Weekend Happenings

Good Friday morning!

Thankfully, we have a long weekend coming up. I love three day weekends. I think they should be mandatory once a month.

Saturday, Roxie is helping paint her Sunday School room funky colors with big polka dots, and then she's off to a mid-afternoon basketball game. Nothing else going on Saturday night so I feel a Faulkner Family Game Night coming up.

Sunday is church and possibly a couple of friends over for Austin and Josh in between the morning and night services.

And Monday... well, that one is wide open, except for Katie's 15th birthday get-together Monday evening. I know sleeping late is a must for the kiddos (and I may join them).

On Sunday nights, I'm attending a Beth Moore Bible Study on the book of Esther. It's called "It's Tough Being a Woman." I know I'm only on Day Four, but so far, so good. It's a ten-week class, and I'm looking forward to this coming Sunday. (Did you know there are only two books of the Bible named for women -- Esther and Ruth? I had never thought about it before, but both are great stories.) I'm thinking I may make a little mini-devotion book of Esther for Roxie as we go along during this ten weeks. I'm just going to put little stars beside the remarks and insights that would be age appropriate, and make her a little booklet for a week of devotions when we're done. We'll see.

Five days and counting to Camping Week. And today we have our first camping story.

Camping Story #1 - Coyote Attack

It was Austin's birthday, and we decided to take five buddies to Camp David for a birthday camping trip. (Camp David is our church-owned property in Cullman County. It is beautiful and has hiking trails, campsites, volleyball, basketball courts, small lake for fishing, etc., etc., etc. It is a perfect place to take several ten year-old boys. At the time we went, we enlisted our good friend, Kerry, the Eagle Scout, to go with us to enhance our camping experience.

We decided to pitch our tent far away from the pavilion and bathrooms on a hill in the middle of a group of tall pine trees. It was a gray day in March, cool and breezy... just right for camping.

The boys had a wonderful time setting up camp, playing, cooking on the fire... all the things that make camping great. Around 11:00, we called it a night, made the boys brush their teeth (kind of) and all of us, six boys and three adults, crawled into the ten-man tent. It was... cozy! After about 30 or 45 minutes of boys making "boy noises," accompanied with hysterical laughter (why is that sooo funny?), everyone settled down and went to sleep.

Kerry and Mikie had a snoring contest, and the boys continued to make "boy noises" even in their sleep, so I dozed off and on for a little while.

We had been warned a pack of coyote lived on the property. In all the times we had been to Camp David, we had never seen or heard them, so I did not think much about it, but on this particular night, I heard howling in the distance. The wind was picking up, too, so I felt a little anxious about being so far from the pavilion in case (1) there was a storm; or (2) we were being encircled by a pack of hungry coyote. I sat up and looked around. Nothing. Two men and six men wannabes, and they were dead to the world. I decided to stay awake and "keep watch" for a little while.

The wind continued to pick up to the point I was starting to get concerned. Cullman is famous for its tornadoes (or should I say infamous), and I was in a nylon tent... on a hill... surrounded by giant pine trees... with five little boys who were not my own... plus, one son, one husband and one Eagle Scout. Hmmm. It wasn't looking good.

As my attention shifted from the howling sounds coming from the nearby woods to the tornado activity picking up around our little tent, I suddenly heard the sound of howling once again, but this time much, much closer. In fact, it was clear to me it was more than one animal howling and the animals were moving in our direction... quickly. Hmmm. Tornado activity AND wild animals running toward us.

I decided to wake the snoring machines when BAM, BAM, BAM... I was actually hit by at least three of the wild, howling animals. The only thing separating us was a thin piece of nylon, and since we were wedged into the tent so tightly, I was directly against the side of the tent. I didn't have time to scream, but the three animals yelped in fear as they hit something solid (solid meaning ME).

I struggled to sit up in my sleeping bag, but I was zipped in tightly, and I was wearing way too many clothes. BAM, BAM. Two more direct hits. I looked around. Could I be dreaming? The wind was roaring, coyotes were yelping and slamming into the tent and all of the other eight people were totally zonked! What to do? What to do? BAM. Last coyote.

I reached over and shook Mikie awake. I didn't even mention the coyotes, but I did tell him my concern of tornadoes. "What do we need to do?"

"I think it will blow over. Just go back to sleep?"

"The only problem with that is... if it doesn't blow over, that means it touches down. Do we really want to risk that with all these kids?"

"Okay. Okay. I'll go to the truck and listen to the weather." That's the answer I was waiting for. So Mikie unzipped the tent and headed to the truck. As close as the truck was parked to the tent, I couldn't even hear the motor when he started it up because the wind was now so loud.

