Hello everyone! My name is Megan Brown. I’m live right here in East Texas where it’s hot one day and cold the next. It might rain on a Sunday, ice over on a Monday, and the we all think we are dieing of heat stroke on Tuesday. We have it all and normal it’s in one week. I love living in East Texas though and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I was born and raised in Sulphur Springs, Tx. (You know the town with 2 big cows that sit in front of our High School) We were a “Small” Interstate town. I have since come to learn that we are not as small as we thought we were. Anyways. I won’t bore you with the “What I did growing up” paragraph. Let’s just skip over the first marriage and divorce story…the many attempts at college…until we get to now.
Ok here we go. Now I live in Tyler. I have 2 amazing (annoying sometimes **let’s be honest here**) children. Samuel is my son and my oldest. He is 11 years old. Bailey is my daughter and my baby. She just turn 7. I also have a wonderful (also sometimes an asshole **again let’s be honest**) Fiance’ Zeke. I love him and he is truly an amazing father and such a hard working man. He has been through some hell the past couple of years, but things seem to be starting to smooth out. (We will talk about this in a later blog post)
I chose to name my blog “Stories of a (Fill in the Blank) Mom” because that’s really what I am. That “fill in the blank” changes almost daily. I have so many titles. This past school year I was a Soccer Mom, a PTA Mom, an ARD Mom (we will talk about what that is on another Blog post too), a Working Mom, a Sick mom,a Basketball, a Baseball Mom, a T-Ball Mom…..OMG there is much more. Which brings me back to the fact that really we are all (Fill In the Blank) Moms! Just so you know this blog is completely not me, but we have a lot going on right now so having an outlet to just let my shit go will be nice. This is not your PG blog. There are times when I might just have to come on here an rant…as moms we sometimes need a way to do that. Our kids are not perfect, our relationships and significant others are not perfect, OUR LIVES ARE NOT PERFECT! Mom’s need to vent and this is where I will do it. If you want to…Please feel free.
Sorry everyone. I needed to step back for a little while. Not gonna lie…Life got bad. Really bad. Money wasn’t just tight, it was gone. Since July things have been really hard my family and I. I’m not gonna go in to details. I’m normally kind of an open book, but this one I’m gonna keep close. What’s important is that we bounced back from it. I’ve got a lot of great things to share and I can’t wait to tell you how well we’re doing.
Summertime is in FULL SWING!! It is already July. WTF! Where did June go? I don’t think we have done anything this summer. That is true too….We ain’t done shit. It’s hot and if it ain’t hot then it’s raining (thunderstorm rain with tornadoes, not that Summer Shower shit).
However, a whole month of nothing and now my kids are finally at camp. The clouds have opened up and the angels are singing. Can you hear it? I can! I love my kids more than anything in the world, but I hate when they are home every single day. We don’t have a pool or any other cool thing that they can play with at our house so when they are home they got nothin! When they go to Gammy’s they get to play in the pool, but it has rained a lot so that haven’t been able to do that either.
In other words- MY KIDS ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!!
So this past Sunday they finally got dropped off at Camp. Leading up to that drop off though was not easy. Let me tell ya bout my week.
Friday- So when I got off work Friday I cleaned out trunks. Then I went to buy my supplies. By the way did you know they make 2.5 gallon Ziplock bags. That made my day! I told everyone. My son’s clothes will fit in 2.5 gallon Ziplock bags. I was so happy! So then I spent 3.5 hours searching for clothes.
-6 pairs shorts each -6 Tshirts each -6 pairs of panties/underwear each -2 swimsuits each
No time to wash everything. I bought a pack socks for both of them. It is just so much easier. I threw it all in the wash before I went to bed Friday night.
SLEEPING SLEEPING
Saturday- This hell day started at 6:30 in the morning. Zeke had to be at work at 7 am. Well we woke up at 6:30 AM because the power went out. Yeah. Stupid Squirrel. One of our power lines snapped so we had no power.
