3 posts tagged “church”

Day one, day two pics. Link on the right goes to a video, hence no image.

Let me explain.

We were invited to go camping with the children's ministry folks at church (we love them...they invited us though we're not really a part of CM) about a month ago. The venue was McKinney Falls State Park which we visited when we were in Austin two years ago. We originally told them we couldn't go because our friends were coming to visit us for a couple of days and we thought that it would interfere.

Once they finalized their trip dates, we realized we could go camping. We figured out it could work this past Thursday. Too soon to go buy a tent, camping stove and two sleeping bags (for the boys). Those kinds of purchases can't be rushed, you know?

So, instead we went to the camp site Friday night, went home and then went back the next day. It cost us $ each time, but since we planned to pay for four people and only had to pay for adults, it worked out. It is also really nice that it's only 30 minutes away from home at most. Not really camping, is it?

Friday, the older kids had a scavenger hunt then we had dinner. J had gotten really upset when he put his hand on a rock wall to lift himself up so he could get over it only to find his hand was covered in fire ants. I got to him quickly and brushed them off. Though he was crying "OW!" a lot, we didn't find any bites. I did get bitten once, on the foot at another time so I decided it was a good time for bug spray. We had our dinner of hot dogs after the scavenger hunt but since the rangers said no open fires except for camping stoves, we didn't make any s'mores. They're in the pantry waiting to be made, though!

The following day, we arrived as they were packing up. We headed for Lower McKinney Falls where the kids were hanging out while some of the parents packed the gear. J didn't want to go in at first, then when he finally did, he was really upset when he was told "no" by his Abba. The other dads had admonished us not to let the kids stick their heads under the water in case of bacteria (I have a photo of some standing water in the Flickr set for today). There have been scares of bacteria/parasite that can kill you if it enters your body through the cavities in your head and that stuff lives in standing water.

But the real excitement is not J's crying over being told no--nor was it one of the kids crying because she, doing her best being a toddler, was told to throw the used chewing gum in her mouth--but the kids' sighting of a snake in the water.

I had heard from hubby who was in the general vicinity of the thing that it went towards the boy who saw it first, but after the kids on the rock near him started hollering "A snake!" well, the thing turned tail and swam to safety. I got the movements on video, but that's about it. I didn't have the presence of mind to zoom, just to get it on video. The pool did empty (I was glad NM was on the rock and J was with me) but it didn't take long for everyone to go back in after a while.

Our guess is that it was a water moccasin which is a venomous snake that's pretty common here in Central Texas and lives in water. I guess they've got a nasty temperament, too, so you do want to keep well away from them. Ick. I can deal with bugs (mostly) but venomous snakes aren't my thing. I'm glad no one panicked though.

Note the time I'm posting. It's not that I couldn't sleep. You know I don't dream at all, right? Or rather, I don't remember any dreams I've had for months and months now (if not years). Well, I finally got myself up after back-to-back dreams about identifying this snake and videos of this snake and boys and this snake. I'm posting this in hopes that I can get it out of my system! Blech. Indiana Jones and I have one thing in common. If I make myself that khaki safari dress then we'll have two: snake heeby jeebies and khaki clothes.

It's really quite an unusual thing that we live in a place where we can go church "shopping." In most of the world, you're pretty limited and in many places you won't find any open, free-for-anyone-to-come-in-to fellowships. 

What do you usually do on Sunday?

Get up, take a shower, eat breakfast while hubby showers (feed the little toddler who usually doesn't eat his breakfast but prefers mine), get to church, kiss kids and hubby goodbye and teach 3 year olds at church, go home, eat lunch, nap, hang out as a family, make and eat dinner, play WoW.