I’ve been busy, so I’ve not gotten a chance to post this. However, here we go . . .

Our worst week ever start on June 25th. We were heading to Wisconsin for our first camping trip as a family. Everybody was excited. Except for the car. We go to turn on the car and all we heard was “click click click”. Now, remember that our other car is a Prius. A hybrid. Let’s just say you can’t jump off those (actually, if you look at the owner’s manual you can, but to replace a Prius battery it’s like $5,000, so we weren’t about to try it). I found a neighbor home (which is amazing in the middle of the day), and we tried jumping. No can do. Nothing worked. Now, at this point, we are all in the van and its packed. We are screwed. I took Bill’s car and ran and got a new battery. While I was gone, Bill took the old one out. Luck was on our side at the battery store, and I bought the last battery they had and drove home. Bill puts the battery in and the radio and most of our electronics in the van were out. Bill figured it was a fuse, so we got and in the car and went.

We weren’t even driving an hour, and Madison had to go to the bathroom. We stopped at a gas station and I took the kids to the bathroom. Since we were there anyway, Bill filled up the car with gas. That ended up being a good thing. For some reason, everything worked after that. We thought we were in the clear. Little did we know –

Friday night it stormed. That wouldn’t be so bad except we were in a tent. And there were 50 mph winds. At one point, Bill and I were holding up one side of the tent. The good news is that the tent didn’t tip over and we stayed dry. Saturday night it stormed. However, Sunday morning was the whopper. Here are a few pictures:

Good times.  At one point, we were lifting the tent, so the stream could go underneath.  Sooo you’d think this was the end of it — not quite.

We get home and Madison is covered in mosquito bites.  It’s about 8:50 pm and I ran to Walgreens to get some AfterBite.  What I didn’t know was that they had mopped their floors and didn’t put up a wet floor sign.  You can guess what happened next.  I didn’t fall but I twisted my ankle (and ended up at the dr Monday to make sure nothing was broken).  But my week got even better on Tuesday.

Bill and I were sitting at dinner and he goes “Lisa, your eye is really red”.  Well, I ended up at the eye doctor that night, and I had pink eye too!

Thankfully, the rest of the week went better!

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My friend Phish wrote up this list of natural mosquito remedies. It’s a great list, and if it helps even one person not get bitten this summer, it was worth posting!

1. The blades of a spinning fan is the best way to kill mosquitos. Mosquitos can only fly in still air, and they do this mostly over stagnant water. The wind current of a running fan disturbs them immensely. They will try to fly behind the blades for stability and wind up flying into them and getting chopped to pieces in the meantime. Poor mosquitos! The ones that manage to escape will leave you alone as long as you have an artificial wind source as your plan of attack.

2. Lemons Most people believe in the power of citronella. And those people will swear by it’s effectiveness. But lemons are much more pleasant smell to us and do a great job of keeping the mosquitos at bay. Cut about a dozen fresh lemons in half and place them on your window sills. You can also use lemon grass. The smell will drive away most of the mosquitos. Use your fan as a back-up and you should be enjoying a bite-free summer.

3. Eucalyptus oil and Deet are both great mosquito repellents. And do you know which common cold remedy product has eucalyptus in it? Vicks ® vapor rub. Apply it to your upper body (chest, back, arms), and if you are wearing shorts, get your legs, too. You can also find chemical free Deet (check your natural or health food markets) which you can apply to your skin and clothing. That should keep the little blood-suckers at bay.

4. A mosquito net (kind of idiot-proof, right?) A mosquito net won’t kill the little suckers, but a good one will certainly keep them away from you. If you have an outdoor gazebo or tent that you enjoy hanging out under on a nice summer’s night, put a net up all around it for a bug-free atmosphere. A pretty net around your bed can serve the dual purpose of making your room look like a Casablancan get-a-way and keeping you out of harms way of being bitten while you sleep.

5. Vitamin B1 Every year, I forget about this vitamin trick. I had heard for years that you had to start taking it weeks before summer for it to be effective. Then I always forgot which B vitamin it was. And now I know for sure. Vitamin B1 does the trick! Taking this supplement during the summer months makes you a lot less tasty to the little vampires. Depending on what you eat, this method is about 50% effective. Some people swear by garlic, too. I’ll just keep eating pizza!

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We just got back from another weekend up in Green Bay.  I had a wedding shower on Saturday for one of my cousins who gets married in six weeks.  Everybody had a great time.  Since my parents only have dial up, I don’t bring up my laptop computer which means I am behind with both my blogs and my emails.  I am slowly but surely catching up, but I probably won’t be completely caught up till tomorrow.  I plan on going to bed soon.  However, I just love this picture.  I took it while we were at the Wildlife Sanctuary this morning (will be writing a review on it over at My Road Less Traveled By soon).  The kids loved the ducks and geese there.  We also checked out the buildings that are located there, and they had a blast.  Somehow, Bill managed to get two mosquito bites.  I think I am going to be going to bed shortly, so I’ll update some more tomorrow.

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