Happy Mothers Day Mom - We Miss You...

I've had this hanging in my office for the last several years and it really rings true with me.  I have no idea who wrote it but its just perfect... 


A Mother's Journey
For those of you who are lucky to still be blessed with your Mom this is beautiful. For those who aren't, this is even more beautiful.

Mothers Journey
The young mother set her foot on the path of life.
"Is this the long way?" she asked.
And the guide said "Yes, and the way is hard,
You will be old before you reach the end of it,
however, the end will be better than the beginning."

But, the young mother was happy, and she wouldn't believe that anything could be better than these years.

So she played with her children, she fed them, bathed them, taught them how to tie their shoes, ride a bike, reminded them to feed the dog, do their homework and brush their teeth.

The sun shone on them, and the young Mother cried, "Nothing will ever be lovelier than this."
Then the nights came, and the storms, and the path was sometimes dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, the mother drew them close and covered them with her arms, the children said, "Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come to us."

The morning came, and there was a hill ahead, the children climbed and grew weary, the mother also grew weary. But at all times she said to the children, "A little patience and we will be there."
So the children climbed, and as they climbed they learned to weather the storms. With this, she gave them strength to face the world.
Year after year, she showed them compassion, understanding, and hope, but, most of all she gave them unconditional love.

When they reached the top they said, "Mother, we wouldn't have done it without you."

The days went on, the weeks, the months and the years, the mother grew old and she became little and bent. But, her children were tall and strong; and walked with courage.

The mother, when she lay down at night, looked up at the stars and said, "This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned so much and are now passing these traits on to their children."

When the way became rough for her, they lifted her, and gave her their strength, just as she had given them hers.

One day they came to a hill, beyond the hill they could see a shining road with a golden gates flung wide.
And the mother said: "I have reached the end of my journey and now know the end is truly better than the beginning.
My children and grandchildren can walk with dignity and pride, with their heads held high."

The children said, " You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates."
They stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her.

They said: "We cannot see her, but she is with us still.
A mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence."

Your Mother is always with you.

She is the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street.
She is the smell of certain foods you remember.
She is the flowers you pick.
She is the smell of that special perfume she wore.
She is the cool hand on your brow when you're not feeling well.
She is your breath in the air on a cold winter's day.
She is the sound of the rain that lulls you to sleep
She is the colors of a rainbow.
She is Christmas morning.
Your Mother lives inside your laughter,
and she is crystallized in every tear drop.
A mother shows every emotion happiness, sadness, fear, jealousy, love, hate, anger, helplessness, excitement, joy, sorrow, and all the while, hoping and praying you will only know the good feelings in life. >She's the place you came from, your first home, she's the map you follow with every step you take.

She is the one you run to when you are scared.

Her arms are always open to hold you and console you.

She's your first love, your first friend, even your first enemy but, nothing on earth can separate you.
Not time, not space, not even death!


MAY WE NEVER TAKE OUR MOTHERS FOR GRANTED !!!!!!!!!!

Easter Campout - 2011

Our Easter is traditionally spent at family south of Plattsmouth each year, it includes a big Easter Egg hunt and a gathering of all or most of my wife's family.  This year was no exception.  We've kind of made it a tradition to camp over Easter at a park south of Omaha near their home, or at least within 20 minutes of their home.

We camped at Louisville SRA over the Easter weekend this year and really had a nice time.  The weather was a little suspect at times but when the sun did come out it was PERFECT spring camping weather. 

Jodi and Bernie Kupper met us there and it was really good to see them again.  They love to camp just as much as we do and we've really formed a camping "BOND" with them over the last couple of years.

I tried a new recipe in the dutch oven this trip and it really turned out pretty tasty.  Pineapple Dr. Pepper spare ribs.  Usually you never want to run short of "juices" when cooking meat in the dutch oven and I was actually a little "LONG" on juices but it didn't effect the taste of the rips and they were tender, juicy and tasty...  MMMMMM MMMMMM GOOD...

The camper got a projector for Christmas this year and this was the first trip we had the opportunity to check it out.  I was really pleased with it.  You can get a movie big enough that you can sit around the campfire and see it just fine.  This pic doesn't show it well but the picture came out well and we all really liked it.  I do need possibly a new cheapo DVD player to go with it as the one we brought was old and had been used at the kids TV at our house previously.  So I am now looking for the smallest, most lightweight DVD player out there to "Give" to the camper for the next holiday - Actually I think this Friday is "National Arbor Day" sounds like a good holiday to give a gift to the camper to me.  The screen will be adjusted a bit now that we know it works and I wont tape it to the side of the camper next time, will fabricate a screen hanger of some type out of PVC for the next time...

That's it from our neck of the woods...

Until Next Time - Safe Travels - Bc

Up North

We took a trip to West Salem Wisconsin this past weekend to visit my brother and his family.  It was his youngest baptism and 2nd birthday all wrapped into one big weekend celebration. 

