My Job Title

"What was I thinking?"

I've been wondering that question for the past few minutes.

Spencer's teacher called. Because his class is having some parents come in to discuss their jobs to give the children ideas on what careers they might be interested in when they get older. His teacher wanted to know if I might be willing to come in and tell the kids about my job.

"Uhhhh, you do know that I'm a stay-at-home mom, right?" I asked.

I had visions of children with their eyes glazing over as I describe how many times a day I open and shut the washing machine.

I pictured mouths hanging open with droplets of spittle dribbling on desks as I explain that in between loads of laundry I'm sometimes on my hands and knees, scrubbing toilets. (Out of kindness and love for my Spencer, I won't share with his class that it is often his bad aim that causes me such in depth sessions with my toilet.)

I imagined little girls gagging as I pondered telling them about the day I'd just had, which started with me taking a glass of my older son's urine to his pediatrician to see if there was any sugar in it as an indication of diabetes (there wasn't).

"Yes," Spencer's teacher said, "but I also know that you used to be a journalist, or still are."

Well, I was. Many moons ago.

And like a ding-dong, I agreed to do it. I'm not even sure why. Except that I love my kids. And I think their teachers are pretty great. I also think they attend the best elementary school in the area. I'm there nearly as often as I'm at home. And I'd do just about anything to support that place and the staff.

We figured out a day and time that would work best.

And then I asked, "Who else is coming?"

A veterinarian's assistant.

An ER doctor.

An air traffic control operator.

And me. A stay-at-home mom.

Oh shoot!

No, really. Please, shoot. As in "Shoot me now before I embarrass my child."

So I explained the situation to Spencer. And then I asked him what my job was.

"To keep us safe."

I hugged him.

Then I asked Allison what she thinks Mommy does all day.

"Nothing."

"Really, Allison? Nothing?" I needed clarification.

"Just be lazy," she replied.

I'm thinking I need to sharpen my PR skills on that kid!

I started to panic a little though, so I went downstairs. And I found them.

The boxes.

Boxes of proof of a former lifetime. Back when I had a job that guaranteed me a pay check. One that I could cash!

I dug around and found the Today's CPA magazine that showed my last published work. From a decade ago. I pulled it out.

Then I found the plaque that was awarded to me from the Arkansas AP for first place in education reporting at the last newspaper that I worked at 12 years ago. I pulled that out, too.

I dove back in and found the newspaper that contained the article that won the award. I re-read it.

"Not too shabby," I thought.

Then I found Clay and asked him what he thought my job was.

"To take care of us," he said.

I let him read the award-winning article I'd written 12 years ago. When he was done, I asked him what he thought. He said it was good.

"Did you know I had that in me?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, smiling. "I knew."

I have no idea what I'll share with Spencer's classmates. Maybe a little about journalism and a little about being a stay-at-home mom. What they might ask me? That's a frightening mystery to me right now.

What I do know is that I used to be a journalist who wanted to be a mom when she grew up.

Sharing Some Love

The smartest girl I know has seen fit to pass me a blog award, and I think that's pretty neat.

I know Cathy, of Stay in the Car Mom fame, from Bible Study Fellowship and church. Let me assure you that you don't want to be up against this lady in any game of Bible trivia! But she has many other fine qualities, so you'll want to go to her blog and meet her.

Anyway, here's the award.



And here's my mission impossible.

The Best Blog Award rules are:

1) To accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you have recently discovered and think are great! Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Fifteen blogs!? That's tough. Because I've slowed way down on my blog lurking.

I hate to not follow all the rules. That's so not me. But I'm going to break a rule now. (Forgive me, Cathy!)

Instead of passing the award on, I'll share some links to a few blogs I'm checking out after finding them listed in a magazine I skimmed while waiting to have a prescription filled recently. They're all related to home decorating. Not because I have such great skill in that arena. Ask anyone! I just like the pretty pictures.

Here are some links for you to enjoy.

designspongeonline

ikeahacker

creaturecomforts

SFGirlbyBay

Decor8blog

Foreshadowing

I've been going through pictures that Bruce and I took while we were on our trip out west. Oh, it was such a great trip! I want to do it again. But I'd rather cram those eight days into four so I won't miss the kids so much. Or maybe even take them along next time.

