Glorious, Marvelous, Perfectly Lovely

That was our day today.

8am - everyone still sleeping, including me.

9am - boys still sleeping, Paul and I enjoying a quiet morning with walnut pancakes and peaches

10am - boys up, dressed and scooted off to a friend's house.  They never sleep this late, but we've spent the last two nights swimming with friends until 10pm.

10:30am - Paul and I at our beloved state park for a DATE!!

We hiked Trail 9, which we'd never done before because it's the farthest out and we aren't sure the boys' legs are ready for it.  Splendid, beautiful, such fun.  We chatted and brain-stormed and truly enjoyed our time together.

12:30 - lunch at the park inn.  Best hamburger ever.  Even beats In-n-Out.  Toasted bun, crispy burger, topped with veggies.  No fidgety kiddos.  Used gift card from Paul's parents.  Thank you!!

3:00pm - picked up boys

4:00pm - headed to a graduation party and hung out with good friends.

8:00pm - back home, boys to bed, and I mowed the yard.

Now - showered and feeling the effects of today's exertions.  Feels good.

Love summer.

What Public School Taught Peter

1. You can do whatever you want as long as you say 'sorry' afterwards.  'Sorry' is the ultimate fixer.  And best of all, you don't have to mean it.  You can repeat the offense and be excused with another flippant 'sorry'.  No punishment required (or expected by the child).

2. The horrible art of tattling.  Oh geez, I'm tired of it.  Peter didn't know what tattling was 7 weeks ago.  Now I'm getting hourly petty complaints from him regarding all of Reuben's annoyances.  So reeducation has started and just in case you have this problem in your family too, here are four options to teach your tattler:

   1. Ignore the annoyer.
   2. Ask him to stop.
   3. Distract him and get him to do something else.
   4. Go away from him.

Genius, I know.  Now he is stocked with these tools.  We'll see if they help.

3. He now thinks monsters are real and he's afraid of them.  He doesn't want to sleep in his room, thanks to watching a movie with monsters at school.  He slept on our floor last night.

Thank you public education.

*Now I know there are excellent things about public schools.  These negative points have just exposed themselves today, Day One of summer vacation.  I now have the frustrating task joy of reteaching Peter how to behave and what to believe.  Life lessons, right?  Public school is great for providing parents teaching/reacting opportunities about how other people live and how we should respond to them.

Summer and School

Yesterday after school, Pete and I were sitting on the front steps watching Reuben ride his bike.  Peter eventually sniggled his way onto my lap for some out-of-character snuggle time.  A bit later in our conversationing he said,

"I miss what you do when I'm at school."

"We miss you too."  I replied.  "There are good things about school, and bad things about school.  And good things about home and bad things about home."

Ready for his heartwarming, perfect answer?

"There aren't any bad things about being home, really."

Sweet boy.  Today's the last day of school, then we are back into the life as school mode.  We'll take two weeks off to readjust and relax, then begin third grade.  At home.

 Last Day of School picture

Not much different from 7 weeks ago.

Thanks to sis-in-law Tiffany for passing along Cade's clothes to Peter.

There were perfect for this spring.

He planted flower seeds and potted them as a gift for his teacher.

 I am so thankful for her and the break she gave our family.

 And here's the little brother on Peter's last day of school.

 Funny guy.

Meet the Goat Family

Oh, the weather has been gloriously in the eighties.  Lots of bike rides and exploration walks.

Now, we live 'in town' see, but really I would say we live in the country.  Because to get to our town you have to go to the country.  We are surrounded by countryside.  Fields of corn and soybeans with bunches of forests here and there.  Rural-like.  But folks here label us as townfolk as we are in the town limits.

But just a five minute bike ride and we are for sure in the country.  Where we met the Goats.

See?  Goats.

We've been visiting/feeding them for several weeks now,

so the boys are used to the goats' pushiness.

Lady and the Tramp?

(sharing the spaghetti)

And a good jaunt through a floody corn field is always fun.

The green foam on Paul's bike is Reuben's ride.

And unrelated, but equally fun,

Reuben the Robot.

That's what we've been doing.

Oh, and swimming lessons Monday-Thursday.

Pete's the blur jumping off the diving board.

He is loving lessons

and has increased in bravery and relaxation.

Day of Mud

We had a lovely time hiking, climbing, and puddling at a nearby state park on Saturday.  Peter requested Trail 3, which mostly follows a creek through darkish canyons in the forest.

