Beachy with Friends

So do you see these awesome kids? My friend Becky and I have been dreaming about getting these kids together for more than ten years. Ten years? Yep. No type-o there.  Becky and I used to sit around and think about how our lives would change as we got older. At that time there were no husbands. No kids. Both of were starting our first teaching jobs. We weren't in a hurry to grow up, but rather I remember us being very aware of the current rare time in life that we were finally "adults" yet nobody depended on us. We were independent of our parents, yet also independent of others.  We knew that would change, and it did.  All we knew was that when marriage and children came... we wanted to do that part of our life together too. 

We often talk on the phone about our "parallel" lives. It seemed that the struggles that Scott and I were having with life, wether it with a career issue, parenting frustration, or just juggling the finances of raising a family, the Andersons were there with at the same point in life. Though South Carolina and Colorado are far apart, the similarities in life pulled us even closer together. 

 Watching our kids play was beyond "fun." It was a dream. They got along and played so well. Some of my favorite parts of the week were the downtime around the house with play dough, hot wheels, or a picture book. Emily read a lot to the littler ones. And by the way, our twins were born in the same month as Evie. Jack is only two, but thinks of himself as four. Eli and Jack loved that they had the same pajamas. That was an accident. When they walked out of separate rooms in turtle pj's Becky and I could only mutter "parallel lives" with a smile.

This was how we spent most of the mornings in to early afternoon. 

 We towed the kids to the beach in bike trailers and took a ride for snow cones and dinner around the island. That was a beautiful bike ride for sure.

One night at dinner Becky and I surprised Scott and Jay with a shark fishing trip. I was a little unsure, as was she. We didn't know what expectations to have, but it was affordable, and looked like fun. We sent them off the next morning and took the kids in to Charleston for a day's adventure.

 I think its safe to say the dads had a great time. Scott and Jay both caught a couple sharks each. We were thrilled they had such a good time. Ironically, their captain is currently on a realty show that airs Sunday nights called Top Hookers. It was fun to come home and watch their captain compete on the show.

 This is some of what we did while the boys were fishing. It was hot, and so this was inevitable. We walked all the way from King and Market streets to the waterfront park. Quite a trek for an 8 year old, three 4 year olds, and a 2 year old.

 Most of all we did a lot of this. One of my favorite things about the beach house was that the dining room table had enough seats for all nine of us to gather around. And we did. A lot.

 We also took trips like this to Botany Bay

 And played...
 and played...

 and played...
 on the beach.

 All of us loaded on to a shrimping boat and spent a couple hours dragging the nets. While it was great, and tasty, to pull up shrimp, it was also fun to watch the kids sort through the other flounder, rays, various fish, and jellies that came up in the net with the shrimp. Then the kids would throw those things back and watch the dolphins swim along-side the boat. This was one of my favorite days for sure.

 I think all of us finished a book on the trip. Emily finished two. So when it was time to go we were ready, but already talked about the trip we would take next year. Everybody agreed and we put the deposit down the day before we left, guaranteeing that we wouldn't let ourselves put it off with the rigmarole of life. The tradition is set! I couldn't be more thankful for such an amazing family to share life with than the Andersons. And as my kids grow up, I pray especially that my girls will have an amazing friend to grow in life with so that when marriage and motherhood come, their friendship will encourage, motivate, challenge, and love. And I pray they will never take it for granted, and that I won't either.

The Garden

So my favorite part of gardening isn't the vegetables. Its the compost pile. I love my worms. We have a great friendship. I give them watermelon rinds, and they give me soil. Its a beautiful thing. Right now I have about 2-3,000 worms in the bin. A few months ago we dumped all the soil on a tarp and picked out the worms before tilling the soil in to the raised bed. We threw the worms back in the bin with a little bit of starter soil. 

 

And now here we are. The worms have reproduced to the point of actually having to "feed the worms" to keep them alive. I probably throw in about 3-4lbs of food waste a week. My plants in the veggie garden have started to grow, but we have all of these "mystery" plants that I didn't plant. I've transplanted tomato plants from my basil garden, the oregano, the geraniums, and even the potted impatience. My theory is that at some point I must have put some mushy tomatoes in the compost, and now the seeds have sprouted everywhere I've put the compost. Needless to say, we will have a lot of tomatoes this year.

