Camping

Max, Mia and I left for Helen, Georgia and the Unicoi State Park on Wednesday afternoon. My plan was to go into work in the morning and pick the kids up after lunch hoping they would nap. I did go to work and I did pick up the kids, they didn't do much napping though. Before we got to Cincinnati Max complained that this trip was taking too long!

I had taken the van in for an oil change and to check the breaks the day before. We were on the road for about 20 minutes when an idiot light came on. I couldn't even guess what it meant and had to pull over to look in the manual. It was the check tire pressure light. Easier said then done. I had to drive all over the place to even find a tire gauge and then discovered that the tire pressure was only in the 38 range. Not sure why the dumb thing was complaining but I let out some air and it made it happy for a few more hours before it came back on. I finally had to get the pressure down to around 33 before the light would stop.

We stopped at the Holiday Inn in Knoxville, TN and the kids loved it. It was a big one with a conference center and much room for running, which they did for the next 2 hours. We then went to our room and watched So You Think You Can Dance all in one bed together. Mia fell asleep with the TV on and Max decided he wanted to go to his own bed and sleep after the show.

We got up and ate breakfast at McD's per Max's request and then got on the road around 8am. We arrived at Unicoi around noon. Mia was not thrilled with the new surroundings and all the new people. At that time there was a total of 20 family members milling about. She took a couple of days to warm up, but then discovered that they all had food and where willing to share. Her kind of people.

Max went fishing for the first time and caught a little bluegill. He was very pleased with himself. One of the things he has been fretting over is whether or not there is water with fish in it here in Ohio. He and Mia also went to the Babyland General Hospital, the original hand-stitched cabbage patch kids were started here and continue to be made. It's located in what use to be a real baby hospital and originally all the cabbage patch kids were given names that the real babies born there had. Max liked it so much he want back again with the older kids. Mia marched into the gift store and announced, "My baby" so Aunt Vicki bought it for her. Spoiled kid.

Max also went on a 3 mile hike and kept up with his Uncle Steve. Nobody can keep up with Steve and everyone was amazed. He loved the hike and I see more of this in his future. He also went tubing down the Chattahoochee River with me and after his initial nervousness wore off, had a great time.

We did have one incident. Max had tried to climb up the back of the pickup truck and the tailgate came down throwing him to the ground and striking his head on a stone. It was a bloody mess. Fortunately, it was a small puncture and didn't require stitches.

Max loved his older cousins to the point of worship. Wherever they went, he wanted to go too. He kept up with them and even helped them build a dam. When it was time to go, he was sad. He wanted to know why I was putting up stuff because, "we live here now".

Mia was content to just hang out for the most part and eat. She was having a good time but was ready to go home. When we got in late last night she just grinned and grinned while Beth hugged her. It was a long time to be away from Mimi.

I had some excitement on the way home. The Garmin suggested a route that I wasn't familiar with and I thought I would give it a try. It wasn't until it was way too late that I realized where it sent me, The Tail of the Dragon. This is a famous stretch of 11 miles with 318 curves in it, popular with motorcyclists and performance sport car drivers. Those folks looked like they were having a good time. I was in a mini-van and absolutely miserable. I don't get motion sickness and I was driving, but I still felt like I was going to barf everywhere. That was the longest 11 miles EVER. Now, I can refer to myself as a Dragon Slayer which almost makes up for it. I kinda wish that I would've bought one of the T-Shirts that had the map on it. Check out the map here.

What's in a name

For many years I've been planning on changing my name to Hollenbaugh. Lately, Max has been asking about my name and why it's different than everyone else's. He has been annoyed that I'm not Momma Hollenbaugh. This morning I decided to do something about it. I filed all the paperwork and published the notice to have my name changed. The court hearing will be on August 20th.

No, I will not miss the name Richmond. Originally, I thought the name just didn't mean anything special to me. But in reality, the name has bad memories attached to it and I'm looking forward very much to it going away.

