New Photos

Not much to say tonight. Just wanted to let you know I've posted May and June album links containing photos from Evan's birthday, soccer, karate, end of school, Peachtree Dekalb Airport with the cousins, our trip, and last nights going away party for our good friends, the Kennedys - and more. Check it out when you have some time....

Most. Expensive. Distraction. Ever.

Swim meets are not much fun for the little siblings. Let's face it. Swim meets are not much fun for the parents either. It is hot as blue blazes. You have to get there at 4:30 to stand around in the sun. No one swims until after 6. The relay team swims for roughly 2 minutes and then an hour later, the freestyle event lasts for 30 seconds, and 45 minutes later, the backstroke event lasts for thirty seconds. I may not be good at the math, but I'm thinking that adds up to about 3 minutes of excitement in about 3-1/2 hours. No wonder the sibs don't enjoy it.

So last night, after we'd been standing around in the heat for about an hour, Pressley was showing signs of being ready to have an epic melt down from the heat. I forgot to take our chairs, so there was nowhere to sit. We'd already had a blue Gatorade. My cell phone was about to have a dead battery, so I couldn't let her play a game on there. Then it struck me. I could put her in the car for a few minutes, plug in my phone, turn on the a/c full blast, and hopefully, she would emerge a different child by the time the meet actually started - cool and entertained. Perfect! Or so I thought.

Pressley has been going to gymnastics camp this week. When she gets in the car at 12:30 each day, I try to ask her about it, but I get one word answers and little enthusiasm. I'm guessing because she's tired and hungry. So, when we got in the car at 5:30 last night and P was up front with me, where she could enjoy maximum benefit from the cold air, she asked if I'd like to hear about her day at camp. I was thrilled that I was finally going to get some information about what she's been doing for 3-1/2 hours each morning.

She sat there in the giant front passenger seat like a little lady and began her explanation. Something about being cookies and sitting in the cookie jar if someone touched her on her bottom....OKaaaaaaaaay. Then something about the bars. Then it was on to the trampoline.

I've watched her on the trampoline before at gymnastics. They don't usually just jump around willy-nilly. There is usually a specific thing they are supposed to be doing. Like trying to do a split-type thing in the air (which, by the way, is hilarious, because apparently 4-year-olds universally cannot get their feet apart and back together in the air). So, I asked what kind of jumps they were doing on the trampoline. Big mistake. BIG mistake.

She planted both palms on the dashboard and jumped up, feet apart and back together. I think I had time to briefly be impressed that she got the feet apart and back together before she landed. But then my brain registered the thwack! She looked a little stunned while I asked - horrified from the sound - "Are YOU OK??" She nonchalantly nodded her head.

Then I saw it. A giant starburst in the windshield - about 14 inches in diameter across the biggest cracks. And I yelled, "Are you SURE you're ok?" She looked puzzled, nodded her head again and then followed my gaze. HERE came the tears. But they were the fake ones. And when I inquired, she admitted it was not because her head hurt, it was because she was upset that she "broked the car."

I'm still amazed that she is absolutely fine. There is no bump. There was no blood. She never even cried real tears. For that I am eternally grateful.

I can't be mad. There was nothing in my being that warned me to prevent her from doing that - even if I had had the time. She wasn't being reckless (or at least I didn't think so). She was obviously as upset that she "broked the car" as I was, so there was no punishment.

The only person to be mad at is myself. Some of the moms got a babysitter for some of the younger siblings for the meet two weeks ago. I had meant to talk to some of the moms at practice yesterday morning to see if they wanted me to try to find a sitter for this meet. But I didn't. I forgot. Or maybe I just thought that $20 was a lot to pay to keep from having to entertain my youngest child while we supported our eldest child with his swimming.

Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, but I suspect that when the Glass Doctor tells me how much it is going to cost to fix my Pane, I'm going to wish like crazy it had never crossed my mind that $20 was too much to spend on a sitter.

Clumsy is as clumsy does

If I were to keep a travelogue of our international travels, I would have to title it, "Falling Down All Over the World."

First, there was Italy. Our honeymoon. I fell twice. Skinned the same knee both times. Once in Positano and once in Sienna. I still have a scar.

