White Girl

Every spring I put on my shorts for the first time of the season and in my head I hear in a deep rumbly voice, "Oooo, Girl, you're about the whitest thing I ever did see." It still makes me laugh because it was said by the darkest man I have ever met. One of our son's closest friend's grandparents lived in our neighborhood and he played at their home quite a bit. I used to go shopping with his "Mimi" and the boys would stay with his grandpa. His grandpa was washing the car when I walked up in shorts for the first time one spring and that is what I heard. He then walked over, held his arm down next to my leg, shook his head, and went back to washing the car.

I fall into the redhead/white skin category. We have two skin color options, red or white, and you know red heads should stay away from red...it clashes with our hair. Truly my hair is strawberry blond but my skin doesn't seem to get the distinction. Since skin cancer tends to run in the family I slather up before going outside so I can keep my pasty skin... well, pasty. Also like a true redhead I have freckles on every spot of my body. I don't get to have the beautiful porcelain white skin to make up for lack of being able to tan. Awesome!

This almost complete lack of melanin used to bother me. I wasn't going to ever be the cute tan girl in the bikini, you should put shades on to look my direction at the pool. I have grown accustomed to my skin over the years and now I actually own it. It's all good! Because I have stayed out of the sun or drowned myself in sunscreen, I have managed to stay a bit fresher. It has slowed the aging process down for me and I can't say I'm unhappy about that. It's fun to still get carded occasionally, not because I look under 21 but apparently younger than I am. I'll take it.

So when you see all the pics this summer of the hot babes on the beach, I'm the pasty white girl in the back ground.

Until next time,
Julie

Five Men and a Baby

We felt called and have the ability to help out a couple of young men who, through circumstances outside of their control, needed a place to crash. They have been with us for a couple of weeks now and will continue to be until they graduate high school and move on to their perspective AIT schools in mid June (both in the National Guard). They are good men, will graduate from Lincoln with honors, and have a wicked sense of humor so fit right in to our family. They are also great with the little man, who LOVES having all these guys around. There is never a dull moment in this house. However, having 5 men and a baby is a challenge, to say the least. We have friends who have larger families than this and I applaud them! 

Where do I put all these people? When I brought the oldest home from college he took over his usual space, the den with the pull out couch and all the amenities. So we now have my middle son sharing his room with our two guests. There are two beds in there with another twin mattress tucked under that is pulled out at night. The beds are just for crashing, though, because frankly that room has turned into gaming central. There are two large TVs in there with every imaginable system hooked up as well as the computer in the corner with it's dual screens. Apparently, we can't all play the same game at the same time on ONE TV. To top it off, another TV was brought in last night and hooked up in the basement with even more systems. Wow! The extra TVs actually belong to our guests who obviously came with LOTS of electronics...and baggage...

We have set up a system in the bathroom so that each one has a hook for a towel with their names above it and a laundry bag system, again, labeled for their convenience. Should anything actually end up in there remains to be seen as most of the time the floor is carpeted with clothing...clean, dirty? Who knows... I don't do it. I've showed them all how to use the machines, good luck with that. There are several large built in drawers in that bathroom so they have each been given drawers for their clothing and half of a closet to hang things. The good thing, I suppose, is they are all going military so they might as well get used to sharing tight quarters. 

Food! Oy! Can you keep enough food in the house for men? Short answer...NO! I try to cook a few meals a week and have pizza, sandwich, or hot dog nights to offset that. Thankfully, because they are all in school until May 24th they eat breakfast and lunch there during the week. My job is just to provide dinners. They are responsible for their own snacking. I will say, that I have loved having a full table for dinner. We laugh and listen to them tell stories and share our day. Nothing beats that in my book. 

Is it tight? Yes. Is it chaotic? Yes. Would I change anything? No. We have been blessed by these boys and hope that God will bless them while they are in our home and in their futures.

Until next time,

Julie

Vacation Season...Woo Hoo!

The kids are in the final stretch of school so we are trying to plan our vacation. I've mentioned that we will be camping our way to Mt. Rushmore, and we've also decided to hit up Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta this year, which has the added bonus of visiting my folks and my brother. Seriously, you know it's the other way around, it was time to go home and visit but we've decided to do it during the Balloon Fiesta. I'm excited for both trips.

I believe vacations have a cycle. Here's the pattern: (This applies to those of us who left home and went far far away.) When you are young, broke, the only 'vacation' you take is to get home to see your family and since you will be staying with them you can 'afford' it. When you finally get a career and are doing OK, generally married with younger children,  you still go home for 'vacation' and see the family because you want your children to have a relationship with them. The years tick by and you're doing better financially, but the kids are in school and so vacations only happen in the summer and holidays. Typically you save the trip home to see the family for the holidays and try to squeeze in an actual we've-never-been-there vacation in the summer. Finally, you are doing well in your career but now the kid goes to college so it's back to broke...time to plan the trip home again.  I've finally realized why the commercials for these fabulous luxury vacations generally show more mature couples...not old, but empty nester age. Brian and I took our first real couple vacation last year, and we were only able to do that because my mom rocks and came out to hang with the kids. We won't be able to do it again for a while, just as we have one son finishing up college we'll have another going in, and of course helping them is more important.

I bring all of this up to say, planning vacations becomes serious business, as a result. We don't do them often and so they have to count. Brian starts throwing out ideas very early in the spring, generally huge unrealistic plans that I immediately shoot down. (I am the chief financial planner in this house.) Then over the following weeks we will narrow it down to more reasonable yet still fun destinations. It's an exciting time and we are all ready for a break. There will not be many more opportunities to travel with all my kids at the same time, they will grow and will leave and start their own vacation cycles. I have to soak up this time and store these memories away, because one day I'll be on vacation with Brian wishing I had the little rugrats running around me.

Until next time,
Julie