Ahhh Summer. I have so many plans for you.

Summer Plans:
Poolside lounging
Library trip taking
Cookout grilling
Play date making
Coffee drinking
Glue, paint, crayon mess creating
Lake kayaking
Home binder organizing
Zoo animal watching
Garden growing
Meal planning
Dissertation writing supporting
Jam making
Beach week vacationing
Splash pad splashing
Friendship growing
Kid snuggling
Family loving

Things to Remember

Much guilt comes from neglecting my blog. Over the past few months there have been several things that I've wanted to remember. Things I just hope never to forget. That's one of my favorite things about my blog. I love looking back at the posts and remembering specific moments that I may have otherwise not remembered.

So here are just a few things of late that I hope never to forget.

• Cookbooks. I'm not sure what started it, but there was a time this past fall when all our kids wanted to read together were cookbooks. I would get down all the cookbooks from the shelf and they would pile on to the couch and talk about which recipes looked the best, and drool all over the pictures. 

• Swimming. This was such a part of my life for so long, and I just love that Emily is enjoying it right now. I totally realize that she could change her mind about this sport in exchange for any number of activities, but right now I'm relishing in watching her swim. She's also found that she likes a bit of competition... something that Scott and I didn't see before. 

• Differences. I think this pretty much sums up the differences between the twins. This is a picture from a birthday party the twins went to. Both Eli and Elsie were totally excited to select a present for their friend Lyles, and to go to the party. When we got there, they had an awesome puppet show all set up. Before it started, all the kids sat down in front in little rows. You can see Elsie right there in the middle of it all. But where's Eli? Well, he's behind the sofa yelling "I hate puppets! Puppets are evil!" So while the entire show went on, and Elsie danced and sang and had a grand time, poor Eli was still behind the sofa, silently cursing the puppets. 
• Skirts. I know this will pass, and when it does I have to admit that I won't be sad. Right now Elsie is in a phase where she wants to wear skirts ALL THE TIME. With the weather getting colder, this is a constant battle. Every day we have to explain why she needs pants, and I'm not going to lie, there is often tears and screaming. Then, as soon as we get home from school and work, Elsie goes straight upstairs and puts on her skirt, pulling everything out of her drawers until she has the perfect outfit. And that's not all. She also has an obsession with shoes. (I think she gets this from her Grammy) This is illustrated nicely in the conversation that happened before bed just a couple nights ago:
• Eli: I really like God
• Me: What is it that you like about him?
• Eli: He makes all sorts of vegetables. So if you don't like broccoli, you can eat carrots, or all sorts of other things. He made SO many yummy vegetables
• Emily: You know what I like about God? He made all different kinds of people. None of them look alike. I like that He did that. 
• Elsie: My turn! I like God too... He made all different types of shoes!  *oh boy are we in for it!*
• We've found a new favorite toy. And just when you think the "magic" has died off, somebody comes up with an even more awesome way to play with it!  THE STOMP ROCKET!

Maybe I can find a way to update every season. Maybe that will be doable. We'll see. 

Summer

Events from the first week of summer:

• Monday- Scott flew out at 5 a.m. for a research trip to the Oregon coast. It rained most of the day, so in desperation, I took the kids to McDonalds with a friend, and we let our kids play for over two hours in the PlayPlace. I'm hoping the good exercise makes up for the antibiotic injected chicken nuggets. (Eww... that looks even worse written than it sounds). We had an evening play date with neighbors, and the kids made their own pizzas for dinner.
• Tuesday- More rain. And I mean RAIN. So we went to the special summer $1 movie theater. Emily and I weren't sure how the twins would do (this was their first movie-going experience) so we were prepared to have to get up in the middle and leave if need be, but everybody was great. They loved the experience. Looks like the $1 movie theater may be a summer staple!
• Wednesday- More rain. Seriously the weather temp was great (low 80's) but the rain HAD to stop! We played inside most of the day. I'm now an expert on how to build a "traffic jam" with hotwheels. :) We read many books, and are now almost down with the BFG, which Eli especially seems to like. This is the first chapter book I've read with the twins, and I can't wait to read another. Eli loves it, and begs me to read more. Elsie... well, Elsie sort of listens from afar. And that's fine with me.

