Travelin Home

Hey Baby!  You're in India now!  Wow!  I'm just amazed at how many different cultures you've experienced in the last few months!  It seems like a lifetime of experiences in just one short year!  I can't wait for you to update your blog so I can hear how things went in Cape Town!

I think out of all the months you've been gone, this one has been the toughest. We are driving home from Connecticut today. After being gone for almost 2 straight weeks, we decided to just drive all the way home instead of having to unpack and pack up yet one more time. We are on our last hour. My back hurts, my rear end is numb, and I've smelled Scout's poop breath for at least 20 of the last 24 hours. Good times!!  We've been stopping frequently to let him potty, and I do believe the most frustrating part of traveling with a dog is that he STILL, no matter how bad he needs to go, must find the absolute perfect spot to go, and we just have to stand there and wait.  UGGHHH!!  

                                                

I just felt Scout’s drool run down my leg.

Anyway, we missed you so, so much!  I know the older you guys get, the less often we will be able to take family vacations, but it's so hard not wanting to have the whole family here!  Antonio and Avalon's party was so, so fun!  It was massive, as was expected. Donette ordered cupcakes from someplace in town that won some kind of cupcake wars on Food Network or some channel.  They were really good!  Brooke set up the display, and when it was time to serve them, they were consumed in about 2 minutes.  

Vanishing cupcake tower

On one of the many, many errands I ran for Donette in prep for the party, Avalon and Sophie were riding in the car with Brooke, Maddie, and me, and Avalon and Sophie were discussing some game that Sophie wanted to download on her phone.  Avalon said, "Well, you know the username and password.  They’re all the same.  I set them all up for you."  Then Sophie complained that since Avalon had set up all the accounts, all her usernames were "Avalon", and all her passwords were, "Sophie is lame."  We laughed so hard!  I couldn't stop laughing about it!  

We ran around all Thursday doing things to get ready, and then ate supper at Dominique's house where we met up with all the relatives.  Uncle Geoff and Grayson even came to Connecticut.  Being a self-proclaimed aspiring chef, Grayson was in heaven while helping Sonny with the prep work.  To add to his enjoyment, he would visit a Mexican food restaurant next door to their shop every single day to get a chicken enchilada for lunch.  He also impressed Sonny with being able to quote every word of every Sponge Bob episode ever. At the party,  Grayson got on stage and a couple of times and sang a song with the band.  He asked if anyone recorded it, and if so to post it on YouTube, because he thought it would really help his image.  That kid cracks me up!  

It was good to see and spend time with everyone.  Uncle Geoff is holding up okay.  Aunt Lisa officially filed about 3 weeks ago.  It's really sad.  They are trying to keep things as amicable as possible and stay out of court.  I think that's best.  Dad says the only ones who make out well in a divorce settlement are the lawyers.

You will notice that my hand is not on my hip.  I'm really tired of seeing every girl in almost every picture I look at having their hand on their hip, so this is my solution.

Henna Tattoos!

We took pictures of the only time we figured we'd see
Keypa with a glass of wine in his hand.  Haha!

Taylors!

Pretending to smoke cigars with the dads

                                     Yep, that's Grayson in the fuzzy white hat and scarf.

We left on Monday to go stay at a resort in Vermont. It was gorgeous!  I've never been there before now. We mostly just hung out and ate and ate and ate and enjoyed the 70 degree weather. The food was delicious, but it felt good to get out on Wed and hike up one of the mountains. Brooke, Dad, and I went, and Maddie went with the rest of the fam to kayak in the lake. Maddie said she had a great time, but Sophie couldn't paddle straight to save her life, and Sophie and Avalon just kind of kept going in circles. Scout went hiking with us, and we decided that for every mile we hiked, he hiked about 3. He kept trying to "herd" us, which was interesting to watch. He would stay between the 1st and 2nd person. He would run ahead of the 2nd person (Brooke or me), then stop and wait for us to catch up. When we did, he would run ahead again, and so on. At first it just seemed like he kept getting in the way, until we figured out what he was doing. Then it was fascinating to watch. He is so funny!  We actually did fine hiking, even though there were a couple of times we climbed at a 90-degree angle (or that’s what it seemed).  We were on all fours crawling.  My only trouble was on the way down.  My knees were so sore.  Don’t tell anyone, but I acted like a big, fat baby and cried just a little.  Thankfully no one saw me.  And also I borrowed some shoes from Brooke that gave me a humongous blister on my heel.  It seemed like everyone kicked my heel in the blister spot or scraped off the scab every day for the next 3-4 days.  That felt AWESOME!  There was one day I could barely walk!!  Ok, now finished whining.  All in all, though, in spite of the EXCRUTIATING pain, we had a great time, and as you can imagine the view was spectacular!  We used walking sticks to help us when we had to do a little climbing, but Scout was convinced that he needed to carry Dad’s walking stick, and kept trying to grab it out of Dad’s hand.    

