Just a trip to the park.

Nothing to read here, just pictures of a big girl visiting the park.

 

 

 

 

One Month To Go

Ta-Da! It's my 50th blog post, hope you enjoy.

Dravyn turned 23 months old yesterday, she loves taking pictures with the camera which causes issues when I am trying to take pictures of her because every time the camera flashes she feels she has to get down and come look to see herself on the screen.  I wouldn't trade it for anything though because I love photography so much, and hope we will share the hobby when she gets older.  Here are a few of the pictures from her 23 month photo shoot.

Saturday I was not feeling very well, but we managed to take Dravyn to the Poplar Heights Living History Summer Festival.  She is obsessed with cows right now, and got to pet one, I think it made her day.

We took pictures in front of the barn, but she wouldn't stand up.  It makes her look like she is peeing on the barn, but I promise she wasn't.

She also got to mine for gemstones.  She had a lot of fun, but I think she really would have loved it if we had allowed her to stay and play in the water all day.  She is really proud of the rocks she found though.

I love weekends filled with family fun, and I can't wait to see what our next adventure will be.

5 Years of marriage down, forever to go.

 We had so much fun last weekend.  Kevin took off Friday and we went down to drop Dravyn off with my aunt and celebrated our anniversary a week early.  It was a little weird in Joplin that night, almost like a ghost town.  We had ate lunch and gone to a bunch of stores including Bed Bath & Beyond where we may or may not have spent several minutes testing out the massage chairs.  Then we went to eat at Tokyo Steak and Sushi, which was delicious and a great experience, where the people at the hibachi with us were talking about weather and possible tornadoes.  We went to Best Buy and checked the weather on the computer, deciding maybe we should head to the hotel.  As we were driving down Rangeline the sirens went off.  It  initiated a long period of waiting down in the lobby with everyone in the hotel, which was really kind of amusing due to the fact that apparently drinking at the bar became a game to some of the other guests.  Eventually the warning was expired and Kevin and I went to Applebee's across the street for dessert.

The whole experience was a reminder of our honeymoon.  That time, 5 years ago we sat in an Applebee's across the street from our hotel and saw all the weather watches and warnings, both storm and tornado, pop up on the television in the corner as we enjoyed desert and perhaps a pretty drink for me.  I feel so lucky for being married to my favorite person on earth.  He is amazingly sweet, funny, supportive, and protective.  He balances my short temper and and makes me feel so very very loved every day of my life.

Things have not turned out the way we wanted, or even expected, and there have been some stressful times in our marriage.  But always the good has outweighed the bad.  At our wedding we were new college graduates, 20 and 21 years old.  Now we are 5 years older, I have graduated from college a third time, Kevin has been working at the same place for 3 years now, and we are parents to a wonderfully beautiful yet trying toddler daughter.  I have loved these last 5 years and can't wait to see what our story looks like when we celebrate our 50th anniversary.

Our Trip

Our family "adopts" people, blurring the line so you never really know who is related by blood and who isn't.  It is something I love about my family even if it makes trying to explain to someone that your cousin isn't really your cousin or that the person who traveled half way across the country to the family camp out isn't "related" at all.  It is also the reason we went to Alabama this week.  We had a funeral to go to and I wanted to be there for Dee and for my Grandpa so Tuesday we started making plans.

Originally my Mummy (who is really my aunt if you don't remember my last post) asked if I wanted to go with her and my cousin and my grandparents and I said sure if I could figure out how to get to them for the voyage. I talked to my husband about it and he said he would be worried about us if he didn't go too so our trip gained one person and another vehicle.  Our original plan was to spend the night Wednesday in Tennessee with Dee and then go to the visitation and funeral on Thursday and since we were going that far we decided to go after that to visit more family.

So Tuesday we packed and after Kevin got off work we left to go to Mummy's house to start the trip in the morning.  We got a late start and ended up stopping in Mansfield, Missouri for a picnic lunch, bathroom break, and some stretching time.  Our trip that day was long and included a stop in Arkansas, and dinner at a Cracker Barrel that included asking someone who worked there what state we were in. For the record it was Mississippi.  We drove another couple hours and ended up in a hotel for the night as we did not accomplish our goal of getting to Dee's that night.

Our lunch break.

 

The building, what you don't see is all the geese walking around next to the building, Dravyn really wanted to pet one, crazy girl.

I love rushing water it is so beautiful.

The view down from the walkway.

Getting ready Thursday Morning.

 

The visitation and funeral were both really beautiful and the things that Dee said about her Daddy made me cry.  After visiting with all my family down there for a little while we headed out to go visit Kevin's sister, brother in law, and our niece and nephew.  The drive kept telling us it would take 3 hours but the GPS said our arrival time was 4 hours from when we got in the car.  It wasn't until Kristen said something that we remembered the time change line was between where we were and where we were going.