**Wednesday evening was super special because after the kids went to bed, I had some great girlfriends over for wine. And what made this even more awesome was that I spent all day Wednesday in contact with my sister and mom as my sister was in labor! Her sweet baby Camille was born at 7:21 p.m. (10:21 my time) while I was surrounded by my friends. This worked out well because I was aching to be with my sister, but my friends celebrating with me was special. More on this later, too!

• Thursday- Picnic at the Harbison Duck Pond. I will post pictures later. Yes, we did play on the toys and it was great. But what was absolutely amazing was the nature walks we took. Turtles, ducks with ducklings, woodpeckers, swans, herrings... more on this to come.
• Friday- Its finally warmed up today (88- and no, I'm not complaining. June has proven to be amazing so far!) and so we're off to the pool this morning. The plan is to get there at 10 and not return home until we have eaten lunch and swam till we dropped right before nap time.

Its been a great week! I'm constantly looking for new summer activities to experience together, but we like to just hang at home some too. I'm loving the time with the kids, though this mommy really is missing the daddy. He will be home Monday. Summer will only get better!

Happy Mother's Day!

So, I've spent about an hour trying to pick the very best template for our blog with the updated blogger format. I finally got it all taken care of, when I went to a friends blog and noticed that she had the exact same template, and now mine was just a replica of an already cool blog that I now copied. Ugh. So, sorry Jill, but my blog is going to copy yours for the time being because I just can't stand the thought of formatting any more tonight!

I started thinking about his very thing a little more. Moms spend a lot of time making sure they give their kids "the very best" even if its just a family blog with "the very best" template background. I recently read an amazing article about the pressure today's mom puts on herself by looking through various magazines, Pinterest, and Facebook. The temptation to compare is severe, and the outcome almost always leaves me feeling unworthy.

Last March, for Emily's birthday, she asked me if I would make her red velvet cupcakes. Now I've never made red velvet anything. Is it a southern thing? Because I don't remember eating them growing up either. Regardless, I set out to my favorite Publix determined to make "the very best red velvet cupcakes" ever. No mind that I hadn't made them before. No box cake mix for me, no sir! I would make only the best for my sweet Emily! I was armed with my iPhone and a list of ingredients that Paula Dean assured me would leave those first graders amazed. It was if somehow the most important thing in life was to be deemed Cupcake Goddess by a class of seven year olds.

I came home and baked, frosted, and sprinkled until I had what I thought was the very best cupcake ever. The batter had baked up creating the perfect "cupcake top." I had mixed up a batch of my homemade frosting, and piped it on with my special frosting tip. I had matched the sprinkles to the cupcake paper perfectly. These were some dynamite cupcakes if I do say so myself!

Scott had eaten one, and had deemed them a success. I anxiously waited for Em to get out of the shower to come downstairs and marvel at the cupcakes. When she finally made her way downstairs, she gasped. "Oh mommy! Those are fabulous! I bet they taste even better! I can't wait to bring them to school mommy! Oh thank you! I bet these are going to be the best happy birthday cupcakes we've ever had in our class!"

Then she walked away, and I beamed. Success!

But wait....

She got half-way up the stairs, and turned around and came back down. She bursted by over-sized cupcake bubble with this,

"Well mommy. Did I ever tell you about the cupcakes Anne's* mom made for our class? Because they were really pretty too. And they tasted so good! I bet your cupcakes will taste just as good as the cupcakes Anne's mommy made"

I thought to myself, "Okay, I can handle coming in with a tie to Anne's mommy. That's not so bad, right"

But then Emily let the final blow fly when she said, "But the thing about Anne's mommy... she waited for our entire class to eat them..." (she said this with extreme enthusiasm) "... and when we were all done and there was frosting over all our faces and we were saying how good they were, Anne's mommy waited for us to be completely totally done eating. And then Anne's mommy told us that there was actually zucchini and tomato juice in those cupcakes! Can you believe it mom? Anne's mommy made cupcakes that were pretty, they tasted so good, AND they had an entire serving of vegetables! That's amazing, huh mom?"

With that, my sweet Emily walked back up the stairs to brush her teeth. I looked over at Scott who was pretending to read the newspaper to conceal his wide eyes and sheepish grin.

