My Beautiful Day

If there is anything that I have learned about myself recently, it is the fact that I internalize far more than I would ever care to admit. By no means is this meant to be a way to say that I'm unhappy because I'm NOT . What I am, however, is someone who is realizing that her opinions and feelings about the things surrounding her are far more intense and extreme than she ever realized. I thought I was prepared to be a wife and a step-mom. I was certain that it was going to be a breeze. I'm not saying that I expected to never have conflict, to never have a hard day. I am saying, however, that I expected the transition from working woman to stay-at-home step-mom to be ... well easy . Guess what? It's not. Managing the Physical Therapy clinic was easy - it was bookwork. It was something I was trained in and something I was good at. Managing our home, however, is NOT. I will admit it: I DON'T LIKE TO COOK!!! I used to enjoy it, I truly did. Now that it...

Today was a fabulous day! It started off with me, my kiddos and my daytime nanny, Holly, travelling to enjoy the lake with my MOPs group. What a great time! We spent about three hours playing in the water, building sand castles and catching some rays from the steaming hot sun! It was really fun to get to spend more time with the ladies of my MOPs group - I love getting to know them! After that was down time at home which, for me, meant relaxing with a cup of tea. Aaaahhhh! I planned out our evening and relaxed relaxed relaxed! This evening was date night for the hubby and I! We took our boat out on Lake Minnetonka and spent most of the night cruising around the lake. We had BBQ Ribs for dinner (ordered to go and eaten on the boat) and swam a bit and just had a wonderful time! We got home to find all of our kiddos tucked into bed and snoozing away ... It was an AMAZING day ... and I am completely sunburned!

I really don't know what it is, but I am NOT a morning person by any means! I've been up for about a half hour (yep, on summer days I do sometimes sleep in until 8:45am) and I am still dragging. Coffee has yet to do any sort of work in helping me function. I can honestly say that mornings are my least favorite time of the day. I want to just sleep until whenever my heart desires, get up and get ready, get my stuff done for the day, hang out with my hubby and the kids and go to bed as late as my heart desires. Guess what? Having for kids allows zero room for this. So, now that it's almost 9:20am, I suppose I am best to get up, get moving and get my day started. Dear Energy and Motivation, I miss you. Wherever you have gone, please come find me again. Sincerely,

On the drive home from Colorado something awful happened: after filling with gas, we were leaving the gas station, our Suburban started shaking violently and it felt like it was going to stop running at any moment. Then it happened: the "Check Engine" light lit up, but not only was it on, it was flashing at me, as if to say "Hey Lady - something's wrong! Stop and check it out!" Being the absolutely desperate to not make this trip any longer excited to get home people that we were, my husband and I decided that we were just going to keep on going - with a prayer said over our vehicle, we continued on our journey. We did not break down. With the help of God and our trusty vehicle, we made it all the way home. Today, two days later, I was driving that same Suburban down the highway - still shaking and that light still staring me in the face (but this time only flashing when I was accelerating). That's when it struck me how often in our lives God is the ...

YES! We are FINALLY home! :) Not that I'm at all complaining about the wonderful vacation we got to take, but let's just say that the road trip home was hair pulling, poke-my-own-eye-out frustrating a little bit stressful. I think we were all just so sick of being in the car and our youngest child (dear, three-year-old Colin) was going positively crazy. So, we rolled in a little after 4pm yesterday and I was MORE than ready to be here! We unpacked - we rejoiced at the fact that we didn't have to mow our lawn (thanks to our good friend, Chris, who mowed it for us while we were away!) - we were excited at the fact that we got to have a REAL meal tonight instead of eating out (I will be SO happy if I don't have to eat out again for a YEAR ... with the exception of my date to Benihana with my good friend, Becca !) .. but I think the BEST part of coming home was that we received our Engagement Pictures from Moments In Time Photography (we were at fault for not having...