 

Friday we went to the mountains and got to see some of the really beautiful views while spending time with family we don't get to see often.

 

Wait is that a camera?!?!?



Let me pose for you!
 

 

What are you doing?

Say Cheese!

 

So on our little trip we were in Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois which means Dravyn is becoming quite the world traveler.  Today we are exhausted, and sore from being in the car so long over the last few days, but it was worth it.  As an added bonus that is the longest trip Kevin and I have been on together and the longest one Dravyn has been on period and we all came back alive so I would consider the mission a success.

To all moms, happy Mother's Day.

Like all people I have a mother that I was born to.  I know that she loves me and I love her too.  I will always remember playing in the snow as a child and have her call us in to wrap up in a big fluffy blanket and rocking us and playing guitar for us until we were warm enough to go outside again.  I will always appreciate her being my Girl Scout leader,  being there for me at choir performances, and for the time she painted a moon on my bedroom wall in glitter paint.  But for several reasons I don't intend to go into now she is not the only mother I have had.



My mother and I opening presents, for some reason I can't remember when this was.

My mother and I at my wedding.

 

Her mother, my grandma T took me in and I lived with her for the second half of my 8th grade year.  I honestly don't remember much from that time in my life, lets call it selective memory.  I am sure I was a huge pain in the butt because frankly what preteen girl isn't?  But I know she did her best, put me in the best school available, and opened her home to my brother and I even though she didn't have to. She dealt with requirements, classes, and court dates and me a girl grieving a situation I could never get back.  And I will love her forever.

 

My grandma and grandpa T at my wedding.

Grandma T holding baby girl.

 

Then I lived with my grandma B during my high school years.  She gave me the love, space, and independence I needed.  She gave me a home with yummy food, family dinners, and a lot of beauty.  She was there through several things, like some people I really care about being arrested,  my uncle dying, and high school which is pretty hard alone.  She has been my hero for along time for the way she is the glue that holds that whole side of my family together.

Grandma and Grandpa B at my wedding.

 

Grandma B holding Dravyn, her first great grand baby.

 

After high school I went to college and met an amazing man who is now my husband, and I gained another mother.  A mom who helped plan our wedding, asked for details after every prenatal and baby appointment at the doctor, who is a lifesaver for taking baby girl off my hands when I feel like I am going to rip my hair out, and who deals with us still being in her house after what was supposed to be "just a little while" but has been 3 years.

The mother and Father In law.

 

Mother in-law with Dravyn on her first day.

 

But I also have my Mummy.  She may biologically be my aunt, but she is so much more.  She took care of me before I was old enough to go to school, she always is there when i need advice, knows all kinds of things about me,  always welcomes us for visits, and is the one who I wanted with me the day I became a mommy.  She is Dravyn's Grummy, and is a great mom to her other 3 daughters.



Mummy and Dravyn on her first day.

Mummy helping me get my shoes on before my wedding.

Me and Hawaiian Mummy.  Did I mention she is always up for my crazy ideas?

 

I hope that I give my daughter all the love these women have showed me, and that when she gets older she feels as lucky to have me as I do to have them.  Being a mother is not easy, it is constant worry and constant chaos, but also constant love.  I wish every mother a happy Mother's Day and hope someone else does the dishes.

What is up with the crazy weather?

April showers bring May snow?

 

 

I kept taking photos thinking "This will be the last snow of the year." "OK, this will be the last snow of the year."  Nope, it fooled me, and I didn't feel like getting my camera out for photos, so this photo of the last snow of the year is brought to you by my I-Pad. *Fingers and toes crossed that this time I was right.

Dravyn is such a mystery.  One minute she is picking dandelion flowers by the handful and singing "La La La", and the next minute she is covered head to toe in mud jumping up and down and splashing it everywhere and throwing tiny pebbles into said mud puddle.

She is getting so good at climbing on the structures at the park and going down the slides. She still wants a hand to go down some of them, and while I am so excited to watch her explore like a big girl, I am loving how she knows I am there to help her if she needs it.

This summer is going to be fun, I can tell already!

Changing the world.

I want my child to get an education, I don't want her to live in poverty, I want her to find true love, and have long lasting friendships.  When she gets older I want her to know that she can come to me for emotional support, and I want to be able to offer her explanations of what I would do in a situation but allow her to make her own decisions with the knowledge that I will be there if she makes the wrong one.  I want her to have a home of her own, and a career she loves, unless she is a stay home mom, and then I want her to love that.

But more than that I want her to grow up in a world where the good outshines the bad and where there is more joy than fear.  I hope so badly that this world lives up to those expectations, despite weeks like last one.

So many sad things happen, but I think it's important to point out the good and fun things too.  So that is what I am going to do now.  I will end this post with pictures of fun and beautiful things.

A light dusting of snow and flowers both pictures taken today.

 

 

Watching NASCAR races live.

 

 

And a sleeping dog, so peaceful.