WC #13: Happy (Belated) Birthday, Cameron!

Here goes the second installment of makeup blog!  The second birthday I missed, due to technical difficulties, was the birthday of my first son-in-law, Cameron Carter.

Cameron, 2013

Cameron Lee was born to Brian & Lorene Carter on July 11, 1978, which officially made him the oldest "kid" in the family after he married Samantha. He generally celebrates with a slurpee on his birthday for 7-11 day. 

7-11 Convenience Stores celebrate Cam's
birthday every year, offering EVERYONE a
FREE SLURPEE!

I'm not sure what we all expected him to be like when we first met him, but I know I didn't expect him.  Cam is the definition of contradiction.  Not intentionally... it just seems that there are so many facets to his personality, you can never know exactly what you're going to get. (I did say facets; not split!)

I don't have any pictures of Cam
when he was little, but can't help but
imagine he looked a LOT like this young man!
Peyton Carter, 2013

Sam 'n Cam met in a class at Ricks College (aka BYU-Idaho now) in Rexburg, Idaho.  Sami was in her second semester and he was a newly-returned missionary, home fresh from his two years in the Dominican Republic.  Sami was always very comfortable talking to boys; most times she got along with boys better than girls, so naturally, she started talking to him and decided he was kinda cute.

Several months later, over Christmas, Sami was home (in Vernal, Utah) and went to a church dance with some of her friends from high school and much to her surprise, ran into Cameron who was there with a friend of his. (Cameron was from Star Valley, Wyoming).  Next thing I know, there's a budding romance and I have a daughter getting married! Wowza!

They began dating after that fateful dance and by Valentine's Day, love was in bloom.  As the story goes, Cameron kept asking Samantha what she wanted for Valentine's Day.  A hopeless romantic, she wouldn't make it that easy for him though and refused to say.  He in turn had told her that if she didn't tell him, he was going to get her a spatula! (Little did she understand the significance of said spatula)  She said that that was fine; to get her a spatula to which he countered that she at least tell him what her favorite color was so he could get one in her favorite color.  On Valentine's Day, he certainly DID present himself to her with a hunter green spatula in hand.  She found out much later that he got the idea from an ad for "Spatula City," whose tagline was "Nothing says I love you like a spatula."  The following day, he did, in fact, tell her that he loved her.  Ya just never know what you're gonna get from Cam....

The Carters
2008

Then Cam had to pass the ultimate test; we thought.  I always told my girls they had to have their brothers' approval on the men they wanted to marry. It wasn't too hard to get Brandon's & Barton's approval.  They loved Cam practically from the beginning.  They thought he was hilarious.  Turns out the real test was Megan.  Ya see... Cameron has this goofy grin. And he really enjoys saying and doing goofy, ridiculous things that make people laugh.  He's so good at that, that no one really realizes how intelligent he really is.  He's downright SMART.  Unfortunately, Meg didn't see that to begin with and actually declared him stupid!  That was long ago though.  Meg and Cam have since bonded, she enjoys his sense of humor, she was there for him when Sami went through her heart surgery a few years ago and she's an advocate for him now.

So, you've heard a couple of Cam's contradictions so far.  He says "I love you" without the words.  He camouflages his intelligence with his goofy side.  He has the vocabulary of a sailor and tries to come off loud and harsh and strict with his kids, when in reality he's a softy and his kids, especially his daughters, can wrap him around their little fingers.  And though he doesn't drink any HOT caffeinated beverages, he has no qualms about downing several cans of Mountain Dew in a day!  Even though this ad is from LONG before he was born, I thought he might enjoy this original Mt. Dew TV commercial from 1966.  Yahoo! Mountain Dew!

He's a die-hard San Francisco 49'ers fan and I think the family rooted for them in the SuperBowl last year just because we were all so happy for HIM that his team finally made it after all his years of dedication.  He enjoys most all sports, but football is definitely his top game, although he didn't play himself.

