Mommy, scared?! Noooooo......

Well, I was supposed to go on a trip friday with the girls to go see Earth, Wind, and Fire at the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery but Im such a mom that I couldnt leave my Eli behind so we decided on a family trip to
Boulder Cave up past Naches. My husband had looked it up the week before and funny enough I had just heard about it as well from my cousin Jennie and thought it sounded totally awesome! My husband and I both thought it was a hike up to the cave and a peek inside and then a hike back from where you came. I was also picturing the cave to be a small hole in the side of a medium sized rock. You know, the kind they find heiroglyphs in and maybe a small bat or two lives way in the back because a fuzzy family of bears occupies the cave with sofas, a small kitchen, and of course, honey galore. Eli has been asking us to go on an adventure for some time now so we were so excited to take him up to the cave. At home LeRoy and Eli packed their guns, grenades, knives, binoculars, and a headlamp for the trip. Eli was set! The picture of my boys walking with their backpacks on, Elis has Buzz Lightyear on it and LeRoys is one that I got as a prize from a dance team championship, hehehe:) Anyways, we set off with ready to explore and the kids full of excitement! harper Jo even got a new pair of shoes for the trip;) We first see a cave that is young and still being carved out down in the canyon and I am confused because that looks like a pretty big cave! Dangerous! oooohhh! Now Im a little nervous as to what is in that thing! We walk a little further and there is a sign leading you to the entrance or the exit of the cave and I realize you get to walk entirely through this thing! I still couldnt see it though so I figured it couldnt be very big. Once we were down the hill that leads to the entrance my breath was taken away by a huge wall of solid rock with a big black hole in it! Eek! Eli immediately starts asking if there are bad things in there and I instantly am aware of the frightened look on my face and I tell him with a smile that there are no bad things in the cave and mommy and daddy would never take him somewhere there are bad things. We take a few pictures outside the cave and then read the cave guidelines that remind you that no flash photography is to be taken and keep your voice at a whisper as to not disturb the BATS! Im not terrified of bats, but Im also not exactly thrilled with the images going through my head of one of my children starting to yell and a gaggle of bats flying around my head as I run and scream in terror only to attract more of the flying beasts. But then again, I think, that would make for a really good story. It didnt happen. So here I am still thinking that this cave must be small once you get inside. Well, onceyou get inside there is a point where it becomes pitch black! You literally cannot see one thing in there besides the blessed green glow of the rocks right in front of you from my husbands headlamp. As we are fumbling to find our way through all I can think of is what in the world this place would look like if it were all lit up? How many bats are overhead? How high or low is the top of this thing? How deep is the water that is running past us? Well, I still dont know the answers to those questions and maybe Im glad I dont! What I did know was what daylight looks like at the end of a long dark cave. It was so much fun and exciting being in there and experiencing a part of nature like that that we decided to go through a second time! We ended up having a fabulous time and I was able to enjoy the creepiness of the cave. I guess a large dark cave is better than a cave full of bears!

I love it, I love it, I love it!

As I was dancing around the house with the critters today, I was thinking of how blessed I am to be a part of every second of their lives. Being a stay at home mom is probably the best gig in the whole wide world! I wake up when I want, or to the sounds of chattering and giggles from my kids, I can stay in my jammies all day, play games, read books, dance around like a goon, go to the park, and pants are optional everyday! I was seriously made for this! Every night when I put my kids to bed I thank God for blessing us with the means to allow me to stay at home with them and for a husband that values mebeing at home also. I cant imagine missing any laugh, tear, playtime, or anything else going on in my kids lives for anything inthe whole world! They are such awesome pictures of Gods love and grace for me! I think most people know that LeRoy and I got pregnant before we were married. It was definitely not something we were prepared to face in our relationship and that is why it happened. We put our guards down and made a mistake. But God is a good God and he forgives when we come to him and He blessed us despite our mistake and gave us the most beautiful picture of grace: Eli! Everytime I look at my son I can see how much God loves me and it blesses me to no end! I love watching the way the Lord speaks to us as humans on earth. Sunsets, butterflies, a good laugh...God knows what will calm our hearts and make us smile and he does it in the most unique ways.The otehr day at Lowes we ran into two hummingbirds! So adorable! As I watched them flutter all around Eli as he danced around in excitement I was so thankful to watch my kids being loved on by God. I believe he sends things like that our way for our enjoyment.and boy did they enjoy it! We stayed at those red and purple flowers with those hummingbirds until they flew away:)
My zucchini bread is done now so Im off to sleep in between my little angels and I will drift off knowing that
God has put me in my position as a stay at home mom because He knows my desires, my heart, and my kids. and He loves all three:)

God Bless the Awkward Moment!

There are some things in life that I thrive on. Im not talking about the obvious things like my faith, family, or confidence level. Im talking about lifes extra crazy, strange, awkward moments that I believe the good Lord throws your way to give you a good laugh and that you can go back to over and over when in conversations where the ice needs to be broken! I always like to start off new relationships with the story of peeing in my sisters bed as I slept in it with her shortly after I found out I was pregnant with Eli. There is something about an embarrassing story that brings people together. It lets everyones guards down and the air feels lighter and you feel free to let people in when you can bond over something like peeing on your bathroom floor while awake and running into a parked car on your bike! Its pretty hard to embarrass me because I see these funny things that happen to me as a story to share and a simple good laugh that is kind of hard to come by these days. Many mornings I will pray to God to show me the lighter side of something and to bring something funny and unexpected into my day. That usually brings me something my kids do or say which is even better! But now, a tale from today....

