Creepy Crawly and Cute…..But Not Together

Is anyone else as alarmed at this new “Super Lice”?  This time last year, I was pretty certain that somehow one of us was going to contact ebola and now this.  I realize that the ebola fears were probably a little far-fetched, but it never hurts to be a bit cautious.  This super lice thing though, I feel like this is haunting me.  I never had lice as a child – I’m not really sure how I escaped that one as I was never particularly careful about not putting things on my head that weren’t mine.  I can only chalk it up to my not really being exposed to more than 20 kids from the ages of 5-15.  I went to a very small school and had one of us had it, we would have probably passed it around several times.  Somehow I was spared though.  I also made it through a career as a camp employee for several years without getting it.  I am definitely due and if it doesn’t come for me, I know that with my luck, it’s coming for my kids.

I already have plans that if Mattie gets lice, we are just shaving her head.  That girl’s hair is reminiscent of Medusa’s snake hair or an octopus and the thought of having to pick tiny little lice larva out……….it would probably be easier to mow my lawn with tweezers.  I’m considering just sending she and Reese to school with their bike helmets on and a doctor’s note saying they have to wear them at all times.

Lila is scratching her head as I type this and it’s making me extremely uncomfortable.

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Now that we have shared with you all that we have a new little pup, I thought I might take a minute to share some more cute “baby” pictures.  She’s so precious these days and I know that we have about two months before she looks just like a regular dog, so I apologize in advance at all the puppy pictures I might be sharing over the next 4 weeks.

I have titled this little collection, Weird Ways and Places Cybill Sleeps.

This is on the ride to pick up the kids from school. She is actually spread across the console drawer thingy, which was open at the time.

Waiting for Lila to brush her teeth is exhausting

Who cares if there’s a gigantic bed right next to me

Giant bed is still right in the middle of the room, there were also about 3 blankets scattered about. At this point in her life, we would probably still let her up on the couch……but instead she chose underneath

This was just random because she was in there all by herself, with all the lights on and the narcoleptic forces just took over

I had been standing next to her, writing out our calendar for the week (it hanging on the wall above her and on the left). She curled up on my feet and went to sleep there in the hallway the leads from the kitchen to the garage, for about 45 minutes.

This looks perfectly normal, dog asleep on a dog bed. But it’s actually in the middle of a store, right smack in the middle not off in a corner somewhere. She was sat on it for a second and promptly fell asleep. We just left her there, in the middle of the floor in a pet store while we shopped for a collar and leash.

Have a great day and Lice Prevention tip of the day, stop taking selfies with friends and strangers.  The Center for Disease Control has shared that putting our heads next to someone else’s to cram into a picture is one of the surest ways of spreading lice.

Lets Get Back To The Present

Just for housekeeping purposes, I should probably mention that a few other noteworthy things occurred between the early morning NASCAR race and this morning – one of those things being that Reese turned 7.  Try as I may, he continues to have these birthdays every year.  I still don’t really like it, but I am trying to do better at embracing the inevitable.

No, he is not Benjamin Button – we didn’t have a 7 candle so we used the 4 and 3. He knew what it meant

Aunt Shannie sent this text to Reese and don’t you dare tell him it’s not really from Marc Gasol!

This year, when I asked him what kind of party he wanted to have things got a little complicated.  Not only did he have a multi-layered theme, but none of those themes were something that I could easily find matching napkins for at the local party store.  Which meant I had to get a little creative…….

The boy wanted a San Francisco 49ers, Memphis Grizzlies, Jimmie Johnson party – which meant he wanted a 3-sport themed cake.  This probably could have been done in a really fabulous way, with one layer for each sport and team. There could have been fondant icing and little figurines of race cars and linebackers made out of gum paste……and this would have cost more than my wedding cake 13 years ago.  We went with a different option, however, and by the look on the boys face I think he was still pretty happy.

The boy and his cake

I will include my detailed instructions for our awesome cake here:

• Print out pictures of whatever it is that your child/ or yourself is interested in
• Make sure you print two so you can make them double-sided
• Get a chocolate layer cake from Costco
• Pull out your hot glue gun and glue your pictures on said cake

I know, it’s pretty complicated…..but I have faith that if you really put your mind to it, you can probably make it too.

A sports themed party was fine, but typically the kids pick some sort of something that they want to give back to that ties in with whatever their theme is.  Lila had a chicken birthday party and raised money for chickens for African families, Mattie had a book-themed party and  raised money to send another little girl to school.  But we were drawing a bit of a blank on what a sports party was going to be connection with.

It probably came to me while I was trying to sleep – when most of my good ideas come and I NEVER write them down.  The Grizzlies use nets to make baskets, The 49ers use nets for field goal, even Jimmie Johnson and the rest of the NASCAR drivers use nets for safety on their windows.  And World Vision provides mosquito nets for families in Africa that save thousands of people every year from getting malaria.  So balloons and nets, balloons in nets, and our awesome printed picture cake – best 7th birthday this boy has ever had!

Happy birthday Reesie

We strung nets everywhere!