There have been other trips (pun intended), and I won't go into those. I'll skip to our latest adventure in Costa Rica.

About a year ago, my mom and dad very generously offered to keep the kids for a week so we could take a trip for our ten year anniversary. (At least, that's how I remember it. I hope they remember it that way too...) So, last week, we boarded a plane, sans kids, and went to Central America. It. Was. AWESOME.

Here are a few shots from the lobby of the hotel overlooking the ocean. Just in case you didn't believe me.

And, here is the view from our poolside lounge chairs, where we sat reading and wiling away the hours most days.

But, it wasn't all about lying around on our lazy bums. We had some adventures while we were there, too. Our first adventure was to go sailing on a small Catamaran with our very able guide, Luis. (You might be wondering when and where my fall occurred, but you'll just have to wait for it. It will be fun. Kinda like being in my head all the time. "I know it is going to happen....Is this when it will happen? A Catamaran on the Pacific Ocean? Will this be when I fall?")

The sailing adventure was fun. It was a slow, relaxing ride - except for the strain of trying to communicate with Luis, who spoke little English. Actually, his English was pretty good. We just got hung up on words like "shark" and "attorney." (The juxtaposition of those words is purely unintentional...) They are hard things to describe when you don't know the proper words. It was like a seafaring game of charades much of the time. I know you wish you could have been a fly on the sail.

Abogado, by the way. Or licensiado. (I think.) Both for attorney. Luis knew the word "shark." It just took us a while to realize he wasn't saying "chart."

Anywho.... here we are on the catamaran. And, no. I did not fall off.

Our second adventure was the next day, when we reunited with Luis and two honeymoon couples and took off in sea kayaks to go out to the rocks you see at the tip of that peninsula that juts out from the left side of the following photo. When we arrived at the rocks, we did a little snorkeling and then kayaked back.

Corin was real worried that this would be my clumsy moment. He was very concerned that I would fall into the water and he would not be able to haul me back into the boat. To his delight, I only got out of the boat once - on purpose - when everyone else got out. And I wasn't nearly as difficult to haul back in as he had supposed. So, no. This was not it either.

That evening, we went on a sunset boat tour. I envisioned a dock with a boat tied to it that we would board without getting our feet wet. So, when we saw the boat anchored 20 yards from shore and realized that we would have to board a small outboard motor boat to get to the bigger boat, I thought maybe this would be my moment. But, thankfully, that excursion went on without incident as well. Here we are on the boat tour, just as happy and in love as we were ten years ago on our honeymoon.

Ok, so by now, perhaps you can share the sense of foreboding that I felt the day I woke up early to get on a bus to go on our Mega Combo Tour. This would be the day we would do a canopy tour (via zip-line), ride a waterslide through the rain forest, and then ride horseback to a natural hot spring, heated by a near-by volcano.

Here is a very flattering picture of Corin and me in our harnesses, helmets, and bug spray - all ready to go.

After riding the zip-line without incident and successfully navigating the waterslide (There are no pictures of the waterslide that I am willing to post. I have to draw a line somewhere...), we got to eat our first seemingly authentic Costa Rican meal. It was yummy. I could have eaten three plates of rice and beans. But, I thought people might stare.

Then. THEN. We had to pony up. Literally. I have not ridden a horse since my cousin and I were on a pony at the farm of some family friends when we were probably 4 and 5, respectively. Someone apparently neglected to cinch up the saddle tight enough and that bad boy slid down around the horse's belly, dumping us both to the ground. I really had no intention of ever mounting a horse again. But when we realized the only other people on the tour who were opting out of the horseback riding to ride in the wagon were old or infirm, we decided to buck up and just do it.

I have never been so terrified in my whole life. And, when my horse slipped on a rock going down a hill, all I could think was, "Great. I get the one horse that is the horse-equivalent of me and is going to fall down with me on his back. Great. Just fantastic. The one advantage of riding the horse instead of hiking was that I trusted that someone sure-footed would be doing the walking." Luckily, he righted himself. He must have better ankle strength than I do, thank the Lord. And, somewhere along the way, I was finally able to relax my grip enough that my knuckles regained their normal color. And when we dismounted at the hot springs, I had never been so glad to be on solid ground.