Many of you know the story of my friend and neighbor, Jennifer McKinney, and her sweet baby boy, Stellan. Unfortunately, six-month-old Stellan is in the hospital again fighting the SVT that is trying to take over his heart. I'm writing to call all of you prayer warriors to lift this sweet baby boy and his family up in your prayers. Not only do we need to be praying that this bout of SVT be stopped, but we need to be praying for a completely NEW heart for Stellan - for 100% healing of his heart. I believe that this is the miracle that God wants us to be asking Him for. So I'm calling all of you prayer warriors (and even those who aren't!!) to lift Stellan and the McKinney's up in your prayers. "The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." - James 5:16 I truly believe we need to be in FERVENT prayer for him. Take time today to lift him up. Imagine if this were your baby and it were your family going through this - you would want the pra...

I have several things on my heart to write about, so I'm hoping to combine them all into this one fabulous posting! Colorado has been beautiful, wonderful, restful ... everything that I could have wanted it to be. Yesterday, Claire and I went horseback riding through the Rocky Mountains. It was SO wonderful! I will admit there were times when I was a bit nervous - times when the trail we were on was a little too narrow and the fall next to it a little too steep for my liking. Thankfully, God was and is in control and we made it through the ride without any problems beyond a good case of saddle seat for both of us when we were done! Today was a wonderful and very full day of biking. Our entire clan (Monte, me and all four of our kiddos) left Breckenridge at 10:30 this morning on one very long bike ride. We rode to Frisco, had lunch at A&W, ran a few errands and returned our bikes and rode the shuttle back to Breckenridge. All in all, we rode 12+ miles in the beautiful Ro...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday - a place where we get to spill about the things we would normally NEVER admit to doing! Get in on the fun of other Not Me! Mondays by visiting MckMama's blog here ! Kami's Not Me! Monday: Roadtrip Edition While packing my children in the Suburban at 6:15 on Saturday morning, I did not snap at them that they needed to stop whining that they were tired and just get in the truck and be silent. I also did not get frustrated when, shortly after leaving, I realized that NONE of them fell back asleep! While enjoying an Apple Fritter and a latte from Caribou Coffee, I did not respond by saying, "nothing that you can have!" when my three-year-old asked me what I was eating. I'm not selfish like that, I always share my food with my children and am very happy to do so! I did not choose to drive almost all of the journey entirely because I didn't want to have to deal with the children. If I focused on the road, it would be Monte's j...

At very long last, our 'long drive to get there' part of our road trip is complete! We left Kearney, NE around 8:30 this morning, stopped for a couple of bathroom breaks and a half hour lunch break, and rolled into Breckenridge around 2:30pm. It had been a long day in the car, and since it was our second day of travelling, I know the kids were starting to get antsy! This came to life after we got here - they were running around and screaming like nobody's business! I was close to turning them loose on the city and telling them to come back when they were tired (side note: I'm not a terrible parent, I would never DO that!). But instead, we all went on a hike to wear out some energy, played a game of tag, ran around some more, went to dinner, walked a lot more and came back for bed. Now, I'm sitting here in bed with swollen feet! I don't know if it was from walking in shoes that weren't the best (when we set out for our hike we weren't intending on ...

Today marks the end of the first day of our family vacation to Colorado. We are currently in Kearney, Nebraska at a hotel. My husband and two of our kiddos are downstairs in the pool, I am upstairs in our room with our other two kids, watching a baseball game and just relaxing. What a day it has been! We hit the road at 6:30 this morning, which was a half hour later than we had hoped, but we didn't mind. We drove straight through to Kearney with the exception of a 45 minute lunch break at a rest stop (we packed sandwich makings and other yummy food for lunch) and a couple of quick bathroom breaks/driver switches. Monte let me drive for a majority of the trip, which I LOVED! I'm kind of a nerd like that, but I truly do enjoy driving quite a bit! Now I'm just waiting for the kiddos to get that pent up energy out of their system so we can go to sleep and enjoy another long day in the car tomorrow! We made 10 hours of our trip today and have about another six to go tom...