Balloons in a net

It wouldn’t be a Reese party without the Annual Reese Christian Water Balloon Invitational, which Uncle Chris and Aunt Shannie won.

Soft Hands!

Water Balloon victors

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Mumsey, the kids and I went to Oklahoma Campmeeting again – because we just didn’t get enough last year.  Campmeeting, I think, is one of those things that can be incredible and awesome and the best thing ever – but I personally believe it has a “best if used by date”.  I loved campmeeting as a little girl and really have nothing but happy memories from there.  I wanted my kids to get the chance to experience campmeeting for themselves because try as I may, I don’t think I could ever paint an accurate picture of what it’s actually like.  There’s a certain magic to campmeeting because it’s so unlike their every day life.  Maybe your life is different, but in our day-to-day activities, we don’t usually sleep in a tent, there isn’t a lake at our disposal (that you can disappear to for hours at a time) and hour-long trail rides don’t take place in my back yard.  At campmeeting, it’s also around 110 degrees and your mama lets you eat blue sno-cones for dinner.  But the older you get, the magic seems to sort of fade and instead, campmeeting turns a little less fun and euphoric to more hot, really hot, and a nightly struggle to make sure the flaps are all tied down for when the rain storm comes.

This is me and my constant companion, the fan

We needed a new inflatable mattress this year. I selected this one because of it quick deflate features. I took this air mattress back because this was not what I was not my definition of “quick and easy”

This was a big source of entertainment for us, the fan and this can of slime goo stuff. It blew fabulous bubbles.

The hill to the bathrooms, the sno-cones, and our meetings

Our little home

My car doubled as a drying rack

Rain, so much Rain

Lila’s ear tick

Examining the tick she just pulled out of Lila’s ear

Playing in the water

Reese and I may have been ready to leave in this picture

This will probably be our last summer at campmeeting, not necessarily because Mumsey and I just got too hot, but because we just seem to have so many things packed into those three short months of summer.  Some highlights of this week at campmeeting were:

• When the tame but wild doe came sauntering down amongst all the tents at lunch time one day.  In my imagination, I won’t be quite as hot or dirty, and there is no mention of port o potties anywhere, but for that little moment it was like catching a glimpse of heaven.  All these little kids, who had just seconds before been eating their lunch, were now following this little deer, flocking around her and she seemed to be loving every minute of it.

Petting the little deer.

• Mattie found her inner Lake Girl.  We were pretty certain it was in there, based on how much she loves pools, the ocean and even a good water hose.  But this was the summer that everything fell into place and she was finally introduced to an actual lake.  She ruined two swimsuits that week, spending so much time in that nasty lake water.  There are some stains that even Tide can’t get out – the ground in sweat, lake water, and mud from who knows what would be those stains.
• Lila got to actually go to “school”.  Not really, it was just her little class that she went to a few times a day, childcare really while the parents were in meetings, but to her it was her first dabble in higher education

Painting her piggy bank. The smock was a nice idea but she still ended up ruining her dress 

• Reese and I finally went and saw a doctor regarding the swimmers ear that seems to have been plaguing him since Florida….maybe even California.

Campmeeting was full of dirt, horse back riding, walking, sweat, learning new Jesus songs, the lake, and visiting a walk-in clinic 40 miles away.

• We also learned that even though dermatologists will not endorse it, lavender oil used very frequently, like every three hours, is a very effective mosquito repellant and if you get a massage oil that also contains chamomile, it can be very soothing for the mosquito bites that you did get by not reapplying the lavender soon enough.
• And last highlight, blue sno-cones produce blue lips and blue poop

My children may have lived off of sno-cones that week

The restrooms were up at the top of the hill. There were port o potties right next to us by our tent, but when I took Lila in there the first day she told me “This isn’t okay.” Thankfully, Mumsey brought the little training potty with her.

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Then poof!…….it was all over.  We just finished our first full week of school.  Reese is now in first and Mattie in 5th.  I remember very well how big my brother seemed when he was a 5th grader – carrying his briefcase to school instead of a backpack (the backpack did come back into play, but in addition to the briefcase……looking back, it makes me wonder what sort of extra curricular activities Matt was up to that required a briefcase).  I was also just a First grader when he was in 5th, and he may as well have been in high school to me.

As excited and ready as I have been for school to start back up again, my children are VERY tired of one another, I was still completely unprepared.  I think it must be something going around this year, because every mama friend that I have talked to has made the comment that they forgot whole sections of the school supply list.  A good two days into school, I still saw (and maybe even joined) a large mass of mothers frantically searching the picked over aisles of Target searching for those supplies like pencils that somehow slipped our minds.  I’m not sure how I managed to do it, but I seem to have misplaced all of Mattie’s uniform polo shirts from last year.  I suppose they could easily be in a suitcase tucked away somewhere and I will find them 3 years from now.  Reese was supposed to inherit those shirts, that was the plan all summer long.  Mattie had a pile of shirts waiting for her, but Reese had outgrown his and would need new ones.  So when the time came to go to the uniform store and order new shirts, I completely mixed myself up and ordered Mattie new ones (because she already had plenty) and got Reese only two.  I was completely prepared……

New teacher this year, and first time it’s not a relative.

