Last Thursday, I packed up my car.   I picked up my boys from daycare.   Then we went off for a fun filled weekend at my aunt’s cottage on Lake Michigan.

I even got my two crazy boys to stop and pose for a minute.    Look how relaxed we are!

We spent the weekend:

• Visiting the petting farm.  Bouncing on the Jumping Pillow.  Going on the Slide.
• Lunch at the dairy farm complete with a bottomless glass of chocolate milk and ice cream.
• Horseback riding.  My 4 yr old rode the horse by himself (well a girl guided him)  but he held on the whole time.
• Having breakfast at the airport.   Boys love planes!

And most importantly just relaxing at the beach.   We built a sand wall and filled it with water for a lake.  We went for kayak rides.   We fished.

Minus the flat tire on the highway during rush hour on the way home.   It was a wonderful weekend.

But at that point I still had the warm and fuzzy feeling about my daycare.

Yesterday I dropped my boys off at daycare.  That warm fuzzy feeling has been replaced with a knot in my stomach.

Background info…their daycare is in the back building of a church.   It wasn’t affiliated with the church initially but a few years ago the church took it over.  Same staff but owned by the church.   No big deal.  No problems.  No doubts, not even when my son broke his leg.

But yesterday it was the first week of their summer camp program.  But it just wasn’t a few extra kids as it has been in years past.

We walk into a bunch of unfamiliar faces.   I could see my boys looked petrified until they saw the teachers they knew.

Oh and I can’t forget the one woman barking “You need to sign in.”

“I’ll get it on my way out”

“You need to sign in.  We have a new sign in procedure at the table here.”

“I’ll do it on my way out”

While that is going on I am thinking ” Don’t you see the two children, two backpacks, and two bags of cookies I am carrying in?   How about a “Hi, I’m Miss (insert name).   Blah Blah Blah”?   I don’t need this I haven’t had caffeine yet.”

I get the boys settled in the breakfast room.   One of the teachers tells me that she is going to be my little one’s teacher now.   Ok with me.  She has been my older one’s teacher for a while.   I know her and like her.

Then I go upstairs to put my older son’s backpack away.  I can’t find his cubbie.    Great I have to go back to talk to the Sign In Witch.    Oh he has been moved downstairs to the room on the end.   Its half the size of their upstairs room.

Ok after all that I head off to school with this unsettled feeling in my stomach.

I go to pick them up in the afternoon.   The director is there.

“Oh its good to see a familiar face!”

I then ask her what is going on.   All she can say is “I don’t know.  but I hope they tell my staff soon.”

Great….

I am officially in the middle of nowhere. 

When do you know you are in the middle of nowhere? 

When you have to drive to the main road to get a cell phone signal and even there it is barely a signal.

When you have no internet connection and literally jump for joy when you find a hole it the wall bar with wifi. 

But even if I am completely disconnected with the world, I am having a great time.

A great time with my two boys visiting the local petting farm. I took a trip down the huge slide (a plastic sewer pipe on a hill) with my little one.

How could you resist this face?

I have to say it had the coolest thing I’ve seen lately.   A jumping pillow.   This thing was the side of a lap pool and functions like a trampoline.  Except it was completely buried in the ground.  No springs, no metal.  Just a big moonwalk.

After the petting farm, we went to the beach.   It was a little cool and we had to take cover from the wind behind a sand hill.  But who could complain about this:

Their could be buried treasure anywhere.   Atleast thats what we told him.

I have to say that I am loving this.  I am remembering that I love photography.  Its like I just got my camera out for the first time.  When I was at home, I got bored taking the same photos.  Being in a new environment is great for the inspiration.  Just ask my kids as I take picture #238 the first day.

Well I’m leaving the locals now, back to the woods.

My baby boy turned 2 this week.  But if you asked him “I’m four”.

Where did my dark haired little baby go?

Five years ago I married my husband.  Shortly afterwards we bought his grandmother’s home.   It included everything inside – furniture, appliances, even a car.   She moved to Vegas to live with my hubby’s aunt.

