. I might have mentioned in a past-post about her ability to slightly mix-up words and sounds. I've got a grand list going in my journal. Here are just a few:

-hypnocrite vs. hypocrite
-lazy italian dressing vs. zesty italian dressing
-fedex cheese vs. feta cheese
-indipendix vs. appendix
-exclamator vs. escalator
-electronic wheelchair vs. electric chair. I'd hate to accidentally sit in the wrong chair!

I have many many more. And just last night, Sarah and Kate added to the toy-room disaster by getting out all of the farm animals and horses, along with any barns, fences or hay-bails they could find (and if you know my girls, you know they have tons of horses). When I peeked in the room to tell them it was time for a shower, Sarah said, "Mom, is it ok if we were pretending our horse farm was a breeding farm?" All I could say, before I burst out laughing, was, "as long as you're not teaching your little sister anything that is best taught by me!" She said, "don't worry mom, they didn't actually DO anything." So, yes, it's ok if they run a breeding farm.