Mattie’s 5th grade teacher was also her Kindergarten teacher!

I have since paid another visit to the uniform store and Reese now has enough clothing to last him a full week.  I’m also pretty sure that if those old shirts of Mattie’s aren’t hiding in a suitcase somewhere, then I accidentally put them in the Uniform Buy Back pile and have since sold them to someone else.

Oops

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Another event that has happened between July and today, the middle (end) of August is that we have added this new little girl into our family.

Introducing Cybill Joy Baughman

I had told Brandon that I would really like a new pup for my birthday.  For the past few weeks, months, I have been settled in the idea that though I was desperately ready for a new little puppy – it was coming in September.  Then last Thursday Brandon mentioned that he had been looking for weekend getaways for my birthday.  This was very thoughtful of him, and I appreciated that he was planning ahead – but this also clued me in on the fact that he hadn’t really been listening to me.  I had mentioned several times that Frozen on Ice would be coming to town that weekend and I didn’t know how I could possibly let such an event come to Memphis without taking my girls.  Also, whether she knows it or not, I plan on Shannon being here in town for my birthday.  And there was that bit about a puppy…….

It’s possible he was just trying to throw me off, but then I have also heard him tell a few of our friends how he has had a terrible time finding the most common dog in America.  Turns out lab breeders are very alot like a dating service or medical school fellowships and there is a matching system.  Several of the places that he had looked into wanted him to fill out a form, a family personality test if you will, and then they would match us with one of their puppies…..after they were born…..maybe…..they would also cost us about $2,000.00.  That’s just silly because though dogs are wonderful, we don’t have the money to buy a $2,000 dollar dog, and pay for the damage it is inevitably going to cause with its chewing AND pay for the vet bill that we know we will have to pay.  Maybe not in the first year, maybe not in the second, but if it’s going to be our dog, Murphy’s Law states that there will be some sort of incident causing us to pay a ridiculous amount of money for the health and wellness of our pet.

I decided to take matters into my own hands, as often happens in the day-to-day events of Kaylee and Brandon, and within a matter of hours I had located and contacted a lovely family right here in Tennessee that had a litter of AKC Labrador Retrievers that were ready to be adopted out.

He didn’t say no.

He didn’t say yes right away either, but he didn’t say no.

I may have gone ahead and exchanged several texts with the owner and set up a time to meet her…..before he finally gave his actual approval.  We didn’t tell the kids what was going on – we like to work this way, just springing things on them – it keeps them on their toes.  It’s also a great discipline/ behaviour incentive, always make sure you’re being good because you have no idea when mom and dad might just suddenly decide to go and buy a puppy and you would hate to miss out on that.  We dropped them off without any explanation, with Christal and Jason.  I think they thought we were going on a date and then headed out to “a little past Jackson” as I had told Brandon.  For the record, Linden, TN is NOT just a little past Jackson.  We may as well have driven on to Nashville and maybe had a nice dinner while we were there.  I don’t even know if Linden exists in the light of day.  We met a woman and her daughter, about Mattie’s age, at a gas station called Fat Man’s Gas.  For real, that’s what it was called.  It makes for a very romantic story to tell, that we fell in love with this precious dog in the parking lot of Fat Man’s Gas.  They had two pups, a yellow little girl with blue eyes and a darling little boy, who we could hardly see because he was as black as the night.

Brandon pulled out my money tin and counted out the money, after robbing all the piggy banks in the house and making a little stop at the ATM, we had enough. The little boy was darling, but the little yellow girl was ours.  After spending only about 5 minutes at our destination, we turned around and headed home.  Our date night meal consisted of truckstop taquitos and a shared fountain drink.

It was late when we arrived at The Hall’s house.  Brandon went in by himself to fetch the kids, saying nothing about where we had been and who was waiting for them out in the car.  Lila came out first, she noticed the puppy right after she noticed that I was sipping an icee. “That’s not yours!” she said to me right away. “You not have a puppy, mama!” After assuring her that she was ours, Lila climbed up on the arm rest and squealed.  We made her promise not to tell Mattie when she got in the car.  Lila’s promises don’t really hold much water.  As soon as Mattie got in the car, Lila yelled, “There’s a dog in the car!”, thankfully, Mattie ignored her like she does most everything else either one of her siblings say.  It took about 45 seconds after she got in for her to notice.  She leaned up to tell me something, I wasn’t really listening, but I think she was tattling on her brother.  She sat back in her seat and then not a second later, looked back over my shoulder taking a second look.

And then she cried.

Full on wept in the backseat.

I had been really excited about the idea of my birthday rolling around and my family gifting me with a bow wearing labbie pup.  It’s been a weird little fantasy I have played over in my head several times since Crosby passed away and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed that my pup was presented to me in the twinkling florescent outdoor lighting of Fat Man’s Gas instead of on my birthday, as a complete surprise, dressed in a bow.  But this memory, this picture, I will treasure forever

I can say yes to lots of things, even daily.  I can give her all sorts of things in life that she thinks she wants and that will make her happy for a bit.  But I don’t think we get many chances to grant a wish quite like this.

