10 Things that Happened on Vacation (Warning... someone gets pooped on)

When I was a little girl, I loved the Bernstein Bears book series.   One of my favorite is Too Much Birthday in which Sister Bear learns that you can have too much of a good thing.   Lots of  times I leave vacation feeling that way.  That it was all just too much to the point that I'm sick of it.   However, having just gotten home from a week long family vacation to Panama City Beach, I can say that this trip was different.   It was just right.  

I think that this picture sums it up.  In the nearly 3 years that they have been siblings and she's been alive, I believe this is the only picture I have them them both smiling and/or not picking their nose.   It really was a great trip.


So, here are the top 10 highlights of our vacation. 


10.   We got an 9 day break from this guy.  

It was lovely.  

9.  The Rooster made friends with a group of professional dancers (not the Broadway kind either) from Kentucky who sat beside us everyday at the beach.  So long Yolanda, Carissa, and K.C.  

8.   We saved two small fish that we are fairly certain are baby sharks.   We are hopeful that us showing them kindness will result in them not eating anyone in the future.   We apologize in advance if they eat you.

7.  We went down with a 4 year-old little boy and came home with a 5 year-old.   Many tears have been shed over this.

However, he has apparently lifted his backwards underwear ban.   This makes so many things right in my world.  

5.  My parents and sister came down for part of the week.  My sister decided we needed to rent a jet ski. So, I took my newly turned 5 year-old and 17 year-old sister jet skiing in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.  

We had a great time until we all  fell off.    We then climbed back on.  Then one sister noticed that the other sister's body parts were hanging out of her bathing suit.   Then I cussed that we were in the middle of the ocean and my baby was going to get ate by a shark who cares if I have body parts hanging out because no one can see them anyways  that person modestly corrected the problem.  Then we fell off again.   Then it was time to go back.  

There will not be an accompanying picture of this activity.  You're welcome.  

4.  My children became pirates. Well, Bub became a pirate.  Goose told them she was not becoming a pirate then screamed and swung her sword at them. 

Very scary, indeed.  

3.   Within the first 10 minutes of being on the beach the first day  I got pooped on by a seagull.  You always hear what to do if a jellyfish stings you ("Somebody pee on me fast!") or you see a shark ("Play dead!"... wait, that may be a bear, never mind), but no one ever tells you what to do when a seagull poops on your head.  

Apparently they don't know I'm a friend of sharks.  

2.  We played putt-putt.   I think that Goose was pretending she was Yolanda. 

1.   We got to put everything in the world away for a week.  I hope that this trip was one of those things they keep with them for a long time.

10 Things I Love About the Rooster

The Rooster and I have been married for 6 years.  The marriage was the result of two years of when the Rooster came a courtn' and decided he wanted to put a ring on it.  That's almost 8 years for mathematically challenged readers. 

When our relationship began, I was just a wee babe.  He was 7 years my elder robbed the proverbial cradle.   In our time together he has gotten older, as most people do over the years.   I, on the other hand, have not.   Amazing, really.  





And yes, that is a picture of a picture.  Don't judge.  

But, back then, when he was 8 years younger and I was the exact same age I am now, our lives were fairly different than they are now.  

Then... 

We went out at least two nights a week.

We made plans spontaneously.  

He would try to help me keep beat to songs on the radio by clapping along.  

We would talk about our future.  

Now....  

We go out about twice every 6 months.

Plans are made weeks in advanced and are dependent upon no one getting sick.  

He has figured out I'm tone deaf and turns up the radio if I try to sing along.  

We try to be completely present in the present everyday.  

Life has changed, but he's still the same guy I fell in love years ago.  So with no further ado, here is 10 (of many) Things I Love About the Rooster

10.   He is a great dancer.  Unless he starts singing.   Then it's just time to go home.  

9.  Anytime there is a mouse within a 10 mile radius of our house, he takes care of it.  And by take care of it, I mean he doesn't let me know it was ever born because he knows I will threaten to move.  

8.  He does the laundry!  As in, all of the laundry!    Every week!

7.  He does the laundry!  I love that one so much it is worth mentioning again.  

6.   He loves and is really good to our family (ours, his, and mine).  

5.   He has more sayings than there are children in Buttbust City.   So go get your  run out as you dance with the one who brought you because he is very handy .   Face!

4.  The dog listens to him.   This really should be number one because he is the only reason the dog is not been turned into to Scooby Snacks.   Scoobs is eternally grateful.  

3.   He works hard.  And by saying he works hard, I mean that he watches Youtube videos, quotes lines from The Office, and makes $1 dollar bets on who can balance a pencil on their nose the longest with his work buddies.    (I'm kidding....   he hasn't had time for those frivolous bets with the Kentucky Derby going on this past weekend.   Nevermind all they hail he's been dealing with of late.)

2.   He is hands-down, undeniably, 100% the funniest person I have ever met.  He makes me laugh everyday.  

1.  He's wonderful husband and father.   He's my best friend and I look forward to spending my life with him as he grows old and I stay the same age.   

Love you,
RHC

We're Having....

A really good weekend. 

So why, the above picture?  Well, first off to freak out my mother.  Hahahahahaha... sorry, Momma.   And in case anyone is confused, no I am not pregnant.  

Secondly, tomorrow is Mother's Day and I cannot help but reflect on my almost 5 years of being a momma myownself.  

Motherhood has been so much more than I ever thought I could be. 

More happiness than I could ever articulate. 

More (emotional) pain  than I ever thought I could feel.  

More laughter...

More tears...

More joy...

More fears...

Okay, before I turn this into a Dr. Seuss poem (I love them when they eat soup, I love them even when they poop, I love them more than our chicken coop) let me get to my point.  Motherhood changed my heart in more ways than What to Expect When You're Expecting (and Karen and Amber, if you are reading this see above note to my mother concerning the current occupancy of my womb)told me it would.   Yes, the book was  right that my hair, my skin, my body, and my sleep are all completely changed. 

However, WEWE (I don't know if that is the official abbreviation, but just go with it because the title of the book is long, however, now I'm realize it is not nearly as long as typing out this explanation of why I put WEWE.....  err, I've always like to shorten, even before pregnancy when I was a courtn') did not mention anything about how your mind changes.   How the very lens in which you view your life and the world changes.  

At approximately 1 month and 2 days after this... 



And 4 hours before this...

Is when the way that I view every thought, feeling, emotion, relationship, connection I had in my world changed so that I no longer saw it through LeeAnn's eyes.  At that very instant is when I began to view the world through the eyes of Bub's Mother.  

In that very instant that he entered the world I got what no book, website, or experienced mother could have told me.   For the rest of my life, regardless of what experiences I have, I will always firstly look at every situation through this new lens.  

Every hurting, sick, or mistreated child I see becomes my babies.  

Every decision I make, I will think about the impact it will make on them.  

Every person I have in my life will be at the consideration of the impact they will have on my family.  

Every scary news story I watch the thoughts of what this will mean for my children. 

They are always present in my thoughts, are the focus of many of my daily conversations, and the consumers of the majority of my energy.   And for the rest of my life, when they are gone and grown I know that is where they will remain.  

And even when one of them is smacking me in the head with Llama, Llama Red Pajamas in an effort to get me to finish typing a blog (er... not that would be happening at this very moments by my sweet cherub), I am grateful to be a mother this Mother's Day.   I am grateful to be their mother this Mother's Day.