And then I burst out laughing. Right then and there my life had turned in to a sit-com. I had the power to turn the ending in to a sobbing emotional wreck of a mommy moment (think Debra from Everybody Loves Raymond) or I could turn it into a Hallmark Hall of Fame moment where I realized that my love to my daughter doesn't exist through the perfection of red velvet cupcakes. (Cue cheesy music here.)

The entire thing was rather hysterical.

Now, on Mother's Day, I look back on this and pray that somehow I will find and maintain that balance between wanting to do and be all that I can for my sweet Emily, Elsie, and Eli, but also catch myself from comparing to others. There are many things I will never learn to do. But I have to constantly remind myself that my kids don't care so much about things I do, create, make, or achieve as much as they care about me loving them. And as long as they know how much I love them, it doesn't matter if my cupcakes don't have vegetables in them!

*I changed Emmy's friend's name :)

Happy Third Birthday Eli and Elsie!

We had a little backyard birthday party for Eli and Elsie yesterday. Our friends and neighbors joined us. When we were planning for this event, we went to the party store to buy some themed plates and napkins, just for the cake table. Eli chose Hotwheels and Elsie chose Tinker Bell. I thought I could get away with buying an extra-large hot wheel and have a "Tinker Bell riding in a Hotwheel" cake. But alas, that didn't happen. I ended up making two cakes: One yellow with chocolate frosting with a hot wheel for the Eli, and a strawberry with strawberry cake with Tinker Bell for Miss Pink.

i

One of my favorite parts of the day was when Eli got to give Elsie a gift he'd picked out for her. Elsie has this doll house that she loves, but she is always trying to find a "friend" for the doll house "purple mommy." Which means she tries to use a Barbie doll to be friends with the much smaller doll house "purple mommy", and all is well until she puts them in the doll house mini-van. Barbie won't fit, the purple mommy always cries and end up going to the grocery store alone, without her friend. It always ends with tears. So... Eli and I went to pick out a gift for Elsie, and he found a new mommy to be friends with the doll house mommy. And to make it even better, she comes with a pony that she can ride. Elsie was elated when she opened it, and the only way to describe Eli's face was "proud." It was awesome to see him filled with joy upon giving his sister a gift. Of course Elsie had a gift for Eli too, which was a car with flashing lights. No surprise here: Eli loved it.

Updated Stuff

I've got to be better about updating my blog. I guess the first thing to do would be to take Tim's suggestion and add some recent pictures. This is Miss Elsie. Her hair keeps growing, and I figure as long as I can run a brush through it and keep it braided and tied back, we'll keep letting it grow. I can't imagine cutting off those little curls from the bottom.

THis was taken by the neighborhood pool. I love this picture. It captures so much of Eli's personality.

My grandmother sent a card to each of the twins. Again, I love how this captures their sweet personality. They couldn't wait to see what was inside, and when "paper money" fell out of the card, they both squealed! Emily has taught them how far a dollar can go at the dollar store!

I ran my first half-marathon a couple weeks ago. I think I will do it again. Having my sweet husband with the kids cheering me on at the finish line was one of the best things ever. Totally worth another 13.1 to experience their excitement for me when I finished.

This one is of Miss Em this past Sunday at the AWANA awards banquet. Notice the two missing teeth. The top two are both wiggly. Its pretty cute to see her toothless grin!

Happy Birthday Elsie and Eli

Time is a funny thing. I remember those ten days that we spend shuffling back and forth from the hospital, trying to make it to as many feedings as possible. I thought we'd never get them home. Ten days seems like nothing now, but to a mom waiting in anticipation to bring those sweet babies home, ten days seems like an eternity! I remember sitting in those hospital recliners in the NICU, napping, nursing, and cooing with my babies. Those days seemed to last forever. And they were wonderful. Not as wonderful as bringing them home though.

And now three years has gone by, seemingly faster than those first ten. How is it possible? Those sweet fragile things are now the most rough and tumble pair I know! And that big sister squeezing them tight? How did she grow in to this loving older child? I remember her walking through the grocery store with me and the twins, people would often walk by and comment on our babies, or as Emily would say, "her babies." But as time went on, if we were in the store and Em thought somebody wasn't paying enough attention to"her babies" she would say a little too loudly, "Hey Mom. Don't you think its great that God gave us two babies? That makes us really special." Then the moment she made eye contact with anybody she would say, "Did you see our babies? We have two! And they're really beautiful!"