And this poor sports-minded dude married into a family without an athletic bone buried anywhere within it. (The next generation is showing some hope though...) Instead, he comes into a family that leaned toward music and theater!  I can't imagine the pain he suffered attending all the boys' high school plays and concerts, partly to support them, but mostly to support his wife's pride in her baby brothers.  And then, horror of horrors, once when this grandma was visiting, she thought Andi would enjoy the Disney movie "High School Musical."  I thought poor Cam was going to flip. He didn't want that crap in his house... but I got Andi hooked anyway. And remember what I said about Cam and his daughters???? Not only did he watch it with her; he became a fan himself!  So much so that this kind-hearted softy of a dad actually took his daughter on a date to see "High School Musical on Ice!"

So, Cam... even though it's a full week late... I want to wish you a belated Happy Birthday.  I want you to know how much I love and appreciate you and all that you do to support your family, as well as the support you provide for the rest of us.  You're a fabulous addition to our family.  You fit in well and you never disappoint us.  Be happy Cam!  "We're all in this together!"

LN # 6: Tell about proud moments as a grandmother; Part 10

Once upon a time, there was a grandma who was very excited to have one little, two little, three little grandkids and more for four little, five little, six little grandkids, and then seven little, eight little, nine little grandkids, but WOW TEN Little Grandkids now!!!

Grandma's Gang: 10 Strong & Growing!
August, 2008

Yep, 5 years ago on July 7, 2008 (Read yesterday's blog to find out why this didn't post on the 7th!) grandbaby #10, Krew Brandon Sloan was born! Krew was the first son born to my son Brandon and his wife Diedre in Boise, Idaho while they were living with her folks for the summer and Brandon was doing an internship with an optometrist.  Barely six weeks old when we had our second Sloan Christmas in the summer, Krew is the hunched over peanut in the number 10 at the end of his long line of cousins.

Krew with Mom & Dad
August, 2008

A typical oldest child, Krew is an adult in a little boy's body.  He's serious and very intelligent.  I was amazed when he was still two and Brandon called me to have Krew recite the 1st Article of Faith to me.  When Bran told me, I thought "yeah, right" and prepared myself to hear some baby-talk gibberish with a few religious words in the middle.  Imagine my surprise when I heard, clear as a bell "Article of Faith 1: We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." I was amazed and proud, not only of Krew, but of his mom and dad for teaching their young son such an important concept at such a young age!

Like most little boys today, Krew has a fascination and natural ability with all things electronic and manipulates his parent's iPad and iPhones with ease. He's also good at "helping" his little brothers when it's their turn to play with them.  (In case you missed it, there may have been a little sarcasm there since the "help" usually turns into "let me show you how" and Mom ends up taking the device away to stop the fighting and tears.)  He is very good with computers and electronics though and I suspect it won't be too many years before he's teaching Mom & Dad a few things!

He can tear himself away from the electronic entertainment long enough to dress up as his favorite super heroes, the Avengers!  The All-American Hero:

Captain America

Or the big, scary green guy:

The Incredible Hulk

Or maybe take the time for a marshmallow slingshot war with his brothers!

He's being broken in as a singer in the family having already performed church and baptism duets with his dad. I was honored when I was the only one he'd let listen to him practice with his dad! Way to make Mom and Grandma cry...

I found out this spring that he likes to tell jokes.  He just didn't quite understand the concept that jokes are supposed to be funny and make people laugh.  Hopefully Mom or Dad have been able to read the joke books I bought to him so the next time I see him, maybe he'll make me laugh for real....

Finally, Krew may not have been born one of my biggest grandbabies, but he has one of the biggest hearts!  He's a loving big brother... most of the time....

He's a big helper for his mom. She counts on him a lot and I know she's going to miss him a lot when he heads to Kindergarten for the first time this fall. But he'll pave the way for his little brothers and come home and share stories of his day with them all, cause that's what big brothers and Mom's helpers do!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Krew!  I hope your day was FABULOUS! I love you and am so very proud of you.

WC #12: Technology is GREAT; except when it's NOT!!!

So, technology can be a great thing.  I can be a fan.  I became quite good with it all when I was working as a Market Electronics Merchandiser for four years (2006-2010).  I ended up with a laptop, a BluRay player, an HDTV and a Wii.  I learned how to hook it all up, how to install a router and a new wireless printer.  I've learned how to text and got a FaceBook page. I'm even "Linked In" and have reconnected with people I haven't seen or heard of in forty-six years.  Heck, a bunch of them I never even talked to forty years ago!

