Thursday, July 23, 2009

Zoo trip



Darryl has been in South Africa for the last 12 days. He arrived back home yesterday. I will try and get some of his pictures from the trip to post here. While he was gone the little boys and I had a great time. I tried to plan a few fun things. Gigi came for a visit for several days which was a real treat for us. She has the pictures and I will try to get them from her. My favorite times were "coffee"/OJ time with Gigi in the mornings and reading with Gigi at bedtime. We also enjoyed a great trip out shopping, kids in tow, for the new baby and for Chase's new bed. We found some real bargins at my favorite consignment shop. We had a fantastic lunch at Figo and one great dinner at Sangrias....yummy. What a fun time. And what a great help Gigi was around the house. We shopped at the farmers market and she made us some great fish meals. I miss that. She is in South Africa now.

The next weekend we went to the pool and the zoo. The weather has been really mild otherwise you would not have found my very pregnant self at the zoo in the July heat. Here are a couple of pics from the zoo. The kids were so good while I had them all to myself and I am so thankful!!

Dreams...

Dreams…. I recently heard the song about dreams song by Miley Cyrus. I am not a huge fan and the song is kind of corny, but I was intent on hearing the message in her song. It's all about the pursuit of your dreams and the mountains you must climb over to achieve those dreams. I have always admired people who knew exactly what their dreams were and they seemed to order their life around the pursuit of those dreams. Everything becomes measurable against those dreams.

I was wondering what are my dreams. I don't ever remembering having such dreams.
As I think back over the years I don't remember ever saying that I had a dream to be a business woman in a big city, however all the indications of that dream were there. I vividly remember sitting behind the drivers seat in the car and using the drivers seat headrest as my steering wheel. I would pretend to be driving the car as we rode around town. When we got home I would go into the house and hop into the elevator (coat closet), ascend to the 10th floor, exit the elevator/coat closet, and proceed to my apartment/bedroom, "unlock" the door, and I was home. While my sisters would play dolls and school, I like to play store. I would label everything in the basement with a price tag, set up a money box, and charge Terese Monopoly money to buy things at my store for her doll school house. So, while the dream of being a business-woman/money-counter may not have ever been visualized and verbalized, it was there. I am so thankful that even when we don't know of a dream which to order our lives around, that we have moments we can look back on and realize that God gives us those desires of our hearts that we didn't even know we had. I will never forget the feeling of pride as I put on that first business suit, packed up my briefcase, and drove to the first day on the job "in my own real car" "from my real apartment". It has been a great 14 years of suiting up. I have realized though that dreams can be put on hold for the pursuit of other dreams.

Never in my college days would I ever have imagined having kids, let alone having 3 of them and staying at home to take care of them. The older I have gotten though the more the dream of being a mom is coming clear. I love being a mom. It is a God-given privilege to have these strong desires and I am glad to have been given the opportunity.

I think I am a case of someone with dreams that I didn't even know I had and they are coming true. I am not necessarily a dream-driven person, yet a God-directed person. He always known much better than I.

...okay I realize this is a little sappy but I am allowed…you think about these things when you are 34 weeks pregnant and your whole world is about to change.

Favorite Quotes of the Week

From Chase :
  • I love my mommy.
  • Where's daddy? Where is daddy Chase? Af-e-ca.
  • Where's Evan? Where is Evan Chase? At Maine.

From Ryan:
  • On Saturday, "Mom, that is so weird seeing Jeff Francouer in a Yankees jersey." I said yes it is Ryan, but that is a Mets jersey.
  • Sunday as we are at Willy's watching the Braves game over burritos, Ryan announces to all of Willy's diners in his loudest voice "Escobar spanked that ball mom!!! He really spanked that ball out of the field." The fellow diners were so amused and so was I.
  • After a visit from Ryan's friend Evan who has been out of town for the last 10 days, "I miss Evan, I should have asked him if he wanted to sleepover." (Ryan has never had a sleepover.)