An umbro's & pink hot pants kinda date.

Let me tell you a little something about my husband. 

He keeps everything.

Not hoarder material, but the man keeps stuff, fo' sure.

Actually, it's caused many an argument between us, but I've come to accept it. For the most part. 

 And just the other day, he came across something pretty sweet. Nestled in his old scuba diving gear, he had an outfit he had worn, and I guess just forgot about it and left it in there. FROM 1997. 

I immediately made him try it on.

The shirt still seems doable, right? 

But check out his wicked awesome, UMBRO shorts.  Seriously. I used to have a collection of those too, and I would wear biker shorts under mine. HAWT.

But this made me think....

I actually have one outfit I just never parted with, and thought I would just try it on.

You guys, I have a pair of pants from 1986! My mother bought me these with a matching sweatshirt for Christmas. Probably came from Sycamore.  Please tell me you remember Sycamore! Sycamore, where my mother would put our clothes on lay-a-way for 6 months at a time. 

Check them out!! Missing two buttons, gathered at the ankle, and the band feels like it's about to dry rot. 

And would you please check out my shirt. 

HOLLA. My dingy Bon Jovi t-shirt circa 1989.

Seriously, I'm thinking this calls for a date. An umbro's & pink hot pants kinda date.

Until we snack again.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, with temperatures pleasantly below normal for this time of year, so we decided an outdoor activity was a must. 

We tossed around a few ideas and finally landed on the zoo. 

It had been a while since we made the trip south, so we were all pretty excited. 

And apparently we weren't the only geniuses with the zoo idea, because it was CROWDED. So, we slowly made our way around, and thankfully it looked like the animals were going to grace us with their presence.

I've been to the zoo before when we hardly saw a single animal, but we got lucky yesterday.

The monkey's were bein' all monkeyish and a lot of fun to watch!

And being true to our form, we were only about two exhibits in, and just HAD to stop to do what we do.


Eat a snack.

 I think it had been an hour or so since we had eaten, and we had walked an 1/8th of a mile, so nourishment was necessary.

This gave us time to plan our execution of the zoo...

And enough time for me to realize I gave Hope mis-matched socks. Seriously G?

So, back to the zoo.

We passed this water that was covered in an algae, and Hope excitedly told me how it was covered in an allergy. Tee hee.

Seems like we spent a lot of time indoors looking at stuff.

And do you know what kind of animals are indoors? Yeah, the disgusting kind.

And just as we were headed out to leave, we passed a feeding time for a snake. OMG. I will spare you all the other pictures, but trust me, it was fascinating and creepy.

We left disturbed.

 One simple solution for that.

A snack.

Nothing a bag of popcorn the size of Rhode Island wouldn't fix.

And it seems that the map torch may have been passed yesterday. Pierce has always been the map guy, but yesterday it was all Hope, all day.

And she did a pretty good job getting us where we wanted to go.

Despite the crowds...

And despite the frequent snack breaks....

We managed to see the entire zoo. 

And we even had enough time to squeeze in another snack. I mean it had been all of 20 minutes since we had eaten, and Paul was famished.

Speaking of Paul....

Have I mentioned I love him? Oh yes, I love HIM.  But his shoes?

This is when marriage vows ring true. For better or for WORSE.

Only love can look past his faults. Because as we all know, I'm perfect. And spectacular.  (Surely everyone knows sarcasm is my love language) 

And with that we wrapped up another successful day at the snack bars the zoo! 

Until we snack again....

Good things.

Yesterday's post was reflective of my mood. SAD. And I don't think I want to leave that post hanging around all sad and lonely. I want to fill the page with happy times now. 

And I've indeed had some happiness this week. 

I shall share.

The opportunity to meet and hang with Cephas and Biba, who are here from Africa. This is the first time they have ever been to America.  Can you imagine what they must thinking? (Probably, spoiled crazy Americans.) 

I'm sure Brittany will be blogging all about their adventures at some point. But it was a GREAT pleasure to meet them, and a definite good part of my week.

These Triscuits right here, as bad as they might be for me, they have been a GOOD part of my week.

Coming home on the day I was super sad, to find a surprise from Rico? Very good.

And ending our week on a relatively happy note, with a very happy child. 

The best.

This job will never be easy.

Who else remembers the images of having children and how simple and beautiful it would be?