I shop for my children and grandchildren for birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas online and never even have to enter a store or buy wrapping paper thanks to Walmart.com and Amazon Prime!  I can pay my bills and balance my checkbook at my dining room table. What an amazing world we live in!

But, boy-oh-boy, can it REALLY MESS US UP when it doesn't work!  My kids tend to think I'm a bit old-fashioned in the fact that I DON'T  pay all my bills and do my banking online... that's about the only thing I haven't moved.  I just don't trust it and the past few weeks are the perfect example of WHY!

In the past two weeks, I've received an eviction notice and missed blogging about the birthdays of several incredible people including (but not limited to) Grandchild #10 (Krew), Son-in-law #1 (Cameron) and #1 Father-in-Law (George Sloan), all because of flawed internet service!  So, I say to Krew, Cam, Pop, Robyn & Grandma Hill.... I owe you and it's coming.... as long as Comcast stays up and running.  

You see, I can TOTALLY blame Comcast because when my service went down, I contacted a friend to see if her service was down.  She said hers had been down two days before and that her sister's had been down the day before.  So, I figured they were up to something and didn't think too much of it until mine went back up and my friend said hers was back down.  Then mine went back down for two days and so it went.... I tried calling them, but got a recording that said I could check for area outages at Comcast.com.  Hmmmm... do you see a flaw in that customer service, or is it just me?  After sitting on hold for over an hour with the periodic very polite recording that all customer service specialists were busy and my call would be answered in the order in which it was received, I threw my phone and decided to ride it out.
Surprise, surprise.... my internet has now been up for a solid 24 hours, but no promises for tomorrow!

So, to those whom I owe a blog, provided Comcast doesn't experience anymore failures, I'll remedy that situation this week. To those of you who caught the comment about the eviction notice---no worries--- I got that resolved before they hijacked all my possessions.  In the meantime, sometimes there's just nuttin' you can do but accept the fact that technology is great.  Except when it isn't... and for now... I think I'll just say you can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd!

EY #18: Tell about times at the cabin in Corny

The "Big" Cabin
Summer, 1967

Happy 4th of July!!!  While I've had many wonderful experiences with my children on the 4th, none of them were more enjoyable than the years between 1967 and 1974 when every 4th was spent in our family cabins on Lake Siskiwit in Cornucopia, Wisconsin.

1967 didn't begin very well. It began with the sale of our farm in Watertown, Wisconsin and I cried for days.  It meant leaving my dogs, my friends and moving back to Illinois. By May, things were looking up. My parents were given the opportunity to buy the cabins in Wisconsin.  Edgar Pedersen, the man who lived upstairs from us in Aurora when I was little, had passed away and his widow, Peg decided to sell their beloved cabins.  They had moved to Cornucopia permanently a few years before and had built a nice home in town.  She no longer had need for the cabins, but wanted to sell them to someone she thought would enjoy them as much as they had.

I can't be certain, but this looks suspiciously
like the sign I wrote the first summer we
had the cabins....

My parents invited "Unc," (my Uncle Henry) and "Miem" to go in with them to buy the cabins.  We all took a trip over Memorial Day weekend to take a look at the cabins for the first time! (Well, the first time for me. My folks and brothers had gone there for a vacation once before I was born.)  The first view I had was something like this:

View of Lake Siskiwit & pier
From porch of "Little" Cabin

I was in heaven!!! I've always loved the water, even before I could swim, and the opportunity to spend summers at a lake, rustic as it was, was heavenly for me!  (Do all Pisces love being near water???)

Rustic indeed!
Here's the view coming back up the hill!
Garage and the "old" outhouse!

Rustic didn't matter to me in the least.  Our "running" water was all cold.  You had your choice.  The "hot" tap, was lake water (Yes; pumped straight from the lake); the "cold" tap was spring water, that was no more drinkable than the lake water, although we did use it for cooking.  The bathroom required planning and companionship after dark.  We had two of them; outhouses that is!  The old one, which I preferred because it had a screened window to provide some daylight and ventilation and a lock on the door.  The new one perhaps smelled a bit better but it had no lock on the door and you had to leave it open a bit if you wanted any light... not that I really needed any light to do my business, but I did prefer being able to tell if a chipmunk had followed me in the door or if there were any spiders or other creepy-crawlies in there with me!  And then, there was no heat in the cabins.  We heated with a cookstove in the "little" cabin and a "pot-belly" stove in the big cabin.  None of that bothered me though.  Traveling into town to fill water jugs from the Artesian well there for drinking water, taking along a "potty partner" after dark and learning to build a fire in the stove for heat was all part of the grand adventure of it all!