So there you are, all caught up and living in the present.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a puppy to potty train and lunches to pack!

A Night At The Races

Happy Sabbath Afternoon……(or Monday morning when I finally finished this) The rest of my family is resting in various rooms here in my house.  I have gone to each of these rooms and tried to fall asleep, kind of like a Goldilocks in my own home, but after about an hour I decided it just wasn’t going to work.  Instead, I should probably just try to enjoy a little bit of quiet before they all woke up.  Working my on blog and filling you in one our final hours in Florida seemed like a great idea…..especially since school started this week in real-life and I am feeling a little defeated being so behind.

Our last full day in Florida was a Sunday – race day.  This was the year that in addition to going to our usual Friday practice at Daytona, we would also be going to the actual race.  This would be our first race and to say that we were excited would be a HUGE understatement.  It was going to be a later, night race – with fireworks afterwards.  I thought about trying to nap the kids earlier in the afternoon but figured that would be a complete waste of time.  Instead, we went to the pool.  We were only there for about an hour, just long enough for me to finish the last half of my Reader’s Digest.  At one point during our pool time, Mumsey casually mentioned that my legs were looking a little pink.

I paid no attention

Fast forward a few hours later and I was in my own little personal hell.  Fast forward a few days later and I was still slightly miserable.  It’s only been recently that they match the rest of my body and have stopped peeling.  Lesson learned mother, lesson learned.

Back to Race Day.

We arrived at the track with just enough time to do a little poking around before we had to find out seats and watch all the exciting fanfare the we usually miss because we aren’t actually there.  We did not arrive at the track with enough time to do all of this and walk from Georgia, where we eventually had to park.  We had planned snacks, we had our ear protection, we even had an iPad with three movies for Lila to watch because I was pretty certain watching cars go around in a circle would only hold her attention for so long.  But we had not taken into consideration that the parking lot and every other available spot of concrete would be full.  That seems like a pretty obvious detail to overlook now in hindsight.

We were in our seats, admiring the awesome view Poppy had scored for us without even realizing it, and just stewing in our happiness at finally getting to see this all in real life.

Before the Storm

Then the rain started

We tried to hang out for a while….it was just going to blow right over, right?

The biggest clap of lightning I’ve ever seen, hit just outside of the track.

I did not discuss anything with my parents or my children, I just picked up those that I could carry and fled.

Thankfully, Daytona International Speedway has been undergoing a facelift lately.  Actually, its more like a complete overhaul.   Everything is new and pretty and they have a pretty elaborate little city within the actual grandstands.  We were some of the first to stake out real estate among the merchandise stands and different food vendors.  Pretty soon, the crowd grew and we had our own village of squatters.  And the best part was that people tended to flock with others who seemed to be fans of their driver.  This probably could have been a really fascinating study in the social behavior of humans, how we look for a common similarity to unite us in time of confusion and turmoil.  Even if that common bond is only who you root for in NASCAR, it’s enough to make you feel like you are with your “people” when camping out on the cement floor of a huge concrete and steel sporting venue.  In our separate little camps, you saw people start to look out for each other, “Oh your crew needs to go to the restroom, sure I’ll keep and eye on your backpack and beer cooler. Oh no! she just dropped all the ketchup from her hotdog down that rain poncho! No worries, we have a plethora or baby wipes with us!”

The Hendrick Motor Sports Camp

We took turns taking walks up and down the long console. You saw people doing various things to amuse themselves  – though I’m not really sure any of us knew what we were waiting for.  The rain was coming down similar to what Noah experienced, so there wasn’t exactly a big rush to make a run for the cars……so we waited for it to let up.  Not really knowing what we would do after that, but knowing we were all stuck together in this fortress with shockingly clean restrooms and more refreshment stands than I have ever seen in my life…..there didn’t really seem to be much of a sense of urgency.  We had nothing else to do, we were here, we would wait.

Our little adopted family

We got Reese’s cars out and did a little race of our own.  The girls watched a video or two.  We walked.  We ate all of the snacks.  We stood outside for a little bit trying to convince ourselves that it was barely even sprinkling and then got chased in by another lightning bolt.  It wasn’t looking very good for us.  The race definitely wasn’t happening, but it wasn’t looking like the walk back to the car would be green flagged anytime soon either.

Keeping ourselves entertained

Feeling a little bit overwhelmed and probably saying a little prayer that the rain would stop

After what seemed like possibly forever, when things were just about to the point of not really fun anymore, the rain stopped.  We joined a mass of people heading down the stairs, still not really sure where we were going, but feeling like we needed to at least change locations.  In our minds, I think we believed that the race had been cancelled and we would just have to come back tomorrow.  By this time it was around 9:30 and the race should have been thinking about being over soon……had it ever started.