We decided to pull the camper along, the logic behind it was that we wouldn't have to kennel the dogs or rent a hotel room which would save us around $300 bucks, PLUS we just love any excuse we can find to pull the camper around.  

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Thursday was our day of departure and upon getting the camper ready and starting to hitch up I discovered a flat on the inside rear drivers side tire on the Great White Buffalo.  Sometimes its hard to notice a flat on a dually and I am REALLY glad I noticed this before we got out on the road.  It delayed our leaving by about an hour and a half (finally pulling out of Omaha at 5:30pm) but all and all it really wasn't that bid of deal, but it sure could have been.  Thursday was the toughest driving I have ever had pulling the camper, not that there were any "near misses" or anything like that, just the weather elements.  We had 425 miles to go and were bucking a 35 to 40 mile headwind for about 275 of those miles and although we were NOT trying to set any land speed records it was a struggle just to keep it at 60 mph on the interstate.  The other 150 miles were straight north with a 35 to 40 mph cross wind...   HUMMMM, more interesting at times, wind pushing you left, trucks overtaking you pulling you left even more and then hitting an underpass where all wind stops for about 2 seconds where you shoot back to the right - my knuckles were white...  I am adventurous as it gets (once driving 17 hours in one day just to get where we needed to go) but I almost called it quits a couple times ;-).  During one stretch of the trip between fill ups we actually dropped down to 5.1 MPG (WOWZERS) We pulled into West Salem at 2am, visited for an hour and then slept like babies...

Tri-CLEM plus One



Friday we got the camper to the campground, got it set up and spend the day hanging with Rich and Beth and the kids, played, went swimming, hung out, ran some errands, fed the kids a lot of sugar candy (like a good uncle should), ate pizza, had some beers and had a really good time.

Willy's Baptism


 Saturday was more of the same, after waking up to the ground being white and a great breakfast that Beth made for us we eventually made it to the swimming pool at the hotel again.  Beers, swimming, errands, rain, snow, food, fun, kids and even a bit of tequila were what consumed most of the day.  The Baptism went very well and Will was quite the character, going along with everything without once even throwing any kind of fit.  Back to Beth and Rich's for food, birthday cake, ice cream, beers and the such afterwards.  We were back to the camper and in bed fast asleep before 10:00pm, I must be getting old.

Another great breakfast on Sunday with all three of us Clements boys (whom we affectionately call Tri-CLEM) and our wives and families brought us to the end of our time in West Salem.  Corey, Kim and Gaby hit the road, we went to the campground, packed up, stopped back for one last good bye and headed out.  The trip home was MUCH more relaxing and everything went off without a hitch, gas mileage was good, actually better than normal, we made it home before dark and all is good... 

All 6 Sharing a Meal



I've always had a great heart for family and as I get older I come to appreciate times like this EVEN MORE than ever.  Its not often we all three get a chance to catch up and spend quality time together like this...  This is what "Living Life" is all about....

Until Next Time - Safe Travels and LOVE YOUR FAMILY LIKE THERE's NO TOMORROW...

Bc

Really

Quite a bit has gone on in the last couple of weeks.

Weight Loss - Our final weigh in for the Biggest Loser at the office was April 7th and this guy took down the top prize - A cool hundred fifty bucks and a loss of 31 lbs and 8.47% of my body weight - I really wanted to do better than that but there is NO way I will complain at all.  I pulled 12 pounds the last week which is really quite amazing considering I have no idea how that happened.   Actually I do - I think I was restricting my calories TOO much the 2/3 weeks previous to that and I was struggling quite a bit having gained 5 pounds in that time period.  Finally everything balanced and my body gave in and said OKAY OKAY.  So we'll see how it goes the next couple of weeks...

TKE - One of the reasons I cant believe I pulled a 12 the last week of Biggest Loser is cause we had our ANNUAL Fraternity Alumni Banquet/Formal - I guarantee I consumed 6K calories on that day including way too many drinks - It may have been the nicest fraternity formal I had been to in the last 20 years...

CAMPING - Got the camper in for new tires all around and decided it was time to repack wheel bearings too since were headed out to Wisconsin on Friday for a baptism and birthday party.  Pulling the camper and camping and really looking forward to it...  ANYHOW back to the wheel bearings - I had lost one and basically broke down on the road last summer (long story short) and got it fixed and made it home.  This time the ONE behind the one what went out last summer basically fell out in the tech's hand so got everything squared away - Good thing or we would have beens stranded on the road again this time...

ANYHOW - Just wanted to drop by for a minute - More to come soon...

Until Next Time - Bc

Only in Nebraska...

ONLY in NEBRASKA and well, pretty much several of the states surrounding Nebraska...

So, on Monday were camping in T-Shirts on a nice 70+ degree day and then by Friday its 28 and 4 inches of snow are on the ground.  What can you say?  What can you do? Not a thing, its just Mother Natures way of telling everyone SHE's in charge...

