Our Crazy Kids

We spent the weekend in Clearlake again and we feel like we got a lot of things done that needed to get done. The kids were so good. They spent hours in the garage playing with rolls of carpet padding. As you can see from the pictures, they made somewhat of an obsticle course crawling under wood poles. Don't ask me why we had so much carpet pad! We only needed two rolls to complete the whole house. Anyone need any?

I also included a picture on Bailey treating herself to cereal one morning. That is what I get for staying in bed once she was up and going. What can you do?

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWER

*I just received this poem in an email from my father in law. Normally just get jokes from him, so wasn't expecting something "profound". Thought I would share.*

The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read
Beneath the long, straggly branches of an old willow tree.
Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,
For the world was intent on dragging me down.

And if that weren’t enough to ruin my day,
A young boy out of breath approached me, all tired from play.
He stood right before me with his head tilted down
And said with great excitement, “Look what I found!”
In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight,
With its petals all worn – not enough rain or too little light.

Wanting him to take his dead flowers and go off to play,
I faked a small smile and then shifted away.
But instead of retreating he sat next to my side
And placed the flower to his nose and declared with overacted surprise,
“It sure smells pretty and it’s beautiful, too.
That’s why I picked it; here it is for you.”

The weed before me was dying or dead
Not vibrant or colors; orange, yellow or red.
But I knew I must take it or he might never leave
So I reached for the flower, and replied, “Just what I need!”
But instead of him placing the flower in my hand,
He held it in midair without reason or plan.
It was then that I noticed for the very first time
That weed-toting boy could not see; he was blind.

I heard my voice quiver; tears shone in the sun
As I thanked him for picking the very best one.
“You’re welcome,” he smiled, and then ran off to play,
Unaware of the impact he’d had on my day.
I sat there and wondered how he manage to see
A self-pitying man beneath an old willow tree.
How did he know of my self-indulged plight?
Perhaps from his heart, he’d been blessed with true sight.

Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see
The problem was not with the world; the problem was me.
And for all of those times I myself had been blind,
I vowed to see the beauty of life and appreciate every second that’s mine.
And then I held that wilted flower up to my nose
And breathed in the fragrance of a beautiful rose
And smiled as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand,
About to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.

S'mores in the Kitchen

As part of our "camping experience" we told Spencer that we would make s'mores, but it was late when we got back from the beach, so we put it off for another night. We used the flame from our gas stove and our first attempts at roasting weren't very successful. We ended up with black marshmallows, but the kids loved them anyway. We like to make our s'mores using cookies instead of crackers and chocolate bars. This time I got Fudge Striped Cookies and then some cookies that had caramel and were wrapped in fudge. They were so yummy, although messy! Not as fun as doing it over a campfire, but fun never the less.

Our not so roughing it camping trip

Spencer has been asking us for a while if we could go camping, so we finally found a Friday night that would work for us and started planning. I had checked out the websites of a number of campgrounds, and narrowed it down to three. Unfortunately, none of the campsites allowed wood burning fires. So we decided that camping without having a fire was pointless. Instead we spent the evening at Laguna Beach. We had a picnic up on one of the grass areas, and then headed down to the rocks to explore. The kids seemed to love the trip, although Natalie wasn't too fond of the waves hitting the rocks. When we got home, we set up a tent in the backyard to "camp out". All in all it turned out to be a fun evening, but it still hasn't fed Spencer's desire to camping. He asks me a number of times a day if we can go camping in the forest with a real fire. Hopefully the campgrounds around here with permit fires soon!?!

My First attempt

So, this whole blog thing seems much harder than I would have expected. Liz's page is so cute, and she said she would come over and help me if I needed any help, but I seriously thought this would be a breeze. Boy did I think wrong! Anyway, I am going to post just this short blog and see how it goes and see if I even like the look of my site, so here goes nothing.