The Saturday before my kids go to camp is the most important day. I get everything finished so that I can spend Sunday checking everything. Instead I spent all day at my mother in law’s house watching Netflix. I was losing my mind! Finally at around 4:30pm the power came back on. I was sooooooooooo far behind. I had to rewash all of my stuff. I got some stuff packed up and then I realized that I was missing stuff for my daughter. I said screw it I will deal with it in the morning.
SLEEPING SLEEPING
Sunday- Ok folks today is the day. I found the clothes I was missing for my daughter. I have pillows and bedding ready to go. All of the clothes have been packed. The car has been cleaned out and everything is loaded up. By the way, did you know that they have to wear clothes to camp. Yeah I didn’t think about that so now I have to get clothes for them to actually wear today for camp. UGH!!!! So I dig for like 45 minutes to finally find some clothes throw them in the wash on the Quick Wash cycle then into the dryer. My daughter wore damp clothes to camp. By the time we got there they were dry though. So everything was good. Anyways…..Now we are on our way to camp. Did you know that if drop off is at 3pm then you need to make sure that you feed your child lunch….YEAH! So quick stop at McDonalds on the way…AHHHHH! We made it! We were actually there 30 minutes early. I don’t how. Park the car and go.
No we all know the head check. No matter how positive you are that your child does not have lice you still hold your breath the whole time they check. (Bailey had lice last year and we have to pay over $200 to do the treatment at the camp and they had to wash all of her stuff.) I almost cried when they told me Bailey was good and that she didn’t have lice. YEAH!!!! Got my babies dropped off and their beds set up. Homebound.
I do miss my babies when they aren’t here, but I love that they have the opportunity to go to camp. I loved going to camp as a good and my kids love it too. Here’s to a kid free week and that it doesn’t rain while they are at camp.
When I went to college right after high school, I was in a whole new world. I also fell in love (at least I thought I had.) I met a Security Guard that worked for the school and fell head over heals in love with him. So much so that I let my schooling go to shit. He was still married and had 3 kids. From that day on my life was destroyed. When I came home from college my parents kicked me out and I had to live with my Memaw. Long story short I moved to Tyler to be with him. We got married and even had a son (the only good thing that came out of that relationship). Looking back on it now, everything was a mistake. I should never have chosen him over my family. The only reason I don’t regret it is because I got an amazing son out of it.
8 years ago, my whole life was destroyed. I was raising that 3-year-old boy almost entirely by myself even though I was married. Every time he was home, I would try to pick a fight just so I could feel some kind of connection to him. I felt so alone. I would cry almost every night hoping he wouldn’t come home because I just couldn’t stand to be near him anymore. I was so worried about what to do. I finally decided that I had to do what was best for me which was to leave him. I knew in the end it would be better for my son as well. I told him that I wanted a divorce. It was a really long battle emotionally with him. I was so glad that my son wasn’t here for most of it. (My mom and dad took him a lot of the time for me)
During this time, I leaned on my friends a lot. I cried on a lot of shoulders. I also had some one that really took my son and I under his wing and protected us. Him and his brother helped us pay our bills when we needed it. I essentially was paying bills by myself and I did not make enough. They would also help take care of my son so that I could go to work. He made us feel wanted and loved. I hadn’t truly felt that. So, I fell in love with him. (Please understand that there was nothing pursued towards each other until after I left my husband. There were also no known feelings towards each other either until after either.)
There was a war going on during my divorce and it damaged me a lot. There were threats made that I should have gone a different route with. (It would have ended that shit quick) I didn’t though. I wanted to try and stay civil with out the police. Finally, I was able to move out of our apartment. (I hate leases) I moved in with my now fiancé and his brother. It was the best decision I ever made. I felt safe. My son was so happy, and he felt safe too. It took a whole year to get my divorce finalized. November 23, 2013 was one of the longest days of my life. I spent all day in a court room. He finally signed the papers and since it was uncontested there were no lawyers involved. He didn’t even have to be there. It was finally over. A relationship that started almost as bad as it ended. I was happy and a huge relief had been lifted because I could finally move on with my life.
I won’t go in to much detail of Child Support issues and such. (No offense to my readers, but that a legality issue at the moment).
