Sabbatical

Hey there All, So I took a sabbatical for about a month from Blogging, however I have gotten so many emails that I have decided to update you all on the last month of the Dixon’s Life. It all began to go down hill when Joey got my laptop online and I could play games online and not worry about the Blogging World that was out there until I got the first of many emails from an old High School Friend, Jennifer, to remind me that I was doing a HORRIBLE Job at posting. Thanks Jen for the Humility that you have given to me. I am now back to work for the 2nd week and things are just as busy now as before I left for vacation. Trying to make my goals and making the $$$$$$$ is always a good thing.

First Week of June: Not too much going on, just working and doing a whole lot of nothing, including blogging.

Second Week of June: We went on a Mini-Vacation the weekend of June 13 to Gatlinburg, TN in the Great Smoky Mountains. My mother and father-in-law took the kids up on Wednesday, June 11th and spent a few days alone with the kids to do Ober Gatlinburg, Horseback Riding, Alpine Sliding and all of the other fun things that Grandparents do. Joey, his sister and myself went up after work on Friday. We had a Great Time the few days that we were able to spend there. We went Go Cart racing and boy can Court drive. I think that she learned from her DAD, running people off of the road and bumping into them. When we were done racing on the 40 MPH Track, there were several couples that were on the track at the same time and one of them stopped my father-in-law and said, I don’t know who that little girl learned to drive from, but all I saw was her passing me and bumping people out of her way. Claudia, my sister-in-law said that she couldn’t catch up to her at all, even with her foot glued to the gas and flooring it. Maybe Court’s car was “sooped” up just a little more than all of ours were. I will add pictures when I finish uploading them from the camera. I only took about 150 and I need to sort through them before I start posting them.
Our Resort was FANTABULOUS!!!!!!!!! We had the best time just being in the confines of where we were staying. Indoor, they had 2 pools with 2 large water slides, a hot tub, and a sauna. Outdoor they had a Lazy River, 2 more pools and another Hot tub. WOW. We would definitely recommend this place to everyone who wanted to take a trip to Gatlinburg.
When Sunday rolled around it truly felt like we could stay another week. We had so much fun in such a short time. I could have stayed another week at least.

Third Week of June: We left on June 20th to go to Missouri for Church Camp. We met my mom in Sikeston to get ready to go to Bootheel Youth Camp on Sunday.

SUNDAY - We got to BYC - Bootheel Youth Camp about 2 on Sunday afternoon and we were the first campers and staff there. I went to the Director’s Cabin to take my usual Sunday afternoon nap and about 30 minutes after I finally fell asleep I was awakened by Courtney telling me that everyone was there and we needed to go get our cabin assignments. I went down to the “Mess Hall” to meet with everyone and get orders only to find out that I was not part of staff and was told in not so many words that I was not even wanted there. I was in complete shock. I left camp and went for a drive to clear my head and bawled my eyes out. I was so upset that I didn’t even want to go back, however I knew that what I truly wanted to happen was for my kids to experience the same things that I did as I was a kid. I went to BYC the year after I was old enough to go until the year after I was too old to go. I went the extra year as a Junior Counselor. I always had the best time at BYC and a lot of GREAT memories were made at this little piece of heaven on earth. Sunday night we stayed up until about 11:30P.M. playing Spades and Spoons. As I wrote in my journal that night, where there are cards, a game will be played. We had enough laughs in one night to last the entire week, however we had laughs every other night as well.

MONDAY - Breakfast was at 8:00A.M. which came very early since we were up so late the night before. After breakfast, the 2 boys cabins swapped up on doing the morning devotional, which was very inspirational. How many times do you see 7-17 year old boys working together as a group doing a devotional for the entire camp? They were truly a Great Group of Kids that enjoyed spending time not only with their own age group but were all about spending time with the younger kids as well.

TUESDAY - Craig’s Cabin did the devotional in the morning and they did a Fantastic Job. Craig even got up to read a scripture. This shocked me since mom and I were there and we were watching him. He made some pretty good friends this week, Andy McCormick and Dean Davidson. They were all in a cabin together and they had some of the best counselors for the week. One of them was even named “The Mother Hen” or should I say “Father Rooster”.

WEDNESDAY - It was the middle of the week and by this time everyone was starting to get worn out. We had jam packed days every day and when I say jam packed that is what I truly mean. From the time that we got up in the morning until the time that we went to bed, there was something going on. Our schedule went a little something like this:

7:30 Wake Up
8:00-8:45 Breakfast
8:45 Clean Up
9:20 Chapel
9:35-10:35 Bible Class
10:40 Cabin Report
10:45-11:30 Singing and Open Forum
12:00 Lunch
12:45 Rest Time
1:15 Swimming/Crafts
2:15 Swimming/Crafts
3:30-5:30 Sports
5:30 Dinner
6:30 Staff/Camper Games
7:30 Swim/Canteen
8:00 Swim/Canteen
9:00 Evening Chapel
10:00 Little Campers to Bed
11:00 Big Campers to Bed

Can you see why we were so tired now? We were moving from the time that we were awakened by that awful bell until the time that we lay our heads down at night.

