Thank Goodness....and Happy Hallowen!

Camryn started getting sick about a week and a half ago...except I didn't realize she was sick. She was just not herself and very cranky. Trying to get her to go to sleep at night was almost impossible. I was wondering if she was outgrowing me putting her to sleep which made me sad.

After a very awful night last Thursday, a missed diagnosis by our doctor Friday, an even worse Friday evening, and a trip to the ER at 10:30 pm that night we finally figured out she had a double ear infection. I was relieved to finally know. Friday night was about the last straw for me...Jay was at National Convention, our washer decided to leak from underneath itself about the time Camryn woke up crying that night. With only about 3 hours of sleep the night before it made everything seem worse! Thank goodness for good neighbors and Memo. Our neighbor helped me move the washer and dryer to clean up the water and Sharon came over to stay with Cade while I took Camryn to the ER.

Last night she finally seemed back to normal. She fell asleep at 7:30 and finally slept all night! Yay, I think she is on the mend. We survived, but we were pretty glad to see Jay Saturday night. And the washer had a hole in a hose. We are waiting for a part but it should be fixed by the end if the week. No big deal!

And Cade and Camryn want to say Happy Halloween. Cade isn't dressing up this year. He wants to go to Miller's playoff game tonight. So the boys are going footballing and the girls are Trick or Treating. Actually is more just showing off a cute girl in a tutu since she won't eat the candy.

Mumkin Patch

That is how Camryn says Pumpkin. We almost ran out of time to visit a Pumpkin Patch this year. We made a quick trip Sunday, but didn't stay too long. Camryn had a double ear infection and it was cold and windy. She was so excited about the Mumkins she wouldn't stand still for a picture.

And now that I finally figured out how to post videos with my phone I will be boring you all the time...

A Political Disclaimer

When I started this blog in July 2007 it was a way to record our adoption journey.  Writing became sort of a therapy for me and this blog, in part, is what helped me survive all of our adoption junk.  I've always tried to find the humor in situations so blogging about what I observed and found to be humorous sort of because my niche.  I really didn't know (or care) if others found them to be funny - I just did it for my own sanity and way a to record those family moments.  Jay prints me off a copy of our blog and gives it to me for Christmas every year.  The funny moments are the ones I want to treasure when I'm old and gray and looking through those books.

When ever I've had a post on politics it has only been to point out the humor in whatever situation was going on in our home.  Good grief - I caught my husband painting on our propane tank.  That's not something a lot of wives will experience (or even admit).  If he had put Daffy Duck for president I still would've blogged about it....after I had his mental health checked out.

 I think one of Cade's greatest (and funniest) attributes is his 100% passion he puts toward what he believes in.  Tuesday night sthat passion was about politics, Wednesday night it was about the unfairness of the no talking rule in class.  Who knows what he will be passionate about next week.  I didn't blog about Cade and his friend disagreeing to push a political agenda.  I just want to remember the conversation we had that night.  There was a lot of laughing around our dinner table.  Who wouldn't want to remember a great family night???  And Cade and his friend didn't have a knock down fight.  There was some words exchanged and they went back to playing kickball.  I'd say most politicians could learn a lot by watching how quickly 10 year old boys argue and make-up.

So for anybody that I offended by those posts I truly am sorry.  That was not my intention at all.  I know we all believe differently, which is 100% our freedom.  This is just a little old family memory blog and nothing more. 

Cade has so much passion for what he believes in.  I actually am proud of the fact he is so outspoken for what he believes in.  I hope that is a trait that continues all through his life.  He is a unique individual and I can't wait to see what kind of a man he turns out to be.  And he as had some excellent examples of Godly men on both sides of our family to look up to.  I thank God every day for giving my son such a great father, grandfathers, great-great grandfathers and uncles.

5th Grade Politics

You probably think I’m talking about the pecking order on the playground. No, I am actually talking about the upcoming election in the 5th grade circle. There is some dissent amongst Cade and one of his friends who says he is a Democrat and would vote for Obama if he could vote. Of course that has just gotten all over Cade. From what I’m understanding there have been some hot and heavy political discussions between these boys. Tuesday night we had,  in our mailbox,  a flier that pointed out how McCaskill and Obama are alike and Todd Aiken is different. Cade planned to take that to school today to show this friend how wrong he is.


So dinner that night turned into a talk about politics and how we need to respect others beliefs. It is a loosing battle though in my household. Cade and Jay spend entirely too much time together listening to talk radio. I’ve tried to explain over and over to Cade about how you do not talk politics with people when you do not know their beliefs. I realize I’m a non-confrontational person so my view on this is to always play it safer, but there is no reason to entirely alienate family and friends (especially when you are only 10) over a Presidential Election. I also explained about how the ad we got in the mail was funded by an Aiken supporter so it showed all of his best stuff. Just like if we had got a flier funded by an Obama supporter it would show his best stuff. I’m not sure Cade quite understood how that all works. But since we aren’t a battle ground state we aren’t seeing any Obama/Romney ads so I’m sure Cade hasn’t seen enough examples of what I was trying to explain. After our few days in Virginia though I’m glad for that. If I had to listen to those Romney/Obama ads along with the McCaskill/Akin junk I’d be pulling my hair out.