My son is lucky enough to have a great man as a role model now. A man that loves him and his mother (and also his little sister) more than anything in the world. Zeke and I are so happy and we have a beautiful family together. I love seeing Sammy happy because I know that if I would have stayed and been unhappy, my son wouldn’t be the happy boy he is today.
My biggest advice to someone is to not use your kids as your excuse to stay. That can be damaging. As your kids get older, not only do they start to notice the unhappiness, but you will grow to have resentment toward your kids. Don’t do that to yourself or your children. You should be happy too.
Alright everyone…I am that mom. You know the one. The Lazy MOM!!!
My kids will sometimes watch TV all day on a Saturday and/or Sunday and I have no problem with it. We don’t do it every day, but it does happen probably more than I care to admit, but I’m fine with that. I work all week long and you know what, sometimes on Saturday I am tired and I just want to lay on coach and not do a damn thing. Don’t act like you don’t feel that way sometimes. I am here to tell you that you are not the only one.
During the week, not only do I work, but all of my kids’ activities are through out the week too. When Saturday comes around sometimes; I’m done.
For you mom’s who don’t ever get lazy you should. Every mom should have the opportunity to be lazy. I’m not saying forget about your kids. Hell, I’m lazy with my kids. We are a nap family too. It is quite normal to show up at my house on a Saturday and we are all asleep in the middle of the day. Being lazy is awesome! I bust my ass all week and I deserve to be lazy every now and then. My kids deserve it too.
So- this Saturday- Screw everything else. Let your kids stay in their pajamas ALL DAY LONG! Let them watch TV ALL DAY LONG! Trust me they will let you know when they are hungry…They won’t starve. Promise! Grab the big pillow (you know the one) Grab the fuzzy (you know you have a fuzzy blanket) crawl up on the coach and Netflix and Chill ALL DAY LONG! No shame in my lazy game!
Screw that mom that said you are a bad mom because you did that. NO MA’AM! You earned your lazy day! Here is to all the Lazy Days to come!
I love this day! One of the most important man to ever come in to my life gets celebrated today. The day I was born my mom chose to leave my real father. A little over a year later she married my dad, Jesse Underwood. He raised me as his own. I was his daughter and he loved me so much. I was a Daddy’s Girl. I always wanted to make him proud. He taught me to treat people with respect and to have values. He taught me how to be a good friend and to not mistake enemies for friends.
He told me to always speak my mind and never back down. He always helped me with my sports. He was always practicing with me and pushed me to do my best. He was at every single game I had. He was even supportive of my friends. He would always push them to their best too. All of my friends knew that they could count on my dad.
I was lucky to get to grow up with such and amazing man raising me. Now I am lucky enough that my kids get him as Paw Paw. He is the Paw Paw in the world. He loves my kids so much and loves spoiling them. He’s their Santa Clause, literally. I love you dad! Happy Father’s Day!
I also get to celebrate another important man that came in to my life. 8 years ago I was in a really bad place in my life raising a 3/4 year old son and filing for divorce. This man stepped in to our lives and never looked back. He took my son under his wing as his own. He has taught him how a man is suppose to be. I love that Sammy has such a great man as an example. He has always been there for us.
We had a beautiful daughter together. Bailey is a Daddy’s Girl and I love seeing her melt her Daddy’s heart. I have loved seeing him be a dad to my children. The excitement my kids get when they are around him. He goes to school events, their sporting event, and everything in between. I love him so much! He is an amazing Daddy! Happy Father’s Zeke Harber! I love you!
I have been lucky enough in my life to have 2 men that stepped up as Dads to children that were not there blood, but they did become part of their heart. That’s what a step dad is, they are dad’s that stepped up. Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s that stepped up when others wouldn’t. Happy Father’s Day to the Dads that didn’t need someone to step up because you were already there. You are all truly amazing! Thank you!
I have decided to compile a list of some of the camps in East Texas that I have done research on for my kids to attend over the years. These are in no particular order. #10 can be just as good as #1. Some of these camps my kids have not personally attended, but because of the research I did on the camp I have added it to my list. I will not be putting the prices for each camps on this list. Some of the camps can be rather pricey, but they do offer amazing scholarships so please DO NOT let them deter from trying to send your kid to one of these camps. I also did not include Scouting Camps. (ie. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Ventures, etc.) The camps listed do not require you to be part of a certain organization to attend.