It's going to take awhile to upload all the pictures onto the blog, and even then, they won't do the area justice. It's truly stunning. But very different than home, which I still think is one of the most beautiful areas God created, too.

While we were gone, we rented a Mustang convertible to drive around in. Mostly because Bruce is thinking of selling his motorcycle and getting a Mustang convertible. We thought a long test drive would help him be certain if that's what he wants to do. (Anybody in the market for a nice motorcycle?)

As we toured through three different states, we enjoyed the Sirius satellite radio the car was equipped with. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have had any radio in some places we drove, because we were way out in the boonies.

I have always loved music and listening to the radio. But about 10 years ago, I quit listening to mainstream music and went solely to contemporary Christian music. It wasn't a conscious decision. We lived in a suburb of Dallas at the time and there was a wonderful station that I found and just stuck with.

Then when we moved back to Bruce's home town, I felt blessed to find another great Christian radio station, so it never really occurred to me to find a mainstream station.

Bruce has stuck with mainstream music. And sometimes he'll have me listen on the computer to a song that he likes. But most of the time, I haven't agreed with him. So many mainstream songs have lyrics that just rub me wrong because of my beliefs as a Christian.

We played a little game of radio shuffle while we were on our trip. And once while Bruce was having his way, I heard a song that I just loved. I thought, "I could even let the kids listen to this one." Granted, it's probably a song that my brothers would have made fun of me for listening to, like they did when Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue" came out. (Seriously. How can you not like "Electric Avenue"? Brothers! What do they know?!)

Here's the song.



The band's music video is better, but I can't upload that here. Go to this link if you want to see it. It has tons of cool old toys in the video. It's worth seeing just for that.

So now I've programmed a mainstream station into my radio in the van. I'll hop over there if the two Christian stations I listen to are both playing commercials or something else I don't want to hear. And if I hear some of the songs that we heard on our trip, I get all warm and fuzzy.

Topic change.

I felt like I should warn you. Because Bruce says I change topics without warning when I talk. I can't see why that's a problem for him. After being married for 15 years, he should be reading my mind by now, right?

The other day, Clay brought home a flyer. The kids are always bringing home flyers for one activity or another. This one was for the local Ruritan's football homecoming. For a dance. For grades 4 through 7.

What?!

Since when do Fourth graders go to dances? I know I just turned 40 and all that, but the first dance I ever went to was a friend's birthday party when I was in Sixth grade. The first public dance I ever actually went to was when I was in the Seventh grade.

And I remember them both being awkward. Really awkward. Boys on one side of the gym, girls on the other. Slow dancing like two stiff robots standing a foot apart. (Now that I'm a parent, I'm thinking that part sounds okay.)

You know, there's a reason that most schools separate elementary kids from junior high kids. (Yes, I know. In this area, it's supposed to be called "middle school". I'm feeling rebellious so I'm going with what it was called where I lived when I was that age!)

I also know that the grade that separates them fluctuates. My school considered Sixth grade still elementary. Sixth grade is middle school... junior high... here.

Fourth grade?! That's nuts. My boy isn't even a double digit age yet!

So, you see, I was in a quandary. Because every single one of those thoughts above flew through my head in about two seconds after I read that flyer.

I didn't want Clay to go. But Bruce accuses me of being overprotective, and I agree that that's my nature, so I try to be realistic and at least consider things before I just blurt out, "No. No way. Not my baby. Not now. Please, he was just learning to crawl, like, last week!"

I spent about five minutes trying to be realistic. But it just wasn't working for me.

I spent five more minutes trying to come up with a good, valid reason I could tell Clay he couldn't go. A reason that wouldn't make him feel like a baby. Because he is growing up. And that's all nice and normal and the way things are supposed to be. I considered purposely planning something else on the date of the dance and pencilling it on the calendar really quickly. But that felt like a lie, so I didn't.

I hadn't come up with a single good reason when I called Clay into the kitchen to talk. I figured I'd wing it after a quickly mumbled, "Jesus, help me."

I held up the flyer as Clay walked in and he immediately saw it.

"Yeah, Mom, I know about the dance," he said. "I don't want to go, okay? I'm too young. Plus, I can't even dance."

I felt my jaw unclench and my belly unwind. Still, I had to play it cool.

"Well, Clay, you know, I can teach you to dance," I said without any noticeable warbling.