At the hot springs, we were instructed to "take a steam", then cover ourselves with mud, then shower it off, and then enjoy the various pools of hot spring water. I can't believe I'm going to share this with the world, but here we are after our mud bath. There was some man walking around handing out these, ummm, headpieces for us to wear in our photos. For some reason, it did not occur to us how goofy they would look in print. I don't know why....

After posing for this picture, we rinsed off as we'd been instructed and headed across the small wooden footbridge from the mud to the hot springs. And, are you ready for it?? THAT is where I fell.

While it was definitely slippery and precarious, I was totally caught off guard. I figured that since I had made it through the sailing and the kayaking and the snorkling and the zip-lining and the watersliding and the HORSEBACK riding, for heaven's sake, I could make it across a bridge. But, that's just where I was wrong. You would think I would learn not to get too cocky about the simple things like walking on cobble stone or crossing a bridge. You'd think my experience would have taught me to take nothing for granted. But, alas. I was destined to fall on international soil. It's what I do.

And just so you don't go away with the image of us in those goofy grass crowns, here is a parting shot of one of the many hu-normous (as Pressley would say) iguanas that roamed freely around our resort. I've never seen anything like it in all my life. TONS of them. Everywhere. There was a time when I would've thought that was kinda creepy. But every time we saw them, all I could think was how much Evan would be delighted by them and how much I missed my kids.

Paradise was nice, but I'm glad to be home where I belong.

Oh, my!

Has it really been two weeks since I last posted? I know I say this all the time, but it seems to be always true... We have been so busy. Here is just a sampling of what we've been up to in the last 14 days:

• Two swim meets (12 practices);
• A trip to the lake with the family;
• Celebrating my birthday (and this year, I use the word "celebrating" rather loosely!);
• Hosting Kerry and Kate for a visit;
• A trip to the zoo;
• A trip to the Peachtree DeKalb Airport for the Good Neighbor Day air show;
• And, the first day of Saddle Ridge Ranch: A VBS adventure.

This is my 3rd year helping at VBS, and my first year acting as the co-preschool-worship-leader. What this means is that I made my official acting debut this morning. Actually, I guess it is not my debut. There was that time in the 10th grade that I played a very convincing varsity volleyball player who was moving away from her friends in the youth musical "Friends." Right before singing my first-ever solo. It was quite the performance. (...And friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them...And a friend will not say never; and the welcome will not end...). Oh, I'm sorry you missed it.

I'm sure my sister is also sad you missed it. She sang a lovely little ditty, complete with choreography, about her 501s and her new blue sweater....her RayBan shades and some old love letters.... Ah, memories.

Anywho...today's performance had me playing a fancy french-trained chef who has come to be the substitute cook on a ranch for a week. I am having some big problems fitting in and figuring out how to cook appropriately for a ranch, and my new friend and ranch-hand, Dixie, is going to tell me a Bible story each day that will help me figure it all out. I'll be waiting for the Oscar committee to call. I have to do a lot of crying, and let me tell you....I am fabulous at the fake crying. So convincing I heard a little girl ask Pressley, "Is your mommy really crying or is she pretending?" I think I've missed my calling.

I hope you all recognize the sarcasm. I know sometimes it does not come out well in print, but this post is oozing with it. OK. Just makin' sure.... I am actually quite a horrible actor, but am willing to do what I can for the VBS cause. For the record, that little girl really did ask Pressley if I was really crying. I need to find her mom and let her know that she needs to teach a little street savvy if she can't tell the difference. I mean, when someone actually uses the words "BOO HOO HOO", chances are she is not really crying. (OK, I didn't actually say boo hoo hoo, but I might as well have. It was that bad. But to my credit, I was supposed to be over the top.)

Well, I will put up some new posts soon with some photos of my extraordinarily cute kids and our summer activities. You should not hold your breath hoping to see some of me in my very pretty VBS t-shirt, complete with apron and chef's hat. I won't be posting any of those unless I'm feeling particularly self-deprecating. If you don't stumble onto me while dropping your child off at VBS (or happen to be one of the lucky ones who is working in a preschool class and thereby actually gets to watch this drama unfold), you'll just have to use your imagination.