 And by "follows a creek" I mean the trail is the creek.

So we all wear water shoes and I pack a complete change of clothes for the boys.  

I enjoy watching the boys have a great time.

They think it's fabulous to be able to get as muddy and wet as they desire.

Here, he just got through the deepest, narrowest part,

as another family heads in.

So, they changed clothes and we headed home.

They played outside and I soon found them in more water...

A puddle at the end of the alley right next to our house.

Boys have so much fun in dirt, water, and mud.

They played until they were stinky from the muck

and Reuben smashed Peter's big toe with the bulldozer.

Then they showered and put on their last set of clothes for the day.

And in the morning we found Reuben not in bed.  Again.

What a great day.

Thank you, God, for sunshine,

warmness,

play time,

and rest time.

Saturday

We're going hiking today.  Trail 3 - the water trail!

Just Playing

Rube and I are doing a whole lot of this today...

Full-body training.

With full-face grinning.

He decided he needed to take a picture.

Lesson #1:

Push the button.

Then he decided taking pictures was fun.

This was lesson #2:

Remove finger from lens.

Lesson #3:

Try to get the whole object in the picture.

That's a stuffed dog with those cute toes.

So, we're still working on Lesson #3.

Or you could call this modern art and it'd be genius.

Or, we can make it 'coloring book' style

and you can finish the picture as you like.

Your Pain is My Pain

Please don't tell me you have a rash, because little red bumps will mysteriously appear on my skin too.

Does your head itch?  Don't let me know, because mine will soon itch too.

Are your ankles feeling stiff?

Do you have purple spots on your belly?

Does your throat hurt, or your eye burn?

I have this strange way of feeling your discomfort, but I'd really rather not.


Most recently...  Peter's tooth has been hurting him.  So much so that I took him out of school yesterday to take him to the dentist.  He had a very apparent cavity that the dentist filled right then.  And you know, as soon as his cavity was diagnosed, my lower right tooth toward the back began to hurt.  It hurt all day.  Could I possibly have a cavity too?  It sure is sensitive.


A few years back a friend of mine was telling me about meningitis and how once you get purple spots on your belly, your end is very near.  Next day, purple spots on my belly.  Kind of like this...










AND, this one time, my hand began to hurt for no reason at all.  Then my thoughts led to my younger brother and I had this sense that maybe he had hurt his hand.  I emailed him to ask if he had hurt his hand and HE HAD.  I had felt his pain before I even knew of it.  Wee-ird.   

Dave, are you there?  True story, yah?  Check the comments, ya'll, for story verification.  I'm not as coo coo as Paul would like to think I am.

Paul likes to label me psychosomatic.  I prefer sympathetic.

Hope you're healthy and well.  I'm going to go take some Tylenol for this sore tooth.

Steve Who?

If you call my house, don't expect me to know who you are.
1. We don't have caller ID.
2. I just can't tell by your voice.  I could really use one of those tv phones from Back to the Future, #3 I think, the one with the hover boards.

And particularly if you're a Steve, you're going to have to give me more information than that.  Are you:

1. Steve of Steve & Evelyn, who take us mushrooming and have us over for hot dog roasts?

2. Steve of Steve Trent and Small Town, our local band of whom attend Sunday Bible study?

3. Steve, Paul's best buddy who he'd marry if he wasn't already taken and more of a woman than a man?

4. Steve, as in Paul's brother?

All you Steves call me and I don't know who you are.  I'm just saying.

Today, one of these Steves is having a birthday.  The one I'm related to, who shares his initials with me.  He gave me this crazy good shampoo that looks more like a bar of soap.  The problem with it is I want to eat, it smells so good.  Good thing I have a deep sense of self control.  But if you see me smelling my hands, you'll know why.  I'll let you smell them too.  Just don't lick me.

The company is Lush.

You can see more interesting soaps here.

It comes in this cute little tin.

The shampoo Steve gave me looks like this

and tastes smells like a candy store

 mixed with a lilac bush.

Yum.

Steve is on the right there.

Looks a whole lot like Paul.

Paul and Steve's dad (a.k.a. Papa) on the left.

And you probably know the one in the middle.

If you'd like to know anything about intinuators

or art museums around the country,

you might want to get to know this Steve.

He's a smart guy.

He likes these chips:

But, really, I've never actually seen him eat them.

He brings them to family gatherings

and we eat them.