It was about that time that I heard a sound like nothing I have ever heard before.  A sound that is probably very similar to what it would sound like if you were riding on the outside of the space shuttle when it was being shot through our atmosphere.  It’s probably also the same sound that will be heard at the end of the world.  So loud, so, so loud!  What in the world was going on!

Turns out they were drying the track……the rain was over…….and even though it should take about 2 hours, we were gonna have ourselves a race tonight……or early this morning.

I may have lost my cool a little bit there for a minute.  Are you kidding me NASCAR?  Are you that money hungry Daytona International Speedway?  For real, we are going to have to sit here for two hours with the sound of an attack by an army of jet engines and then sit through a 400 miles race that isn’t even going to start until at least 11:30?

That’s exactly what we were going to do.

If you left, your tickets left with you.  There would be no rain check or reimbursement if that just didn’t work out for you.  Personally, I think that the powers that be had already decided that they would keep us there until all the food ran out.  Since it wasn’t all gone by the time the rain stopped, the show would go on.  In actuality, I suppose it does make sense.  These racing teams can fly their drivers and crew back home, but all the equipment and cars have to be driven back to North Carolina.  They have to get things taken back, taken apart and repacked in time to drive somewhere else for another race the next weekend. It’s not their fault, it’s not our fault and at least they were willing to put on a show at all.  As much as I was over being there, the idea of having to go and drive 400 miles at 200 miles per hour doesn’t sound like much fun either….at midnight.

But one little boy was happy.

Watching the Air Titans dry the track

“You promised me we would see our first race, Mama.”

And I always keep my promises.

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There are some people probably shaking their heads in disgust at me.  What kind of mother keeps her kids out that late!  What kind of mother would be taking them to a race that wasn’t even supposed to start until bedtime in the first place? Appalling!

I will tell you what kind of mama does this.

The kind of mama who knows that this is a big deal, a maybe even once in a lifetime big deal.  The kind of mama who sees that magic and precious moments are worth way more than sleep and sticking to a schedule.  The kind of mama who has watched hundreds of races on the couch with her little boy as he lines up his cars and keeps up with the ticker, playing along at home.  Who has watched him cry when his team loses and cry when they win.  A mama who has a little boy who repays her in tiny grins of happiness and squeezes her hand a little tighter when he’s really excited.  A mama who doesn’t live close to an actual race track…..that is what kind does such a thing.

And though it was closer to the next day than I would have liked, when the track was declared dry, I bought my children french fries as though it was dinner time and we settled in to our very first real live race.

All Lined up and ready to start

On about the 3rd lap, we saw our first wreck…..right in front of us!  It was the most exciting thing I think I have ever seen in real life.  And from that point on, time didn’t really matter anymore.

Eating fries in the middle of the night with Poppy at the races

The race got old – time for Strawberry Shortcake

Who could ask for anything more

Lila eventually fell asleep, because extremely loud cars can be very soothing.

Wreckers coming in to clean things up

Mattie was a trooper through most of it, but eventually fell asleep, too.

My sunburn turned to sun fire and at one point I was shivering, with my teeth audibly chattering.  A nice, probably drunk man behind us seemed distracted by my chattering teeth and shared him plastic poncho with me.  It didn’t help much, but once I put Reese on my lap and then wrapped us in the plastic wrap things got a little better.  It’s amazing how your body can be both freezing and on fire all at the same time.

And Reese, his eyes were heavy, but he watched the whole thing! Not for a minute risking the potential of missing something by taking an extra long blink. It was a great race, we saw wrecks and close calls and right at the end, the crowd was on its feet as Dale Jr. crossed the finish line…..and the worst wreck I have ever seen on t.v and now in real life, happened right in front of us.  The #3 car (which, ironically, was previously driven by Dale Earnhardt Sr and fatally wrecked at Daytona for those of you non-NASCAR readers) flew into the steel catch fence, bit of car flying into the lower parts of the stands and then flew back onto the track upside down.  Just moments after landing, the #3 car was hit by a another car flying over the finish line and crews from all the teams rushed the track.  I covered my kids eyes, not like they could actually see anything but I didn’t want them to “not-see” a young mans death if I could help it.  For just a moment, those stands packed with thousands of people (shocking, even at 3 in the morning) that had just been cheering almost as loudly as those jet engine dryer trucks, stood silent.  Fearing the worst

I’m pretty sure I was trembling and it wasn’t from my bodies warped sunburn situation.

Reese squeezed my hand and I stood there feeling like the worse mother in the world.

I kept my kids up until the middle of the night, almost got them struck by lightning and now we just witnessed a young man’s death.

And then he got out

From the cloud of smoke, we saw arms wave over the head of a person in a fire suit and helmet, flanked by a whole camp of official looking people – and the crowd went wild.

I’m pretty sure we just witnessed a miracle there.

I would never wish that kind of crash on anyone again and I love my NASCAR enough without that sort of action being required to keep it interesting.  But for a first race ever………I don’t think anything will ever hold a candle to that night.

Reese has loved retelling the story of “His Race” almost as much as he loved actually watching it the first time.