I truly feel like I am in a season where I see the enemy trying to rock my world and trying to rock the world of people I love, and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of feeling like things are so crazy that I don't know which direction to go. That being said, I think it's time that we unite together and share our hearts - share our prayer requests - and truthfully spend quiet time before God, allowing the King of Kings to take control of our lives once again. I have a few prayer requests that are very dear to me and very heavy on my heart, and if you could devote some time to praying for each of them, I would be completely blessed and forever grateful. The first is for my step-son, Iain. That darling boy has been through so much in the last year and a half, and he is at a place in his life where he is experiencing so much sorrow over missing his mama and wanting to see her again that he is desperate to be loved. It's a hard position for me to be in, to be the one who ...

Today I woke up and found myself here: Not that it was an accident by any means. I am in my hometown, visiting with my mom and step-dad. My boys decided they wanted to take a trip "up north" to do some fishing for the weekend, and thus a trip was formed. Now I'm sitting here enjoying the company of my mom and my step-Bob, loving the sight of my boys fishing from the paddle boat in this frigidly cold cool spring weather, and looking forward to another evening of playing cards late into the night. *SiGh* It feels so good to be here and just rest - particularly because I'm trying to kick this bronchitis I've got right out the door. Tomorrow we're heading back home and begin another busy week of soccer and baseball games - only to head out again on our family vacation to Colorado this coming Saturday. The funny thing about it all is that I am by no means stressed out by everything on my plate - by the loads of laundry to be done before we go, before the pac...

You heard me right, today officially marks the start of summer vacation! I have a special date set up for my kiddos and I today and am truly looking forward to it! As I look ahead to my summer, I am truly excited for this time with the kids. As many of you know, they officially became my step children this past December, which means that this is our first summer together! By no means am I under the impression that our summer will be all sunshine and rainbows; after all, we are five separate people with five very individual personalities. That being said, I am looking forward to it being more than just me and Colin - I'm so excited to have my other kiddos at home! :) Yesterday I chaperoned Claire's end-of-the-school-year field trip to Valleyfair and what a day that was! I loved seeing how happy she was and how much fun she had on the trip, though - that was worth the hours of watching kids on the rides! :) Now I'm looking forward to planning the MckBrunch with one of...

I was determined to get my lawn mowed this afternoon, but alas, it is NOT going to happen. Here's my story. I moved the vehicles out of the way and drove the lawn mower out of the shed. I had a hard time getting it out and couldn't figure out why (but wasn't going to stop and get off the mower as it was already on the ramp) - so I floored it in reverse and it was out. So - crazy long grass, HERE I COME! I get to the lawn, turn on the blades and start mowing. I near the first corner and turn the steering wheel. Holy moly the thing didn't move! I ended up in the bushes. Okay, maybe it's me - reverse out of there, take a wider turn and move on. Second corner comes (note that I'm mowing along our hedge at this point) and once again I ended up in the bushes. Now I'm just starting to get irritated, as I only have a certain amount of time to mow the lawn, and having the lawn mower cooperate is essential in completing this task. Instead of turning this co...

This morning I did not tell my 11-year-old that she can do her own laundry because I'm tired of the never ending piles. Nope, not me! While on a boat ride yesterday, I did not hold my three-year-old son upside down at the front of the boat so he could touch the water while the boat was moving , I would never put my son in such a position of potential danger. I most certainly did not fall down my spiral staircase for the fifth time in six months, while knowing my children have never fallen down that staircase in their entire lives. I did not allow my friend to change my son's dirty pull-up yesterday and play with him all while relaxing and enjoying a cup of tea. I would never put my parenting responsibilities on someone else like that. To top it all off, I did not get so excited when the planning of several upcoming events got placed in my lap that I danced around my house. I am by no means that big of a nerd that organizing an event sends me into extreme excitement - n...