Summer Updates: Sunburn, Confessions, & Pictures. This is the rest of the story.

Sometimes I mention things on my blog, and then I never come back and tell you the rest of the story, so today I’m going to just do that. Here’s a little update on things I’ve mentioned, with lots of cute photos thrown in.

I told you that we packed up and headed South, but did I mention that Daniel is my #1 packing assistant? He is a hard worker! He’d pack one suitcase with me, and I would want to take a break, but there are no breaks with this little slave driver.

“All right. Now let’s go pack ‘yours’ suitcase!”

“Shew, Daniel, I’m tired. Let’s take a break first.”

“No, Mommy, no. Let’s go pack it now!!!”

Reminds me of someone. Nonna. I remember the time Nonna came to DC to help us unpack. Nonna arrived ready to WORK. We put the kids to bed, and Alan and I were like, “Phew. Ready for bed?”

Nope. Nonna had us all up until midnight. I still remember. We were used to unpacking by day, putting kids to bed, and then watching DVDs until we fell asleep.

Yes, it takes us a while.

Which reminds me of something else:

ACCEPTING WHO I AM, HOW I AM:

Now I do not mean accepting my sharp tongue and tendency to be insensitive. Those are sins that I should master, with God’s help. What I’m referring to is the fact that I’m not the high type A, high energy person that unpacks and decorates 2,000 square feet in a day. I don’t pop out babies and show up at church that next Sunday either. Give me about 4 weeks.

I’m slower than all that, and THAT’S OKAY. I’m a writer. If I were always running, when would I edit photos and write? When would I read? When would I look at the sky and just think? Just thinking is IMPORTANT to me, so is prayer.

God made us each different, and I love that. It makes the world more interesting.   Did I mention that when JD sleeps, he looks like an angel? He slept on Alan on the plane. We are firm believers in buying toddlers their own airplane seat, if you can afford it. We had no choice for the return flight anyway. He is officially two now!  Do you remember the post where I mentioned shopping at Cracker Barrel? Well, this is the art that we purchased, for our guest room. It was love at first sight for me and this picture.  This is Daniel, driving my dad’s scooter, just another reason my dad is so extremely popular.

Also, do you remember the story about how JD cried every night for 10 minutes when I first put him to bed, our first week in Alabama?

Good news. That’s over. He’s back to his (somewhat) laid back self. While we were still at my parents house, I decided one night, after I laid him down and covered him up, to put my hand over his heart and pray over the sweet boy. I did, and he calmed down instantly and went right to sleep. It hasn’t been a problem since.

We pray with all the boys before bed, but since JD is so young, I am praying FOR him. I love the way it soothes him.

Prayer, y’all. Confess your sins, we’ve all got ’em, and PRAY for help. I see God answer my prayers every single day.

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”  James 5:16

Sometimes I worry that because I blog, people will think I have it all together and that I’m trying to give advice. Or you will see our fun stories and think we are always this happy.

I’m not. We’re not. I only show you what I think you want to see/hear, and what I want to show you. That’s why there are no fat pictures of me on here.

When you find out that sometimes I say bad words, lose my temper, and just act like a general pain in the rear to be around, you will be so disillusioned!

Well, go ahead and be disillusioned now. I’m a selfish Southern whiny brat with a hot temper. Then I’m calm and pleasant at other times. I don’t blog to give people advice. I don’t have much to give in that department. I blog to encourage you with our stories.

I just felt like I should confess that.

Now where was I?

Nana made it, Alan wrote on it, and someone stuck a helicopter on top of it. I carried it to the table. 🙂

Oh, yeah, JD turned two, and he wanted a Cars/ Paw Patrol birthday.  All is well, so long as you do NOT sing Happy Birthday to JD. He HATES IT. No, really. He cries, buries his head, and scowls. (Another reason we call him Joshua #2. So much alike!)

I love this photo of JD watching his brothers outside.THANK YOU, Grandaddy and Grandmother, for letting us stay at your condo!! We are so happy here. The boys fell for this gag hook, line, and sinker, but I am sad to report to you that the spring no longer works, so it didn’t get to scare anyone.

Here’s Dan all suited up, and ready for the beach, while Caleb tells me a story:
We took the boys to Golden Corral.

I don’t even want to talk about this. I’ll tell you 3 lessons:

1. It takes a long time to fix plates for 5 people.

2. No, I know, you think they are old enough to handle it on their own, but they kept following me, “Can you get this for me? I can’t work the tongs.”

“Mom, where are the…”

“Where are the???”

“I can’t find the…..”

“Where’s the shrimp? Where’s the shrimp? Where’s the shrimp? But there’s a picture of the shrimp, see?”

3. I tripped over JD, and we both ended up on the floor of the Golden Corral.

I’m not going back. I’m not.

“Hey! I remember y’all, from church!” the Kona ice girl said.

Alan is the hero of this trip. He doesn’t even really like the beach. I was talking to my mom on the phone yesterday about when we plan to leave Florida.

Alan looked at me and asked, “When are we allowed to leave???”

Haaa!

Now, don’t take that the wrong way. We have an incredible and amazing, free, place to stay. It’s not that. We love our boys. It’s not that.

It’s the sand (which I love) that bothers Alan, and the sunscreen, the salt, and just the general circus act of vacation, I think. If it’s left up to him, none of the kids will see the beach part of our beach vacation again, I’m afraid.

But you know what? He does it anyway. He spreads sunscreen. He cooks breakfast. He orders supper. He spends ridiculous amounts of money on outings, and hasn’t even complained!

Adorable JD at Harborwalk Village

And it’s supposed to be Father’s Day week. What a great sport!    Alan and I are completely burned. The kids, thankfully, are fine. Alan feels a little sick from his, we’re using tons of aloe, and oh yeah, I messed my right hip up again.

Gotta love getting older.

We’ve had to modify our beach days to correspond with when the sun is less bright. I loved this recommendation from Alan’s Aunt Karen. Her entire family of 5 is red-headed! 

“Here’s us at the beach….”Kids! It’s 10:30! Run for shelter – RUN!!!!!” Then we hover in the darkness inside (eating, watching movies, playing games, maybe shopping) till about 5:30 or 6:00, when it’s finally safe to come out and play at the beach and pool during the lovely hours of dusk to around 9:30 pm. And that’s with our 80 sunscreen.”

We’ve decided to make those rules our own.

We took the kids to see the new Disney movie, Inside Out, yesterday. I laughed. I cried. I highly recommend it. 

JD was excited about this Minions display.

shaking hands with Bob. JD loves to say “Bob”.

Oh, by the way, JD is not ready for the movies. It wasn’t a total failure, but it was harder than taking two-year-old Daniel was. The attention span just wasn’t there. This movie is definitely more of an elementary age film. The concept of feelings in your brain controlling your actions was a little much for the preschool boys.

And last but not least…….

Coachcox.com: I’m still doing the premium coaching with him. I’ve lost 2.5 inches on my waist, 2 inches on my hips, and 1 inch on each thigh. That’s mostly just from drinking my water obsessively and working out a smidgen more, believe it or not.

Make Over Your Mornings: I decided to wait until after vacation to take that on. I’ll blog through it when I’m back to regular life.

We are having a summer to remember. When I think about last summer, I just remember how miserable I was. This summer is nothing like that. Phew! It feels so good to be on the other side of that. Now I get to live one more year in California. Then Alan will graduate, and we will load up the moving truck again.

But I won’t be borrowing trouble by worrying over future problems. Our business is to just take care of today.