Little Swimmers

I started feeling a little better over the weekend, so I thought that I would take the kids swimming yesterday. I think we overdid it a little bit, because we were all worn out. Nathan has been working on his diving this summer, so he decided that he was ready to try a flip. His first attempt was really good, but I didn't have my camera ready yet. Instead I captured this back-buster:

Ouch! Ashley is not quite ready to jump off the diving board, but she did have fun with the diving sticks:

More Houseguests

Brandon Grable from Antioch in Little Rock is interviewing for Worship Leader at Life Point this weekend. Actually he came last Wed. and is leaving next Wed. He is staying with us. He's a single guy so he's pretty low maintenance, but he is still a guest. Which means: the house has to be a little cleaner than normal, the kids have to be a little better behaved than normal, I have to cook a little more than normal-all things that require me to be a little perkier than normal. I think I'm done with house guests for a while. (at least that I know of) I enjoy hosting. I really do. Hospitality is one of my "gifts," but I've been doing it a little too much lately. Please pray for Brandon as he makes decisions about his future (hopefully to come to LP).

No, I'm not pregnant

For most of the summer, I have been completely exhausted. This was my #1 complaint both times that I was pregnant. Since I knew that was not the case, I looked for some other reason that I have been feeling like total crap. At first, I assumed it was because I am a working mother with two small children...or maybe that I am getting old and lazy...or maybe I am anemic again...etc. So I finally went to the doctor on Monday, and it turns out that I have mono. This is one of those good news/bad news situations. Good news: I'm not crazy and something is actually wrong with me. Bad news: there is nothing you can do but wait it out. The weird thing is that I actually feel physically worse now that I know what it is. Maybe that's just psychosomatic, but I think it is because I don't have to fake feeling well.

Since they drew 5 vials of blood and ran every test under the sun, I asked them to fax me all of my lab results (13 pages!) Everything else looked great, except my Vitamin D level was a little low. So now I'm taking a prescription supplement and hopefully will be myself again in a few weeks.

I think I'm about to take the plunge........

I know you guys can't believe it, but I'm seriously considering starting a Facebook account. I've been on Aaron's account three times today to send messages. I'm so mad!!!!Why don't people email anymore? It's like some four letter word (yes Rach I know it has five letters) but I'm just saying I can't get in touch with my people here unless I Facebook them. UHHHHHHHH! Bring on the comments. I'm ready for them.

How about this weather!

It's still July in Arkansas, right? There is no humidity and the high temperature has been around 89 due to some weird, Canadian weather pattern. Well, thank you, Canada! I hate the hot weather so this is a welcome relief.

It was so un-miserable here that we went to the zoo. They are currently featuring the Winged Wonders bird show. This might sound obvious, but if you are even slightly scared of birds, do not go. They literally fly right over your head...inches away. I don't suffer from bird phobia myself, so I thought is was really good. It was free with admission and definitely worth 30 minutes.

We also went to the reptile house twice. Thanks to Dad for sending Nathan the Snakes of Arkansas book. Now he has another animal fascination. He's still on the big cats, though. Today he corrected a girl who mistakenly called the serval a "cheetah".

We ended the day with some homemade ice cream. It needed to be a little more frozen, but we couldn't wait.

Why can't they sleep until 8am???

We went to Wayne's retirement party last night and didn't leave Petit Jean until 11:30. The kids were really good and played so well with their cousins the whole time. I thought surely they would sleep in a little bit this morning. Wishful thinking...Ashley was up at 6:45 and Nathan was not far behind her! What is wrong with these kids!

Happy Birthday Lily

We celebrated Lily's 2nd birthday at church camp. Aaron was there all week, but we went down Thursday and spent the night and came home Friday. She loves her new bike! She goes around saying "my bike?" like she just can't believe she finally has one like her brothers.

The long way home

We took our time on the way home yesterday. First, we went through Fayetteville and ate a late lunch at AQ Chicken House. Jeff and the kids had never eaten there, so I thought they should go at least once. I did make the disclaimer that I hadn't eaten there in 15 years, so I made no promises.

Since we stopped in Clarksville for a bathroom break, I decided to see if the famous Johnson County peaches were ripe yet. So we headed north on a little highway that eventually took us to a U-Pick peach orchard, but they weren't quite ready yet.

Since we were already several miles from the interstate, I pulled out the state map and plotted a course that took us through some remote, yet beautiful, parts of Johnson and Pope counties. We drove past these strange dinosaur sculptures in the middle of nowhere in front of someone's house on Hwy. 164. (Jeff turned around so we could take pictures.)

Though we didn't find any peaches, we did find some half-price fireworks. We crashed in on Wayne and Phyllis and shot our fireworks at their house. Nathan loved it! Ashley didn't like the noise, so Phyllis took her in the house after a few rounds.

The little pyromaniac.

The big pyromaniac. Why use a match when you can use a blowtorch?

The one who bought the blowtorch - Wayne.

Turpentine Creek

Nathan's latest fascination is with big cats. The last time we went to the library, he only checked out books about leopards, cheetahs, etc. I heard about this big cat refuge in Eureka Springs, so we went there this weekend. It's called Turpentine Creek, and they have over 100 big cats and other animals. They all have their name and their bio posted on the cages. Many of the big cats were donated/rescued from private individuals who after raising a tiger for awhile decided that maybe it didn't make the best pet. Go figure! It's a tiger.

We were there for feeding time. The keepers come around with a wheelbarrow full of raw meat and chicken parts (much of which is donated by Walmart and Tyson) and feed the animals. I'm sorry (or maybe I'm not) that I didn't get a better picture of the nasty vat of raw meat.

I don't know what else they fed the monkey, but when we came around, they were feeding it Skittles. Who knew that monkeys liked Skittles?

Weird Cloning Experiment?

Someone recently asked Jeff and me if we cloned ourselves to make Nathan and Ashley. Well, I don't think they look exactly like either one of us. Nathan does look like Jeff when he was little, but there are some Racheal-ish features/expressions as well. Likewise, Ashley has definitely dipped into the Adams' gene pool. We can really tell by looking back at pictures of Abby when she was younger. There are some similarities.

However, I can't deny that she is mine. Here are some pictures of me when I was about her age.

And some I took of Ashley in the park yesterday. I knew she got my hair, but I never realized that we had the same part!

Sorry, few pics

I "lost" my camera last week while Renee's family was here, so I don't have many pictures from their trip. When I get a chance to download from mom's camera, I will post some belated pictures from last week.

Here are a few pictures from the fake birthday party that Mom decided to throw for Lily at the last minute. It all started when she let the kids make and frost a cake.

Since Lily's birthday is next week, mom pulled out some random Pooh 1st Birthday decor (yes, it's Lily's 2nd birthday, but never mind that) and let the kids have a little party. Since I watched them make the cake, I warned the grown-ups not to eat it. The party quickly devolved into the kids eating cake with their bare hands straight from the pan. (Jeff wasn't there yet, so I know he will be mortified by these pictures.)

And BTW, It turns out that I just left my camera was in Jeff's truck all along, so I'll be back to my shutter-happy self in no time.