The little cabin was higher on the hill.  It had a combined living room/kitchen and then two bedrooms behind.  The front was almost all windows and looked down toward the lake, but the view was somewhat blocked by the big cabin.

The Little Cabin Kitchen

The big cabin sat directly up from the lake and had a gorgeous view of the lake as the whole front was windows.  It is a two-story cabin; the first floor is one large room with combined living room, dining room, kitchen and "wash" room!  The "dining room" was a dining room table that was placed in front of the windows that looked down over the lake!  I said that it had a "wash" room because there was installed a sink from an old train car in a side wall, mounted below a medicine cabinet with a mirror.

Sink from Burlington Northern Train Caboose!
Too bad it was never hooked up to work!

Two of my favorite memories of this part of the cabin are inside the medicine cabinet!

A "Doodle" Lanie made for me!
Hung in the cabinet June 13, 1972.
It's still there!!!

Lanie was and still is my best friend in the world.  It's that kind of friendship that endures time.  No matter how much time passes between visits or conversations, the love and friendship is still there.  It's impossible for me to separate memories of Corny from memories with Lanie, because other than that first summer when the Zielkes bought the cabins on Lake Siskiwit, I never went there without Lanie until the summer of 1974, when she had a job and couldn't get vacation time to go with me!  So, from 1968 to 1973, every Corny memory includes memories of my buddy! 

Not as artistically as Lanie, but with great love, happiness & enthusiasm, I made something for her and hung it in the cabinet the following year, after my cousin FINALLY decided to take her on a date!

"True Love" "4-Ever"
Prophetic in 1973, but they were so
obviously meant for each other, all it
took was the first date!

The second floor of the big cabin has two "bedrooms" separated by a curtain.

My folks used the bed in the foreground in the
"front" bedroom. Lanie and I shared the bed
on the other side of the curtain.

So many fun memories in the big cabin!  From "Bunkie" killing with a can of deodorant when my niece & nephew (Dan & Gail) wouldn't go to sleep upstairs one night while Al, Marcia, Lanie & I were trying to play cards downstairs, to chasing REAL bats with brooms with Lanie and other high school friends on our graduation trip... Playing cards was a nightly thing:

Lanie lost the last hand and
had to wear "the pig" for the next round!

Sometimes we joined "the old people" for card games in the Chatter Box next door!

Walt Westphall, Dad & Bob Bailey
playing "21" in the Chatter Box!

Sometimes we fed the raccoons and chipmunks!  The "chippies" will come take peanuts (in the shell) from your hand and scamper away to store them and then come back for more. They could usually fit three in their cheeks before they'd run away!  "Baby" was the favorite raccoon. She'd beg for cookies!

Sister-in-law Marcia
feeding Baby.

I remember one night running over to the little cabin from the Chatter Box to get something, I found an animal laying in front of the door to the cabin.  Assuming it was Baby, because the size and color were right, I began talking to her, trying to get her attention and wake her up.  When I got no response, I feared she was dead or hurt.  Knowing better than to actually touch her, I grabbed a long stick and nudged her a bit.  Imagine my surprise when she raised her fur and began to roll into a ball!!!! Nope! It wasn't Baby!  It was a porcupine and I took off running back to the Chatter Box before it started shooting spines at me!

When we were looking for some REAL excitement for an evening, we'd all get in the car and head for the dump!!!  If there weren't too many other cars there, and it was nice and quiet, about twilight the bears would come out!  Sometimes you'd see as many as three rummaging through all the new garbage looking for food.  This will all probably sound extremely boring to my children and grandchildren, but it was wonderful.  It was experiencing nature.  It was having good, clean fun.  We created our own entertainment. And we were happy!

Speaking of bears... I'll never forget the morning I was by the table in the big cabin and saw a flash outside the kitchen window as my dad came running down the stairs.  I'd never seen my dad run before that I could recall, but he ran in the door, FAST and closed it behind himself. I don't think I'd ever seen him look so pale either.  Turns out he'd made his morning trip "up the hill" as we called the trip to the outhouse and came face to face with a black bear!