These two have been different from the start. Today, Elsie is our comedian. She loves to make those around her laugh. She loves silly faces and sounds. Once she's found out how to make somebody smile, the game is on! Elsie is a very happy girl. She wakes up that way in the morning and goes to sleep that way in the evening. She will go to anybody who looks like "fun" and fears nothing. She's also independent. Emily has had to learn that sometimes Elsie just wants to do things her way, with no help. I see much of myself in her in this way. Elsie is great with a pencil and pen. She loves to write, draw and color. She draws small squiggles on the page and likes to point to them and tell me what they say. When she's "reading" me her writing, her words are just jibber-jabber while her hands are moving all around. Its as if she thinks talking fast will make her sound important. Of course, all with a huge grin on her face.

Eli is our compassionate snuggler. He often will ask to come sit on our laps and snuggle with us. He especially likes to snuggle with Daddy and watch cartoons. He's reserved... certainly not a risk-taker. He refuses to jump on the trampoline or in bounce houses. Its as if he possesses some sort of knowledge about danger that the rest of us can't understand. He's safe, but certainly not reserved. He runs around outdoors like a typical boy... enjoying being potty trained and urinated on a tree if it happens that he should have to go potty while we're in the backyard. That's a highlight of his day. Eli will come up with phrases that he hears and use them in the most perfect context. The other day he was trying to catch the end of a jump rope while Elsie ran with the other end in her hand. Out of nowhere he shouts out, "I don't think I'll ever be able to catch that fast girl!" Which of course wasn't the case. When shortly after he did catch her, he jumped up and down and yelled, "I am the champion!" Hysterical.

Somebody told me once that the older one gets, each passing year is a smaller percentage of total life. How true that is. I can't imagine what it will feel like to have our three out of the house in college and starting their own careers. I can't imagine how quickly the time will pass when they will grow up. How precious life is with them. Three years ago I had no idea how sweet and blessed our lives would become. I couldn't have imagined how these sweet babies would grow to change the way I see the world. How amazing it is to be their mom.

My Simple Family

Our family was fortunate enough to have today off from work and school. We were looking forward to this day to run some much needed errands. We loaded up the car and started down our long list. After four stops, we had some lunch out as a family. Everybody had a great time. We continued on with our errands, ending with the final stop as the twins nodded off in their car seats. I ran in to make a quick exchange, and came out to find all three kids asleep.

Scott and drove home with all three of our sweeties snoozing behind us. We pulled in the driveway and both agreed to do the 'ole, "Who can get the baby in the house without waking him/her" routine. You know this one... where you unbuckle and gently pull the sleeping kid out from the seat without startling him/her, then walk up the stairs, careful to skip over the squeaky one two from the top, and finally put the sleeping child in their bed... and he/she continues to sleep??

Luckily all three kids (Yes, Emily has been known to nap every day on the weekend) stayed asleep, and Scott and I were left with some quiet time to read (or blog).

I realize that in a few years our weekends will likely be more lively with the kids activities. And I also realize that a few years after that our kids will be busy with their own things without us. So today was special, in that it really wasn't. We were just a mini-van full of a family running errands and grabbing a bite on Harbison Blvd. just like many other families around us. But I'm so thankful we were together... having fun doing nothing really.

When our kids grow up and are out of the house, I think it will be these days I will miss the most. I actually like packing the diaper bag, using high chairs at restaurants, and pulling out the stroller at every stop. I like that Emily entertains the twins, and that they giggle at her while I help Scott pick out a new pair of pants for work. Simple things.

Christmas Top Ten

There is so much I could write about our Christmas trip to California. But since I've proved to fall off the blog bandwagon, I will stick to a top ten list in no order of importance.

10. Christmas morning after we did the present thing, we went to my parents church... the church where Scott and I got married, the church where I grew up, the church where I feel everybody still knows me. I love that place. And even though I had to take the twins out of the service after a few worship songs, all was good, because I got to sit in a room full of girls I grew up with while we watched our children play. What a fabulous time.

9. My sister and her husband James are pregnant with their first. I couldn't wait to finally see her with her new little baby bump. I'm so excited for the two of them, and their precious baby due in June!

