Moving Fast, and Trying to Keep Up!

 

August is knocking on the door and I can't believe fall is around the corner. I just don't feel ready to give up my summer yet. I'm already anxious about all the cold months ahead. I'm hoping to cram as much as possible into the next month or so before that first morning you get up and can smell autumn in the air. We continue to be on the go and it's great. Keeping busy is the key to my sanity. I've gotten used to the cast, and it doesn't slow me down much anymore. It comes off on Monday, and though I am looking forward to washing my hair with two hands, I am a little nervous. I'm sure it will be awhile before it feels normal again. At least with the cast on I expect it to be annoying. Paige and I will be doing swimming lessons later that same day, and I look forward to being a participant rather than a spectator for the first time in weeks!

 

After downloading all the pictures from my phone, I came across a few oldies but goodies.

 

 

After breaking my expensive, prescription glasses, Paige found the cheap shades. I felt it was a fair compromise, and she was just so happy.

 

 

My child doesn't eat. She won't try new things, has about 5 things she will eat consistently, (none of which are exceptionally healthy) and she spits things out exclaiming they are gross. Enter the smoothie, mom's best weapon. I've been sneaking spinach in these bad boys and Paige still downs the glass. I feel so triumphant! I did learn the hard way that no bib protects against the deep, dark shade of berry. Certain flavors are now enjoyed diaper only!

 

Lest you think Paige goes naked all day, everyday, getting her in and out of her wet swimsuit in the cast is one thing that continues to be annoying. The pool was losing its pizzazz so I had to get a little creative and added some bubbles. They seemed to keep her entertained for at least 10 more minutes. I also felt by dousing the pool, the toys, and the kid in soapy bubbles, the poop from the previous post was bound to take a hit.

 

 

We've been blessed with some pretty cool skies lately. I am not sure it is the time of year, the fires, the super moon, or all of the above. They have provided some icing on the perfect summer night scene!

 

Moon rise out back

 

 

Sunset out front

 

I have been playing soccer again, and while I love being involved, it scares me to death! I am nervous the entire time, not to mention winded. After the break, I only missed a week of the gym before I got back to working out consistently. Of course I am stuck doing only cardio for the most part, but I felt like I was doing enough not to lose all my fitness. For some reason, everything is harder. What used to be a simple workout kills me at the moment. The first game back I thought I might die. It doesn't help that I am required to wrap and pad the cast so that it isn't considered "a weapon." I use Mark's old ACL wrap and by the time I get what covers his entire leg  around my forearm, it is HUGE. I then get to play an entire game, in the heat, with a 5lb blanketed club. Awesome.

 

 

Mark's nephew is headed out on a mission today, and last weekend was his farewell so we traveled over to Boise for some fun and family time. It was great! First, I love Boise. I think it is perfect. So much to do, quite a bit warmer, and home to some of my favorite people. We hit up the water park and I got to watch and eat Dippin Dot's while the rest of clan enjoyed the slides and pools in the triple digit heat. I was fairly jealous. It was nice to have an excuse not to hit up the scary stuff that as a kid I wouldn't have missed for the world. The older I get, the less brave I am. However, I feel the pressure not to be a wuss and to be the fun, young, daredevil gal I used to be. It creates all sorts of internal conflict. One positive about being the full time spectator is all the documentation. We never used to have any pictures, but right now that's all I'm good for!

 



 

Paige started out rough. She hates the splash park type stuff where kids run  around like crazy, fountains go off randomly, and buckets of water drop from the sky. Scares her to death. Mark saved the day by taking her on the designated kid slides---which she loved!

 

Didn't take her long to enjoy lounging on the tubes either. Her favorite is the lazy river.

 

After deciding the little kid slides weren't fast enough, Mark took her on this full sized, pitch black, tube slide. Paige loved it and went on it multiple times, yet still wouldn't walk through the splash pad. Go figure.

 

 

I can't believe Brennan is old enough to go on a mission. He was not even ten when Mark and I got married. He is quite a bit older than the rest of the cousins, and since he adores Mark, he spent a lot of time tagging along with us--especially when we didn't have any kids. Now that we do, he is the best cousin and is SO sweet to Paige. He is going to make some girl very lucky someday! In the meantime, he will be a fabulous missionary. I will miss him at all the family things. Never bad to have someone constantly entertaining Paige. He took Paige on quite a few dirt bike rides and let her jump into the pool to him about 4 dozen times.

 

In between all these events, we have been trying to get in as much horse riding as possible. I have been leery to talk much about Tucker after the whole Dee fiasco. In the end,  Dee the paint mare just was not working out. We had to send her back and the search was on for another horse. We found Tucker who is a reining show horse. He is gorgeous, so very broke, and so far has been a perfect fit for our family. He is in no way perfect and has had some issues we have had to work on, but he is so smart and learns so fast. He wants to listen and wants to be good. I have grown more confident with each ride and I am really starting to love this guy. I really didn't want things to end up like the did with Dee, so I was hesitant to view him as an official member of the family until a month or so went by and we could see if he would work out for us. So far so good. When it comes to safety and a good family horse, I am not willing to take any chances.

 

He is just so pretty, even while getting shoes.

 

FHE last Monday night at the Sand Dunes. I love riding on the sand. It works the horses like crazy and I feel a million times more confident riding out there. This was probably one of my favorite rides of the year!

 

 

We finally made some progress with LDS Family Services and we now have 2 home studies and an official profile on their site. I have yet to see much traffic on our profile, which leads me to believe that if we are lucky enough to adopt again, it will be because someone knows someone. I know I sound like a broken record, but please, please, PLEASE spread the word we are trying to adopt! Social media is a crazy powerful tool, so share away on Facebook, Twitter, whatever. We definitely need the help of our friends and family to get our profile out there for people to see.