A Smorgasboard

Believe it or not, the majority of my family does not know how to swim. Weird, I know. I thought everyone could manage in the water, but not my mom and two older brothers. They miss out on so much fun that a huge pool of water has the potential of being . I don't have too many early childhood memories of going to a pool, but as I got older I have plenty and loved spending time there with my friends in the summer time.

My girls though, I think they were born with fins, because they love it. We have an indoor pool at our community center and they love swimming there, they love to swim on vacation, in fact that's how we spent 75 percent of our vacation in Hilton Head, and they love to swim at our outdoor water park at our community center.

I love the sun and it loves me most of the time. I love the white noise that pool has to offer. I love that my babies love to splash, swim, jump, and play,

I think poolside is where we're going to the spend the majority of these summer days, being lazy pool bums.

Family Photos

Last month we had our family portraits done by Jennifer McKinney. I am in love with them:

What to blog about?

I'm at a lost for things to blog about and even just googled (my solution to everything) what to blog about. There were suggestions to discuss all the things that are in your purse, but that's a scary thought without cleaning it out first. Seriously, who knows what might be there? Another was to list 10 things that gets you out of bed in the morning. Everything that gets me out of bed in the morning is generic and predictable: my family, obligations to work, goals in life.

I work at a large metropolitan hospital in an Intensive Care Unit and have about a million things to say about that, but can't because of privacy reasons and all that stuff. I can say that today at work there were moments were I was literally running, and for a second, (maybe more than a second) that I felt like I was on an episode of ER or another one of those medical dramas where adrenaline pumps and organized chaos ensues. I always thought those were so fake, but I do have those moments from time to time.

It's pretty incredible to watch my colleagues save someone's life, and to play a small part in it, is pretty kick ass. There are of course the lives that cannot be saved and that part is never easy. It makes me aware of my blessings and to understand that each day here is a gift, not a given. I love my job, and I'm certain that this is where I'm supposed to be right now at this point in my life. The future though? As much as I try to plan every single aspect of my life down to the smallest thing, I really have no idea what will happen or where life is going to take me in the next year. I guess I try to plan so many things because it makes me feel like I'm in control, but the only real consistency in life is change.

I hope one thing that does not stay consistent is the weather we have been having around here. It has been raining and raining like we live in Ireland or Seattle or somewhere where it rains all the time. This Saturday our pool has it's big opening day (even though it was open last weekend) they have clowns and fireworks and all that fun. The forecast says that it's supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny so lets hope that it stays that way! If not, I may just get back in the car and drive the 12 hours back to Hilton Head, without complaint.

I'll end this on a Speaking of Hilton Head.... note, I have had intentions of printing out some of our photos. I'm really bad about keeping them hidden in their digital format, but there is something so neat about them when they are tangible. I'll be printing this one out for sure:

Loves of My Life

They're pretty darn cute.

Bryson City, NC

I love to travel. Well, let me tell you a little secret about myself; I hate to travel, but love being other places. Perhaps I should invent a teleportation device, because I hate being in the car, I hate getting onto a plane, I hate the time it takes to get to places, but the places? I freaking love the places.

So, my problem solving self searched our usual route to Hilton Head Island and found somewhere half way through the 12 hour drive to stop. That placed just happened to be Bryson City, NC. We only spent a part of a day there, but we will be back for sure. It's a little river town tucked away in the heart of the Smokies and home to lots of waterfalls. Like this one:

It wasn't so painful to get back in the car and finish the drive after hiking trails in the Smoky Mountains, enjoying the perfect weather under the shade of these trees, and skipping rocks in the creeks, like this one:

In this little river town you can rent tubes and float down the creeks from adorable, legitimate general stores like this one:

There are horses on the small country roads that are literally within arm's reach from the car like this beautiful one:

They also have the cutest little downtown area with specialty shops, the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad, and they even have a Bojangals. Riley ate two portions of their dirty rice along with her chicken and biscuits; a record for her food consumption in one sitting.  

Brandon and I decided that we will be back for a weekend and spend it in the little cabins they have along the river. I wouldn't say it was the best part of our trip to Hilton Head this time, because it wasn't even in Hilton Head, but it was definitely one of my favorite parts of the week.

Wordless Wednesday

These are a few of my favorite things...

These may be my favorite possessions. Not the SD cards themselves, but the files that they hold. While I was on vacation my husband and I had a brief discussion about pictures. I need pictures in my life to remember all the little tiny details that my brain is so willing to let go of for some reason. They are the closest things we have to take us back to moments that we don't want to forget.