On my walk to and from the court house I had some adventures. I ran into a pack of aggressive hippies lobbying for the libraries. They practically came to blows with folks who politly declined their handouts. While trying to escape that craziness I almost tripped over a casket that was on the sidewalk. It had signs on it, and the same ones on a couple of guys wandering around, stating that the funeral board had buried a felony. Ok. Lesson for the day, do not walk on the statehouse side of High Street.

Dad

I believe that I met Ralph when I was in second grade. I'm a little fuzzy on the details because at the time, I didn't really care for the guy that much. My mom and I lived in a crummy apartment complex, and I was constantly being terrorized by the neighborhood bully, and my father would occasionally come and see me. Well, up until the time he dropped me off at home and told me right before he drove off that he wouldn't be back anymore because he was moving to Florida.

My mom and I moved into Ralph's house in South Charleston. I still didn't really care that much for the guy. I pretty much stayed in my room upstairs, which as far as I was concerned was the best part of the whole deal. I had two rooms upstairs all to myself!

My mom worked weird shifts and often wasn't home when I got home from school. So, I would start dinner for me and Ralph (it wasn't that fancy, but I was a wiz at making a baked potato in the microwave). Eventually, eating dinner with just the two of us brought me around to becoming very fond of him.

He had to travel out of town a fair amount, but when he came home he always brought me a package of Mallow Cups. To this day I still associate this candy with him and will always buy some when I find them. I also remember that I had a goofy pair of red and white stripped PJs that I wore all the time and Ralph called me an embarrassed zebra.

He would take me fishing with him pretty frequently. I can remember a trip we took, the location is a bit fuzzy but I think it was in Michigan, and I was having no luck catching any fish. Being little my skill level wasn't so great. Ralph, however, was catching them left and right and I was frustrated. Then a couple of times he needed to do something in the boat and asked me to hold his rod for him. As I was holding the pole I realized that I had caught a fish! It took me years to realize that he had hooked the fish and let me think that I had done all the work.

When he and my mom broke up, Ralph was the one to tell me. We were getting ready for fishing and he told me how it wasn't working out with them and that it didn't have anything to do with me. He also told me that we would still get to see each other. I'm crying as I type this because I can still remember how much that hurt. I knew that he would stop seeing me just like my father had and I would be all alone again. Fortunately, Ralph is nothing like him.

He continued to take me fishing, every year he took me on a week long trip to Lake Erie, he come to see me in school plays and band concerts. When I needed a new trumpet, Ralph was the one who got it for me. And considering that band was the only thing keeping me in high school, that trumpet meant a lot. And he's made it to all of my graduations. I'll tell anyone who cares to know that he was the only adult in my life while I was growing up who seemed to give a damn about me. Without him, I don't know how I would have turned out or frankly if I would have even made it.

Happy Father's Day, Ralph. I love you.

No clever Title This Time

Max got his glasses and thinks he is pretty cool. He was super difficult at the eyeglass place and they couldn't really adjust them correctly. I noticed that they are a little crooked and when he took them off today one of his ears was pretty red. So, we'll need to go back and try to work on that. He is very concerned about breaking them. He was afraid to move his head too much for fear they would fall off and break. When I picked him up from school he ran up to me and announced that he did not break his glasses today! In the car I had the windows down and looked back at Max. He was holding onto his glasses for dear life. When I asked him why it was because the windows were down and would blow off his glasses. I did have a five minute talk with him before he got his glasses about how they cost money and he needed to be careful and not break them. Apparently it made an impression. I wish I knew what exactly made him listen to me so carefully, because it's never happened before!

He started going to the "babies school" this week and it has been a bit of an adjustment for him. It is a very long day 7-5:50ish and he is a wreck when he gets home. He was use to me picking him up from his old school around 4:30 but we only have one vehicle that can haul around all the kids, and Beth uses it to get everyone to school and then work. She has this plan of leaving a car at the daycare the night before, driving the van to daycare and then transferring to the car so I can bring my car there after work and pick up the kids in the van. We have not tried this plan out because I get tired thinking about it. I have all my work stuff in my car and will have to transfer it back and forth, blah. But we cannot afford another vehicle that will hold them all.

