The mighty hiker has returned

We waited and waited all day long. Finally at 10:00 this handsome boyscout strolled through our door

Sporting his mountain man look!

He trekked 70 miles on foot, discovered that he is Robin Hoods long lost brother (seriously, this guy can handle a bow and arrow) and chased off a bear that got a little too close.

We are happy to have him back. And now we are packing up for a family adventure.

Looking up

If perspective could be sold in a bottle I would line up for a prescription. I would Set it on my bathroom window sill next to the stuff that keeps me from morphing into crazy lunatic mom and devour it daily. I would most definitely become a perspective addict.

With no such pill available though I usually get my fix through a phone call either to a friend, my mom, or my sister. These phone calls keep me moving through reality for a while until reality slips into poor me and I require another phone call. I guess you could call me a perspective phone call addict.

And even though perspective is good, a dependency on anything or anyone isn't.

I know I could never give up my perspective phone calls completely, and I don't think I should. A little girl talk is always good for the soul. But I am making an effort to put thing in perspective for myself a little more and relying on others less.

You know, now that I think about it it really is just what my Mom has been telling me to do for a long time. The first step is to recognize the negative self talk, and then replace it with something positive.

So, this morning as I was grumpy and tired because the kids took over my bed last night and I ended up on the couch I remembered that my sister is nursing a baby all night long and didn't get nearly as much sleep as I did.

And as I'm sitting here lonely and wishing that Josh was home with me right now, I remember my friends who's husbands have already gone home and are now waiting for them to return.

Even the young man in a wheelchair with severe physical dissabilities that I saw this week at the Dr's office reminded me that even though I am struggling with a capital S to get anywhere in my half-marathon training, I am healthy and for that I should be grateful.

And I am!

Adventures in mothering chapter 3,769

*A day after thought*
For My husband- just know that I was being very dramatic when I wrote this post. The life guard did in fact jump in the pool to help our son, but he wasn't so much drowning as he was panicking. Please don't take away my pool privileges!!!

We don't usually head to the pool until after Macy's nap but on Saturday they were handing out free Chik fil a sandwiches so we loaded up and got there just in time to see the door open. We waited in line only a few minutes and then when we got to the counter the young life guard said "hey James, what's up dude?" Then looked at me and said " You guys have passes, go on in."

Does that mean we've been too many times already?

Being early definitely has it's advantages. Even though Macy wouldn't get a nap I did score a lounge chair and so I set myself up by the baby pool and proceeded to lounge.

Fast forward a whole ten minutes. A life guard goes running by. My friend states "that's never good."

"Oh what, you mean that was my kid drowning! Ya, that happens a lot. Sure I'll fill out an incident report."

OK, so it was only the first time this summer but it seems to happen every year. except last year there were no life guards around but fortunately Samm was paying attention and yelled for me.

(Becky, I promise I won't let your kids drown while they are with me!)

Good thing I had a craft project I could pull out to redeem myself.

Another picture of baby Sadie

Showing off her pretty brown hair!

Impromptu sprinkler fun

When it's hot outside there's really nothing else to do but strip down and get wet!

A new world

*Update* The baby's name is Sadie Cora.

Yesterday there was Chris, Jenn, and Ava.

Today there is Chris, Jenn, Ava, and baby girl Shideler #2

This sweet little angel weighed in at 6lb 5oz and measures 19 1/2 in long

Still no name, but I will let you know as soon as I am privy to that info.

Congratulations guys! I can't wait to come hold my new niece!

Happiness is good smelling hair...

Soft clean sheets to climb into at the end of the day.

And the peacefulness of a sleeping baby.

And, it just so happens that there will be a new baby arriving tomorrow whose birth I get to announce!!!!

Creepy, weird, and just a little more creepy

I'm seeing a pattern in my life that I'm not too fond of.

You might remember last summer when Josh was out of town I had a very literal run in with a giant grasshopper and then a rabbit that decided to give up the ghost in our backyard.

Well, just this morning I kissed my honey goodbye and sent him packing on a 10 day boy scout hiking trip in New Mexico. I was calm, collected, and even happy as I laid on the couch with the kids thinking about all the hours we were going to spend at the pool and the pizza and cereal we would eat for dinner.

Then, not 30 minutes after Josh had walked out the door, a lovely little robin decided to fly into our house and attempted to land on the ceiling fan that was rotating on high speed. Feathers flew everywhere, I may have screamed a little, and all of us, the bird included, were wondering what in the heck was going on.

I was pretty certain at this point that the bird was not dead, but I was also certain that it had not gone back out the open door. So where was it?

I really didn't want to go looking for it. Too many images of birds viciously pecking people on the head came to mind. Instead I timidly peeked my head over the couch really hoping it wasn't hopping around with a missing wing.

To my relief, I spied it perched on the entryway table all body parts intact, bobbing it's little head.

OK, so now what?

Run after it and try and shoo it out? I don't think so!!!

No, scared little me sat on the couch and waited for it to make an escape attempt. Which it did after only about 30 seconds. Although it's first attempt was out the front door, which was closed.

So, somewhere out there right now is a robin with not so many feathers and probably a little bit of a headache.

What will tomorrow bring?

Sunshine and pizza I hope!

Family fun continued..Macy's story

So yes, Macy did go to Woolaroc with us. She had just as much fun as the other kids, only it was doing her own thing. And, of course I had to take a million pictures of her, which is why she gets her own edition of the family fun post.

Climbing was definitely a favorite activity

Playing in the dirt also captured her attention. For some reason she thought Grandpa needed a whole handful of it.

Grandpa was nice enough to clean her off for me

Just sitting, pondering the beauty of the universe. Or, more likely how she got dirt in her shoe.

The classic "Macy look"

More pondering. And sneaking in the background.

Leaf piles are almost as fun as dirt piles.

And this is how Macy feels about animals! I guess she loved almost everything.

Family fun

Josh's brother and his family were here visiting this past week from Utah. We don't get to see them very often so it was a special treat. Samm was especially excited to see her cousin Mayson. She loves playing with her boy cousins that live here, but it was fun for her to have a girl her age to play with for a couple days.

The kids did lots of swimming in Grandma's backyard and at the pool, but the highlight of the week was going to Woolaroc. It's this great outdoor place at the home of the guy who started Phillips 66. There are tons of animals there, a museum, a petting zoo, and real live mountain men who show you how to throw a hatchet and shoot a black powder rifle.

The only sad part was that Dad didn't get to go with us. I made sure to take lots of pictures for him though.

Mayson and Samm

All the cousins

Most of the animals were behind fences, but this deer didn't seem bothered by us at all.

Samm really didn't want to shoot the rifle because it was so loud, but she finally agreed to do it. This is her pretend I'm happy to be doing this smile!

My first time ever shooting a gun. I even hit the target/bear. I don't have a picture of me throwing the hatchet, but I did stick it in the wood on my second try.

Grandma being silly

The petting zoo is Samm's favorite part

This baby cow was only a couple weeks old and pretty cute for a cow!

James and Grandpa on the ledge that James was not supposed to be standing on!

The kids thought they were pretty cool climbing through rock caves.

This place really is beautiful.

So where was Macy the whole time?...stay tuned to find out.