If Home Is Where Your Heart Is. . . .

Do you believe in happily ever after?  After much thought and back and forth and yes and no, I've decided (again), that I do.  HOWEVER. . . I think that if each Disney Princess had her own reality TV show about her fairy tale happily ever after, we'd all see that the journey is rocky and messy and not always full of birds chirping and singing. I can just see Cinderella venting to Prince Charming about her step-sisters and how frustrating they are and I can see Eric and Ariel arguing about going to her dad's place for the holidays and I'm sure Belle things that Beast (what is his human name anyway?) needs boundaries in his relationships with the people in his house and I bet Mulan and Shang have power struggles and Anna and Kristoff probably have issues with whether or not Sven (the reindeer) sleeps inside at night.  I wonder, if these fairy tales were true and in the present, what all they would struggle with?  Would Aladin struggle with pornography?  Would...

My professor, Dr. Beth Birmingham, has been in town for several days with a friend of hers.  They came for a fun and relaxing ski get away and they've been staying with us.  I've loved it! They took me to my favorite restaurant Friday night for a fun evening out! We had Fondue Friday (on Saturday). Tiki had a great jump!

". . . Mom, you would have HATED it" were some of the first words Hays told me with a HUGE smile on his face when I picked him up at the airport this morning.  He was right, I would have HATED it and I kind of hate it (with giddy joy for my boy) that I know it even happened!  There is a great man who took Hays up in his plane today to get some flight experience and Hays hopped in the car on cloud nine (no pun really intended).  He loves to fly and I am so proud of him and so happy for him (even though the mama bear inside of me is screaming--NO MORE STALLING OUT)!!!  I love that he has passion and that he follows it.  I love that he has dreams and he is pursuing them.  I love the joy I see on his face when he has just done something that he loves (so much like his dad and that makes me happy)!!! This is the plane wearing a cowboy hat pre-take off. This is heading toward Engineer Mountain. This is Hays's bird's eye view of the ski resort! T...

I am literally sitting here in the middle of a pile of cardboard boxes that were filled with flip flops an hour ago.  360 pair of flip flops to be exact (and I know more are on their way).  I am BLOWN AWAY!  I am humbled.  I am thankful.  I am in awe.  Several months ago my son, Tiki, asked for flip flops for his birthday.  You can read the back story here .  That, in itself, was priceless.  My boy with the big smile and the gigantic heart asked for flip flops for the kids still living in his orphanage. Within minutes of me posting about Tiki's birthday wish, I began to receive email confirmations from Old Navy and Zappos and Children's Place.  I got emails from Saudi Arabia and Germany and Hong Kong and Jordan and Missouri and Oklahoma and Texas and Utah and California and places unknown.  Then the packages began arriving and never stopped! We opened the boxes today and our faces were plastered with smiles and our hearts w...

I just took the boys on a fun weekend away--it has been overdue since I took the girls to Vegas last year.  We headed to Aspen for the Winter X Games and it was so much fun!  Baylor came, too--he is a boy after all.  The drive was easy (even though we had to go the long way due to a rock slide that closed the main way), the weather was ideal and it was so much fun to be at the X Games.  They had booths and swag and games and give aways.  The whole environment was a blast!!!  This will for sure be something we put on our calendar for 2015!!! This is Nick Baumgartner, one of the boarders in the games! This is the Jeep we were hoping to win! Tiki had a MAJOR crush on the Monster Energy Drink girls! The boys were on TV, too!!!  It was so fun for Hays because one of his friends texted him and said that he saw them on TV.  So fun!  Dax is hoping that one day he'll be on the X Games ESPN broadcast as a competit...

Monday was the best no school day ever!!!  Wow!  I headed to the mountain with the fab five (Andy is in the Middle East) and it was a perfect short sleeve blue sky day!!!  The snow was great and we had a blast together!  Everyone was happy.  The good boarders were happy waiting for the not so great boarders and everyone got along.  It was fun to see the kids pair up in different pairs at times and do a run or two together.  The big kids took care of the little kids.  It was perfect!!!! I absolutely loved love loved being with the kids.  It was relaxing and we laughed a ton.  I loved just hanging out at the mountain.  With the big jump set up, we spent a lot of time just sitting on the side waiting for Hays and Dax to jump.  It was nice.  I'm not sure if I can pin point exactly why the day was so perfect, but it just was. We all agreed that it would have been an A+ had Andy been there, though!!!

I knew the day would come when a homework assignment would come home that Tiki couldn't do.  Monday was the day.  Tiki's assignment was to write the story of the day he was born.  What to do?  Do we write a great fiction novel filled with dark skin and people we make up?  Or do we adjust the assignment and make the story of his birth day the story of the day he jumped into my arms?  Well, with Tiki's typical innocent excitement, we decided to write about Gotcha Day!  (The entire third grade writes an autobiography as their second semester project--it is really fun--and we will be working on this project for the next several months.) I emailed his teacher to make sure this was the proper route to take and after a big and excited YES, we are off on our journey from Gotcha Day to today from the mind of a third grader. I am having so much fun with this!  Thankfully I have the blog to go back to for stories and details and Tiki is loving reading...