One minute passed... five minutes passed... ten minutes (or as I like to call it, an eternity)! I had no other choice but to wake Kerry, the Eagle Scout.

"Kerry, Mike's been in the truck listening for tornado warnings and he hasn't come back. I think he's asleep... or listening to country music. Can you go check and see what is going on?"

"I think it will just blow over."

"I've already had this discussion. Please go check on Mikie!"

Kerry's a good guy and quickly unzipped and headed out of the tent. I didn't think it possible, but the wind had picked up a little more and our tent felt like the stakes were being pulled out of the ground.

One minute passed... five minutes passed... ten minutes (or as I like to call it, "If some guys don't get back in the tent in 30 seconds, they're going to have a major Belinda Faulkner Fit to deal with the next few days")!

I stuck my head out of the tent. It was worse than I thought. Rain, deafening wind, thunder and lightening in the distance... and Mikie's pick-up truck less than five feet away with Mikie and Kerry sitting high and dry in the front seat. Were they... laughing? Oh, yes they were! I crawled out of the tent and walked (slanted) against the wind and knocked on the windshield. "Do you want to let me know what's going on?" I shouted.

"There's a tornado warning, all right, but it's for Northern Cullman County and it's almost over. We were just talking until it passes," Mikie responded cheerfully.

"Did it occur to you that I was waiting to hear what was going on to see if we needed to move the boys OR something?"

"I figured you had gone back to sleep."

"Are you nuts? Between the snoring, sleeping boy noises and getting hit head on by a pack of crazed coyotes (which, by the way, must have been RUNNING FROM A TORNADO when they hit the tent), I haven't been asleep yet!"

"Man... you're going to be grumpy tomorrow," Mike predicted.

I'm not sure, and I can't prove anything, but I think the Eagle Scout said, "Tomorrow?" under his breath.

I turned away and headed back to the tent. Going back was a breeze (pun alert) with the wind behind me, and I climbed into the tent. I was wet, windblown and muddy, so I decided to just lie on top of my sleeping bag until the sun came up. Since we were leaving Camp David at 3:00 p.m. the next day, I only had 12 more hours to go!

The next morning, the boys woke up rested and ready for fun. "Can we fish?" "Can we hike?" "Can we eat?"

As I started making pancakes, I told the boys about the coyotes and the tornado the night before.

"Oh, Mom. I bet it was just a neighbor's dog. It wasn't a pack of coyotes," Austin replied.

"Oh, yes it was. I know a pack of coyotes when it hits me!"

And then to add insult to injury, they turned to Mikie and Kerry, the Eagle Scout, and asked them if there had really been a tornado.

"Well, it was a little windy," Mike said.

"A little windy? A little windy?" I sputtered.

"If all that happened last night, why didn't we hear anything?" another little guy asked.

"I guess you couldn't hear anything over the snoring and 'boy noises' everyone was making," I grumpily mumbled.

"What the heck are 'boy noises,' Miss Belinda? Your mom is funny, Austin."

And with that, a decision was made. I would never go on another all guy camp-out with Austin, Josh and pals. I have gone up the next morning and made breakfast and "hung out," but as far as spending the night in the same tent... not gonna happen.

I guess the moral of this story would have to be, "There ain't a tent big enough for one husband, an Eagle Scout, six man wannabes and this tired, coyote-beaten mom." (Again, another great tattoo idea!)

Monday will begin "How to Camp With Your Family and Survive" Week and "Camping Story #2 - The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" or, as I like to say, "The Night Mom Tried to Black Out in Georgia."

Now for our Book of the Week.

Book

You may or may not be familiar with Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald. She is a wonderful woman who lives in an upside down house. Children and parents love her. When a child has a bad habit that needs to be broken, the parents simply send the child to Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's house for a cure. Each chapter in this book is a different bad habit and the unorthodox cure for the habit. For example, The-Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker-Cure is a chapter which is pretty self-explanatory. There are several Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books... all of them are excellent. I loved reading these out loud a chapter a night to the kids when they were the right ages. The book itself says ages 6 through 10, but a sharp 5 year-old would enjoy the book, too. You are the best judge.

Climbing on the bed and reading before bedtime is one of the things I miss most of having little ones. It is one of the sweetest traditions you'll ever have, and it's one of those "simple" pleasures kids will remember well into their adult years.

NOTE: Another good thing about Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is the chapters are not cliffhangers. If you read a chapter, it's a little story by itself. If you have to skip a couple of nights reading it aloud before bedtime, it doesn't interrupt the story, so it keeps the kids' interest over a longer period of time.

Have a great long weekend. Stay warm and do something fun and simple with your family. Remember, this is the only January 16, 17, 18 and 19, 2009 you'll ever have. Make it memorable.