Mission Accomplished and time to go home.

Back In Time and Back To The Beach

Close your eyes and take a deep breath in.  You are about to travel through sound and space and time – to another dimension.  Because I never finished writing about the next 6 days of our trip to Florida (way back in July….June even)…..I am going to do it now.  You probably forgot that we even went to Florida, you probably forgot that I was even writing a blog…..but I did and I am and it seems ridiculous to write about anything else until I finish the summer.

I left you with us having finished up a picturesque evening at the beach, complete with a freedom ceremony and the discovery of a dead, baby shark.  I neglected to tell you that just as we were packing up, some sort of invisible flock of stinging insects attacked my legs and either bit or stung or both, my legs.  It was the weirdest thing and for a few hours I thought it was just a weird reaction to the sunburn I acquired earlier in the day.  But when my legs had these weird little spots all over them, I decided to definitely go with the invisible insect theory.

Our next day wasn’t quite as magical as the first had been.  We decided to do a little shopping at the outlet mall.  It seemed a great idea at first and I was thrilled to get the girls the cutest little matching, retro swimsuits.  But when Reese didn’t find anything at the Nike store and Mattie’s became “Hangry” we knew it was time to abort our leisure shopping tour, feed them and then move on with Plan B.  We found a Chik-Fil-A and Plan B ended up being going back to our condo and letting the kids make a fort on the lanai with beach towels and patio furniture.  It had started to rain by this point in our day – which it does just about every day in Florida.

Tent City

Eventually, we made it out to take a little drive, again late in the afternoon.  This is the time that experts all say is the WORST time to get in the water if you are concerned about sharks.  I was heavily concerned about sharks and pretty much expecting one of us to lose a limb at some point of the trip, yet here I was again for the second day in a row, taking my kids on a little adventure to the beach at dinner time.

I’m going to stop here and be really honest with you – the days kind of ran together for me there until about Friday.  We beached, we pooled, we ate lots of popsicles, and really, I have never seen my children so entranced with a small space as they are with that screened in rectangle on the back of our unit.  They loved to eat out there, they begged to sleep out there, they did cartwheels and played cars and fought over who got to be in which corner of it.  I wish they would take as much interest in their playroom here at home as they did that blank ol’ porch. Reese lost another tooth, in the pool, I think he did the same thing last year.  I feel like last years pool tooth got left in my jacket pocket (for safe keeping) and didn’t make it safely home.  This tooth, I kept in my shorts pocket.  It did make it home safely……until I washed my shorts.  Reese has lost a whole gaggle of teeth and I think I only have managed to wrangle up about 3 of them.

My mom is a cute little thing isn’t she?

Trying my best to cover my weird tan lines with my children

Those precious little front teeth are officially evicted

I could be wrong, but I think it was Friday, when we headed to Daytona to visit the track.  This would be our 3rd visit to the famous Daytona International Speedway.  The first time we went, we had no expectations, no plans, just flying by the seat of our pants and in wonder of everything.  It was amazing and one of my favorite memories of all time.  The second year, last year, it was about 400 degrees outside and Reese dropped his hot dog on his clothes not once but twice.  First it was his shirt, the hot dog fell and ketchup went everywhere.  I was annoyed, but took him to the bathroom and though I probably rattled on the whole time about paying attention when you eat, blah blah blah, I still managed to clean him up pretty good.  We had been sitting down at our table for maybe 5 minutes when he did it again, this time the pants.  It looked like he had killed something and was trying to hide its carcass in his pockets.  Back to the bathroom.  This time I made him strip and I had to rinse everything out.  Thankfully, the ketchup came out fairly well, but nothing could hide the shame of both he and I as he went walking back to our table in completely drenched clothing.  I think this ended up being to his advantage though because he was way cooler than the rest of us……at least until he dried.

Shortly after that, mom accidentally dumped Lila out of her stroller and then proceeded to roll over her resulting in a busted lip.

That was my fault by the way though because just moment before I had assured my mother that she didn’t need to actually buckle Lila in the stroller.

All of this was just tell help create the scene that the first year was magical because we had no expectations.  The second year was a little rough because we wanted it to top the year before, but this 3rd year – we had learned from our mistakes.  We had streamlined everything that we dragged around with us, limiting it to mainly just one back pack which I happily carried.  Poppy was a little overly concerned about everyone’s ear protection and whether or not we had each made the best financial decision with our purchase of ear protection, but other than that there seemed to be very few issues.  We knew that instead of heading to the stands to watch the practice, our best position was down at the garages because that’s when we were guaranteed to see drivers.  They have to drive their cars in and out of the garages during practice!

I may have been getting left behind at this point

Focused and on a mission

We checked out Danica Patrick – because I have two little girls who I have told can do anything they want to do, even if they are the odd ones out.  She didn’t get out of her car, but we could see her hands.

A blurry reflective look in at Danica Patrick. We knew she was in there and that’s all that mattered

We saw Carl Edwards waltzing around his garage.  His much taller in real life than you would think and very handsome.  He just kind of floated all over the place, bigger than everyone else.

