S'mores, anyone?

Evidence that my children are desperate for a camping trip.

His Daddy Was So Proud

Yesterday he wanted to be a doctor.

The day before that, a firefighter.

Today....this.


He thought it was beautiful.

I think he should hold on to the doctoring dream.


It was all fine and good.

He was having fun.

I got to read a book.

Then I heard this:

"Mom, where is the haircutting scissors?"


Salon CLOSED!!

All I Know

I read a book this past weekend about adoption. I cannot seem to get it out of my mind.

The way the story and characters were developed allowed the reader to see the viewpoints of the birth mother, her parents, and the adoptive family.

I sat on my couch and cried and cried.

The similarities between the book and our lives were uncanny: nineteen year old girl, very supportive parents, not ready to be a mother, wanted to go to college, and unwilling to ever have the child call the biological father "daddy".

No matter how many years go by, or how many stories I hear, adoption is still amazing. Heart wrenching, emotional, exciting, scary....and amazing.

But here is what I keep forgetting -- my adoption experience is very one-sided. I don't often take the time to imagine what my son's birth mother must have been thinking and feeling for the entire seven months before she allowed us to enter her world. All I know is that she picked us mid-December and asked our attorney to wait and not call until Christmas Eve so the news would be a Christmas present for us.

I don't know how many times she decided adoption was best and then changed her mind, only to choose adoption yet again. Maybe she did that five or six times, or maybe not at all. All I know is that she signed the paperwork when her attorney arrived at the hospital 18 hours after our son was born.

I don't know how difficult it was for her parents to walk through this process with her. A once childless couple, who 19 years ago had adopted their own baby girl, were now handing over their first grandchild to an adoptive family 1,500 miles away. I do not know how they did it. All I know is how gracious and kind they were, albeit a tad timid and quiet, through the process, inviting us to her hospital room for pizza the evening the papers were signed, and out to dinner to meet our mothers and 3 year old son before we all flew home.

I don't know how they survived it, our son's birth mother and her parents, when we left the restaurant, said our final goodbyes, and walked our separate ways. It felt like a scene from a movie, my husband and I walking away with our 3 year old, both his grandmas, and a beautiful new baby. I remember turning around and watching the three of them walking to their car, arms around each other, empty handed. I do not know the excruciating pain they must have been feeling. All I know is how their decision to choose adoption changed our lives, and how thankful we are for it.

"Thankful" seems trite, not enough, too unfeeling. We are beyond thankful. We are overjoyed, blessed.....amazed.

Unexceptable

There is a Dairy Queen in Chillicothe, Missouri, that we stop at nearly every time we travel to or from Illinois. This DQ brings out the inner child in me by still offering cherry dip ice cream cones, which were my absolute favorite as a kid.

On Monday afternoon I insisted on an ice cream stop at my tried and true DQ. I almost could not force myself to go in and pay money to this establishment after seeing their sign.

Not only is the "store hours.....HOURS" a bit redundant, but the fact that they no longer except checks is unexceptable. I was ready to march up to the counter and sweetly inform them of the error of their ways, accept my friends would not except my passion for this and thought my behavior was embarrassing and unexceptable.

A Whole Lotta Rain

So the camping trip was a washout. Literally.

Well, maybe not LITERALLY. We did not get washed away or flooded out of our space, but it rained a lot. A LOT. Buckets.

Think tsunami.

Only without the wind. Or really huge waves. Or massive flooding.

Wait, don't think tsunami, think hurricane amounts of rain.

Large amounts of water falling from the sky.


We did a little bit of this --

And had a whole lotta this --

We did a little bit of this -- See how we were nearly the only people on the entire lake? That is not blue sky; those would be very dark clouds.

And had a whole lotta this -- Notice how efficient the roof over the picnic table is. Other people were hanging out and eating at their tables in spite of the rain. This would have worked for us....if we wanted to go swimming.

We did a little more of this --

And a whole lotta this --

We did a little bit of this --

And a whole lotta this -- No camping trip is complete without Camper Olympics.

We did a little bit of this -- We are not completely crazy, it really was not raining when we started that fire. I think we may have set the record for the fastest smore making. It takes amazing skill to roast marshmallows in the rain.

And a whole lotta this -- Yes, that would be sword fighting with swimming noodles.

And a little bit of this -- jet ski hair is the best.

And a whole lotta this -- because it was definitely my goal to take the kids camping so they could watch 30 bazillion hours of TV.

4th of July

Several weeks ago some friends of ours had a great idea. Let's go to the lake for the 4th of July! Three whole days. Three spots reserved. Fun for all!

Ready?

Set?

Wait a minute.....

There have been a few bumps along the road to this great Independence Day outing. It has looked something like this....

Are you so excited to go?

Yes! Are you?

Yes! We can't wait.

Me too!

Uh oh. Did you hear the lake is having a blue-green algae (toxic) issue?

Oh no. How bad is it?

Swimming beaches are being closed.

OK. Let's start looking at other lakes.

Three spots at a new lake!

Woohoo! Two hours away, but it will be fun!

Great!

Let's go!

Hey, guess what? I'm at the algae lake and there is no algae.

Hmmm....what should we do?

Let's wait and see.

Guess what we heard today? The new lake is completely flooded.

What?? Where are we going to go?

I don't know.

Me either.

We don't either.

Wait.

Swimming beaches closed.

Look at other lakes.

All sites full.

Swimming beaches open.

Closed again.

Look some more.

All sites full.

And open again....

What should we do?

Paralyzed.

Sit and wait.

One family not going.

Kids begging to go.

Two families not going.

Kids still begging to go.

No friends.

No kids to play with.

Maybe no swimming beach.

Lots of rain in the forecast.

Still going camping.

Hmmm.....