New perspective.

A friend of mine gave me the link to a blog of someone that she does not know but she was touched and inspired by it. I have also grown as I have read, cried, and been edified. It is a blog of a regular mother and family who, a couple of weeks ago, lost their little daughter. She drowned in their hot tub. I have been amazed at her strength but mostly amazed at how I have gained new perspective from reading it. The day I was given the link I was thinking it had been a hard day and Chris and I were a little weighed down. I read that days post where she listed how her idea of what hard is has changed drastically. She said "Hard was finding my daughter lifeless, hard was frantically doing CPR and praying with every breath, hard was turning off life support." I felt so ungrateful when I read that and realized that my hard was NOTHING. I am grateful that she is blogging her journey as it is edifying someone she doesn't know, in another state who needed her vantage point to grow and see things differently. What a blessing for me to rethink things and cherish my children with a new urgent love. I pray she will somehow, someday find great peace through this trial and I pray that I will go through mine, whatever they may be, with the same grace and dignity.
This is the link if you would like to be edified also. http://www.adailyscoop.blogspot.com/ .

Day 3 Yorktown, Mount Vernon, The White House

Another full and wonderful day.  I have just loved being with Olivia and seeing her in her element.  I see her at home, at church but I am not with her at school all day so I don't get to see her interactions with her school friends.  It has been such a treat to see this side of her.  I have seen what  a leader she is.  All the girls want to be with her and look to her for direction and fun.  She is the tiniest thing but loved and respected by all.  Everyone wants to sit with her, be with her and if there is any fun to be found she will be in the center of it.  She is a little spitfire.  

Today we had the best time.  We started out by going to Yorktown.  I loved this site!   To be where the final battle of the revolutionary war was fought was hallowed ground to me.  I warned Olivia early on (as I did when I took this same trip with Chloe)  I will cry often.....just know it will happen and don't be surprised.  I feel a spirit about the founding of this country akin to many of the religious feelings that I have.  They are closely related and I believe the men involved in this work were great men guided by God.   Below are some pictures of the Yorktown colonial settlement as well as the colonial army encampment.  

Olivia with some of her friends

These early settlers knew how to farm and work the land.   I took this picture of a typical colonial garden......I hope that mine will look this good next year.  

6-8 men occupied one of these tents.....not very big for 8 large stinky often diseased soldiers. Just add a few hundred bugs, lice and insects and this was not pleasant 

When a soldier did not obey orders he was whipped with a cat o nine tails and had to wear this around his neck.   Of course Olivia is never insubordinate....wink wink.

Olivia and I together in front of Yorktown village.

What can I say, Mount Vernon was a highlight.  I just love this home and love the man who occupied it.  Again a few tears for me as I walked into the room where Washington and his men gathered to plan the battle of Yorktown.  I just felt so humbled at the great men who sacrificed so much for their country.    I wonder so often about the times, surroundings, and way of life that produced men (and women) of such caliber.  I wonder if we today with all our comfort and ease could measure up to them.  

Below is the amazing view of the Potomac from the back porch of Washington's home.  The view is breathtaking.

We then headed into DC and visited the White House.  This picture below shows the sniper on top of the west side of the house holding a gun and watching us.   The kids all loved it.   He kinda looks like a statue.

Day 1 Jamestown and WIlliamsburg

At the airport.......does she look excited or what!!

What a great day!!!!  We are exhausted after walking all day in 104 degree heat with 90% humidity.  We started out at Jamestown where the first colonial settlers landed.  We saw how the Powhatan Indians lived and experienced some of their lifestyle and how the early settlers lived.  I will post some photos of the day but I will have to fill in the details later.  It is very late and I am exhausted!

In the Powhatan hut

The ships that the 1st settlers arrived on.

One of the settlers teaching the kids all about how they lived

Early canoe making.....Olivia got her white shorts filthy doing this activity.

Sitting in an early settler home

The church building was one of the first things built in the Jamestown colony and they were required to attend twice a day and 3 times on Sunday or they were not given food.  Second offence...they were whipped.

Williamsburg.  We began by having an amazing lunch in the Kings Arms tavern.  Oh it was so good!

The tailor shop

Outside the Williamsburg Capitol.

A lesson in early rope making

Olivia with her dear friend Breezie,  the height difference cracks me up.

In the Williamsburg church.  This is one of my favorite places to visit.  This is the church where Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington all attended.  The pews are marked and Olivia and I sat in the George Washington pew, then we got in trouble, oh well I will never let a little rule ruin a grand experience.     This is Olivia by one of the back pews that was the Bray family pew.....the names are there but the picture didn't quite get it clearly.  

We're off!!!

