Monday, September 1, 2008

Happy Labor Day!

What a fun weekend!
We have enjoyed ourselves in many ways. Let me tell you about it! :)

Friday Night:
We went to dinner with teacher friends as is tradition before a home football game. We then went to the first Galesburg football game where sadly they lost in overtime. But it was a really great game. The Jr. High football teams were announced and I got to see all of Travis' guys walk the field.

Saturday:
We found a new greasy spoon to eat at for breakfast in Galesburg. It's over by Nielson school and is just a family restaurant. It reminded me a lot of Maple City Restaurant in Monmouth. Good breakfast.

Travis went fishing at Steele Dam with his dad in the afternoon and caught 5 catfish and several other varieties. I went to the Prime Beef Festival Princess Pageant. We both enjoyed ourselves doing things we enjoy.

Sunday:
We got up early and went to Lake Argile's flea market where Travis found and purchased 4 or 5 Walter Payton football cards and got a steal of a deal on a Joe Montana rookie card. We were there to look for Pez, but he already had everything we had found.

At noon we went to my dad's and I went boating with my family. Travis wanted to go, but needed to spend the day at school. We had driven separately to make this possible.

I spent the afternoon on the river. It was beautiful! I have been so good with sunscreen this summer it's unreal....unfortunately yesterday I was stupid and forgot to put it on my face. I am a red hot lobster today!

When I got home we ate a pizza and watched a movie I didn't understand on the couch. It was Inside Man with Denzel Washington. You had to think throughout the movie.....no love story so I was a goner!

Monday:
We got up early and left the house by 7Am and went to Rock Island to go fishing at Steele Dam again with Travis' dad. I usually enjoy this adventure. We go wading out into the water and fish in waist deep water.

I should have known today would be different when I saw a SNAKE on the way down to the water. Mind you I am DEATHLY afraid of snakes. So we get in the water and I"m still shaken up over the snake. We fish for about a hour and a half and things are going great, we are all catching catfish and having a good time when suddenly I get a big one and it bit the worm not far from where I was standing....I'm having trouble reeling it in and suddenly I pull up and it's a GAR...my other nemesis when at Steele dam....if you don't know what it is Google it. It's this horrible fish with a long snout and sharp teeth and they are mean! Until today I had never seen one, let alone hooked one out there. So now I'm scared to death that these Gar are swimming around me ready to bite my legs so I start doing a kick line in the water to keep the fish away from me. About 5 minutes pass and out in front of me I see a small head of something pop out of the water to get some air and it was NOT a fish.
I start freaking out, and can you blame me I mean with the snake and then the Gar, I was sure it was a water moccasin coming to bit/poison me....I kept saying what is that, what is that, what is that, but Ben didn't hear me until the stinking thing already went back under the muddy, can't see your hand 2 feet down water. So now I'm really dancing and on the verge of tears cause I'm sure somthing's going to get me....the second I finally start to relax again (about 5-10 minutes later) the thing appears again! So now I'm like, THAT, THAT, THAT THERE...WHAT ISSSSSSSSSSSS IT!?!?!?! Ben looks and says it's a turtle or something, it's not a snake Misty. I look to him to see if he's for real and then look to Travis at which point in time I receive a dirty look because I'm being a girly girl and there are a lot of fishermen out in the water today staring at all the commotion I was making....I think I was embarrassing him!

So OK, more time passes, I am ready to go by now, I have had my fill of the snake infested, Gar lurking, sneaky turtle water and Ben says well Trav what do you think, it is now that I am sure I am going to get a reprieve and we'll leave...Travis says how about around 11? I say: What time is it now, trying to seem calm and in control. Travis says quarter till. OK I say to myself I can handle 15 minutes. So I catch another fish, a catfish, and I need extra help getting it off the line because I want to be sure it isn't a Gar. So now that I've caught another one, and Travis has caught 2 and Ben has caught a couple more the guys decide to stay until 11:30!

What a Morning! And do you know what?



I'd go again in a heart beat (if I'm ever asked back after all the drama I produced today!)
I didn't even tell you about the worms that I had to have someone else hook cause YUCK I wasn't doing that, the fish they had to take off once I caught because the one time I tried that I got stung by a blue gill, the 2 or 3 times they had to restring my pole cause I broke the line, the two times I got my line wrapped up and knotted in both Ben and Travis' line, and the countless other things that just seem to naturally find their way to my fishing adventure....but those are stories for another time....all you need to know to end this entry is:


I love it out there, as long as I don't see a snake, catch a Gar, or have a mysterious dark head popping up out of the water!

These are all the fish the three of us caught. I caught 3 and the guys caught the rest. They are all catfish and one is a flat head. We now have a freezer full of fish......hmmmm....now if I just knew what to do with those....