You Just Never Know

Take a look at the picture above in my blog banner. Does that hippie family look like college material? Could one day the girl wearing the terry-cloth shorts, green swim suit and old school head phones will complete a graduate degree?

Now focus below on the banner in red here in this post. Yes, there is a university called Lamer University. And Yes, I just finished my master's degree tonight - online! It was quite a mara-sprint. And No, I am not going to fly to Beaumont, Texas to receive my diploma. I will however, check my mailbox for my online graduate degree. 

Here are just a few reasons I know there is a God and he loves me and appreciates a good joke:

1) I am the girl in the picture all grown up who graduated from Grand Canyon University, home of the mighty Antelopes. 

2) I topped off that awesome GCU action with some Lamar U! Seriously, I have to be in some sort of running for the most random combination of university diplomas.

Appropriately, I would like to thank Scott for watching the kid(s) on mostly Sundays over the last 18 months while I muddled through. And, I must also give a shout out to Robin who pushed and prodded and helped me every step of the way.

Finally, you might be wondering, "why would some chick who wants to live out the dream in an RV go to the trouble of getting an M.Ed. degree?" Well, sportsfans....It is so I can get a job anywhere I land. It is all about options!

Great Minds Think MINI and Airstream

Is this awesome or what? Click the title of this post to read/see more pictures. After I bought my jeep, MINI came out with the Clubman which would have been more practical for me and the kiddos. I have had some regrets about not getting one. But, the jeep is pretty cool, especially when I was able to use the four-wheel drive last week in the mountains and mud!

But, what do you think about this MINI and "mini" Airstream? Would you buy this combo? Shout out to Jalyn for this article. She knows my heart.

Arkansas. Don't Let the Name Fool You.

As spring break rolled around, I made arrangements for us to go to Beaver Lake up in Northwest Arkansas. When people would ask me what I was doing for spring break, I would say "camping."
They would say "where?"
I would say "Arkansas."
And, I would get silence or a random look.
Ok, so Arkansas doesn't evoke visions of a grand spring break blast. However, let me tell you doubters (that probably have not been to the Ozark Mountains or to Beaver Lake): It is pretty darn nice! I have already booked my return trip for this summer. My cousins that live up there have found a nice little piece of the American pie. We dabbled in some fishing and kayaking, but we mostly just made fires and cooked things on fires and drank beer next to the fires. How can that be wrong? I wish you had all been there. Too bad for you that the secret cabin will remain a secret here.

Just so you guys know, I'm working on a new post here. It is about the US Southwest. Ponder if you will.

I'm so freaking busy and stressed right now I want to reach into my own heart and squeeze it until it stops beating so I could just lose conciousness for like, a day.  Needless to say this blog post is just going to be a little bit late...

If The 80's Were Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right....

I'm sorry, but this Boom Box is AWESOME. I want to own it!  Ok, so look closely and see your iPod in the area where the cassette used to be.  I mean imagine the possibilities? You could carry it on your shoulder when you strolled...or you could take it camping....or just set it on your dining room table. Buy It Here

And this watch, well, it is just sick...

buy it here if you are cool enough

Seriously?

We've had some break-in's in the neighb. I have decided to leave my car unlocked so that I don't get a window broken or my jeep's soft top cut. I take all of my valuables out and usually lock my console and glove compartment.  However, I didn't lock my console the night before last, apparently. Someone had gotten into my car during the night and strewn all the random contents (band-aids, hand sanitizer, scissors, napkins, receipts, etc) of my center console about the passenger seat.  The only thing that was missing was my new make up bag with my super awesome new make-up!!!   

F-ers.

my banner

I tried to change something in my layout and I screwed up my banner. Then, I sort of panicked and odly enough, I ended up creating my entire layout from scratch. I think I'll redo it to make it better, but what do you all think?  Go back to my old banner?  Like the new layout? 

It Is Hard To Stay Strong

I'm not really the stereotypical mother, so I've been told. I've been analyzing why I think the way I think. Metacognition if you will.

And I will.

Ok, this could get long and self-indulgent. Stop now if your time is valuable.

Here's a little secret about me. I'm into visualization.  I totally believe that if you can see it, you can achieve it.  I used to visualize myself playing sports. I used to visualize a married life with a tall, red-headed lumberjack (close). Now, I visualize where I would like to live, travel and even how I'd like to design my house.  That all being said, I never visualized me having children.

So, on my life went: married, employed, self-absorbed, sporadic, unplanned, always looking for the next destination, experience or at least the next get-together with friends.  I had no need for children.  

Now, I have children. Two.

