Scorpions, cabins, and boating - oh my!
Well, we had an interesting weekend. We decided to take the kids out of school on Friday and Barry took off work so that we could leave for a long weekend on Lake Bridgeport-about 1.5 hours from us. We were there last weekend briefly (we got rained out) and it is an absolutely gorgeous lake. We found a nice cabin at a little resort there with a boat slip and booked it for the weekend.
We arrived a little before noon, got everything unpacked in the "coolest cabin ever" (a direct quote from Parker), and then headed out to the lake. I think we saw maybe 2 other boats the whole day. Weekday boating is so nice! The water is so beautiful and clean, there is hilly land with green forests surrounding it (a large part is owned by the boy scouts), and the shore is sandy.
We played on shore, collected too many shells, tubed (man, was I sore from that the next day!), and skied. There is a strip of water behind a little island there that is just excellent for skiing. I am proud to say that I even skied for the first time ever-finally!
We headed back to the "coolest cabin ever" after a full day of fun on the lake. Barry grilled some fabulous burgers and we enjoyed dinner outside in the perfect weather. We played some uno, watched a little movie, read a bit, and then tried to settle down to sleep. (The kids were very excited because they evidently have never seen bunk beds before and there was a lot of commotion for a while.)
Barry and I had just drifted off when I was woken up by a stinging on my face-right above my jaw line. I sat straight up and was swatting at my face when my hand started stinging. At the same time I was screaming to Barry that something bit me. Barry was jolted out of a sound sleep, so he was trying to understand what was going on and trying to calm me down. I was yelling for him to turn on the light. He figured I was having some kind of nightmare. (No, I don't normally wake up screaming in the middle of the night.) By the time he got the light on, all the kids (except Tanner, who can apparently sleep through anything) were in our room wondering why their mom was screaming like a banshee.
As soon as the light was on, we discovered the source of my alarming behavior, which in turn caused more screaming. At the bottom of the bed, between the sheets, was the evil scorpion that had just stung me twice!
After verifying via the internet that Texas doesn't naturally breed any dangerously venomous scorpions, we confirmed that we were all too creeped out to get any sleep there that night-well, everyone except Tanner who was still sleeping. We all piled in the suburban while Barry informed the owners what had happened, that we were leaving and would be back for our boat and other things tomorrow. Then we headed the 1.5 (are you sure it wasn't 3) hours home.
My lips and tongue were a little numb and the sting spots burned horribly, but we were able to get a decent night's sleep in our own, non-scorpion infested, beds. Saturday morning we headed back out to shake out our stuff and pack up. My hand still hurt all day long.
Unbelievably, the owner was actually going to charge us for Friday night, however, she would generously refund us for Saturday night that we had already paid for. Barry stared at her incredulously as she informed us that it was just part of the 'element' and rolled his sleeves up in preparation for a full out tongue lashing, no customer service having, are-you-kidding-me? battle. Luckily, she was quick to see the validity in our point of view and gave us a full refund.
However, I think she probably got the last laugh and figured we got ours as she watched me try to pull the boat out of the rented slip. Being that I am not very practiced at docking (and to my credit-it was a very cramped space), I managed to scrape up the bottom of our boat on one of the props of the boat in the neighboring slip. While Barry frantically tried to reach the boat to push me away, he lost his (very expensive) sunglasses in the water (comically, I lost mine the day before).
I met Barry a few miles down the lake at the park where we pulled the boat out 30 minutes later and my face was still red. Ah, the joys of boating...(I haven't even told you about the time I sat in the boat in the water with all the kids and Barry on shore about to pull the trailer out and I couldn't get the keys in the ignition to start the boat. While two men looked on trying not to laugh out loud at me, Barry had to wade out and put the keys in the ignition for me. It's amazing how the humiliation is multiplied when you have an audience. Thank you, thank you, be sure and see my Sunday show-how to completely scrape up the side of the boat while trailering.)
So, the weekend that never was still ended costing us several hundred dollars (How does that work if we got a full refund?) after the boat repairs and the sunglasses replacements. But, we are all well-thank goodness it wasn't one of the kids that were stung and we have a good story to tell, right? (Can you believe I didn't even get any pictures to document the whole affair?! It's just not like me!)
We arrived a little before noon, got everything unpacked in the "coolest cabin ever" (a direct quote from Parker), and then headed out to the lake. I think we saw maybe 2 other boats the whole day. Weekday boating is so nice! The water is so beautiful and clean, there is hilly land with green forests surrounding it (a large part is owned by the boy scouts), and the shore is sandy.
We played on shore, collected too many shells, tubed (man, was I sore from that the next day!), and skied. There is a strip of water behind a little island there that is just excellent for skiing. I am proud to say that I even skied for the first time ever-finally!
We headed back to the "coolest cabin ever" after a full day of fun on the lake. Barry grilled some fabulous burgers and we enjoyed dinner outside in the perfect weather. We played some uno, watched a little movie, read a bit, and then tried to settle down to sleep. (The kids were very excited because they evidently have never seen bunk beds before and there was a lot of commotion for a while.)
Barry and I had just drifted off when I was woken up by a stinging on my face-right above my jaw line. I sat straight up and was swatting at my face when my hand started stinging. At the same time I was screaming to Barry that something bit me. Barry was jolted out of a sound sleep, so he was trying to understand what was going on and trying to calm me down. I was yelling for him to turn on the light. He figured I was having some kind of nightmare. (No, I don't normally wake up screaming in the middle of the night.) By the time he got the light on, all the kids (except Tanner, who can apparently sleep through anything) were in our room wondering why their mom was screaming like a banshee.
As soon as the light was on, we discovered the source of my alarming behavior, which in turn caused more screaming. At the bottom of the bed, between the sheets, was the evil scorpion that had just stung me twice!
After verifying via the internet that Texas doesn't naturally breed any dangerously venomous scorpions, we confirmed that we were all too creeped out to get any sleep there that night-well, everyone except Tanner who was still sleeping. We all piled in the suburban while Barry informed the owners what had happened, that we were leaving and would be back for our boat and other things tomorrow. Then we headed the 1.5 (are you sure it wasn't 3) hours home.
My lips and tongue were a little numb and the sting spots burned horribly, but we were able to get a decent night's sleep in our own, non-scorpion infested, beds. Saturday morning we headed back out to shake out our stuff and pack up. My hand still hurt all day long.
Unbelievably, the owner was actually going to charge us for Friday night, however, she would generously refund us for Saturday night that we had already paid for. Barry stared at her incredulously as she informed us that it was just part of the 'element' and rolled his sleeves up in preparation for a full out tongue lashing, no customer service having, are-you-kidding-me? battle. Luckily, she was quick to see the validity in our point of view and gave us a full refund.
However, I think she probably got the last laugh and figured we got ours as she watched me try to pull the boat out of the rented slip. Being that I am not very practiced at docking (and to my credit-it was a very cramped space), I managed to scrape up the bottom of our boat on one of the props of the boat in the neighboring slip. While Barry frantically tried to reach the boat to push me away, he lost his (very expensive) sunglasses in the water (comically, I lost mine the day before).
I met Barry a few miles down the lake at the park where we pulled the boat out 30 minutes later and my face was still red. Ah, the joys of boating...(I haven't even told you about the time I sat in the boat in the water with all the kids and Barry on shore about to pull the trailer out and I couldn't get the keys in the ignition to start the boat. While two men looked on trying not to laugh out loud at me, Barry had to wade out and put the keys in the ignition for me. It's amazing how the humiliation is multiplied when you have an audience. Thank you, thank you, be sure and see my Sunday show-how to completely scrape up the side of the boat while trailering.)
So, the weekend that never was still ended costing us several hundred dollars (How does that work if we got a full refund?) after the boat repairs and the sunglasses replacements. But, we are all well-thank goodness it wasn't one of the kids that were stung and we have a good story to tell, right? (Can you believe I didn't even get any pictures to document the whole affair?! It's just not like me!)
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