Sometimes we just did goofy, teenager-type things....

Lanie taking a picture of me taking
a picture of her taking a picture!

As we got older, I had my driver's license and we were able to go to Corny by ourselves, we did some riskier, stupid teenage-type things, like driving over to Duluth-Superior to the Duluth Zoo and driving home with Lanie hanging out the window to grab some beer from some guys who were "dragging" with us, or picking up some guys who were walking along the road and making out with them.

While we did do some stupid things...most of our time was tame and just fun; thanks in big part to my cousin, Norm.

Norm: Ready to Water Ski!

It was so exciting when Norm bought his boat!!! I loved riding in the boat with him and it was even more exciting when he taught me how to drive it so that I could drive for him when he was water skiing!  It took him awhile to teach himself how to ski, but it took him even longer to teach Lanie and me! (Well, to be honest, Lanie and I both needed to learn how to SWIM first! We were the only 14-year-olds in our swimming class at the YWCA and all those little kids made us look bad!)  It took Lanie and I the better part of two summers to really get the hang of it, but even the failures were fun...well all except when we'd actually get out of the water on the skis and then fall and end up getting an enema! Ouch!  Oh, and it wasn't much fun when we'd fall hard enough to lose our skis and have them fly into the air and land on our heads either!  But it was an adventure!

Norm began getting brave enough to goof around a bit!

After he started doing scissor legs on the skis, but before he tried trick skis or slalom, he did some ski squats!

It was actually seeing Norm do these little tricks that gave me the courage to attempt to learn to ski at all!  I mean if he could goof around on the skis, I was sure I could at least stand up on them! Right?  Lanie and I became determined and eventually accomplished our goal...after many trials and bruises!  It was a morning, noon & night thing... day after day... trip after trip! Sometimes "the rope broke!"  Sometimes we'd test one another's skill levels and make sharp turns with the boat to see if the skier could stay up on the turns.  Sometimes we'd use the Zip Sled which you could sit, kneel or stand on, but actually, after learning how to ski, the Zip Sled was harder to use!

Lanie putting on her skis.
Ready to show Bill (my brother)
how it's done!

Obviously, some days were better than others for skiing.  Corny is in northern Wisconsin.  In fact they have Wisconsin's northernmost post office!  So, summer is rarely actually HOT.  And Lake Siskiwit is spring-fed, so the water never really gets warm.  Some days the water is down-right choppy. (I called it whitecaps until I moved near the ocean and learned what REAL whitecaps look like!), but sometimes, usually in the evening, the lake would become like glass---so smooth and PERFECT for skiing!

One dream I never managed to fulfill at the cabins was my dream of a "beach party!" A child of the 60s, I was obsessed with Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon and sandy beaches.  It didn't matter to me that they were on California ocean beaches and I was at a lake in Wisconsin, I had dreams of a sandy beach, beach parties with campfires and convinced my dad to "build" us a  sandy beach by the lake. It took a lot of work of which I did none.  But, I believe I've mentioned before I was spoiled and my dad and uncle worked with others to try to make my beach a reality...

My "Sandy" Beach
as it exists today.

While they brought in sand and we did have a campfire circle, it never became the place to really lay out in the sun or play beach volleyball! But we did roast a few marshmallows and make some S'mores in my day.

So, back to the 4th of July... I had my first opportunity to see a fireworks show over water in Cornucopia one year as they shot theirs out over Lake Superior.  It was more common, however, to just watch some home fireworks on the end of the pier at the cabins.

While I can never have a 4th of July without thinking of the good old days at the cabins in Corny, as you can tell, the memories of Corny go far beyond the 8 July-s I spent there.  Writing this brings to mind so many other memories: The Bunkie Killing, the bats, the hippies with the Pot-tery shop, the General Store, the canoe and motor boat mishaps, swimming on the sandy beach across the lake, the pontoon boat.... Heavens!  There's enough material on Corny to write a novel... not a blog! There will never be another place more special to me with as many wonderful memories or good times.  So, in closing, to go along with good summer memories and wishes for a safe, happy 4th of July holiday, let's add some good summer music!!!

PS A special thank you to cousin Laura Zielke and all her updated pictures of the cabins that I borrowed for this post!