8. Christmas morning my kiddos opened a gift from my parents that revealed a trip to Disneyland. The twins didn't really get it, but Emily understood. Waiting four days until after Christmas was a little difficult, but boy was she excited! I should probably post specifically about Disneyland... maybe that will be next. We had a wonderful time!

7. I hate the Houston airport. There are few things that I feel that way toward, but the Houston airport is definitely one of them. Scott says its because the place was named after Bush, but whatever the reason, that airport is the most disorganized, unreliable, poor airport in the entire county. (In my opinion of course.) After an amazingly easy trip out, the trip home was miserable. And not because we traveled with three kids... our kids did an awesome job. But because eight hours waiting in an airport for a crew to show up, only to end up with a cancelled flight is no way to end a wonderful trip. Ugh.

6. Costco. Scott loves to go to Costco with my mom. Its pretty funny. One thing he asks to do each year is go to Costco and then have lunch at his favorite Bakersfield restaurant, "Flames and Skewers." Of course we always do this.

5. And another thing about Scott. My mom knows all of his "favorites" and has each of these things waiting for him. Everything to his favorite hair gel, to his favorite cereal, drinks, and snacks. The house is full of "Scott's favorites." Sometimes I think she likes him more than me! :)

4. My dad took Emily to horseback riding lessons. Well, let's back up. Before he took her to horseback riding lessons, he asked her what she would need before riding a horse. She told him she'd need to dress like a cowgirl. So he took her to the "Cowgirl store" (Western Warehouse) where the nice man outfitted her in new boots, hat, belt buckle, wranglers, and a new "cowgirl" shirt. Then he took her to ride a gentle horse named "Shotgun." The lady giving her the lesson was amazing, and totally did an excellent job. By the end of the hour, Emily was fearlessly cantering around the ring. I was amazed... and a little scared at her lack of fear. My dad sort of opened a can of worms, because it looks like Scott and I will be finding a place for her to take lessons around the Irmo area.
FYI- The shirt she picked out was checkered, because Woody and Jessie from Toy Story have a checkered shirt, so don't all cowboys/cowgirls? Hilarious.

3. Being so far away, Scott hasn't had many opportunities to get to know our new brother-in-law James. I've always wished for my husband and whomever Mindy married to be close, just like Mindy and me. While in Bakersfield there were several nights when everybody said their goodnights, leaving only James and Scott to talk to each other. I was so thankful that time was made. I know Scott enjoyed getting to know his brother-in-law. We just love James!

2. Traditions. Every year my mom buys us all new pajamas, and every year we open one Christmas gift on Christmas Eve. Of course Mom chooses, and the one we open in our new pajamas. Scott has an issue with wearing any clothing before its washed, so Mom now actually washes and dries the pajamas before wrapping them. (I tell you, she spoils him!) Well, this year was no different, except not only did we get new pajamas, but each couple got a new game to play. We put the kids to bed, and spent the rest of the evening drinking wine and playing games. It was one of my favorite nights for sure.

1.Family and friends. We were able to see a lot of family and friends this trip. Emily loves to play with her friends Ryan and Issa, and we all loved getting to see some great friends in Fresno, and our friends from Colorado. Seeing our kids interact with their grandparents is always precious, and makes the time so tender. As much as I'm glad to be home, I always look forward to Christmas in California.

The Messy Times

I've started three different posts in the past two weeks, and none of them have made their way to publications. Hopefully this one will be different.

We've had a bit of a mess lately. Almost three weeks ago Scott and I came home on a Monday after work to find water dripping out of our circuit breaker box. Surely this is never a good thing to see. Scott did some investigation that included a crawl to the opposite end of the crawl space access door, and found there was a PVC pipe that was spraying water all over. An hour later, a plumber had come out a fixed the problem, but let us know there was a huge mess, and it had been spraying for a long time. At least a month or two.

Long story short, we had a mold mediation company come and rip out all of our flooring in the kitchen, including the sub floor. They took out and replaced a few floor joists, and cleaned up the remaining wood, painted it all down with a special miro-ban material, and installed a new sub floor. Our cabinets, appliances, and counter all had to be removed as well, leaving our kitchen (That we'd just remodeled 5/2010) looking like a construction zone.

