holiday weekend...

I hope everyone's July 4th weekend was a blast. We had a nice long weekend visiting with friends and, I'm sure this will come as no surprise, letterboxing. The letterboxing? It's like crack, I tell you. And here's proof: this morning at the breakfast table Logan wanted to know what we were doing today to which we replied, "nothing." In return Logan suggested we do something fun, something that doesn't "rot his brain like television or Wii," something outdoors, like maybe some letterboxing? [insert seven year old blonde kid with a giant wishful grin here]. You see? C R A C K.



We went out Friday morning and hunted for this series and found all six stamps. They were some seriously cool stamps too. After we found our letterboxes we had another picnic lunch. The boys are all about picnic lunches these days...I think it's part of the allure of letterboxing for them. Anyway, on the way home from our outing the boys and I got to talking about hitchhikers and planting our own boxes again. They were ready to draw pictures for me to carve right that minute. But we had plans with our neighbor friends for swimming and cooking out and fireworks so no carving was done on Friday.

Cut to Saturday morning when I woke up for no apparent reason at 6am. The night before Lynn had a wild hair and folded about four loads of laundry AND straightened the kitchen, so much to my surprise and delight, there was no busy work to be done. Everyone was sound asleep leaving me no excuse but to get out my carving stuff and get to playing. I started sketching little (one inch-ish) drawings to carve for a hitchhiker and ended up deciding on a fat little fairy who quickly turned into a tomato fairy named Ella and by the time I was finished with her her story was too involved and her book was too fancy to be JUST a hitchhiker...she was destined to become a full-blown traditional letterbox. We bought some containers and camouflage duct tape today and later this week we'll find a good spot to plant her. Plus, I hear she has a boyfriend named Sam...details to come.



Caleb woke up as I was sewing signatures together for Ella's logbook. I showed him Ella and told him to draw a small picture for me to carve for him and he did a great job. When Logan woke up, he did the same.





On Saturday we had plans to attend a BBQ hosted by one of Lynn's vendors down in Burleson. We made the most of the trek down there by stopping in for lunch at Joe T. Garcia's and hunting for two more letterboxes in the Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth. We found the letterboxes we were looking for and planted Caleb's hitchhiker too.

Our plans for vegging today worked out for the most part, although we did hit one letterbox on the way to find boxes and camouflage duct tape before church this evening. We are addicted. I admit it.

more letterboxing...

It's official, the kids and I are slightly obsessed. We went out again yesterday and found three more letterboxes. We're taking a break today so I can catch up on laundry and housekeeping. Plus, momma's lily white arms got sunburned so they need a break from the heat...the upside of the sunburn is my farmers tan will be evened out.



These are the boxes we hunted:

Camelot: Heraldry and the Enchanter Merlin

Queen of Grapes



All of yesterday's boxes were really well done. Directions were challenging for the kids, but very clear. The boxes were all either covered in camo duct tape (gotta get me some of that stuff for when we do a box) or spray painted camo style. All of the boxes were buried under good sized rocks. Two of the boxes even had leather hand bound log books. The boys were very impressed with those books..."we'll do ours like this, won't we mom." Of course we will.



Molly was very intrigued by the bark of this oak tree. She was also intrigued by every rock and beer cap she came across. She has turned into quite the little magpie in the last few days...if it's shiny and covered in dirt, she's going to pick it up and then she's going to stuff it into a bag or ask somebody to put it in her pocket.



They all played in the dirt during the "boring" parts. In case you're wondering, the boring parts are when I'm stamping the log book, putting everything back into their respective baggies or re-planting the letterbox.

Friends, I'm here to tell you, this is fun stuff. Even when it's miserably hot while we're doing it.

weekend honey-dos and some letterboxing...

We spent this past weekend checking things off our honey-do list.



I removed the old ceiling fan and installed this one all by myself. Lynn did take everything out of the box and left it scattered about on the carpet. He then promptly decided to take his nap. Molly saw her opportunity and leapt at it...trying to snatch little baggies of screws and such. This is the only reason I did the freaking installation myself...figuring I'd better just get the effer in the ceiling before Molly lost, ate or flushed all the bits I would need later.

We acid stained the patio. The color is nothing like the color the bottle purported to contain. Plus when the guys put the acid stain down they failed to wet the surface first so the finish is kind of streaky right now. We'll wet the surface and put down a darker color in a couple weeks to try to correct what we've got right now, which is this:



It isn't terrible, it's just not what I anticipated.

We also replaced the shower head in the master bathroom. I didn't take any pictures of it because the shiny new shower head is putting my soap scum water spotted shower stall to shame.



Yesterday the kids and I went out letterboxing again. This time we went hunting in Corinth, looking for this series. I don't know what the protocol is for divulging what the stamps look like so I haven't posted any public pics yet. If I find that it is okay to do I'll start posting the stamps as we find them. We were able to find the first of the three boxes without issue. There was even a hitchhiker stamp tucked inside that box. We took the hitchhiker and placed it in the next box we found. We did not find the second or third boxes in this series...I found the directions to be too vague given the area the boxes are supposed to be planted. By the time we were finished hunting in Corinth the kids were ready for a break and I had to run to the post office. After our Sonic break and errands we decided we should look for one more letterbox before we called it a day.



We found this letterbox and the stamp tucked inside it was a real winner with the boys. When we found this box it was sitting in plain sight and was not sealed properly. I don't know why people can't just leave things as they find them...be curious, but be respectful too. Luckily the placer had everything double bagged so only the box interior and bags were wet. We cleaned it up as best we could and then hid it under some leaves and branches.

Today the kids and I are going to have a picnic lunch and then we're going to hunt for a couple more letterboxes. I have to admit I am really digging this letterboxing business. The boys enjoy it, it costs next to nothing to do and we're outdoors in the fresh air. Plus, a lot of the time the drop spots are places we would never have thought to visit. For instance, I found directions to a letterbox located in Ponder last night with information on a restaurant we had never heard of before. It's twenty minutes from our house and world renowned and we had never heard of it! Needless to say, we're going this weekend and I'm wondering if we should make reservations for a baked potato...if you have to make reservations for it it has to be GOOD right? We'll see.

it's been a busy bunch of days...

Logan turned seven. Seven! I have a seven year old child. And a bunch of gray hairs to prove it...although I already had at least a third of those gray hairs when he was born.


We made a trip down to the hinges of hell. Also known as San Angelo, where when Lynn returned home from Fiesta on the Concho he proclaimed, "it's hot outside. San Angelo hot."


We had hotdogs and chili and cupcakes and ice cream for Logan's birthday.


We took our first stab at letterboxing. We were looking for this letterbox.


The letterbox was tucked away in the park that holds the San Angelo International Waterlily Collection.


On our second trip out to find the letterbox we brought Molly along (Caleb was back at the house with stomach troubles) and she and Grandma roamed around while the rest of us looked for the box.


We finally found the letterbox after Lynn wandered "outside the box."


And for Father's Day, after we packed up some furniture and odds and ends (like polaroid cameras and boxes and boxes of film) from my mother-in-law's office, we lazed about watching golf, taking naps and driving home late in the evening.