Well, Olivia and I are off tomorrow on her 5th grade trip to Washington DC.  We are so excited that I don't think we will sleep much tonight.   I did this same trip with Chloe 2 years ago and it was incredible.  I am a huge history buff so I was in awe and even cried a few times as I stood in the places where some of the greatest men in this nations history stood.  I remember sitting in the pew of a beautiful quaint church in Williamsburg that had the original name marker on it as the Washington family.   I am excited to experience it all again.  We will be back in 6 days!!!

I am officially BUGGED!

Ok this post is coming from absolute frustration. Let me take you back to last Friday to give you the picture. Last Friday Olivia asked me to make her a sandwich. I pulled out a Wal-Mart brand bag of rolls, cut one open and began spreading the mayo. As I was spreading I noticed a weird scratching sound, it sounded like the knife was scratching across glass. I stopped and started to tap the roll with the end of the knife and sure enough there baked into the roll was what looked like a piece of glass. I was shocked. It was securely still attached to the bread and obviously baked in the roll as it was only half sticking out. WOW. All I could think of was the hundreds of times my girls have just grabbed a roll and eaten it without opening it or putting anything on it. I had visions of Olivia's mouth cut and bleeding and it freaked me out. (I must add here that I can't tell for sure if it is glass.....I could be a very sharp hardended piece of plastic or some other hard substance, I just can't tell)

So in a panic I called the Wal-Mart bakery and asked for the manager. I told her what I found and she said "oh we don't make the dough here but we will be careful to look as we bake the other rolls, thanks for calling, Bye". I was shocked, I thought she was going to say "Oh my goodness, we need to check this out, can you bring the roll in, what type of roll was it?" Nope she didn't seem too worried. I was so bugged I called the store manager. I proceeded to tell him what I found in my roll and he kindly said "I am sorry mam, can you bring the roll to the store sometime when you are in?" I was so surprised at his lack of urgency. I then said "don't you think you should quickly call the warehouse where this dough came from and let them know?" He was just nonchalant about it and said something about checking things out and then hung up.....he didn't even ask for my name and number. So after about 10 min I called him back, "Sir, you didn't even ask for my name and number, don't you think that someone will want to call me so you can get this roll and figure out how glass got in it?" If you can believe it he said "No, I don't need it, I will get it when you come by next week".

Ok is it just me or wouldn't you expect them to move a little faster on this and with a little more urgency!!! As a mother who is sick about what could have happend had I not caught this I was so angry at his complete lack of caring so I called the 800- Wal-Mart customer service. She was very nice and said someone would be calling me and they would take care of this immediately. Well, it has now been a week and funny thing no one from Wal-Mart has called. I have called them back twice and they just said that it takes 5-7 days to have them respond to things. Am I missing something here? Sure, if I call to say that my rolls were moldy, fine take 5-7 days to call me back, but possibly GLASS IN THE ROLL!!!! Come on I would think that would be a fast track issue. Ok, I am done ranting and would love some ideas as to what any of you would do in this situation. I am going to bed very frustrated.

Summer fun!

Summer is in full swing and boy is it ever crazy around here. The house seems to always be noisy and full of laughter and mayhem. We have had tons of fun at the pool, many friends over, and the the girls have been doing lots of fishing and frog and turtle catching. We love all the animals that reside here. A few days ago Chris and I were on our walk and within the hour we saw 2 baby snakes, 12 bunnies, 1 tarantula, a field mouse, a hawk looking for the field mouse and we saved a baby turtle. It was very eventful. It would be very hard to leave this house if the new house didn't have a pond behind it also. That was one of our main stipulations, a pond, because that is where the girls love to spend a lot of their time.

Here are the girls and some friends fishing in the back yard. Chloe is fearless when it comes to the gross stuff like holding fish (see below) and catching frogs etc. she is usually covered in mud past her waist as she goes in for the hunt. All animals are released after the girls take pictures and gloat about their catch.

The holding tank

Our back yard pond where, other than the piano and the pool, they spend all their time! 4 houses back up to the pond and we all share it. How lucky are we!

Yesterday they went fishing but ended up catching these 3 turtles(above). they were huge and the girls named them, Hissy fit because she kept hissing at them, Charlie because he bit Lilly's finger, and Captain hook because he had a fishing hook stuck in his mouth.



With so much time on their hands the kids seem to be finding absurd ways to amuse themselves and it is cracking me up. Here is the photo evidence.

I know......what the heck is that!!!! Yes, those are panties on her head. I could hear Elle and Ava laughing so hard they were crying and then they came in looking like this!

Other happenings were that Olivia chipped half of her tooth off while diving into her friends pool. This is the third time she has chipped her front tooth and they are both now cracked in three places. The Dentist repaired them but she will need a more complete repair after her braces. She is just full of a little too much gusto!

I love mentioning all the fun but we are also very very busy. As I say that I really can't write about it because it is too much for me to write so I will make that another post, this one will just be about all the summer fun!!