Thanks, Steve.

Happy Birthday

and thanks for the shampoo.

And the chips.
And the vacuum.
And the tickets to the theatre.

Did I mention he's super generous?
And I just bet his love language is gift giving/receiving.

Any News?

Have you heard from our social worker?  We sure haven't.  We're only 3 months in for our 12-18 month wait to be matched with a child.  But, I still get wishful and hopeful that she'll contact us with some kind of news.

Wait, let me check my email and see if that new message is from her...

No, just a mystery shopping job offer for Dairy Queen.  Getting paid to eat ice cream is nice, but not quite as fulfilling as loving a child.  Well, let me know if you hear anything.

Bank Love

Boy do we feel appreciated.  Our small town doesn't have a stop light, or even a flashing yellow light.  But we do have a cute little bank that appreciates us.  They said so with their free hot dogs, chips, and drinks today.

I accepted their love with a bottled water and magnetic clippy for the fridge.

You may know of my unlove for hot dogs.
But fridge clippy is super useful in my kitchen.

How could they not love this cute guy?

And here is a funny video about the coolness of minivans.  Maybe you've seen it.  Made me smile.
I totally snagged it from Rage Against the Minivan, a blog you might enjoy too.  An adoptive mama from SoCal with a sarcastic tone and a passion for orphans, Haiti in particular.  She's entertaining, but deep and thoughtful too.

You can watch it full screen here.

We don't have a minivan, nor do we have plans to get one.  We're going to try to have three kids in the back seat of our RAV4 and see if we can all survive.  It would be miraculous.  Two within touching reach is a bit much already.

This and That

Still don't know about June 23.  Thanks for your suggestions.  But Peter did not get sick on the way to the zoo field trip a couple weeks back (sorry I left you hanging about that), and we painted our bathroom Mocha Something.

 It's dark and I'm not sure about it.  

Trying to come up with something creative and beautiful to enhance it.

And tonight,

Peter and I went to a Harlem Wizards game.

Globetrotter-ish

and a lot of fun.

Peter's in the gray shirt there, receiving a five from a Wizard player.

The player in the red is Peter's P.E. teacher.

Funny, funny guy who is loved by the kids.

He was the shortest, so they had him do the tip off against the 6'10" player.

When we came home I found Peter outside practicing basketball tricks with his jacket.

In and out and around his legs and waist.

He asked me later if we could get him a ball to practice with.

Something about Reuben, then?

I heard him randomly washing his hands so I asked him why.

"Because of the dead bird."

"You touched the dead bird?"

"Yah, it was in the dirt and I got it out."

Oh good.

Yesterday Reuben and a couple other small boys found a dead bird and decided to stomp on it and touch it's "fingers".  (Please tell me this is normal boy behavior.)  Paul miraculously appeared and removed it from the scene with a shovel.  What I didn't know is that Reuben followed Paul and the smashed bird and saw where Paul buried it.  So today Reuben got out a small shovel and unburied it, touched it apparently, then reburied it.  He showed me the dirt pile and I believed him that it was under there.  So I suggested to Paul to maybe not show Reuben where he's going to bury dead animals, and maybe you could just put it in the trash next time.

Do any of you have girls?

They just sit there in pretty dresses brushing their doll's hair, right?

Sounds so calm.

Umm...

Maybe you can help me out.

My To-Do List says:

• WooSeok's graduation gift

• Make curtain for kitchen window

• Sign up 8 ladies to volunteer in camp kitchen

• June 23

I don't know why I wrote June 23 on my list.  Do you?  Please say you know.

For no reason related to this post,

here is a sleeping Reuben.

Really, how can he sleep like this?

Flowers For My Mom

Hi Mom.  Happy Mother's Day.

Besides being the traditional weekend for moms,

I thought of you because I planted impatiens this weekend.

And impatiens always make me think of you. 

I bought a flat of impatiens at a local nursery

and pulled out all my wintering pots from the garage.

Reuben ate a burrito, then dug in the dirt looking for worms.

Your front porches and yards have been so beautiful wherever you have lived because of the flowers (including lots of impatiens) you have planted.  For the next five months I get a lovely reminder of you as I open my curtains in the morning and as I come and go from our house.

They're small right now, but I love that they will grow and grow

and add so much color to our porch.

The green plants in the ground, in front of the porch,

will grow tall all summer, then bloom into purple

flowers later in the summer.

Happy Day to You, Mom.