Jay was trying to support me a bit in this conversation. I could tell he wasn’t as on board with it as I was, but I did get him to agree that there is no mention of Republican or Democrats in the Bible. Finally Cade did admit that he thinks this friend just likes to disagree with him, which I’m sure is 100% of the problem. I thought we were going to leave it at that and Cade was going to give up the political talk at school. Then Jay said “I wonder if Miss X (Cade’s Social Studies teacher) is a Dem?” Cade says “I’ve been wondering that same thing since I laid eyes on her.” Seriously!! So I said “well don’t you dare ask her.” Yeah, everything I tried to tell him last night went in one ear and out the other. When I got in the car Wednesday morning he had the flier in his hands. I just told him that I didn’t care what he did, but it really wasn’t worth the risk of making your friends mad just to talk about politics. I keep imagining me and this other boys parents outside the Principal’s office because they boys got in a fight at school.

Of course though, once Cade was out of earshot, I asked Jay if he thought this friend was picking up that info from home. Some of his ideas were pretty far out there – like Obama grew up on a farm in Chicago so he would be for the farmers. This boy also says he is for some other stuff that we do not biblically believe in. Now I’m wondering if his parents have been talking about this stuff??? See, that’s why you shouldn’t discuss politics! I really don’t care to know what I may know about someone else I like. Since I try to be bi-partisan most of the time I will try to overlook it :) But on the flip side who knows what this boys family believes about us…..

Sibling Fights

I naively thought that since Cade and Camryn are 9 years apart we wouldn't have too many fights....or if they did fight it would be when they were a little older.  Wrong.  They fight now.  They love each other a lot, but they also love to irritate each other a lot.  And it definitely goes both ways.  Cade loves to make Camryn scream.  Usually putting his hand on her carseat while we are driving gets the job done.  He also likes to sit on her Home Depot riding toy.  She squeals and we tell him to get off of it.  He usually does after mumbling something about how it was his toy to begin with.  Camryn likes to hit Cade, either with her hands or whatever object she is holding.  That makes Cade squeal.

The age difference between the two makes dealing with this pretty complicated.  The logical thing is to tell Cade to grow up because he is 10.  But if we give Camryn her way all of the time because she is younger then we are just creating a monster. 

Sunday night Jay wanted to watch that 2016 movie.  I just wanted to go to bed.  I told him he could have the family room TV if he would put Camryn to bed so I could go to bed.  He agreed.  Between you and me I actually turned the lights off and played Angry Birds.  If anyone had walked in I was prepared to hide my phone in the covers and pretend I was asleep.  Anyway, while I was in our room I heard WWIII erupt in the living room.

It started out pretty typically.  Cade wanted to lay on the floor to watch the movie with Jay.  He's always been a kid who likes to lay on the floor.  But if Camryn sees a body on the floor she assumes she can wrestle it to the death.  Cade was not in the mood to wrestle.  Jay told him he was going to have to get up, but Cade didn't want to be on the couch he wanted to be on the floor.  And I can see his point...he just wants to lay on his floor and be left alone, even though he knows she doesn't understand it still frustrates him.  I'm not sure if Cade got up or not but Camryn was not going to be ignored.  She chucked her lotion bottle at Cade's head.  The top of it happened to be open and it scraped his forehead.  Cade screamed and then I heard Camryn scream.  Then Jay tells Cade that he has to remember Camryn is smaller than him and then Cade says "it is bleeding" and "you need to spank her or something."  Jay is trying to console both crying kids.  What do I do??  Keep advancing my levels on Angry Birds. 

By the next morning Cade did have a pretty good skinned place on his forehead.  Thankfully he seemed to have forgiven Camryn and she had forgotten about him grabbing her arm.  Jay tried to explain to Cade about how it is different for a 1 year old and a 10 year old but I don't know if he understands it.  And from his point of view I can see where it is confusing...and I always worry he will think we love Camryn more because she takes so much of our time.  But them I see them together like they were last night and I think things will be ok...

Camryn likes to boss Cade and Cade seems to like it.

Happy Fall!

This past weekend was beautiful!  I spent Friday in Arkansas at two different craft shows.  I love craft show weekend!  The weather is usually gorgeous and the trees are so pretty on the drive.  I also just love walking around the shows and seeing all of the stuff.  I did have one thing on my agenda so I hit that booth up first thing.  I got Camryn 4 dresses - 1 with a Razorback, 1 with a Christmas tree and two embroidered ones.  I love embroidered dresses!  I also managed to get a few Christmas presents bought.  It was a fun day.