Brooke and me (not crying) at the beginning of the hike

We went to NYC on Sunday. We did mostly the same stuff (Central Park, Empire Stare Bldg, etc), but we also went to the Museum of Modern Art, M&M World, and the Hershey Store. The first thing we did was go to the Museum of Modern Art.  We actually got to take a (legal) picture of Starry Night. As you can tell from the photo below, we really blended with the cultured artsy crowd.  I’ll bet Maddie and I said 20 times, “Really?  This is art?”  There was one completely blank wall canvas, and 3 pictures of a blank canvas with colored frames.  My favorite, though, was a hot pink bleacher.  I’m sorry.  There is some modern art I just can’t appreciate. 

Thought this was kinda cool

We left there and just walked and walked and walked.  When Maddie complained about wanting to just cut her feet off and roll around on the ground, we decided to take the subway to the Empire State Building, where Garrison was waiting for us.  We got there and had to go through security.  I remembered just before my purse went through the scanner that I had Maddie’s giant Ninja pocket-knife in my purse. I had taken it from her in the last emotional crises and just forgot it was there.  I got it out and handed it to the security guy and asked, “What am I supposed to do with this?”  He looked at the knife, then at me, and said, “Whoa!  This is yours?”  I was kind of scared they were going to handcuff me and throw me in Empire State Building jail, when he just laughed and told me he’d take care of it.  He handed it to the scanner guy who also got a good laugh at my expense.  Anyway, we went to the top of the building and left and walked and walked some more until I was able to add to my blister collection blisters around the thong part of my flip-flops.  Maddie was on the verge of foot seizures, but miraculously survived, and is able to walk today.  We did have a lot of fun, and the best part is that our car didn't get impounded!  Yay!

Walking (and walking and walking) through the streets of NYC

I know, awesome picture of the fam

Times Square

M&M World

Outside Hershey store

-Later-

Welcome home from Oklahoma!  We got home to 110 to 115 degree weather.  Nina said that we got a warm welcome.  Hardy har har!  Dad asked the family, “Why, exactly, do we live here?”  Our pool is a lovely, murky green, and our grass is nice, crunchy shade of brown.  Boomie was very glad for us to be home.  Dad and I figured after spending almost 2 weeks in the yucky, scorching outside, he would sleep for days.  Scout and Bella ran around and play fought for about 2 hours.  You could barely walk in the house without tripping over them.  I finally had to just put them outside.  Silly doggies! 

I start my new job on Monday!  I’m a little nervous/excited!  Pray for me!  I know it will be a good change, but it’s always hard to change.  I was really sad to leave ICU, but I just explained that I was making a move that I thought was best for my family.  Everyone understood, but they were so nice about telling me they were sad to see me go. 

I guess I’ll wrap this up.  It’s taken me 3 days to write it.  I could go on forever, but I guess you do have other things to do than read!

Love you so much!!!

Mom

The third eye that greeted me when we got home

This post will be a little random, but I'm putting up all the pictures I've been promising.

 This is kind of random, but found this glass with milk dried in the bottom of it.  So gross, but so typical in this household.  Oh, and just so you know, the dishwasher kind of fell apart.  I'm debating between breaking down and buying a new one or trying my hand at dishwasher parts and repair.  Hmmmmm!  Maybe new dishwasher!!!

 This is what Brooke made me for Mother's Day.  I found it on Pinterest and showed it to her.  I'd totally forgotten about it since then, so it was a nice surprise!!