THURSDAY - We were all dragging by this day, however we still were able to enjoy the many fun relays and games. One of the ones that I had not seen before would be PUDGY BUNNY. This is where 4 or 5 adults are lined up in a row and they have to put large marshmallows in their mouths one at a time and say Pudgy Bunny. It was quite funny seeing them add more and more marshmallows into their mouths and the words Pudgy Bunny didn’t sound quite the same as it did when they only had one. The winner was Iain Lee, one of the counselors who managed to put 10 marshmallows into his mouth and still say Pudgy Bunny. He definitely looked like one. We also had a water balloon toss/fight. There were almost 900 balloons filled up and they were all used. There were quite a few who were drenched as if they had just jumped into the pool with all of their clothes on. Skits were followed by all of the games and there were some that were just too cute and some that were kinda lame/gross. The little girls and the little boys really did cute ones. It was a chance for me to see Craig in his element. He was so funny, and I have the pictures to prove it. Awards were also given out this evening. Campers of the Week - truly deserved by the kids that got it - were Rachel Powers and Braden Bass. They were so excited that they get to go to camp again next year - FREE. We had perfect weather for the entire week until tonight. It rained so hard, the little kids who were supposed to be in their cabins by 10:00 couldn’t even leave until about 11:00-11:30. Morning comes early for the little ones, especially when they arent in bed at a decent time. Do you really think that they slept though? This was their last night and they were going to make the best of it.

FRIDAY - By Friday everyone was completely worn out and you could tell by the looks on their faces. We were all ready to pack up and head home. I wanted to go to St. Louis so that the kids could see dad, so I called Joey and asked if he minded for us to go since we had already been gone almost a week at this point. He said that he didn’t mind, so I called dad and told him to be prepared to have company this weekend. I decided to be a nice daughter since mom had to be in the kitchen every morning at 5:30 that I would get all of our stuff and pack it in my truck so that she didn’t have to come back down the ridge and get her stuff, so packing I did. I put all of my stuff, her stuff and Courts stuff in my truck and there was no where for anyone to sit, not even in the passenger seat. I went up to the “Mess Hall” and found Craig’s stuff to load in mom’s van. He had the stinkinest clothes in all of the world, but they went into mom’s van and not my car, THANK GOODNESS. When we got to St. Louis we(mom) started on laundry like you have never seen before. Since it rained on Thursday night everything got damp and everything that we took to camp had to be washed…….clothes, blankets, sheets, towels, everything. I think that we(she) ended up doing about 10 loads of laundry on Friday night and Saturday.

SATURDAY - I got up around 8:00 and the kids were already up and moving. Dad went and got donuts for breakfast, so I managed to roll out of bed for breakfast. I then proceeded to their bedroom for what was only to be a little nap, only to wake up about 4 ½ hours later. Dad grilled steaks, we had baked potatoes and salad for dinner and went to bed early.

SUNDAY - We got up and went to worship with mom and dad at Arnold and it truly felt like I was coming home even though I didn’t grow up there. I got to see all of my new buds from camp and some of the friends I had made during earlier visits. It was a really good service. After church we went to my favorite restaurant in the entire world, Pasta House. I treated since I didn’t get to see dad for Father’s Day and we had a great lunch. I never come away from Pasta House hungry. We went back to mom and dad’s house so that I could take my Sunday afternoon nap and mom gave Court another perm and Craig and dad played pool. I got up about 4:30, got the car loaded and we were on the road by 5:15. I was still really tired from the week at camp, but at the same time I was so ready to get home. I went through Cape Girardeau instead of Sikeston because I thought it would be a little closer and faster. You know when you get those “gut instincts”? Well I had one and it was to go through Sikeston, not through Cape, but no, I didn’t listen. I went through Cape and there was water everywhere. The levy’s have broken and there are so many farmers who have lost everything. Crops were underwater, roads were underwater, houses were flooded, it was truly a sight to see. I was going over the bridge and trying to get over in the right hand lane, I was returning some voice mails that I had gotten from the previous week, and not paying attention when all of a sudden in my side mirror I see a police man coming my way. Surely I wasn’t going that fast, but oh no, I was going 65mph in a 45mph zone. I had all of the things going the wrong way for me, I was going downhill, talking on the phone and trying to listen to Craig saying that he wanted me to get over so that he could see the river and how flooded everything was and I broke the law. I admit it, I have never had a ticket before, but I cant say that anymore. When the police man approached my window I already had my drivers license out of my wallet and handed it to him. He asked me if I knew how fast I was going and I had to honestly answer him and tell him no that I just wasn’t paying any attention. He told me that I was going 65 and that the speed limit was 45. Craig who was in the passenger seat pipes up with “dad’s gonna have a cow”. How true, how true. The police man came back with his little ticket book and told me that I could just pay the ticket and that he reduced my speed to 60 so that it wouldn’t look so bad on my record. I appreciated that, however he was doing his job and something really bad could have happened if he hadn’t slowed me down and humbled me quite a bit. I asked the policeman how much the ticket was going to be and he told me it would be $75 to which Craig pipes up again, “dad’s not gonna have a cow, he is going to have the whole barn”. The policeman looked at me and said “you know he isn’t making this any easier on me”. Oh well, he gave me the ticket and we were on the way again, very conscience of my speed. Every 2-3 miles Courtney who was in the back seat would say, mom are you speeding again? What is the speed limit? I finally told her that she needed to go to sleep so that I could concentrate on my driving. They both finally fell asleep about 100 miles from home. They got a good nap in and when we got home they both went straight to bed.

That was our exciting and very short month of June. I will definitely update more in a few days since now it is almost the middle of July. I will be going out of town again tomorrow and will be back either late Monday evening or Tuesday morning. Quick trip, no kids, St. Louis or Bust.
Take care and I hope you enjoyed, especially you Jen.

In Him,
Kelly and Family