Saturday Cade's 4-H had a party at a corn maze.  We have never been to a corn maze so we wanted to check it out.  Saturday was a beautiful day....but it was pretty hot.  Especially in the middle of a cornfield with no breeze and a 16 month old without a stroller.  At one point Camryn's scalp was bright red.  I wasn't sure if she was red from the screaming fit she was having, the fact she might have been overheating or if she was getting a sunburn.  As we took the 100th wrong turn Jay said "corn mazes are clearly for city folk, farm people don't need this!"  I finally managed to get out first, I had sweat rolling down my face, the back of my hair was wet and Camryn was crying.  The guy working it asked me if I was ready to go through the 2nd half.   I told him no.  I had been wearing a scarf and I had removed that.  If I went through the 2nd half I might have totally stripped down.  Camryn and I found a place in the shade and it didn't take long for us to cool down while we waited for Jay and Cade.  When they got out I could tell Jay was done but Cade wanted to do the 2nd half.  Camryn and I sat that one out. I'm pretty sure I'm good on corn mazes for awhile.

The 4-H club had reserved a fire pit at this same farm.  It was a pretty neat place.  It was just hot that day and we were out in the middle of a field with no shade and a fire.  It is pretty funny when you think about it.  We looked more like we were going to a Memorial Day BBQ instead of a fall weenie roast.  But it was a fun time and Camryn got her first taste of an Oreo.  She clearly is a filling kind of girl.

After the 4-H party we ran home and had enough time to gather up more food and change Camryn into Halloween outfit #2 for the day.  Then we headed to our church's fall party - another weenie roast.  I ate more hot dogs on Saturday than I have in a year.  You could tell it by looking at my sodium swelled fingers Sunday morning!  We had another good time that evening.  Camryn really enjoyed herself...

and Cade actually participated in bobbing for apples

and he got one.  He wasn't going to do it because it grosses him out.  I named him well because he has the same issues with germs that his namesake, my grandpa Ewing had.  He agreed to do it because they let him go first.

And we always do a pinata, which is great fun for everyone.  This year the mask was Hello Kitty.  I had two plates of food on my lap so I couldn't get closer for a picture but Cade looked pretty funny.

After the party we came home with 3 extra boys.  They were pretty good and didn't trash the house too badly.  At least they are old enough that we can tell them not to burn the place down and then shut our door and go to sleep.  That was a good thing considering I was exhausted! But I loved spending the day with these two (and Jay)!

Who won last night's debate?

I vote for Camryn!  She stole the show at our house.

All I want to do is nap today!

**After a lot of trial and error and a sweaty moment when I thought I had deleted our blog I finally got this video to post!!  Sorry for the blank video I had posted earlier.**

But someone doesn't care about that!

After 2 fall parties yesterday and 4 ten year olds staying with us last night I am exhausted. Camryn was not interested in a nap earlier today so I tried to clean up the kitchen. I looked up to see her do this the first time. Then like any good mom I grabbed my phone and waited for her to do it a 2nd time and then a 3rd...

Boots and Football

I'm scheduling this post to show up Friday morning.  Hopefully while you are sneaking a peek at our blog while at work on Friday, I'm on my way to the great craft shows in Arkansas.  I love craft show weekend!!!!  Since it wasn't going to work out for me to go on Saturday I decided to take a me day on Friday.  I am so looking forward to it.  I'm also going to hit up a couple of boutiques I've been reading about but run out of time (and energy) when we are in town for the games.  Hoping we all have great Fridays and weekends!


Jim and Sharon got Camryn some pink boots last week.  She was pretty taken with them the night Jay brought them home.

She had to wear them to Stacy's the next day.