Sky Ranch is one of North America’s leading Christian camping organizations, with locations in Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma, offering programs year-round.
Sky Ranch exists to provide people with a positive, recreational, fun, and memorable experience, while being exposed to the truths of the Word of God.
The overnight camp is for kids that will be entering Grades 1st-12th.
They offer day camps at Various Texas locations for K-4.
We’re a Catholic summer camp and retreat center where our youth grow in faith, fun, and friendship. Check out our video to see how lives are changed at The Pines!
The overnight camp is for kids that will be entering Grades 2nd-12th.
Allaso Ranch is the perfect place for children and students to get out of their summer routines and have an adventure that will change their lives forever. From the first step through its gates, Allaso Ranch is a fun and unique experience with a strong emphasis on relational and spiritual growth. From incredible nightly worship and teaching times, to exhilarating activities, including a water park with towering water slides and a lazy river, kids from all ages will have the best week of their life!
The overnight camp is for kids that will be entering Grades 2nd-12th.
Camp Gilmont has experienced growth and change over time, 75 years in fact, and though Gilmont is still a place of ministry, summer camps and retreats, our scope goes beyond our Presbyterian heritage in order to engage a larger Christian community.
Gilmont is developing new spiritual formation program offerings, serving special-needs campers and their families through the ministry of Circle of Friends, hosting retreats and conferences for various Christian organizations, family groups, as well as corporate and nonprofit entities providing Outdoor School which engages public and private schools in meeting their educational goals (TEKS) for students through residential and day programs,helping change lives through the camp experience. Gilmont remains a simple, beautiful site with the benefit of comfortable accommodations and a beautiful Conference/Retreat Center. The kitchen staff is committed to serving delicious meals and sees accommodating special diet needs as part of our ministry.
The overnight camp is for kids ages 6-17 years of age.
They offer a traveling day camps for kids in grades K-6.
Camp Huawni is THE summer camp of all summer camps in Texas that you will hate leaving. For over half a century, Camp Huawni has specialized in youth development and good ‘ole fashion fun. In 1965, founder Earl Adams, known around here as Daddy Earl, turned his life-long dream of starting a kids camp into a reality. As a life-long educator, Daddy Earl noticed that kids, just like you, weren’t experiencing fully the joys of “just being a kid” in the structured environment of a K-12 school. So, with some pine planks, a hammer, and a hill-top view once scattered with sugar cane, Camp Huawni was born. Now, three generations later,
Camp Huawni continues to pour into the next generation.
Camp Tyler Outdoor School provides outdoor learning experiences in a natural environment as it is critical to the totality of a child’s education. At Camp Tyler, exceptional outdoor learning experiences are offered in a “classroom without walls”:
Teaching critical thinking skills using nature as a teacher
Experiencing the joy of learning through discovery
Encouraging physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health
The overnight camp is for kids grades 5th- 8th grade.
They offer day camps for kids grades 3rd and 4th grade.
Camp Fern is definitely the place to Jump Into the Fun! We have everything you need for a summer packed with FUN! You can ride horses, water ski, climb the pamper pole, learn how to build a fire, or make something in crafts. Whatever you like to do, chances are you will be able to do it here.
Your day will be filled with lots of activities while nights are saved for special events. You might be trying your hand at some carnival games or playing war games for tribe points, but you can bet the evenings will be packed with energy an
Frontier Camp has 50 years of camping success rooted in making disciples of Jesus by sharing God’s Word in His creation. Established in 1969, we are licensed as a youth camp by the Texas Department of State Health Services. In addition, Frontier Camp is accredited by the American Camping Association and is a member of the Christian Camping and Conference Association.
Using Christian camping and outdoor recreation as a platform, we exist to assist the local church in fulfilling the Great Commission through the evangelizing of all ages and the discipling of believers toward greater maturity in Christ. Frontier Camp has a twofold ministry. For 10 weeks of the summer, we offer a camping program for youth.
