we're havin' a heat wave

i watched the local news last night, just for kicks, and found out we were in the middle of a heat wave. An honest to goodness triple digit heat-wave. It is supposed to last until monday. I know I have lived in Oklahoma for 14 years, and the 7 before that in the San Joaquin Valley, I know what hot is.

Deep down though, i am still the Northern California sissy, that thinks 70 degrees is perfect, and anything much over 80 is ridiculous. I literally hide in the house until the sun goes behind the trees, then i check the damage to my flowers and things brought on by the heat. I have been known to climb in the pool when the water is well warmed, and it isn't too hot to breathe outside.

Ben works at the Brick plant, and he said this morning it was 120 on the kiln decks. i am praying nothing goes wrong, and he can just manage things from the control room, and won't have to spend too much time on the decks this week.

I am so afraid of the kilns, i hate the heat and the noise, i am terrified of walking across them. I literally stopped in my tracks afraid to move. Ben had to take me by the hand to coax me back down to the office. I told him i have seen hell, and never want to see that again.

I know i should have been aware we were having a heat-wave without being told by the weather-man, how-ever, i have a very good reason for being a bit out of touch. It is called the summer yuck.

Tuesday evening, i touched Sean and he was burning up. His temp. went above 104. He then began vomiting all over the house. Loads of fun. Last night Christian was hit by the same thing. He spiked a temp. of 103, and then started shaking terribly. It took a little while to get his temp under control. Alexandra was up and down all night. She fussed and cried(oh wait, that was me) , at 2:00a.m. i just gave up and left her in bed with me.

Christian was in bed with us also, his hot little body just tossed and turned, he would cry out for a drink of water. Ben and I tried to keep him comfortable. It was a very long and difficult night for everyone. Bens' alarm went off at 4:30, and then both the babies woke up.

The 3 of us waived Ben off at 5:15. We ate breakfast, yelled at the stupid rooster to stop crowing outside my window, and finally went back to bed at 8:00. It is almost noon, and everyone here is still moving in slow motion.

The children just ate breakfast a 2nd time, or is that lunch? I am so confused. I am getting hungry again, but i ate a pumpkin muffin and some watermelon at the crack of dawn. I baked 36 muffins and froze them for le camping, but we have eaten most of them. I am either going to have to bake more on Sat. morning or forget fresh muffins for our trip.

I have been told the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but what about the road to the Lake. What if i don't bake the muffins and cookies, what if we eat junky camping food instead. What if i don't make the spaghetti sauce to take down for the first night, and (gasp) the children and husband have to eat sandwiches instead.

I have to continue my camping count down today. I need to finalize the menu and figure out what utensils, and seasonings to pack. I have to track down sandals and swim shoes, life jackets, beach towels and swim suits. I also have to pack or supervise the packing of a house full of children. Ashley and Kyle are on their own.

I have made a few requests for myself for this trip. 1 my own tent. I am only sharing with the 2 babies. Lest you think i am mean, Ben likes to sleep under the stars on top of a sleeping bag with his favorite girl Maggie(the mastiff). 2 i want a battery operated fan for my tent in case the lake side breezes fail to show up. 3 a queen size elevated air mattress(yeah, yeah, i know sissy)
4 a large frozen bottle a Margaritas , i may even survive this camping trip.

The last time i went camping with my older sister Anita her 3 boys, my Dad, and our then family of two children. She and I sat by the Lake sipping white wine out of my Dads' coffee cups, and she looked at me as we dipped our toes in the water, it was twi-light and really beautiful with the trees silhouetted in the sunset. We were hot, but having a great time laughing and goofing off. She sighed and said God, how i hate camping. I know just what she means.