But he was certain. He did not want to go. I fought the urge to say, "Well, okay, if you insist, I certainly won't make you go." I didn't think I could be a good enough actress to carry that scene very well.

God blessed us with Clay. He has such a good head on his shoulders. He gets that from his daddy. And his Daddy!

After supper, with Bruce, Clay and me in the kitchen, I showed Clay how to dance.

I'm pretty sure that helped set in concrete his decision to skip the dance!

Know something else? A few days later, Clay came home with a birthday party invitation. And the party was being held the same night as the dance.

Nice touch, Lord. Thank you very much!

Back to the Beginning... of Summer

I'm very far behind on blogging. What can I say? Life happens. Still, I wanted to post about our family vacation to Pennsylvania in early July so my mom and Oma could see pictures of the kids.

Our first stop was Gettysburg. We camped at a "family" campground. But it was Biker Week in Gettysburg. The combination wasn't a good one for us and we ended up thankful that we weren't in Gettysburg long.

We started off by heading to the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center where we found this great field of flowers.





We bought a CD that allowed you to self-tour the battle grounds.

I wimped out of climbing some of the higher observation towers. I felt like I could see just fine from where I was. Bruce took my picture on his way up the tower with the kids. It's not that I'm actually afraid of heights. I just don't like seeing my kids in that situation. And I'm not overly fond of feeling the sway of a structure I'm standing on.



Here's Clay at the top of one of the monuments. It was either at Big Round Top or Little Round Top... I can't remember which.



And the same monument with all of them on top.



The kids and I took a breather from walking around by sitting down on a bench inside the Gettysburg National Cemetery, the site at which President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.



It was very moving to read the words to his address after seeing so much of the battlefield.

Lincoln said, "We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

I was never a good history student, but I love visiting historical sites. I'm hoping that visits like these will make history come more alive for my kids than it did for me at their age.

After subjecting the kids to hours of history, we decided to decompress by heading to Boyd's Bear Country. On the way, we stopped at our first covered bridge. My aim was to have Clay take a picture of just Bruce and me, but Spencer crashed our photo.



Guess what? We got to the Boyd's Bear place about five minutes after it closed. You can imagine how that went over with the kids. So we just let them play on the grounds for a bit and decided we'd go back again the next morning.









The next day, after our spending spree at Boyd's Bear, we went to visit The Historic Round Barn and Farm Market nearby.





They had a cool little place for kids in the middle at the silo. Spencer took advantage of that while I bought fresh blueberries and some apple butter, Clay's favorite.



That was it for the portion of our trip near Gettysburg. The rest of our trip we camped at Lake in Wood Resort in Narvon, Pennsylvania. It was an awesome campground.

We arrived near dusk and decided to go on a walk/bike ride around the camp grounds, knowing we needed to get back to our site before dark because the kids didn't have lights on their bikes. From our camp site back to the playground and check-in area, the road looped. We played on the playground a bit and started heading back.

Allison darted ahead of us before we got to the split in the road where you could take a right or left on the looped road to get back to our site, but by the time the rest of us got to that spot, she was long gone. And we had no idea which direction she had gone. And both directions had side streets to veer off of. And it was in a wooded area, so it was dark enough where passing cars would not easily see my little bicycling girl.

These things stress me out. Not to mention my basic distrust of people and the thought of someone snatching my daughter.

I told Clay to bike ahead, fast, to see if she had made it back to the camp site.

Long story, short... Allison was safely back at the site, clueless to the stress she'd caused. I reamed her out for riding off on her own and giving me hundreds of extra gray hair I don't need.

But while it was just me, Bruce and Spencer worrying on the walk back, Spencer asked me why I didn't let him ride ahead to look for her. I didn't want to make him feel like a baby and say, "You're too little for that" because he thinks he can do anything his older brother can do. Before I could come up with a good answer, Spencer said, "I know why. It's so you'll have at least one kid left if you lose those other two."

That was a much needed laugh right about that point.

We try to factor in some lazy days when we do our family camping vacations. That's for me and the kids. Bruce would run non-stop every which way. The rest of us need a break!

Our next day of vacation, we stayed at the campsite and relaxed part of the day and the other part we went swimming. Well, the kids swam. Bruce and I read and watched. But we were in our swimsuits in case we needed to jump in. (At this point, though, the kids are better swimmers than I am.)