Throughout the rest of the year we are a retreat facility for churches and other religious organizations of similar beliefs. In both cases, we want to facilitate exposing people to Christ and encourage their growth toward spiritual maturity through the Word and by reflecting His character in our actions. We offer top quality recreation and exciting programming for our campers, but the most important aspect of camp is the spiritual one based on the inerrant Word of God.
The overnight camp is for kids ages 7-17 years old.
The offer a week specifically for Homeschoolers.
Scholarships are available.
There are so many camps in the East Texas that are not on this list. These are just the ones that I have personally looked in to or my children have gone too. If you have any camps that are not on this that your child has gone to please comment below so that we can look in to them as well. I am always looking for new camps for my kids to go to over the summer. They love going to camp.
Okay, so let me just say that my 7-year-old daughter drives me crazy! She has so much attitude and never listens. She never does what she is told and she drives her brother insane. All we hear on the weekends is “Bailey GET OUT OF MY ROOM!”, “Bailey LEAVE ME ALONE!”, “MOM…Bailey (Insert what ever it is she did)!” This is normally followed by some sort of denial statement from my daughter. She will tell you that she was not in her Bubba’s room as you see her walking out of Bubba’s room. What did I do when I was a child to deserve this?! I love my daughter and I wouldn’t change her for anything, but sometimes I feel like she is just determined to put me in a Mental Hospital. She is strong-willed and will not back down from anything. She is most definitely going to be a leader. (I’m not sure of what yet. Could be President, could be a Prison Gang. We’ll see what happens.)
She is something special. She can also be the sweetest little girl ever. When she walks in the room and says “Momma I love you can I have kisses and hugs”. OMG I just die. Bailey is all girl. She loves pink, purple, glitter, princesses, dolls, (you get it)! OMG!
She is nothing like I was when I was her age. I was such a tom boy. My mom would fight me to get a dress on me. It wasn’t happening. I have to fight Bailey NOT to wear dress. What the hell?
I never imagined having kids when I was younger, especially a daughter. She challenges me everyday. My son is cool, calm, and collective most of the time. He will sit in his room and just watch TV (Yes I am that parent sometime.) Bailey is like a Freight Train waiting to come off the tracks. She never slows down.
I hate for her to be upset. It kills her dad and I to have to tell her bad stuff. At the end of this school year we found out that Bailey will have to repeat 1st grade. We were so worried about telling her. You never want her kids to feel like failures. We sat her down and she was devastated and so were we. She cried. I cried… It was really hard.
We felt like we were to blame and still do. A lot of our focus this past year had been on Sammy and trying to work really hard on him. We should have worked with her more. Read a book and went over her math every day. I can’t make that up to her. We have already spent a lot of the summer working on her math and reading.
You want you child to be successful. They have dreams and as a parent you would do anything to help them make those dreams a reality. Bailey wants to be a Scientist that creates Medicine to help people. That is amazing and I am so proud of her. Even though she drives me crazy and there are days when I just want her to calm down. I’m glad she is the way she is. She will go far and I can’t wait to see how far.
Bailey loves sports. She played Soccer for 5 seasons. Then we tried Basketball, but she is just too short right now and is now playing T-Ball. I am her coach. Let me tell that is a whole new world. We will definitely have a Stories of a Coach Mom coming soon. She love playing soccer, but she was just never fast enough to keep up with the girls. This year we played T-Ball Softball. She has fell in love. She is doing okay too. I think we may have found her sport.
My daughter may drive me crazy, but I love her more than life itself. She has so much of me in her. Her attitude, even thought I don’t want to admit it, is me. I can’t wait to see what she does with her like. I love you Booger!
One of the most important parts of the special education process is writing the plan for your child’s education. This is their Individualized Education Program (IEP). The IEP is the foundation for your child’s education, and you are a very important member of the committee that develops it. In Texas, this is called the Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARD) committee. Other parts of the country may refer to both the document and the committee as IEP, but in Texas “ARD” is used to refer to the committee and its meetings.
My son Sammy is has not been diagnosed with anything, but is developmentally delayed. Sammy is 11 so think of him as more of an 8 year old. Sammy has had a really difficult time with school. We discovered in 3rd grade that Sammy had major academic issues that we did not notice. As a parent, I blamed myself for not knowing my child. This destroyed me. If it wasn’t for Sammy’s amazing 3rd grade teacher for getting the ball rolling, Sammy would have never gotten the help he needed.