'Oh, MY baby will sleep soundly in her beautiful bassinet. She will wear smocked dresses and big bows, she will smile and coo all day, and then sleep 18 hours, while I organize my closets and make a lovely meal for my husband. It will be beautiful.'

THEN YOU HAVE THE BABY.

 The baby screams all day, you never shower, meals are whatever you can slop together, while your gut hangs out of your pants that are littered with puke and poop stains. And THAT is actually a good day.

The visions of having children, aren't quite what we imagine are they?

And then as the child grows, you keep thinking, 'well, once they can feed themselves, or once they are potty trained, or once they can talk, or once they shut up, or once they are in school' THEN this parenting thing will get easy. But then it dawns on you....

THIS JOB WILL NEVER BE EASY.

I cannot escape this job. There is no leaving it at the office. There are no vacations. There are no sick days. And there certainly is not a 401k. 

But oh my gosh, while this job may not be what you think it will be, you cannot love a creature more. Sometimes, I feel like someone has punched me in the gut, you know, like a love punch. A feeling of love being SUCKED out of you, a pleasure mixed with love that you cannot describe. 

So, when your child hurts. You hurt. When a week into school, they cry to stay with you while you manually force them out of the car. IT HURTS. I put on the tough face while I can, but then I drive away and sob. And then I think, WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME HOW HARD THIS PARENTING JOB WOULD BE? 

I guess I wouldn't have listened. I would have thought, 'my beautiful, bow wearing angel, will defy your hard parenting sob stories.'

And I think I semi-get it now. Once that helpless creature is placed in your arms, you've given up your heart. And since parenting revolves around your very heart, the challenges can feel monumental. 

And for today my challenge is leaving a crying child at school. And trust me, I'm grateful to have that crying child, as I know so many mothers have sick children or God forbid have lost a child. I know in the scheme of life, this is in fact small, and possibly petty on my part to feel this way about it? 

But I do. 

 And like so many mothers before me, I will survive this, and I imagine even one day laugh about it. But in the meantime, it's no fun. And venting about it, just feels right. 

And possibly drinking wine. 

I think we both missed the baseball thing.

Of all the things that affect you when you move away, who would think sports would be one of them? You know I wouldn't have thunk it! But for reals, it's a 'thing' and at times, downright intimidating.

I remember sitting around with a group of women, shortly after moving here, and the conversations about baseball downright freaked me out. They were acting like it was Olympic intense round here. 

SO, we dove into Tae Kwon Do. 

And for 18 months, we were in it to win it. 

But children, being children, sometimes they want a change, and the interest was definitely beginning to wane. All it took was a trip to one of Layton's ball games, and Pierce's eyes LIT straight up, and that was it, he had the baseball bug. 

It just so happens that they offer fall ball here, and it also just so happens that it's not near as intense as spring ball, which downright delighted momma. A chance to get his feet wet again, see what he thinks about it all, and go from here...

Last night was his first practice, he was EXCITED, I was NERVOUS. 

Immediately true to boy form, he was grabbing boy parts while hanging out waiting for action.

I sat back and took it all in, while my nerves slowly subsided.

 The coach said to me last night as we were leaving, "he's good."

It was nice to hear that.  But the smile on his face was the best part of the night.

So, this is it. This is my new view. And believe it or not, I think we both missed the baseball thing.

It was a win-win kind of night.

You know, we have been to many birthday parties, but as I sat back and thought about it, I realized none of them had ever been a pool party. Unless, we count Levi's 1st birthday party, but I won't because none of the kids jumped in. Ha! So, last night was a fun treat for a couple reasons. 

First, celebrating our friend, and second, a party centered around cake and a pool is always a good idea. 

Big man here is now 5! HOLLA! 

And of course, Britt did it up cute. I tell her all the time, if I didn't love you, I would hate you. She's talented, pretty, and fun. It's ridiculous.

While I would have been content to sit around and eat cake all night, the kids had one thing on their minds. THE DIVING BOARD. 

And guess what?

As addicted as those kids were to jumping off, I was more addicted to taking pictures of it.

Cracks me up seeing them, mid-air.

And momma doesn't even have a fancy schmancy camera. 

One of these days I will. And then I will be even MORE obnoxious, if that's possible.

 Such a fun night!

I enjoyed cake and visiting with friends. Kids enjoyed playing their hearts out. It was a win-win kind of night!