Our ever-present checkers board made an appearance, too, for a challenge between Allison and Bruce.



Spencer noticed this little bunny one day behind our camper. We crept around and got a few pictures of him. He visited us nearly every day we were there.



At some point on one of our laid-back days, Spencer fell down the metal stairs leaving the camper. He skinned up his back a bit and bruised his rear end pretty badly. He was so sore, poor kid. We didn't even know about his bottom being bruised until shower time that night. He took one look in the mirror after he saw my reaction to how bad it looked and his face just crumpled. He said, near tears, "I'm going to have to be good for a few days so I don't get any spankings."

Pennsylvania farmers grow a lot of corn. A lot! After awhile, every time we'd come upon a field of corn, the kids would say, "What? More corn?!"



I like visiting state capital buildings, and Bruce and I have been to several since we've been married. This trip to a new state wasn't going to pass without a visit to Harrisburg and the Pennsylvania state capital building.

The kids hopped around outside on the grounds nearby before we went in.





Bruce took this picture for me. I joked and told him that in a parallel universe, this is where I'd be working. Oh, some days I miss reporting. But not enough to give up my current position!



Ah-ha! The Ten Commandments. In a government building. I'm sure someone somewhere is in a tizzy about this.







And, finally. What the kids had all been looking forward to. Well, almost. From the parking lot...



We went on the hokey little tour that tells you how the chocolate is made three times. Because they gave out free Hershey bars at the end each time.



Then we headed to Hershey Gardens, which overlooks the amusement park, planning to go back to the amusment park IF the kids' happy moods and good behavior held out. Can you tell where my crew would rather have been before the gardens? Hey, the gardens were my bit. I insisted.



And Spencer, my little gardening shadow, got on board quick enough.





This tree was so cool. It was like being inside of a natural umbrella. We were perfectly cocooned underneath.





Spencer and Allison sitting on top of upside-down Hershey kisses.







The park also had a neat butterfly house, which was so full of butterflies that they asked us to do a quick check for "hitchhikers" stuck on our shirts before we left the building.







Then we went to Hershey Park.













I didn't take a lot of pictures at the amusement park, so I'll share this story. We went on a ride at night that was a little like a ski lift that took you over the park grounds, including a small lake. Bruce loaded on the first chair lift with Clay and Allison, and Spencer and I took the second chair lift behind them. I tried to take a couple of pictures, but because it was dark, they didn't turn out.

I was wearing my Birkenstocks and kept flexing my feet to be sure my shoes wouldn't fall off and go straight into the lake.

When we got off the ride, Bruce and Clay and Allison were waiting for us, and they weren't looking happy.

And Clay was wearing only a sock on one foot.

I thought, "No, please. Not the shoe!"

Sure enough. Bruce and Clay told me that Clay had lost his one-size-too-large shoe over the lake.

I was steamed. We were on vacation. They were play shoes, because we don't pack good shoes when we camp. I didn't want to shell out any money to buy a new pair so he could ruin them camping.

Then those boogers started laughing! And Clay pulled his shoe from behind his back.

Oh, they got me so good!

More swimming at the campground on another relaxing day.









And on another drive... What? More corn?!



These people are serious about their corn cribs.



This picture was taken as we were leaving the campground one morning. I wish I was a painter, because I'd have to capture this scene. Beautiful!



We passed what I thought might be an Amish funeral, but none of the Amish were around, so I had Bruce turn the car around and take a picture of their buggies all lined up.



We spent part of our day at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg. The kids really enjoyed that.

There was this interactive area that allowed the kids to run model trains.





And this area was made of LEGOs. I had no idea until we got home and I was looking at these pictures that the glass area I'm pointing over says "Do not lean or reach over glass." Oops!









Then we headed to Lapp Valley Farm, on the recommendation of another lady at the campground who said if we timed it right, we might get to see the cows being milked. Our kids have never seen that, so I thought they'd enjoy it. But let's face it... the big draw was the homemade ice cream they were selling! It was yummy! But I think the kids enjoyed the animals the most.









Back at the campground on another day. We had a perfect camp site, right on a large circular drive that was just right for biking. Spencer worked on riding without hands.



The campground also had a lake where you could rent row boats or paddle boats. Bruce took the kids for a ride, and I snapped pictures from the shore.











And that's all, folks. Finally!