The AWESOME picture I took of Garrison at his graduation!!!

Another one.  I'm pretty sure it was Garrison.

End of graduation

Garrison and James with their fake diplomas.  They thought they were simply hilarious!

Graduation is over, and now for his favorite part.......PICTURES!!!

Dad, Aunt Lisa, Uncle Geoff, and their kids were at graduation, but left right after.  Another part of the ongoing saga (with Dad).  We didn't stay very long.  Just took a few pictures and got out of there.  Garrison went to a graduation party at one of his friends' houses while I took supplies to a parent-sponsored graduation party that he didn't even attend.  Brooke told me that, in his defense, parent-sponsored after-graduation parties are lame, and that she wouldn't have attended either.

Yes, your baby sister wore jeans.  I was so mentally exhausted by the time we left for graduation, I didn't even have the energy to fight her over it.  Ugggghhhh!

 You guessed it!!!

I liked this picture, but Brooke was mad at Brock for talking.

 No words.....

I tried to get another picture of the guys, but the moment had passed, and no way I was getting Garrison to re-don his robe.                

Our fly collection.  So gross, but oddly satisfying.  We think we were breeding flies in our trash compactor.  There was one day that we killed like 50 flies in the house.

Found this when I was going through Garrison's box.  I'd forgotten about it.  Thought it was so cute!!!

Senior Day at school

 Garrison was exceptionally happy to take pictures today!

Baccalaureate

Yes, Garrison wore a t-shirt under his robe.  I thought it very fitting for him.  At least I ironed his gown before we left.  I remember yours had creases all over it.  I was so embarrassed!!

 This is Garrison's senior party at First Baptist of Bethany.

 I loved this cake!  

Jennifer Bellah had it made at Sam's

I ordered these M&Ms online.  They had a graduation theme, with some of them saying, "Congrats Garrison."  Wish I'd known about these when you and Brooke graduated.

Garrison's display.  The toy lawnmower is the one he played with when he would "help" Dad mow.  

 Garrison actually had to work the day of his party.  I totally forgot to tell you that.  He showed up over an hour late to his own party.  This, of course, added to the comfort level of the party.

Emery!!!

Aaaaaand last, but not least, our newest family member.  His name is Scout.  We thought we'd try it again, with hopefully better results.  He's 14 weeks old, I think, and as you can see, he matches the downstairs tile.  He's a smart little cookie, and has had very few accidents in the house.  I haven't cleaned up a single accident, since getting him was not my idea and I told the family that he was their responsibility.  Yay me!!!  He's such a sweety pie, and loves playing with Bella.  Her wildest dreams have finally come true!  She has a friend!  Boomie has as much tolerance for Scout as he does for Bella.  The funny thing is that Scout will pester him just the way Bella does, but not as much.  He's half full-blood German German Shepherd and half full-blood American German Shepherd.  He supposedly had champion blood lines, but whatever.  I couldn't care less.  His paws are HUGE!  

I think he will be almost as big as Boomie.     He wants to meet his big sister, Reagan!

You are never going to believe this, but I've started working out 3-4 days a week.  Well, I'm sure you would believe it, but you're not going to believe when I do it!  I'm getting up at 4:30 on the days I work and working out before I go in!!!  I can't really believe it myself!  I never thought I'd be one of those people, but I'd so much rather do it then and take off the days I don't work.  That way I can just relax and enjoy those days.  Well, not really, but I don't have to feel guilty about not working out.  Let me tell you just how much fun it is to get my booty up that early and get moving on torture machine #1 (treadmill) or torture machine #2 (elliptical).  I actually do have more energy though.  

It has been so great reading your last couple of posts.  I'm so incredibly proud of you, Baby.  You are bringing Christ's love to so many, and I can see that you're accepting His love for you in so many ways you've never experienced.  I miss you so much.  I think about you every single day, many times a day.  I pray for you all the time.  You and your teammates, and the people you serve.  You are incredible.  I'm sorry the last few posts are so disjointed.  I have to write them in pieces, and I've been working a lot lately to help pay for the Connecticut trip.  

Miss you soooooooooooooooooo much!  I love you!!!!!  Mom