Anyway, in three days the teachers at the new school taught Max how to swing like a big boy. He is really very good at it now. They said that he is doing well.

In other news, we have fence posts in. It's been a joy getting this project started, so who knows when we will actually have a fence instead of just posts. But at least it looks like progress.

Lucky 13

Beth and I celebrated our 13th anniversary yesterday. It's amazing how time flies. Lots of things have happened during that time. We've had three houses and one apartment, I've had 7 different jobs, Beth has had 5 different jobs (I think), I got a bachelor's degree, and both of us have received our masters, we survived two homestudies and adopted two great kids along with surviving one pregnancy which produced one cool little dude. In the beginning we couldn't buy groceries at times and now we've progressed to being broke all the time because the kids are eating so much!

I remember the struggles we had when people first found out about us. I lost some close friends and my relationship with some of my family members will never be the same. Nobody from my family came to our wedding, none of them have ever even asked about it or when our anniversary is, and was only reminded that it isn't legal and therefore doesn't mean anything. But Beth's sister was in the wedding and interested in the planning details. Beth's parents both came and they always send us an anniversary card. We had a lot of great friends show up and suffer through the heat and mosquitoes to show us their support. Although I doubt any of them thought we would be were we are now.

I remember some of the fun we had doing the planning. The cake lady looked super uncomfortable when she realized who was getting married and the tux place had to empty out the dressing room of men so I could try on a tux. But the best of all was the experience we had at the Beavercreek Florists. They were THRILLED to be involved with a wedding for two women. As far as they were concerned it would be twice as much flowers. They even convinced me to wear a wreathe of flowers in their exuberance. At the reception they had even delivered a little engraved vase congratulating us. They were awesome.

It's been a fun 13 years and I'm looking forward to seeing what we get ourselves into next. I love you, Beth.

Biscuit and Eyes

This morning I was getting ready to head out the door and had put Daisy in her hall. I was getting a few things together and heard Wilson making a noise. Based on the noise, I knew he had something in his mouth and most likely it wasn't something that I approved of being in his mouth. He came around the corner making sucking noises and he had one of Daisy's basted dog biscuits in his mouth. He finally decided it wasn't worth the effort and handed it over to me. He must have worked for a long time to get that through the baby gate and poor Daisy had to watch him do it!

Max is very left side oriented. He might as well not have a right hand and will always kick a ball with his left foot. He found one more thing on the right side that he has no use for, his eye. His right eye has been crossing for a few weeks and we had to take him to the specialist this morning. He was a trooper through it all, even though he didn't enjoy having his eyes dilated. He has to wear glasses to try and correct the issue. He got to go pick out his first pair of glasses and was pretty insistent on which pair he wanted. He was pretty upset that he didn't get to take them home with him today, but we will get them soon. I'm not sure how it's going to go teaching him to leave them on, it should be an adventure!

Fishing

I left work early this past Friday and drove down to Cambridge where I met Ralph. We were all set to enter the AEP Fishing Tournament on lake Seneca. There was a tournament meeting on Friday night, where they went over the rules, had a cookout and raffled away prizes. Everyone got a prize and a tournament hat.

We spent the night in the motel and got up bright and early, 4am, on Saturday to get the boat down to the water. It was very foggy out, which made driving and boating a bit of a challenge. The fish were biting early, most not keepers, but still fun. Then we hit a dry spell. I did manage to catch two of the three keepers that we entered into the contest.

During the fishing I was having a lot of fun looking around. It is a pretty lake, I think. And I saw a lot of birds including two common loons, some ducks and geese with their babies, a Baltimore Oriole, pileated woodpeckers, and what I originally thought was a golden eagle (which would've been incredibly rare here in Ohio) but I believe was a young bald eagle flying over the lake looking for fish.

We didn't win or place, and my co-workers fished better than us (which I'm sure I'll pay for later), but it was a lot of fun being outside and fishing with Ralph which I haven't done in a long time.