Enjoy the Chaos

If I wait until I get all my thoughts gathered in a nicely, organized, presentable fashion I will never write. In other words, I'm going to be all over the place today. Enjoy the chaos.

The Trip

We survived 'The Trip'. Yes, we did. We actually did more than survive the trip. We enjoyed ourselves. We saw family, we spent time together, we spent time in the sun, watched a city parade, found some shade while the kids played in water on the street, had the perfect view to watch an awesome fireworks show, we had pizza by the pool, Margaritas in the middle of the afternoon, long, meaningless talks by the fire pit, watched wild turkeys roam the land, murdered a cat (sorry if that offends anyone), tried RumChata (why have I never heard of this) and met a man named Rodrigo. (aka Pedro, Jose and Rico) Yep, fun was had by all.

Jackson on his 10th birthday, Scavenger Hunt game in the travel binders, Jackson and Landon at parade, Field of endless sunflowers we passed in Kansas, Me and cousin Jill at parade, (below that - corn fields in Nebraska), Jackson in hat at parade, (below that - view from back balcony at my Aunt and Uncles house - we use to sled down that hill in the winter) , Landon waving at pretty much everyone at parade, Ella with her cotton candy - Ewwww, My babies at parade, Uncle Stevie and Jacob on the last night we were there enjoying a beer in the cheese koozies by the fire pit

 

 

 

 

 

Randoms

I loathe unpacking and all the laundry that comes with it but this momma got that done in 2 days. Boom!

Tried something new at Starbucks. Green Tea Frapp. Vomit. Fail. Gross.

My dad would have been 57 today.

 Landon is crazy. Like cray, cray crazy. He makes us laugh all the time.

Is it Fall yet?

I want to craft something.

And go on a date with my husband. Desperately.

I cannot go to sleep with my hair wet. It looks like I have bump its randomly placed all over the top of my head. It's not pretty. Anyone want a pic of that?? Haha. 

I heart Pinterest. If not for the simple fact that there are a gazillion different recipes all in one place for me. And I have tried several. I am going to post about that. And you can't stop me.

Jackson is such an amazing big brother. And he turned 10.  TEN Freaking years old. I contemplated writing about that but there is no way I could keep it together for that one. I know how emotional it is for me and if you are a mother you know how emotional it is too. No need to dwell on it. I'm thankful that he has made it to 10. I hope he keeps on growing.

Sorry for the quality - this is me taking pics of pics. (July 3rd, 2002 - July 3rd, 2003 in Nebraska, and then 10 years later we were in Nebraska again for his bday. Crazy right!!!)

 Okay, seriously though, raspberries are disgusting. It doesn't matter if they are fresh, frozen or put in a blender. They are disgusting. 

I made travel binders for the kids. Life savers. Serious, sanity savers. If you want to know where I got it from or what I included in the binders let me know. Otherwise, I will just call my girlfriend that asked me about that (promise Steph) and save you all the time of reading about it. You're Welcome. 

I want to get a little heart tatt on my toe. Have you seen it on Pinterest? Freaking cute.

 I got to see my dad's side of the family. His dad and brothers and sisters. My cousins. My heart seems to briefly stop beating every time I see my Grandpa. It usually has been years in between visits but he looks so much like my dad it takes my breath away. I have to really try to keep it together when I am hugging him. And sitting next to my Uncle Kent, who to me, always reminded me so much of my dad, also a little hard to endure. It's a very bitter sweet emotion. As I sat in that room with my Aunts and Uncles and Grandpa and cousins I realized how unfair and cruel life can be sometimes. Not that I didn't enjoy it but there I sat in between my cousin Lindsey and my cousin Ellen and all three of us have lost our dads. One family, three different men.  Three men who didn't get to quite see their girls grow up or get married or have babies. Life can be cruel and a blessing all at the same time. And that, my friends, is just the way it goes.

(Uncle Kent, Dad, Grandpa - rocking the stache)