Sammy has lots of helpful things in place for him so that he can succeed. He gets a little extra time for tests and, since he can’t read very well, he gets certain things read to him during tests. He also gets to take his test by himself. Meaning they pull him from the classroom so that he isn’t with his class. This has been a huge help for him.
Sammy will be going in to the 5th grade. I hate that. I know he is not ready for 5th grade. As a parent, there are certain things that when you are in a public school system you can’t do. With out a diagnoses, the school is limited on what help they can provide. Developmental Delays are not categorized as a Special Ed scenario. Because of that I worry that my child will fall through the cracks. We have been lucky the past few years to have amazing teachers that go out of their way to help Sammy.
Sammy’s issues are not just academic either. His maturity level is not that of an 11 year old. While he has gotten better over the years, he is still kind of like an 8 year old. He hugs a little more than he should and he is very gullible. He also doesn’t get when some is being mean to him with sarcasm. Because of this, he assumes someone is his friend when they may not really be. This past school year we did not have to deal Bullying. Sammy had some great friends that really stood up for him.
Sammy’s physical abilities are a little slow as well. He is not athletic, but loves sports. He played baseball this past Spring and he had so much fun. While he never hit the ball out on to the field he did get on base and even scored some. That was all that mattered to him. He also didn’t just stand up there and let the ball go by. He tried and he worked hard at every practice. He loved his team. They were so supportive of him and would cheer for him every time. When he got on base for the first time, they made a huge deal out it. Those boys and their coaches were exactly the type of support that Sammy needed.
One of the hardest parts of all of this is seeing the look on Sammy’s face when he fails something. We try no to look at the numbers individually, but at the progress or growth. Example- Sammy took the STAAR test for the first time last year and he failed. He took it again this year and he failed, but his score was over 200 points better than it was last year. Plus he was less than 100 points from passing. That is amazing for him. With Sammy we celebrate growth. It’s a lot for him.
Here is hoping, that in the next few years, he will keep growing and eventually ARD will just be a thing of the past. Then I won’t be an ARD mom anymore.
Okay, so I have a lot of people on my Facebook that are sending their kids to camp for the first time. I know how hectic it can be. You worry you didn’t send enough clothes or are sending too many clothes. I worried the first year that we did camp as well, but that was 5 years ago. That first year that we sent my son to overnight camp was so chaotic. Well over the years I have a learned a few tricks of the trade. So here is my list of 10 things for Camp Moms to do.
1. Get a trunk! Spend the money and get a trunk. It is so much easier, and you can fit everything in it and yes it will fit under the bed. When we go to camp, we send the trunk and a backpack that has the swimming stuff in it. In most cases, we can even fit the sleeping bag and pillow in the trunk. We don’t have to carry anything else. You don’thave to worry about anything getting wet. It is 100% worth it. You can get them at Wal- Mart. My kids use them as toy boxes when they aren’t taking them to camp.
This is the type of trunk we got for my kids. You can find them at Wal-Mart or click on the picture to order from Amazon.
2. Ziploc Bags! Ziploc Bags! Ziploc Bags! Let’s say it again…Ziploc Bags!! Ziploc Bags are the most important items you can have for camp. Get the Storage Gallon Stand & Fill Ziploc Slider Bags or bigger. Average camp has 6 days after you drop off. Get 6 Ziploc Bags and label them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday… (you get where I’m going). In each Ziploc Bag you have a Shirt, Shorts, Socks, and Panties/Underwear. You have a bag for extra Socks and another bag for extra Panties/Underwear. You have a bag for extra T-Shirts (Yes send a few extra T-shirts) You have a bag for toiletries.