After almost two weeks in a hotel, we're now back in our house. We have our cabinets installed again, with a temporary counter top and running water in our sink. Our flooring won't be done for another week or so, and our appliances are still sitting in our dining room, which leaves our dining room table in our living room, and all the boxes from the cabinets and pantry lining the walls downstairs.

But the entire thing hasn't been so bad. When we were in a hotel, our friend and neighbor who works at the Hilton in downtown Columbia gave us the presidential suite at a rate that was well within the insurance company's guidelines for reimbursement. Emily thought she was Eloise. We were so thankful. It was like a really bad situation turned in to something Emily won't ever forget.

And the first weekend we were out of the house, we decided that since we had to be out of house and eating out anyway, why not take a road trip and see the beautiful Tennessee smokey mountains? We made the most of it, and had a great time.

So right now, I sit in my overly-cluttered living room, watching the Gamecocks play some football. (They're winning right now, by the way.) I really have nothing to complain about. This too will pass. Chances are we will love our new kitchen and flooring downstairs much more than the floor we installed just a little over a year ago. Everybody is healthy, and nobody got sick because of the mold, thank goodness. We are back to sleeping in our own beds, and I'm planning on trying out a few new crock pot recipes next week.

When the "normal" of life gets interrupted by a mess, I realize just how lucky we are. We've had so many little "messes"- things that we didn't expect to happen, that just sort of rocked our lives for a moment... twins (more than one baby at a time, seriously?), Emily being in the NICU (we expected with twins, but surely didn't expect it from our first little girl) moving away just a few short months after Em was born, and other little messes that we've dealt with along the way. And the "messy time" will come again. I just hope that between now and then that I will remember to be thankful, and to not take the little things for granted.

Life with the Johnsons

Life has been really full lately, so as I've thought how to update the blog the only reasonable way I could come up with was a bulleted list of random happenings in our home. Things that are "on my mind" so to speak. And here we go!

- Today is Friday and I'm at home. That's because this morning when I dropped the twins off at Shari's, Elsie and I were going up the stairs and she fell on the stairs. After hours of watching the lump on her head, and having her extremely loose teeth checked and x-rayed by our wonderful pediatric dentist, she and Eli are now napping upstairs. This leaves me with a very hectic morning behind me, a current headache, and an unexpected peaceful afternoon. Glad the morning part was over. It was scary to say the lease.

-We have a new addition to the family. Emily Grace is the proud owner of Lucy Anna, a ten week old kitten. The kitten showed up one day, and never left. We've looked for owners, had her microchip-scanned, but nobody ever claimed her. Three weeks, and a $100 vet bill later, we've officially claimed her as our own. She's super sweet, let's the kids hold her, and has a motor on her that you can hear ten feet away. She lives outside, mostly on the side of the front porch. Emily plays with her every day. They have quickly become best friends.

- School. School is going very well. Besides my nervousness about the first time leaving them with a sub, with less than stellar sub plans today, I'm loving the group of lovelies that I spend my days with. There is so much personality, and as I get to know each of them, I just love them so much more. All groups I've had love me to read with them. But there's something different about this group. They don't just love me reading to them, they CRAVE it. We're reading a chapter book right now called Crash, and they BEG for me to read more throughout the day. So its becomes this transitional thing where I will give some instructions on what to do to prepare for whatever we're doing next, and they BEG me to read a chapter while they're doing it. Then they silently attend to whatever they need to do, and listen so intently, just pleased to hear one more chapter. Its awesome. And I love it.

- The House. With the start of school the housekeeping, laundry, cooking, and shopping are once again struggling. I love to be the domestic diva of my house. I love running a household that's spick and span, neat and orderly, cute and inviting. But this is hard for a working mom of three precious kids and one lovely husband. And somewhere I've come to this awful belief that if a house is clean, tidy, and inviting, then the lady who runs it is successful. And my definition of my success sometimes solely rides on whether or not my house is perfect. Ridiculous? Absolutely. I'm learning to working to remind myself that what really matters is the love that goes on in the house....not the dust bunnies that may or may not exist. This is a work in progress.
** It does help, however, that there was a groupon the other day for a cleaning service to come for five hours and clean your house (up to 2500 sq. ft.) for half price. I bought one, and I can't wait to use it!

- Scott and I are starting a small group in our home. A group from church will meet in our home after the second service for lunch and our Bible study time. With everything Scott has going on with his dissertation, I will be the one mainly facilitating the group, but he will co-lead it with me. We're really excited about it.