Parade day! It was the fair parade in downtown Kennewick and we were having a blast running for candy, drinking free coke, and waving at the princesses on all the pretty floats. The parade has become quite the advertisement for many companies and, mostly, politicians these days and you can expect to get many fliers about the candidates and stickers. But there was a young hispanic girl that almost got something more.
I noticed a former coworkers daughter walking with the group of people representing a candidate for something or other, and yelled her name. I gave her a hug and immediately began looking for her mother and two other sisters to say hello to. Well, as she ran off I thought I saw one of the other sisters and as she turned around with a big smile, I cupped her face in my hands and went in for a kiss on the cheek of this little angel! Turns out it was an angel...someone elses angel! The girl I thought I recognized as my friends daughter was indeed just another child from the crowd of kids running into the street to get some candy! I saw the look of confusion and fear in her eyes as she felt my hands on her cheeks! I quickly pulled them off of her and started laughing as I realized what I had just done! I walked to my laughing family and the little girl ran safely into the arms of her probably just as concerned father who was standing right behind where we were seated.

Aaaah, thank you Lord for answered prayers:)

5 Tiles Down!

The patio is finished and now its time for some clean up. Some of that gunk that they put in between the brick needs to be scrubbed off to give it a fresh look! My husband wrote to himself on a note that when he got home he was going to get the tiles scrubbed. Since I have been asking him to let me help with the patio in some way I figured this would be it! I would scrub the tiles, (I just noticed that I keep calling them tiles. Maybe that is one of the reasons why he wouldnt let me help?) and then a very happy man would come home from work to a clean patio and a shorter to do list. Well, first of all, me and hot weather have a history. I mean we go way back. He be burning up my skin  and making me sweat and getting me all angry with his blinding rays. So I have never really been into the whole 90 degree weather and up thing. Besides, hes in a hot and heavy relationship with my sister;) So, I went out and scrubbed my little heart out for about six hours! Ok, it was like 5 minutes, but in this heat I couldve lost track of time! I then turned to the kiddie pool and spent the rest of my time outdoors in a pool of warm water with my son. and I had a blast! Needless to say the patio was, better, but I dont have the elbow grease for a job like this! My husband came out and showed me how its done later so we now have one gleaming brick and the rest of my sub-par handiwork.
The next day I tried again. This time with the giant push broom. I scrubbed the crap out of that thing for yes, another 5 minutes. Nothing. Grrrrr. Last night when it was cooler out I took the kids out and got down on my hands and knees with a scrub brush and a nail brush and went at it again. This time, Im beginning to see results but Ive come to a conclusion: I was not made for manual labor. I believe when God made me, He put in my heart the part of the eyes, ears, and mouth of the body of Christ. I love to watch my kids play, Hear them giggle when they dig into a pile of mud and laugh like crazy when I see the lighter side of something going on around me. I hate the bugs out there. I hate sweating. I just hate working in those conditions. I know, lame excuse. But Im not going to pretend like I honestly think God made me a drone for hardworking like that. Im a sidelines type of gal. Behind the scenes! Im not a leader and I am terrible at delegating work and organization. Im not saying I dont need to work on these things because I could definitely use a good dose of hard work and responsibility sometimes. It makes me really appreciate the people that are really good that those things! In this case, Ill scrub some more. Help my husband out. But Id rather be sitting in a puddle of mud with the kids sipping iced tea and watching my hubby, preferably shirtless;), working in the yard. Aaaahhhhh, what a life, and what a man!!

What the Pati-yo?

Ah, the backyard...a place of relaxation and rest. A place for bbqs, lounging, and playtime for the kids. Am I talking about my backyard? Noooo! My backyard is a wasteland. I believe there are new spieces of plant life back there as well as a new breed of arachnid! I killed a WHITE spider that was crawling up my husbands shoe the other day in the backyard. I could see it in the eyes of the tiny beast that he was up for killing a human being, the love of my life! My bravery exceeded my expectations as I quickly kicked the eight legged monster off and instantly heard the theme song from "The Greatest American Hero" being played as my ego rewarded me for the dangerous feat. Anyways, Ive seen fire and Ive seen rain, but Ive never seen some of the things Ive witnessed in my own backyard anywhere else on earth! (Which we all know Im so well traveled;)) This has troubled me and my idea of what a backyard should be. I yearn for an outdoor haven for me and the fam to chill out in! I expressed this to my hubby and fortunately I married a keeper and while it took a bit for him to jump on board with my eagerness to get the job done, he finally got ready for the transformation. The first step for us is the patio. LeRoy is expanding the patio with brick and working hard! He has been digging, and using a compressor thing, and shoveling, and sweating ;), and wheelbarrowing, and looking good doing it! ahhhhh, anyways, I keep asking if there is a way I can help but we both know that Im probably more helpful inside keeping the fluids flowing and restocking our freezer with DelMonte Fruit Chillers. I hope that with the destruction of the wasteland that was the backyard that there has been an extinction. an extinction of indoor summer parties, an extinction of wild weed plants, bugs, and white spiders, and an extinction of me complaining about the backside of the homestead!

Believe it or not, Im walking on air. I never thought I could feel so freeeeee! Flying away on a patio and outdoor furniture! Who could it be? Believe it or not its just me!