Carl Edwards, swaggering around

And then we camped out at the 48 garage.  Word in the pits was that the Lowe’s Chevy had just left to do some more laps.

So we waited…….

This little boy especially eager for a certain car to come back to the garage

Hoping to catch a glimpse

And then we saw a lot of activity in the garage, something was happening!

And I saw a face that I recognized come down in the middle of everyone and kind of stir things up.  That face came right up to where I was standing and popped a laptop right down in front of me.

Chad Knaus and one of his crew who looks exactly like a mannequin

I was wearing a back pack, holding my phone with one hand and my not so little boy in the other – he was going to get to see Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief  and I was going to get a picture of it! By Golly!

I think that patriotic-painted race car finally pulled into its designated spot about the time my arm went numb and I started having to use my leg to keep the boy propped up.  Who needs limbs anyway, right? He pressed his little face up as close as he could to try to see.  I actually heard myself chanting under my breath, “Just get out of the car, just get out of the car”.  Even better it wasn’t just me chanting.  By this point there was a whole audience around the small window looking into the Lowe’s 48 garage bay, and we were all humming with the same chant, willing this man to step out of his vehicle.

And he did

Then we changed our tune to “Take off your helmet, take off your helmet”

And he did!

It was the neatest thing, to see my little guy get to see someone who he thinks is just the bees knees.  Someone who has become a part of our every day conversation, who we cheer for and have been known to cry over as well.  This is our guy and here he is standing in front of us, letting us feel like we too are a part of this practice.  Reese didn’t saw anything, just turned around and gave me what most would consider maybe a quarter of a smile.

Jimmie, just standing there

Poppy and Reese hoping to get a look at Jeff Gordon, this being his last race at Daytona

That little speck in there is Jeff Gordon – he is much smaller than you would expect.

But those are the best.

Those are the kind that mean, “I’m so happy, I don’t even know what to do with myself.”

Those are the kind that mean more to me than anything.

I will always remember, and I hope he does to, when I was still bigger than him and I held him up until my whole right side felt like jelly, so that he could see his favorite NASCAR driver stand and look at a monitor with his crew chief.

A scene we watch all the time on tv…….looks exactly the same in real life

BEST. DAY. EVER.

We ate hot dogs again that day and this time there weren’t any ketchup casualties.

A much happier lunch crew as opposed to last year

We watched some cars go through inspection and we were actually able to enjoy ourselves because we had seen what we came to see.  We had pancakes with Denny Hamlin

We love the 48 but are awfully fond of the 88 as well

Watching

Reese, Denny and I

Not really, but you know, never mind, I’ll just let you think that we did.

We watched fast cars go around in circles and it was the best thing ever…..

In case you were wondering but didn’t want to ask, yes, those are giant wheels on my ears.

Don’t let her fool you, she is very into all of this. And if you look closely, the orange stripes on her dress coordinate perfectly with the orange on her hat. This was all very planned

Happy Happy Happy

……….until the next day.

They were young and they were free, like a mountain melody. In love as they could be, singing that Blue Ridge song

We are back in town and I don’t plan on moving from my house until at least September.  Well, I suppose I will need to do a little venturing out, possibly leaving my neighborhood, but I do not intend on crossing over any state lines or going anywhere that requires me to bring a change of clothes or a toothbrush.  It has been fun summertime travels, but I am ready to no longer live out of my car.

We just returned from a weekend visit to Uncle Mark and Aunt Steph’s house.  After pretty regular visits with our “Framily” there for a while, we had let almost 6 months go by without a visit.

Never Again!

The girls took about 10 minutes to warm up to each other again.  I guess there is always that apprehension that maybe their cousin had experienced a personality change since they played together last.  They smiled and hugged and I heard Mattie whisper, almost hesitantly, “Do you still love Little House on the Prairie?” to which Rosie replied back barely audibly, “Yes!”

And in an instant, all of the uncertainty was washed away and Mary, Laura, Baby Carrie and Baby Baby Grace were reunited.

Steph and Mark had arranged for us to have a babysitter for all 5 of our children Saturday night so that we could go on a real date.  I think the last “no-kid” date we had with Mark and Steph was actually in 2003 – back when they weren’t even engaged yet.  I was pregnant with Mattie when they got married and even though she was pretty portable during that time, her presence was definitely felt.  It was fantastic to just get to ride in a sedan, no mini van or SUV, and actually talk to me friend in the back seat.  Usually, our conversations sound like we are both suffering from Tourettes a little bit.  “So Gap is having a great sale on bathing suits and shorts, I got 4 pairs for just…..PUT THE MATCHES AWAY!!!! NO MA’AM!!!!!…….$12.95!  Can you believe that?”