- Scott and I have been running. This week was sort of a bust with only a couple runs that got in, but for the most part we're keeping it up. We both run about three miles 3-4 times a week. Its like therapy for me. I've forgotten how much I believe in physical and mental health going hand in hand.

- And its beautiful too. My three mile run takes me to one stretch with no houses for about 1.5 miles. Its mostly woods on both sides of the road, but at the end of the road there is a corn field. One night last week, I was out for a run and seven deer darted out not ten feet in front of me. They'd come out of the corn field and I just about peed my pants I was so startled. Once I got over my initial surprise, I was just taken aback at the beauty of this great place we live. I continued on my run, and since it was about dusk, the fireflies were out. Just me running, in the woods, with God's beauty surrounding everything I could see. How awesome it is!

Well, I'm off to spend my relaxing time at home making dinner for my family. The temp has dropped almost 25 degrees over night, making our high just above seventy. I've decided to celebrate the coming of fall by opening every window in the house, and making a big beef stew loaded with fresh veggies. Dinner with the fam tonight should be a good one!

Last Week

Last week while Scott was here we decided to make a brief trip to Fresno to visit some dear friends of ours, Jean, Debbie, and Pat. Once we got to Fresno we went straight to their children's bookstore. Its probably the best kids bookstore I've ever seen. Think Shop Around the Corner from You've Got Mail...only much better. The store is entirely kid centered, and the boooks are thoughtfully selected. I love it. Of course everybody in our family found a book or two they coudln't leave without. I even found a fabulous book that I can't wait to share with my classroom that is apparenlty out of print. The store had one copy left, and since I found it before Scott, it gets to come home with me! Yeah!

After spending a wonderful afternoon swimming, cooking out, and talking with friends, we got up the next morning and set out to meet some other friends of ours, Steve and Lisa and their two cute kids Audrey and Joseph. We loaded up the cars (Steve and Scott in one, and Lisa and I in another) and set off for the Kings Canyon and Sequoiah National Parks to see the "big trees."


We had a fabulous time. Personally, I thought the car ride up was just as fun as anything. Catching up with friends is always good, and a car ride to the mountains was the perfect opportunity. I'm certain Scott felt the same way about his time with Steve.



Once we got there and had lunch, we began to take the hike to through Grants Grove. There were several giant sequoias on this path. The kids looked with awe... well mostly. Emily didn't really think the trees were all that big. She wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought she would be. She kept telling me there certainly were bigger trees some place else. Finally, after assuring her that no, these were the biggest, she seemed to understand the importance. Elsie seemed to be very impressed with the "Big Tees! Big Tees!"




Emily had a great time hanging with Joseph. If only we lived closer. I'm sure these two would enjoy hanging out more.







The kids all loved running up and down the path with each other. Every once in awhile Eli would get a little too far in front of the group. Elsie handled it though. She would run up to him and yell, "Eyi! Stop!" Then she would grab him by the shirt and walk him back to the group. Poor Eli. I have a feeling there will be more of this bossiness to come.
Scott and I decided to drive the long way through the Sequoia National Park to get to Visalia, and then hit the 99 back to Bakersfield. This was a great trip. We loved the beautiful mountains, the foreign travlers, and the clean crisp air. We stopped several times to see the sights, and just take in the view. This one is of Emily is looking down at the Kings Canyon Park behind her, and the Sequoiah Park is on the other side of her. Simply beautiful! There was a controlled burn going on while we were there, so I feel like it probably wasn't as clear as other days. But still, it was amazing.




On the back side to Visalia we got stuck in a traffic jam for over an hour. Apparenlty there was road work where construction crews demolished one of the lanes for a ten mile stretch. These roads are the curviest roads you can imagine, so taking out a lane on a two-lane windy road must be dangerous work. We sat and waited for the hour, and then when it was finally time for us to, we had a pilot car take us down the mountain on a one-way stretch that rivaled the show Ice Road Truckers.



Luckily for us, our fearless driver got us all home safe!


It was a tremendous trip! We are so thankful our kids could see the "giant trees" even if only Emily remembers. I hope that we can return soon when they are a bit older. Its truly amazing to see such old, strong, beauty.