One think I know for sure it it wont be around for weeks on end so I'll take it.  Also, it really was a pretty snow and we've had a whole lot worse...

Bc

Spring Camping at its Finest...

FINALLY....  The winter always seems SO long when the one thing you and your family really enjoy doing is camping.  Having a window, and the weather looking okay, and it being the first part of spring break so Alyssa didn't have to miss any school, we decided to get rolling on our 2011 camping adventures.

I picked up the camper at O Dark Thirty on Friday, got it home and spent Saturday morning "unwinterizing", getting it ready for the road, and packing up.  It became very apparent that new tires are much needed on the rig this year, and probably before our next trip, but that's a story for another time.  The Grey Wolf handled the winter with no problems, all pipes, water, furnace, holding tanks and everything worked just as fine as it did when we sent her to hibernation last October, that's ALWAYS a good thing.

Louisville SRA is just over 20 miles down the road from our house and is a nice park and a logical location for our first trip on 2011.  Site 161 was the site we chose and was very nice and BIG, a great yard, 65 to 70 feet in length and flat. 

Saturday was mostly spent getting things organized, we did get a good campfire going as the sun started to set and roasted hot dogs over the fire for our first nights meal.  The high was in the 50ies with the low in the middle 30ies on Saturday.  The campfire wasn't just for looks on Saturday night...  :-)

Saturday night the moon was in what is called a "Supermoon" phase and was as close to the earth as it has been since 1993 - Unfortunately it was cloudy Saturday night but we did snap a few pictures of it on Sunday night, it was pretty impressive to say the least.

SUNDAY WAS SO AWESOME - High in the mid 70ies and Sunny, it was definitely t-shirt weather and the sun actually felt warm at times.  We spend the day outside where Valerie dominated at Yahtzee and fed me drinks throughout the day - What a women, she really rocks...  Alyssa rode her bike and trekked around the park a bit, I think she had a good time, the past few months she made several comments about wanting to get out and camp.  I know she was a little bored at times, next time she'll bring a friend along...  :-)

Sunday I made the "soon to be famous"  Chunky Irish Chicken in the dutch oven.  A concoction of potato, carrot, garlic, onions, cream of chicken soup, chicken gravy, sliced up chicken breasts, cheese and spices.  It turned out pretty good for the first attempt, I'll definitely make it again with some slight cooking modifications. 

Monday was a little cooler and more cloudy but was still in the low 60ies.  Scrabble was the name of the game and it was my day to get revenge for the butt kicking I took yesterday.  YES, I AM the reigning MASTER of the Clements clan at scrabble...  That usually doesn't happen cause Valerie is the spelling master so I have to RUN WITH IT when it does happen.  We may not play again this year, I might not give her a chance to beat me, that way I can reign supreme as the KING for 2011...  :-)   Monday afternoon the girls put in the movie Eclipse so naturally I napped...  LOL  I actually watched it and enjoyed it with them, (or at least watched part of it).  We had burgers on the grill and beans on the campfire and then watched a few shows we like and sat by the campfire a bit more on Monday night.

I got the opportunity to try out the new outdoor camping stove over the weekend and I really, really like it.  The opportunity to be outside cooking (when the stove is needed) is nice, much better than being cooped up in the camper trying to prepare a meal.  I look forward to putting it to good use in the future.

Kind of a leisurely, relaxing first trip of the year and it was just what the doctor ordered.  We look to get out as often as possible this year even if it is just shorter trips, they say $5 gas by mid summer, that would hamper longer trips but would still get us out "close by".

Until Next Time, Happy Camping - Bc

Excitement Anew...

Boy the time change has done wonders for me, aside from adjusting sleeping patterns a bit, it has given me some spirit that the long cold winter took out of me.  YAHOOOOO, spring is here and along with it comes Golf, Camping, Bar-b-que's, Biking, Family gatherings Etc...  The only negative is that I am going to really have to focus on proper nutrition during all of these events because every single one of them, in the past, has led me down the wrong path at times...

When you're watching your weight and trying to lose pounds a lot of people buy off on the fact that is is OKAY, no actually important, to treat yourself once in a while to avoid going totally off the wagon, to sort of keep your sanity if you will.  I agree with this principal BUT when you like to partake in a lot of different activities you can't make an exception every time... 

On a totally different note I just wanted to comment on this whole CHARLIE SHEEN deal...  "Winning", WTF - This guy has lost his marbles - he's gone COO COO for COCO PUFFS and taken the express train all the way there.  Tired of seeing it on the news, the whole sensationalism of it all, put it to rest for the love of GOD....

On one more TOTALLY different note.  Were pulling out the Grey Wolf Saturday morning and heading out on our first trip of the spring.  Lots to do during the first trip so we're not going far, probably Mahoney State Park but in all reality we could land anywhere this time of year.  We are making it an extended trip as Spring Break is next week so no school, a couple days off from work means a couple extra days of camping.... WOOOOOOOO.....

Until Next Time.... bc