Scout Camp Widow, or What a way to ring in your birthday!!

8 May: Eric was asked if he could go up to scout camp as one of the "shadow leaders."  He was told that he didn't really need to do anything, just follow the boys around and make sure his group stayed safe.  All of the "work" had been done already, everything was planned, the ward and stake had everything taken care of.  With that kind of pitch, who wouldn't want to go up to the mountains and camp for 4 days?

15 May: Eric had everything all straightened out with work, and was really looking forward to camping.  He found out that the boys would be using gps to get from one area to another, and he then began "looking" at what kind of gps he would buy, if he were ever going to buy one. 

22 May (week of): After asking for some sort of itinerary for the camp, Eric was asked if he had a bike because he "might want to bring it up".  He has a bike, but it isn't exactly in good working order, so he started to get to work on the bike.  On Tuesday, he got the itinerary for the camp-let's just say, it didn't bode well.  The boys would be doing a 6-12 mile hike (turned out to be 16 miles), up to a 20 mile bike ride, canyoneering, canoeing, rappelling, ... all with their shadow leader.  Yup, Eric was in way over his head.  So he spent all of last week getting the bike ready, while getting in as much riding as he could.  I also surprised him with an early bday gift: a gps of his own.  Not an easy task, he needed one with a serial port, not usb, for radio work.

Which brings us to this week.  On Sunday, I slipped on the stairs and really hurt my knee, not good since I'm already at a level/stage 1 acl sprain.  So I wore a super nice knee brace to church, and spent the 2nd and 3rd hour with my legs up (thankfully it was a 5th Sunday, so I didn't have to move.)  We spent Monday getting things done around the house that had to get done before Eric left Tuesday, my list having been drastically reduced by my knee.  He, of course, decided to start a radio project at 8 pm, only to give up on it at 10 pm because he couldn't get it to work.  Which ment he began packing at 10 pm-it's a good thing I get as much of his stuff together as I did, I made sure all of the shopping items were done earlier.  So, we didn't get to bed until 12:30 (I am NOT a night owl, if I'm not in bed by 10:30, I have trouble sleeping). 

Tuesday morning, after some confusion on when and where to meet (nobody told Eric they were meeting at our building an hour before the stake center check-in to pack up), Eric headed out to (as he puts it) his death.  The kids and I got some crafts and snacks, and have done fairly well so far.  Yes, it is the first week of summer vacation, but at least the kids aren't sick of each other yet.

Eric will be home late Friday night, super smelly and fully exhausted.  Bringing with him lots of dirty stuff for me to clean and put away-yippy!!  Saturday is his 35th birthday, that is if he survives this week.  I plan on keeping it low key for two reasons: 1) he may or may not even be concious; and 2) it's Stake Conference so he's got a meeting at 4 pm and then the adult session is at 7 pm.

(just a quick note, the following is what it took to get the bike up and running: 2 sets of self sealing tubes plus 1 regular tube for a spare, 2 new tires, plus 1 more tube because we couldn't get the self sealing ones to un-inflate to change the tires, a new bike seat, a new bike helmet, a hand pump, and finally, 2 more tubes because he got two flats while practice riding last week.  So it's a good thing that scout camp didn't cost him anything as a leader, since he just spent $150 for the bike stuff.)