I'm going to get to the point.  Here's the shakedown:

There are two types of moms:

1) Moms that have always wanted kids. Moms that before they were moms were practicing to be moms. Moms that before they had kids didn't really like to go out or get crazy, but are now finally most happy in life when at home with their children.

2) Women that will become the moms listed above.

I guess what I'm trying to articulate is that I've been trying so hard to hold on to my prior life. I resolved to not change who I was just because I was having kids. I didn't want to be like those women. Give me some examples you say. Ok, I will. I thought I could still just travel like always. I thought I could (Scott sold me on this one.) still go out anytime with friends and to happy hours.  I was determined to keep my sports car.  I was still going to raise hell and maybe take off some clothing after a night of drinking.  Yes, I was not going to let kids, babies, tots bring me down.

Well ladies and gentlemen, it is FREAKING HARD TO HOLD ON TO YOUR PAST LIFE once you become a mom.  Oh it is so hard.  And, let me just break it to you. Two kids makes it damned near impossible.  So, here is my struggle. I am laying it all on the line here in the virtual reality of blogger.  

I am about to just give in.  I am about to just throw in the towel and say, ok, I'm a mom #1 now.  Give me the mom jeans. Give me the minivan. Give me the Hobby Lobby membership discount card so I can buy stamps and ink pads. Give me play dates and MOPS and growth charts.  Hand over staying at home Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night and liking it.

But I haven't given in yet. I still visualize my camper, my road trips, my rifle, my cooler of beer, my campfires, my kayak, my dreams of adventure.  I just have had to add in the two little girls bouncing around in the back with a portable dvd player, juice boxes and marshmallows for the campfire. I've had to expand my dreams and add Scout and Brooke riding quads and purple dirt bikes, and fishing with their dad and learning to surf and snowboard and start a fire.  If I can see it, I can achieve it.

Combining The Worlds

Isn't that what Thanksgiving is about? Combining the worlds? We had a great time tailgating and the Cowboy win was good too. Yes, there are some stories to the game; the good the bad and the ugly.  But I will just say that 6 of us had counterfeit tickets.  I mean, it didn't stop us from getting in the park....finagle! But, well, it was eventful. We'll say that.

Big Group Above (L-R) Adam, Jack, Shay, Trish, Kamie, Scott, Jeremy, Ro, Jerry, Braden, Amanda, Reuben. We had California, New Mexico and Alaska represented along with various Texans.

Jesus, the Homeboy and the Tradish

As we were walking up to church this last Sunday, I said outloud "no matter how hard I try to go to 'other' churches, I keep ending up back at the old baptist."  I laughed about it because not only did I sporadically attend baptist churches as a kid; later a teen, but I spent five years on a southern baptist college campus.  Yet, I haven't ever really considered myself baptist.  

I know, I know..... I shouldn't bring "religion" to a blog that started out named "peeing in the shower," but I wanted to write a little blip about this past Sunday.

Now, a few years ago we hit the neighborhood baptist church after our friend Lani invited us to the contemporary service. Addison Road was the worship band and it was all pretty good.  The sanctuary was still like the old "churchy" type building, but the service was current and even Scott, aka Mr. Traditional, was ok with it.  But, after the band left and our friends moved away and we had babies, we hadn't been back.

Fast forward to this past weekend. Again, it was at the invite of a friend that we took our show back to the neighborhood baptist church.  Except this time, we hit the early service which is a 

TRADITIONAL service.  

Ok people if you haven't been to church since you were a little kid, well you can still go back and recapture the feel....just go to a traditional baptist Sunday service!  Let me start by saying that

 the message was good, kids enjoyed Sunday school, and we were happy to get some Jesus time.  Now, I will say that it cracked me up when I walked in to the sanctuary because it was wall to wall grey-hairs!  I was surprised that I was surprised at how old the congregation was.  I looked at Scott and told him that he was in the right place because everyone in the entire room had voted for McCain (ba-dum-bum).

But seriously, the choir sang hymns right out of the hymnals and the music worship leader guy looked just like this guy:

However, he led us in song in a way that reminded us of this guy on the right from the movie The Breakup:

I'm just letting you know what I was thinking about while we were singing.  I don't want you to think I'm making fun of a church or baptists. I mean really, I love Jesus.  But, I will get sidetracked in church looking around at people, at the band, the choir, the violin players, whomever.  Sorry I get distracted. 

I'm not sure if I have a point to this blog post, but I will say that you should give tradish a chance if you haven't ever or if you haven't in a while.  It is pretty fun.  And, I think it sort of makes people like me appreciate the movement towards contemporary and emerging.