We didn’t do anything big, but it was pretty exciting.  We went to downtown Asheville, North Carolina – that’s a very special place if you haven’t ever been there.  Definitely its own personality and there probably isn’t anywhere else on earth quite like Asheville.  I have never seen so many people walking through the heart of downtown not wearing shoes.  I’ve also never come across so many pretty people who also had extreme B.O……on purpose.  I have never just been walking along and had to scoot over because there were grown men “dueling” with padded bats…..until then.  I have also never stumbled upon a team of leather-wearing fire throwers/jugglers/ and overall fire dancing enthusiasts before….but Asheville allowed that experience to happen.

I almost wet my pants out of fear when a copper statue of a fisherman suddenly cast his line into the crowd.  But then that drew my attention to the young lady painted completely in metallic, silver paint while wearing a Revolutionary War-esque outfit and playing the snare drum.  I was drawn to her, probably because I can totally see that being one of the career choices that my eldest child per sues.

I took a little video of her and when I showed it to Mattie, she was completely awestruck.  Sonic Car Hop has been completely tossed from the list and replaced with spray painted drummer statue girl.  I’ve even caught her looking up costumes on-line.

We had a fabulous dinner at The Southern on the patio.  Though let me just say, if you order the Pickle Platter – it is pickled all sorts of things, not just run of the mill pickles.  We were a wee bit let down by that one, however, their pretzel appetizer was pretty amazing.  Who knew pretzels and apple butter should be paired together?

Sunday there was more Little House play, the boys played golf and Steph and I went back to Asheville to poke around in more of the little shops.

The best part of the visit though was probably Monday morning – when we got to be there to sing Happy Birthday (in person) to Kiki.  Living 9 hours apart, you miss some of those big moments.  But once in a while, everything lines up just perfectly and you actually get to be a part of them.

We had planned to leave fairly soon after breakfast, Kiki had requested breakfast s’mores down at the fire pit – which let me just say, I think more Mondays should be started off with a big campfire, chocolate and marshmallows.  I had most everything packed up and ready to be loaded, but then Kiki wanted to open and use one of her presents.

It just so happens that Kiki and Mattie both have career aspirations that involve paint.  Kiki has been dreaming of becoming a “Painter Face” and being the awesome parents that they are, Mark and Steph wanted to foster her dreams.  She was a gifted a “painter face” starter kit and the girls pleaded to give it a test run before we had to leave.  In typical Mattie fashion, she took over Kiki’s gift to just “make sure it works right”.  Thank you Mattie for always being willing to try things out first for all of us – we were all holding our breath there for a minute on whether or not the paint was actually going to adhere to a human face.  Mattie’s work scared me worse than the copper-colored fisherman.  I’m not a big believer in shaming or discouraging my children, but Mattie Belle, this is not one of your talents.

Next was Kiki’s turn.  She was going to paint Mattie as a tiger.  She carefully studied her materials and the instructions laid out before her in the book.  She seemed poised and confident – completely in her element.

We knew she was finished when she put her brush and sponge down, she stepped back to study her work and a sly smile escaped from her little mouth.  She had done it!  She was a Painter Face and it was all the she had hoped for.  Unfortunately, I don’t think the artwork was quite was Mattie was hoping for.

She was not impressed.

I had to hold back the laughter, the intense, belly laughter that was pleading to escape – while I had a sincere word with her about how Kiki was only 4.  She was disappointed and had really been looking forward to a Tiger face painting, it had been a while.  And to that, I said that I completely understood – there is something really fulfilling about sporting an awesome tiger painted face.  But lets take a minute to look at the big picture, the artist was only a minute into being 4 years old….it’s possible that maybe Mattie should have lowered her expectations.  Trying to have this conversation with her, her gray lips drawn into a pout with the weird orangey plaid thing happening on her right cheek, was one of my most difficult parenting tasks yet.  It was made even harder when she gestured towards Lila in an attempt to show off what “quality” face painting she had been expecting.  Mattie Girl, you made your sister look like Baby Joker!  Nothing about that terrifying face shows any semblance to a rabbit.

While this was happening with Mattie, Kiki was working on her next client – her sister Rosie.  Rosie also wanted to be a rabbit.

Kiki found the page with the detailed instructions and set to work.

Having already done one face, she exuded a confidence now as she worked on her sophomore project.

This time she moved a bit quicker, larger strokes – she had the hang of this.

I think this was a fine object lesson for our children that many things in life are subjective – including art and one’s personal interpretation of  instructions and colors.

Where Mattie was put out and rather annoyed, Rosie was devastated.  I think she actually told her mama, “This isn’t what I was expecting!  I really thought there might be a flower or something”.  Kiki on the other hand, was completely unphased by her sister’s reaction.

Because we hated to leave on such an emotional note, Uncle Brandon did a little spur of the moment “dancing” to lighten the mood.  Turns out, dance is also subjective.  Kiki also shared some panda shoes with Lila which always makes things better.  Good-byes are so much easier when you are sporting too-big  animal shoes on the wrong feet.

We had an incredible time Murrills.  Y’all were like a booster shot of sunshine into our lives.  We knew we were missing you, but seeing you made us realize it all the more.  Never again will we let this much time go by and we will do our best to make early morning breakfast bonfires a permanent birthday tradition.

Have a productive and Happy Thursday!