An example of bad naked

Let me tell you a story. Because, you know my mission of this blog is to continually educate my readers.

I put Josie down for her morning nap, so I figured that would be the best time to sneak in a shower. I brought the monitor in the bathroom, stripped down for the shower as you do, and as I was getting ready to step in to the shower, noticed the screen went dark on the monitor, letting me know the video end was no longer perched on the top of the crib as it should be. Being that it is attached to a cord, I naturally sprinted into Josie's room to be sure it wasn't in her crib. I readjusted the monitor out of her reach, and then crept out into the hallway to spy on her next moves through the crack in the door. Naturally Josie wasn't startled that I came into her room naked after putting her down for a nap, and just rolled with the punches.

As I watched her, I felt like I probably shouldn't get into the shower until she was on he way to Sleepydom and I knew she wouldn't get into any sort of jam requiring my assistance. Being that it shouldn't take long to get to that point, I didn't think I really needed to go the hassle of getting my robe on and all that jazz. No one was home and remember, I live in the country so that's how you can roll out here.

As it got longer and longer into the watching her get sleepy stage, I figured I might was well be productive and work on my grocery list as I was going to be hitting the grocery after she got up. As I made my list, I realized I needed to confirm that I had butter to make my sister's yummy banana french toast casserole recipe in the morning for friends, so I opened the fridge to confirm. That's when a pitcher of lemonade came crashing to the floor spilling everywhere. It is noteworthy that when I placed the lemonade in that spot earlier I thought how much it would suck if it tipped out and spilled everywhere as it was perched a bit precariously on the shelf, but figured it would probably be fine.

Do you remember that episode of Seinfeld where he gets a new girlfriend who likes to do all sorts of things naked, but then he realizes, there are good naked and bad naked things to do? Good naked things might be washing your car with lots of suds, or maybe running your fingers through your hair. Bad naked includes things like operating a jackhammer, or say bending down to clean up a pitcher of lemonade that has sprayed all the way into the next zip code.

So learn from me, my friends. Watch, and learn. It's what I'm here for. This was DEFINITELY a case of bad naked.

Sleepy

Well, I've been sleeping for about an hour and a half so might as well get up and play.

Wait a minute... still feeling a bit sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Editor's Note: She slept like this for half an hour. I woke her up with the picture. They haven't invented stealth cameras yet. But was it worth it to get this photo? Yup. Don't we all feel like sleeping sitting up sometimes? But that damn lack of flexibility gets in the way.

New tricks

Latest trick...to duplicate, you must breathe in and out of your nose quickly and then make this face.

Like.

More fun things

So, maybe the last post was a wee bit heavy. How about tonight we do something light like posting pictures from more fun events over the summer... here we go....

This one is just funny because she always looks like this after you take her out of the tub

Our beach house in Alabama in July

A few cousins enjoying Josie

More fun with cousins

It was somewhere in the vicinity of 174 degrees this day so maybe that's why someone got sooooo sleepy

This picture is just to prove to Josie in the future that I really did exist. The curse of the photo taker of course is that she never appears in photos....

Water park fun



Water park



Josie's first deer meat experience must be documented! A day at the lake with friends.

Yea! I love my first boat ride!

Luke turned 7! Mini golfing with his best buddies.

Just rip it

So here's the deal on moving.

Sometimes, you just rip the bandaid, and it hurts really bad for a second, but then you move on.
Other times, you rip it off slowly, and it pulls on each individual hair as it releases, giving you not just one big moment of pain, but a longer, slower experience where you feel it ripping.

We are experiencing the slow rip.

Rob started looking for a job in March, and unfortunately, with us living in a smaller market, there really was nothing to be found here. Thankfully, he did land a job, but that job requires a move back to Indiana. While there are obviously good things about moving back to Indiana, it has also been a very long and painful time for us. We live in our dream home. We love our school. We have been fortunate enough to meet a large group of friends that we do a lot of fun things with. We love the people of Iowa and how in just 3 short years, we have fully ingrained ourselves here. So this move is very painful. And we've sat and prayed and hoped that something else might come through for us but nothing has, so we must move forward and accept what is happening and make the best of it. However, what our heads know can't always conquer what our hearts feel, and that is where we are. We can make a list, and we have, of all the good things about moving to Indiana. We tell ourselves that is good for the kids. It makes them more flexible. It's good for us. It doesn't let you get stuck in a rut. Allows you to reinvent yourself. It's closer to family. It's cheaper to live there. And on and on. But the heart doesn't care. The heart can only focus on what we have now and what we know and what we are giving up. We don't know the other end. We don't know our house, our school, our day to day friends, the grocery store we'll go to, how to get to that grocery store, or the church we'll attend. Right now, we only know all that we leave behind, and that hurts. We are tired of feeling sad. We want to live for each day and not waste any more time. But it is hard. It's very, very hard. So please forgive my long blog absense, my lack of phone calls, and the feeling that you don't know what's going on with me. I'm sorry. I know it's hard to understand why I seem to have dropped off the face of the earth but I'm trying to find my way through all of this and it is murky water. If you are one of those who will be closer, please believe that we are truly happy to be closer to you and see you more. We really are. We are just mired down in our current reality and we will get through it. But we have to take baby steps. So please pray for us to trust in the Lord's plan and keep on moving forward instead of grasping what we have so tightly it makes moving forward nearly impossible. It will all be fine in the long run. But getting there... ouch.

Holy Smokes

As in... HOLY SMOKES it's been a long time since I've posted. I didn't realize I hadn't posted even one time this summer break. Sorry folks. You must have given up on me.

My only excuse is that Rob has taken a new job and we are moving. And while that alone constitutes a post or two by itself, life still moves on, so tonight I will just leave you with some new pictures. A lot has changed in 2 1/2 months, and we've had some fun along the way, so I'll leave you with pictures tonight and hopefully more to come in the future on the move and the process that a move is.

Our old neighbors from Wisconsin came and visited us

Josie turned 8 months old!

We went camping with friends--was a bit apprehensive on Josie but she did AWESOME! I simply must stop selling her abilities short. I also kayaked for the first time. Loved it!

My first camping trip!

Getting ready to take off

Rite of passage... first tupperware drawer adventure

A morning at the park with neighbors and good friends

Field of Dreams; such a fun day trip!

Looked EXACTLY like the movie. Very simple, not commercialized, and FREE to get in. Ironically, as it often goes, almost all of the visitors in the guestbook are not from Iowa. Why is that? Why don't we ever take advantage of what is right next to us?

If you build it.....

On the bleachers from the movie

Then we went and had a picnic--self timer--nice! Please NOTE that I got a new camera as well; any improvments in the quality? Hope so!

Underneath THIS oak tree. So beautiful don't you agree?

And then there's miss Josie who SO wants to crawl...

There's lots of the butt up in the air....

Then we sit and rest....

And then we just look cute.

First day of 4th grade today! A bit nervous...

I told him that was normal, I was always nervous on the first day too! He said some of the other kids looked nervous too...

First day of FIRST grade despite his objections that he doesn't want to do "grades", he only likes kindergarten.

More to come another night...........................