For years, it never seemed like home to me.   It wasn’t the house we picked out.  We never searched far and wide for our perfect home.   It was the house we took because it was such a great deal.

Since I’ve been off I’ve been spending alot of time in our home.  I’ve been doing alot of work on our yard.   I’ve been planting flowers everywhere.  I’ve been spending a lot of time with our boys at home.

Just recently after five years, I’ve finally had this feeling that yes this is our home.

Home is where your family is.

Home is where you are happy.

Home is where you relax and unwind.

You take pride in your home and your neighborhood.

So why am I talking about home?   A new movie is coming out titled “Away We Go”.   It is a tale about a couple who is expecting their first child. As they travel around the U.S. in order to find a perfect place to start their family, they encounter misadventures and fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who help them.

Read more about the “Away We Go” contest and be sure to look for it in theaters soon!

This weeks topic at Momdot’s Small Talk Six is “6 things about your children that you are proud of.”

I haven’t done a Small Talk Six in a while.  But as the mom of two wonderful boys this one caught my attention and I had to join back in.

How does the Small Talk Six work? It is simple. Answer the topic with 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, or 6 photos.

Here are my six:

1. My almost 2 yr old is amazingly smart.  Each day he amazes me.  He is always watching what you are doing.   Then three seconds later he is trying it out.
2. My oldest made it through 5 weeks in a body cast just before he turned three.   He broke his femur kicking a ball.  It was a tough time for all of us but you wouldn’t know anything ever happened to him.
   
   
3. My boys are outgoing, personable and definitely not shy.   I love this about them.   They can charm the pants off anyone.
4. Their fascination with the world.   They are so interested in everything.  I love taking them to the museum.
5. Their ability to go from wild and crazy to completely focused on one small thing.   Usually at this point when its quiet that I wonder what they are getting into.  But as I look around the corner into their room, they are lying on the floor completely focused on a couple trains, cars, books, etc.

   

6. Their imaginations.   My oldest will tell you these crazy stories about cutting the moon, spaceships, and races.   They act out stories with their toys.  They dress up as cowboys, pirates or action heros and run around the house.  I didn’t realize how important imagination was until we told my niece “act like your eating a sandwich”  and she looked at us like “you want me to do what?”.  They can have all the toys in the world but imagination is truly a gift.

Five years ago…I married the love of my life.

At this time, I had just gotten ready.

I laughed with my bridesmaids.

Meanwhile, my husband-to-be was nervous…

He really looked nervous didn’t he?

At five o’clock in front of all our family and friends, we said I do

and exchanged rings.

We sealed it with a kiss.

Then we partied like rockstars.

Five years ago on this date, I  married my best friend.

Happy Anniversary to My Husband Paul!

I Love You Always and Forever!

We all know the power of a soundtrack in a movie.  What would Gladiator be without its soundtrack?  How about Slumdog Millionaire whose songs just racked up a couple awards?

What if the movie used only music/sound instead of words?

I recently visited the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD).  I was quite impressed with the “With Mixed Emotion” exhibit by

My favorite was No Man is an Island II.  Check it out on YouTube – No embed available.  Four gentlemen sit in a gentleman’s club.  Are they contemplating a breakup?  Waiting for um…entertainment?   Who are they longing for?  Set to Roy Orbison’s Crying.

Second film featured was “A Vicious Undertow”.  Set to a whistling version of The Moody Blues – Nights in White Satin. Again Jesper Just leaves you wondering what is going on in this film.  Is it an older woman looking back on her youth? or something a little steamier? I’ll let you wonder…

To sum up my feelings on the exhibit – I think Jesper Just in brilliant.   I look forward to exploring his work further.

Here is a visual:

Kids playing in the yard.

Cell phone in one hand keeping up on the latest blog posts.

Shovel in the other hand picking up dog poop.

Three months ago this was not my idea of multitasking.