Sammy at Sky Ranch 2016
3. Swimming stuff is important. Get an old backpack for them to take. (We normally just use one of their old school backpacks.) Get a Towel and their Swimsuit and a Cover or T-shirt. **Yes! Get a specific T-shirt for swimming so that they know this is the T-shirt they use when they go swimming not one of the other T-shirts. They might not swim in it, but it is the one they wear to go to the pool/lake. ** Get Water Shoes. NO FLIP FLOPS. They must wear water shoes in the lake and most camps will not allow open toe shoes so just buy the water shoes. Then you put Sunblock and Mosquito Repellant. That’s it! If you send goggles or something like that, but it in the backpack too. That is what goes in the Swimming Bag.
My favorite water shoes to get my kids for camp. They are normally around $13. Click on the picture to link to Amazon.
4. Theme Days are fun so let your kid do them. Print out the Theme Day list that the Camp has and try to get something so that your kid can participate every day. It isn’t stupid and yes, the other campers will be doing it too. Even if your child doesn’t want to do it still put something in their trunk that they can use so that the option is there. If the item is small enough or is a specific type of clothing, then put it in the appropriate day bag. Go to the Dollar Store. You can always find little things that they can use.
5. Now for Bathroom stuff. Don’t buy the little travel ones. They aren’t gone for 1 night; they are gone for a whole week. Get a normal size bottle. Get the Shampoo/Conditioner Combo. Get a bar of soap and a wash rag. Get a plastic soap case to put the bar of soap in. GET THE BAR OF SOAP! Do not get body wash! If the body wash spills out everywhere then your child does not have soap to wash their behind with anymore. Get a pencil bag that is just big enough for a toothbrush and a big tube of toothpaste (Yes, a big tube). All of this goes in that trusty Ziploc bag that is labeled Bathroom. Now get a towel that will go in the trunk. This is the bathroom towel. (So- we are now at 2 towels; 1 is in the Swim bag and 1 is in the trunk for Bathroom time. You will not need more than 2 towels)
You can get these soap containers for around $4. Click the picture to order from Amazon now.
Sammy at Sky Ranch in 2017
6. Now for Sleepy Time! You need a fitted sheet for a twin bed, a sleeping bag, and a pillow. I would also recommend sending a blanket. You child does not need to bring a big comforter. It gets too hot for that shit. Let your kid bring the stuffed animal. They can just put it in their trunk. I promise your child will not be the only one with a stuffed animal. However, if your child is 10 or older, do not sent them with a stuffed animal. Your child is 10 you need to treat them like they are 10. Your child will get made fun of if you send them with a stuffed animal at that age. Don’t think just because it is a Church Camp that it doesn’t happen. Send 2 sets of pajamas. On girls I recommend sending pajamas that include either pants or shorts and a shirt. Do not send a gown. On boys I recommend the same thing. Check and see if the cabins are air-conditioned. If they aren’t then send your child with a fan. It gets hot at night and your child will need a fan.
Sammy’s Cabin Group at The Pines 2017
7. LABEL LABEL LABEL…. You get it! I know you think “Oh no I don’t need to label my kids things.” YES, YOU DO! Label every single thing they have. Every shirt, sock, underwear, shoe…If it is going with them to camp then you need to label it. Also go check the lost and found when you pick up your kid. Chances are there is something of theirs there. Don’t believe your kid when they tell you that they didn’t forget something.
Sammy at Pine Cove in 2017
8. Dirty Clothes is the easiest thing to deal with it. Just put a big trash bag in their trunk and tell them to put all their dirty laundry in the bag. Easy and Done!
9. Pack 2 pairs of tennis shoes. They don’t have to be new. In fact, they shouldn’t be new. Just 2 pairs of crappy tennis shoes that you really don’t care about but are still good shoes.
10. If you don’t want to risk losing it, then don’t send it! NO ELECTRONICS and yes that means cell phones also! Your child will live without them and you don’t need to talk to your child while they are at camp.
Bailey and Sammy Sky Ranch 2018
Both of my kids love going to camp every year. This will be Sammy’s 4th year to attend Sky Ranch and Bailey’s 2nd year. We go to all sorts of camps every year. I have created a list below of some of the camps that I have looked at for my kids. These camps are in the East Texas area. Most of the camps have scholarship options that you can apply for. No lie!! That is the only reason my kids are able to go to Sky Ranch. The scholarships are a big help. Do not be ashamed of applying for them.
Stories of a (Fill In The Blank) Mom 