Cade had his last football game last Saturday.  If anyone is tired of me going on about football here is a classic example of why it drives me nuts.....
The Tuesday before his last game I took him to practice.  I hear the coaches tell the kids that if they win their game on Saturday they will be in the playoffs.  Since we had only won 1 other game I didn't think the risk of this was too high.  But that seemed to get the kids pretty excited.  Our game was supposed to be at 11:30 on Saturday which was going to give Jay plenty of time to get to the Arkansas/Kentucky game at 6 that night.  Jay took Cade to practice Thursday night.  After practice, about 7:30, Jay found out they had changed the game time from 11:30 to 4:30.  He was pretty ticked as were a lot of other parents.  Everyone was scrambling to rearrange weekend plans.  Saturday rolls around and Jay and I see the other team warming up and we think there is no way we will beat them. Then on the first play of the game we scored a touchdown...and ended up winning the game.  I think the parents faked excitment when they told us we would play Tuesday night.  That meant the week and weekend plans were now on hold.  We couldn't plan anything until we knew the game schedule for Tuesday and possibly Saturday.  We left the game that night still not having a clue when or where we would play Tuesday.  That created other issues because our parent/teacher conferences were scheduled for that night and Jay would be tied up with his all night.  I would have to go by myself.  By Monday morning the rumor was going around that another team had lost on Saturday so we were out of the playoffs.  That had been passed down through some other reliable parents.  Finally Monday night Cade came home with a note telling the boys they were done and we were to turn in the uniforms at 6 pm Tuesday night.  Those poor boys were so excited about the playoffs and they got a note at school.  Good grief.  Due to our conference with Cade's teacher we were 30 minutes late dropping off Cade's equipment and they were already gone.  There was another parent who got there 15 minutes late and he didn't get to turn in his stuff either.  I figured it would take at least 30 minutes to get everything checked in.  Apparantly they just chucked it in the shed and got the the heck out of dodge.  It's just as well.  Jay and I are glad to be done with football.  We have a fun weekend planned that does not include sports (Arkansas is off this weekend) and I'm looking forward to it.  We have a 4-H fall party at a corn maze that afternoon and then our church's fall party that night.  It will be some good family time!

Yes, I did just post 5 times!

If your wondering how I managed to do 5 posts in one night it is because I'm in Jeff City by myself tonight.  This is the first time I've been away from Camryn overnight since we brought her home.  It is weird.  I kept feeling like I was missing something when I loaded my one small suitcase and laptop bag this morning.  I'm used to traveling with a million bags and countless bottles.  I brought my laptop so I could do some posting this evening.  I also met my awesome friend Shelley for dinner.  We had some great wraps and good conversation!  It is now a little after 9.  I'm going to finish this post and watch CSI then it will be time for bed.  So far I'm surving my first night away.  Hopefully I will sleep through the night because I'm so used to waking up and checking on her.  Jay told me I was not to call him every time I woke up during the night to check on her.  I also wasn't allowed to talk to her this evening.  When I did talk to them earlier everything at home was fine, which I figured it would be. 

So....I don't want anyone to miss any of my posts so there are 5 new ones.  Once you get to Jay's classic propane picture you've seen them all.  Hopefully he won't have vandalized the side of the house or the garage door while I'm away. 

Colonial Williamsburg

On Sunday we drove to Colonial Williamsburg and walked around for awhile.  We didn't have a lot of time to spend there, but what we got to see was really neat.  We also drove to Jamestown and Yorktown the same day. 

 

(if we ever build a house we decided it will be Colonial)

This picture was in Yorktown. 

The Photo Booth

This was the first wedding we went to that had a photo booth.  We got copies of some of the pictures, but the company posted them on Facebook.  I just saw them on Mary's page. I found some shots of Cade that I didn't know existed.  That boy is going to be a politican or something.  Anyway, we had a lot of fun with the photo booth. 

This is one that surprised me....Cade with Uncle Terry and Aunt Megan

The Shepherd men are famous for not smiling in pictures.  To look at them in most pictures you'd think they were the meanest bunch of people you'd ever meet.  That couldn't be farther from the truth about any of them, but they still look like grumps.  They decided to play it up for the photo booth,

 

So then the Shepherd women had to have their picture

And I found another one of Cade with a random kid he made friends with.  Actually I think this was Mary's nephew. 

 

The Wedding

The reason why we went to Virginia was for Jay's cousin Meagan's wedding.  We had a great time!  The wedding was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed seeing that side of the family.  Of course, the weekend went too fast (like the always do).  But we enjoyed the time we were together.

The wedding was outdoors at on old farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.  It was so beautiful!  During the wedding we could see the old barn where the reception was going to be.  I love the initials they put on the side of the barn.

After the wedding we took some group pictures....since we were all cleaned up and dressed up at the same time.  That is pretty rare!

 

 

 

The barn had some really neat features.  These rocking chairs were stuck on the outside of the barn.  It was the perfect place to take a break and work on a bottle.

 

 

Camryn and I tried to do a self portrait.  This girl can give some pretty mean looks.  Heaven help us someday....

 

View of the barn from the rocking chairs

 

View of the mountains from the same awesome chairs. I told Jay to put those same outdoor rocking chairs on my Christmas list.

 

 

Cade was so excited to see Meagan again.  I wish the picture turned out better.

 

One thing that kept going through my mind was that at Camryn's wedding we will think about this wedding and wonder where the time went.  We will say "remember how little she was at Meagan's wedding?"  Jay told me to shut up!!  He didn't want to think about it.  I don't either but I know how fast Cade's first 10 years have gone....So I took this picture of Jay with Camryn.  We can use it at her wedding some day.

 

If you want to see some really great wedding pictures here is the link to Megan's. 

http://www.abbygraceblog.com/2012/10/11/love-everlasting-jay-meagans-rodes-farm-diy-wedding/