Saturday, February 15, 2020

Boxing & Cheering in Lafayette

Last weekend my daughter and I went to a Lutheran basketball tournament in Lafayette, Indiana.  My daughter cheered and I had to letterbox. 

The kids were supposed to leave school at 11 am and my daughter had already made arrangements to ride with a friend.  So I dropped my kids off at school, ran home to get something I forgot, went thru a fast food drive thru, and left town.

Terre Haute is about 2 hours north of Evansville (where we live) and I have been wanting to box there for a long time.  I went to college there and have only driven thru a few times.  I looked for 12 boxes and found 6. 

Next, I went to Indy.  I wanted to grab a few boxes on the west side as I was passing thru.  I went get a box at a high school and wasted a lot of time looking because I didn't want to count the steps.  I thought I would just look in trees that fit the description.  But in the end, I walked the steps like the clue said.  Then I went for a box at the local Girl Scout office. You had to ask for it and they had no idea where it was.  The woman called around and asked every person she could find.  I probably spent 20-30 there and walked away with no stamp in my book.

My goal was to arrive in Lafayette at 4 but arrived at 5.  I actually beat the car my daughter was in.  We went out to dinner, the cheer girls did their nails, and we went to bed. 

We got up the next morning and we had to cheer at 8:45.  The boys lost and we didn't play again until 3:30.  My daughter went back to the hotel with friends and I went letterboxing.  I looked for 9 boxes, found 4, and planted one.  It looks like no one lives in Lafayette, people plant when passing thru, and they are not maintained. 

My daughter cheered at the second game and we lost again.  We went back to the hotel, then to a Lutheran service, some 3 point & free throw contests in the gym, and the kids stayed at the school for a dance.  Then they came back to the hotel and someone ordered pizza.  We hung out in the lobby for a while, then went back to our room, and watched a movie.

They next day we didn't cheer until 12:30.  We slept in and went out for breakfast instead of eating at the hotel.  Check out time was noon so we got our stuff together and went back to the school.  The boys won their last game.  It was really nice to leave with a win. 

We went thru a fast food drive thru and got on the road.  It was snowing/raining and we didn't stop for the other boxes I wanted to get on the way out of town.  We made many stops on the way home-wreck on the interstate, rest area potty stop, get gas and more food, etc. 

I love Cracker Barrel.  When I saw there was a box there I had to stop even though it was raining.  We got another restaurant box close by.  We still had almost 3 hours of driving to get home but it was nice to find some easy boxes at the end of our trip. 

I found 13 boxes, planted 1, and left a few hitchhikers.  This basketball tournament has been going on for over 40 years.  I hope my daughter continues to cheer because I am already thinking of next year :) 


Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Valentines Owls

The Month of Love: Whoo loves you
Daddy's Favorite Princess and I are participating in The Month of Love LTC swap.  Someone recently posted a kids only swap but it filled up before the princess could join.  She was excited about making cards so I signed her up for this tracker.

It just so happens that we both made owl cards.  I did mine first and it was a long drawn out process with lots of testing to line things up.  The owl and hearts are hand carved stamps.  The letters and stitching are store bought stamps.

I got this idea from Pinterest but I followed the link and discovered that at one point these were being sold on Etsy.  They were very time consuming to make but I am happy with how they turned out.

The Month of Love: Owl's Heart
The princess picked her image, carved it, and stamped it on pink paper.  I recently bought some new washi tape and she had to use it.  I think her cards look good too.

I have carved a few owl stamps over the years.  I dug around in my stamp box and found three more.  We will be planting five owl stamps in the month of love.