I have a lot of pictures from our vacation we took this past week on Hilton Head Island. There is no place I feel more at peace than there. We spent the days on the beach and  just being a family and there is nothing better than that.

What on earth are those SD cards laying on? Well it's a Colorado travel guide... I already am on to planning our next 20 adventures. Mark Twain once said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Tonight we walked onto the beach, I felt the soft cool breeze and I feel in love with Carolina all over again. My first born running and giggling letting the waves chase her and my second born saying the Oohhhhh!! ‘s that she does so often. I love this. The sun was sparking right before sunset and I just breathed in the salty cool air and was at total absolute peace.

Raigan ran into the ocean, I’m so glad that she is now walking and gets to experience this. She is so innocent as she just charges into the water and doesn’t fear it at all.

I hope my girls get to read this one day and that they know this is exactly where I want to be at this moment, with them.  I want to soak every bit of their tiny little childhood up and mostly I want them to know that I love them .

I got to spend my Mother's Day 2011 right here and it was the best way to spend one yet.

I need a cleaning lady

Once upon a time before children I was a clean lady. I always had a clean house and would vacuum my apartment almost daily. I would clean out my car religiously and it always had a nice air freshener or Febreze, I love the smell of Febreze.


Fast forward a few years and two little girls later and now I'm a messy person. My house is messy and so is my car, and regardless of how much I try to stay afloat, I drown. I'm sure that moms that have more than two children are reading this and laughing at me, but when did it all get so messy? When did little tiny pink clothes and toys and shoes and whatever else take over? I must have been relaxing and sleeping in that day.

Also back in that once upon a time I had this vow to myself that before I would go on any vacation I would leave my house sparking clean, that way when I returned it wouldn't be to a messy house with lots of things to do.

That got thrown out of the window I suppose?. I have been my type A (can I still claim that I'm a type Aer if my house is so chaotic and disorganized?) diligent self about packing though. I made lists and then lists for my lists and the girls have been packed for days now and tonight everything is packing in the car already for our beach vacation. This was a much better approach than my just make a huge pile of all the crap I think we'll need and throw it in some bags the way I did when we went to Baltimore earlier this year.

We'll make it one way or another. :)

What are the rules of blogging? Is there a rule maker? Am I allowed to blog about only the good stuff and the fun parties or am I allowed to blog about the bad stuff too? The times where I have bad days, or hit a rough patch in my marriage, or when my brain cannot fit one more thing in it?

I can?

Okay, great. I may just have to change the name of my blog though because it seems to be all about me lately and less about my girls, but whatever there are no rules of blogging right?

Sometimes I think it would just be easier to be told what to do in life. Be given instructions for every single situation you are faced with. I would love this. I would love to not have to use my mind for one day and over analyze every single possible outcome of every choice I make.

A few weeks ago, heck, maybe it was a few months ago (that's how overloaded my brain is currently) I was at the store looking for cleaning products. I'm at least 5 minutes into looking at every single option thinking about what surfaces each product can clean, the ounces per cost, what I needed it for, if I would make use of the whole thing or just use it one time.....

when all of the sudden!

A man walks down the isle, takes literally a 5 second glance, picks up a product and makes his way to the register.

How freaking freeing is that? To just pick up something without thinking about it. It's genius.

I spent a good chunk of my evening researching homeschooling and all the regulations in our state, the pros and cons, the cost, curriculum, and on and on. Now I'm thinking I should just send my girls to public school and not think anymore into it.

I wish I could be that fly by the seat of my pants, let go of the little things, take no more than 5 seconds to pick out some Scrub n Bubbles, relaxed person, but I just don't think it's in my personality.

On another note, it is now officially summer for me. I do feel very free and was very appreciative that I did not have to be in a Simulation Lab at 8am, even though I did really like that class. We had simulators; life sized dummies that have blood pressures, blink, talk, have pulses, etc that we learned on. It was humorous at times and hard at others, especially when I was playing the role of the charge nurse and two of the simulators coded at the same time. It was pretty hard to do chest compressions one right after another, but really fun at the same time. I think nursing is a perfect fit for me since you have to analyze and over analyze everything about everything.

Lord help us all when I try to plan our trip to Disney next summer, talk about a million and one options and decisions to make.

Hopefully with the semester coming to an end I'll be able to relax a bit more, especially when we're at the beach next week, I can't wait!