What I'm reading / thinking about lately

This author, Khaled Hosseini, has completely captured my attention and I've devoured both of these books in the last six months.

Beware - they're serious books (and also not Christian)! Not, Not, NOT for children or for the faint of heart. And read them only if you want to not be able to sleep as you ponder the injustices that 95% of the world faces.

Unless you're American. Then injustice simply means you didn't get your hamburger fast enough in the drive through.

This is why I'm not upstairs sleeping. I can't get the pictures out of my mind. But it's not a bad thing. It's making me long for Jesus and heaven and peace and justice and being ruled with an iron fist and loving it.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. End injustice and fight for the orphan!

Mommy Date

Shelby informed me today that while Daddy was taking Hailey fishing we WOULD be going on a Mommy date. I confess I was only really half listening, and after Shelby woke up from her 4 hour nap this afternoon I'd mostly forgotten about the one-sided conversation we had.

Well due to the fact that the nap WAS 4 hours there was a little pee-pee accident that needed to be cleanup (which is not a big deal). So when Shelby came downstairs with different clothes on I didn't really pay attention, kind of because I was all tired from waking up from a nap too.

Anyways, I was kind of struck by how Shelby was really obsessing about what to wear, and needing to look like a princess, and which shoes to wear (like, I'm already envisioning what high school might sound like). So I'm sitting there watching tv and vegging when Shelby declares that she's ready to go. I was like "Where?" and she was like "For our date (that I got all dressed up for!)" Then she was like "You better go change out of your pajamas for our date."

It was so adorable! So I thought really quick about an awesome date that could be accomplished before bed time and we ended up sharing a banana split at the Rossville park. Fun times! It really was a perfect day for the park - it's only like 70 degrees and overcast - and not sweaty at all!

This picture is on our way out. Shelby had to stop and give the kitten one last kiss before leaving!

We ate our banana split on the adult porch swing that's at the park. I love the Rossville park. It really is one of the nicest little towns around - very clean, very respectable, very small.

Here's Shelby enjoying the teeter totter.

Shelby climbing on the very dangerous looking jungle gym dome. I'm really afraid of a couple of the park pieces. They kind of look like industrial grade torture devices, and if you fall just right you could decapitate yourself.

This is one of my fave pics of the evening. I love the colors and the elysian joy on Shelby's face!

WHEEEEEEEEE!

This is the other death trap device at the Park. Do you see how high this thing is????? I swear one day one of the kids is going to die on it!

Still the bliss at the end of the slide is worth the heart attack is brings Mommy!

What a great idea Shelby! We had a great Mommy Date!!

First Day of School

Hailey's first day of 1st grade was this past Tuesday. She's growing up so fast!

Family Reunion Picnic Bellefonte, PA

Scavenger Hunt

Mom and 2 of her sisters

Mom and her friend, Val

Tractor ride

A cool hummingbird moth

Day 8 - Saturday

We woke up for our last day of vacation expecting to try to tube down the river. We'd been trying all week but with all the rain it was impossible. However, when the weather finally cleared we still couldn't because the river was so high there wwere warning about the safety and children under a certain age weren't allowed to go on the river.

So instead we went to a flea market in the took the kids to play video games and then we drove around to a flea market, arcade, and a historic school called the Little Greenbrier School.


Along the way we got a little lost, but it was a delightful lost. We ended up halfway through the National Park on the wrong road and ran into this awesome overlook. Beautiful!



Here's Shelby exploring the old cemetery at the Little Greenbrier School

Hailey was fascinated with all the little gravestones and read each one.

The Little Greenbrier School

Day 7 - Friday

Friday dawned rainy and cold. In fact, for the 7th day in a row it rained. Only this time it poured for 4 hours. As it let up we packed up the car and drove to town. We didn't realize the impact 4 hours of pouring could have on the Wears Valley area. It was totally flooded, with water pouring out of ponds, creeks, and across the roads. We didnt' get any pics because we didn't realize it was that bad, and we didn't bring our cameras.

After we got done running around we went back to the cabin and went on a hike down the mountain to explore the horse path with the creeks.

We had a fun time, especially with the creeks as swollen as they were from the rain.