Weekend in the mountains

This past weekend, I went with many friends to my church's women's retreat in the mountain resort of Montreat, NC. Before you ask, no, we didn't hold hands and sing Kumbya for 48 hours. This retreat leans more toward the wine-during-free-time end of the spectrum. I did have a meaningful and restful time, but I have to admit the highlight of the weekend was the annual competition we call "The Bag Game."
I'm about to embarrass myself here and I don't care. We play this ridiculous and utterly contrived game of very Young Life standards that involves a paper grocery bag. You have to stand on one foot, bend down, pick the bag up with your mouth and then rip off the part that you just slobbered on. The ripping ensures that the bag continues to get shorter with every round. It's just about the silliest thing ever...yet it has become a competition with pretty high stakes!
As you picture this, you'll certainly conclude that, in any game that involves bending over with the intent of getting as close to the ground as possible without losing your balance, it would obviously be advantageous to be short. This is proven by the fact that two of the previous three winners are 5 feet tall and 5 feet, 1 inch (on a good day?) and all three of them are incredibly limber! I am neither uber-short nor am I incredibly limber. I do, surprisingly, have a good sense of balance.
I will spare you the details, but I came in second! And considering the winner wasn't showing any signs of difficulty and was dead set on winning, I am claiming that as as big an accomplishment as I could possibly have made! Add to that the fact that, compared to the top five finishers, I am older, taller, have had two babies (only one of the other top five contenders- the reigning champion at the time- has children) and I was wearing jeans...I'm pretty content with second place!
Here are two pictures that will serve as visual explanation for you and as embarrassment for me.

September 16

2006
2007
2008
Happy second Birthday, little Bear!

Holden Beach 2008

We just returned from our second annual multi-family trip to Holden Beach (NC). Despite vacating the island a day earlier than planned thanks to Hurricane Hanna, we had gorgeous weather and a great time! This year we totalled 4 families- 8 adults and 8 kids under the age of 5. Insanity? Yes; but the kids did really well- save the occasional hair pull or nap-refusal- and the adults had a Wii and plenty of wine so all was well!
Here are a few favorite pictures. I'll add a link on the left to more pictures soon.
Makena in a hole dug by Daddy. If only I could contain her like this at home...
Reese swimming- our house had a private pool- the best beach invention yet.
All the girls (six of the eight kids- Bradley and Bennett- aka "the good nappers" were doing what they do best)
A preview of 10 years from now? Hannah, Reese, Makena and Leah lounging in the sun
Mommy and the girls on an evening beach walk

And God sent them, two by two...to Target.

It's raining here. Blog-worthy news? In most cities, no; but Charlotte has been in a drought for the last three years. We're somewhere at 50% of our annual rainfall for the most recent 36 months; we've been living under various water restrictions for ages; and everyone from the meteorologists to regular folks knows it's literally going to take a few hurricanes to get us back anywhere near normal.
Enter Fay. The remnants of Hurricane Fay got here last night and we've been soaked ever since. This is great, except for the fact that today was my day to go to Target in preparation for our beach trip. Oh, and for the fact that we don't have a garage. The rain let up just long enough for us to get teeth brushed, shoes on and lock the door...I'll spare you the details- just be satisfied that we were drenched by the time we got into the car. Fun times!

Once we got home and ate, we killed some more time and pent-up energy by "rocking out" in the kitchen. It's a little disconcerting when you're busy belting out your favorite music and dancing like a fool in the kitchen and you realize someone else is singing along with you. Since Makena now clearly knows many of the words to the songs on my current favorite playlist, maybe I should be letting them listen to more of their own music. I mean, it's not like we're listening to Ozzy Osbourne biting heads off chickens, but even the relatively innocent lyrics of the Counting Crows are likely to raise an eyebrow when taken out of context and sung by a three year old..."it's too laaaate, to get hiiiiiiigh". I redeem myself here by the fact that she also sings the jingle for the local Christian radio station "ninety one point niiiiine".

Here are a few pictures that have absolutely nothing to do with this post- thanks to our friend Jen Hunt whose photography talent is fantastic!

Ode to Andy Warhol

Do you think Andy Warhol started with sidewalk chalk?(in the odd case you're smoking something tasty, no, the kids didn't do that- it's my first successful attempt at artistry in 33 years)

Two quotes I need to share:
(at bedtime after praying for various friends)
Mommy: remember, God loves you and is with you all the time
Makena: No, you are with me all the time.

(as I questioned whether her jiggly-dancing was a sign she needed to go to the potty)
Mommy: are your panties still dry?
Makena: my panties are not wet, them are funny.
(translation: I'm good, I just have a wedgie.)

Our underutilized vacation spot

Brett's parents live on Badin Lake. Badin Lake is a mere 90 minutes from our door. Why, you may ask, have we not taken more advantage of this? I have no idea. For a while, at least one of the girls was in some developmental phase that presented challenges. Crawling on a weathered deck that needs some repair work...bad idea. An inability to maneuver down a challenging staircase...panic-attack inducing. A complete disregard for the sanity of Mamaw and Papaw's dog...well...we haven't progressed past that one yet, but we're working on it.
This past weekend, we took some friends with us. Makena, Reese and Cade ran themselves silly in the water, on the boat, in the house and in the yard. We kayaked, swam and, quite possibly the highlight of the entire weekend, caught our first fish!Makena and Aunt Holli on the boat
Reese loves boat ridesCheck this out! Makena should get used to riding Reese around on various vehicles...
And...for good measure...the catfish that cousin Ryan caught

Cloud Watching

It's hot. The high today was 99. I'm the first to admit my tolerance for heat would no longer lead anyone to believe I was raised in Texas. I've spent the better part of this week trying to come up with creative reasons why we can't play outside. Unfortunately, our kids are smarter than I. Double-unfortunately, they outsmarted me on the hottest day so far this year...at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Please pass the ice.
We went outside and splashed around in the pool for a while. Remarkably, the breeze and lack of humidity made it tolerable...until 5 minutes into our playtime when Makena declared that she was "done with outside" and wanted to "dry off inside". No way sister. We came out here to Africa and we're going to stay here.
Here comes the good part- we laid down on towels and looked up at the sky for thirty minutes! A three-year-old and an almost-two-year-old were mesmerized by the changing shapes in the (two) clouds in the sky, the passing airplanes, a few birds, the leaves on our big tree blowing in the wind and the moon (out for a mid-day adventure) for half an hour.
I can't explain why it was so special to me, but laying there doing absolutely nothing more than pointing out cloud shapes (most of which were so far from existing it was funny) and listening to the leaves rustle in the wind with two little people with open and excited minds was the highlight of my week so far. "A dragon!" was claimed by Reese when the wisp of leftover cloud was nothing more than two parallel lines. "A crocodile!" may have been discernable at one point, but not when Makena declared it. It didn't matter. A parade of horses, dragons, crocodiles and pigs went by- all with about this many clouds: