Children's Camp

All is quiet around my house.  Four of the five of us are asleep.  Guess who's awake?!?  This girl.  Why are they all quiet?  We've been at camp. The boys and I left Monday morning and have been going full steam ever since our feet hit the floor.  Fred actually got to visit and stay with us two nights.  Since Andrew was with me we got to stay in the hotel.  This is not my first rodeo so when they said hotel I was not expecting much.  This is what I rolled up to.  I'm not even kidding.  For the first few hours I kept expecting someone to tell me they had made a mistake.  Then they would escort me to my barracks, but that never happened.  So...Andrew and I slummed it here.  For the week.

 This was our room.  I'm not even kidding.  It was like Southern Living meets Pinterest.  We had granite in our bathroom.  Granite.  At camp I'm not used to having a shower curtain that covers the stall.  Granite.  Did I mention the other two counselors from our church were in the dorm?  I had fresh towels all week.  Fresh towels.  My friend asked me if there were mints on my pillow each night.  (While she slept on a bunk bed with 47 {I kid...only 9} fourth grade girls.) I think she was just trying to be funny.  There are no mints on pillows at camp.  That would just be crazy.  Crazy.   I did let her use my shower each night.  Because some of us are givers like that.  Ha!!

We really had the best time.  These kiddos went all.day.long.  They burned the candle at both ends.  There was fishing, canoeing, recreation time, swimming, late night activities and late late night activities.  Our other two counselors were with the late night activities.  Andrew and I bowed out each night around 10:00 pm.  He would nap each day right after lunch too.  Then we would head to whatever activity was going on at that time.  He felt as though the camp revolved around him, not the other 147 children that were there.
One of my favorite fisher(wo)men all week.  She caught three before anyone else caught one.  She's the fish whisperer.

 I walked in to worship one night and all our boys were sitting together.  It made me smile.  They did it on their own.  I long for my boys to be connected to a group of friends and I felt like this was the beginning of lifelong friendships.  I watched these kids bond throughout the week, just like I saw my boys with their friends in Paris.
This week was bittersweet for me. Springhill went to camp the same week we were at camp.  Life certainly moves on.  While part of my heart was praying for (and a little sad, if I'm honest) what we left behind,  part of my heart was rejoicing for what is here now and what lies ahead.  God is amazing like that.  It just blesses my heart.

 One day they had an awesome water slide.  Andrew thought it was just for him.  He was a little disappointed when he had to wait in line after the first couple of slides.

 Some of the counselors would throw kiddos into the pool each afternoon.  It made my heart jump out of my chest, but the kids really liked it.  That's Clayton going about 10 feet in the air.  Yes, I was in labor for 21 hours to bring him into this world.  My heart jumped out of my chest.

 Water slide fun...

 I caught this one fishing...get it...I caught him fishing.  I really need sleep.  His favorite part of camp?!?  Not taking a shower.  (Seriously.)  I really tried hard not to be his mom while I was there.  After not taking a shower he said he didn't have a favorite part.  He just liked it all.  He was made for summer camp.  He loves it all: being outside, camp food, not showering, being with friends all day (and night), the snack bar...he loves it all!
He found the snack bar the first day.  He did not know I had set up an account for him.  I saw him after a few hours at camp and told him about his account.  This was our conversation:
Me: Hey buddy, did you know about the snack bar?
Jack:  Yeah, I've already been.  I got Gatorade.
Me:  What else?
Jack: A Snickers bar.
Me: What else?
Jack:  Some sour straws.
Me:  How did you pay for it?
Jack:  I just told them my name was Jack Shackelford.
Well okay.  Again, I tried not to be his mom.  It took everything inside of me not to question the decision to consume that much junk food.  I walked away from that conversation repeating my mantra...I'm not his mom this week.  I'm not his mom this week.  I'm not his mom this week.

 Swimming fun at the pool...

 After the pool cleared out each day several of the counselors would stay late and jump off the lifeguard stand.  The last day I told Jack he could jump off with me.  He grinned from ear to ear.  (The photo below looks like he's standing on the ground, but he is actually in mid-air.  I'm just a good photographer like that.  Not really.)  There are benefits to having your mom at camp, even though she's not technically your mom while you're there.  Recall the gatorade, snickers and sour straws incident.

 The Shackelford Crew...I love these boys.

 The entire Ellendale Crew...

 Being silly...

 My favorite pirate...Each night the Bible study groups had to do some kind of task.  This particular evening they all had to dress up and "preform" a song.  Clayton wrote a song for his group, performed it and took first place.  He was pretty excited.  If you won first place you got to go first in line for dinner.  Priorities people.

 At night before worship the leader asked if anyone would quote a Bible verse with the reference.  Then they had to explain it.  Clayton volunteered to quote a verse and then he explained it.  He used the word courageous in his explanation.  That boy and his vocabulary.

 Best.camp.photo.ever!  That is pure fear on LeAnn's (one of our other counselors) face.  Classic.  I love it!  Each time I look at it it makes me smile.

Laundry when I got home.  I've started one load.  I only have eight more to go.  Seriously, I gagged when I opened their bags to empty it out.  It was so gross.  So gross.  

I've got to get all this done because we are leaving again in 48 hours for Mississippi.  I know, an international trip.  We still have staff retreat, a trip to Holiday World and a couple of other things to do.  We are going to squeeze every bit of summer out while we can.  Every.little.bit!  I heart summer almost as much as I heart all these boys.

Catching Up

We finished up the week of VBS.  Since I was the director of VBS and since my husband is the pastor and since he loves me A LOT...he (and all our staff) agreed to sing and do the hand motions to the VBS theme song.  It made my week!  Below is Jack's face as he watched his dad "dance".  It was awesome.  His dancing skills have not changed since college.  Made.my.week.  

 Friday night we had a finale party, complete with water jumpers and hot dogs.  Honestly, can you have a VBS party without jumpers and hot dogs?!?  It was a good time!

Since my fourth son was here during the week we headed one afternoon to the Children's Museum splash pad to check it out.  It was wonderful!  I thought the big boys might be a little too big, but they all had a good time.  We are looking forward to our next return trip.

 Oh, and here's a selfie of me and my friend from church.  She's in the Navy.  She's super cool.  She and her family are moving to Hungary in a few days.  I'm pretty bummed.

See these crackers below?  They are delicious.  My Aunt Janice keeps making them for me and I keep eating them.  Go to Kroger and buy oyster crackers, canola oil, parmesean cheese and gallon zip lock bags.  Dump the oyster crackers in the gallon zip lock bag and then add 2/3 c. parmesean cheese.  Close the bag and shake it.  Then pour 3/4 c. oil in the bag.  Keep flipping the bag for a while.  The next day they will be ready to eat.  Seriously, make them.  You will thank me later.  You're welcome.  

 There is no reason for the picture of a picture, except that I saw it at Fred and Renee's house and I could not quit smiling.  Could.not.quit.

 I finally got curtains hung in Fred's office.  You can't see them because of the light coming through the windows, but they look good.  If you see my mom give her a hug.  She rocks.

Thursday was our anniversary.  Andrew came in my bed and said, "Happy University, I mean...Anniversary.  I can't ever remember the difference between the two."  We'll work on that before he gets married and has a university...I mean anniversary.

 My friend sent me a text and asked me if the boys and I would like to go to a giant slide in the middle of nowhere.  I had no idea what she was talking about, but I thought it would be a good time so we agreed to go.  Here's the big slide in the middle of nowhere.  For a nominal fee your children (and any adults that want to) can climb up and slide down this slide over and over and over.  And that's what our boys did.  For two hours...over and over and over.  They loved it.  Hopefully, we'll revisit the "big slide in the middle of nowhere".

 We went to a Redbirds game Saturday night...our first one since we moved here.  We bought our tickets, drove all the way downtown, packed our ball gloves, paid to park and then made it to the ballpark...just in time for the bottom to fall out.  We went up under the awning and waited with 2,000 of our closest friends and the rain did not pass.  We left after looking at the radar.  They called the game off at 8:00 pm.  We had three disappointed boys.  They were troopers though. (Of course, I had to have a conversation with one of my boys about how I can't control the weather.  Goodness.)

Our friends spent the night with us while their parents packed their house for Hungary.  I had five little boys at my breakfast table Monday morning.  It was sweet.  We loaded up and headed to the Children's Museum for the splash pad.

They played in the splash pad for 30 minutes and then they were hungry and wanted to go inside the museum.  After a conversation explaining that all forms of tag (freeze tag, jogging tag, walking tag, etc.) (Who knew there were so many forms of tag??) and hide and seek were not appropriate we enjoyed some exhibits.  Well...after I broke up a game of tag.  Apparently while "full museum" tag is off limits playing in a small area is okay.  No, no it's not.  My crew was VERY disappointed.  All in all we had a good time.  

Clayton is usually right on with his vocabulary, but this week he was having a conversation with a friend about his skin color.  Clayton said, "Skin color is generic."  I listened for a second and then it dawned on me...Genetics, not generic.  Ha!!

We made good progress with our move.  One thing happened though.  We lost a book.  Let me rephrase that...We lost a required reading book from Clayton's summer reading list that we checked out from the Bartlett Public Library.  After two overdue notices I finally called and asked what it would cost to replace it.  For $22.67 we can be over this little bump in our summer.  Well...except for the fact that he still has to read the required book.

Speaking of books...I am reading Melanie Shankle's book, The Antler in the Living Room.  It is laugh out loud funny.  If you need a light summer read this is your book.  I've read half of it out loud to Fred because it is so funny.  He's probably tired of me doing that, but oh well, he's been with me for 14 years and we're still going strong.

Tale of two houses, visiting family and a birthday

Tuesday, June 4th at 3:30 pm we closed on our house in Paris, Tennessee.  Fred and I drove to Paris, had lunch with our friend (and realtor), stopped by the house and then headed to the bank.  We had a great drive up to Paris.  We talked about the last decade of our lives and much of it centered around that house:  friendships, tears, arguments, joy, home improvement projects (usually where the tears and arguments came from...ha!!!), births, deaths, parenting mistakes and successes, and on and on.  I brought two of our three boys from the hospital to this house for crying out loud.  The day was much more emotional than I thought.  I just wanted to sign papers, get our check and head out.  Instead, I was flooded with emotions and memories.  We drove by one last time and walked through.  The movers were there packing and almost finished.  One last photo...

 Sale was no longer pending...

  After the closing and all the emotion with it we celebrated with coffee (I had iced coffee, my new favorite!!) and a treat from A La Mode.  

Since the kids were at Fred and Renee's we ended up celebrating in Jackson at Cheddar's.  Then we just decided to stay in Jackson.  We headed out bright and early to close on our house in Bartlett.  (It was an eventful 24 hours!!) 

 We had movers that moved all of our "stuff" in and then the unpacking began.  Boy did we unpack!!  My mom came, my Aunt Christie, Janice, Mun, Renee and even a friend from church (who scrubbed my cabinets...bless her.).  It was a full-fledged party.  This is the playroom.  Mercy.  I made the announcement that we officially DO NOT need anymore toys!  My mom told Jack that I made this declaration and he said, "That's okay.  We always have Aunt Janice."  I think he missed something.  Ha!  

Here sits the final box.  The movers were at our house from 1:00 pm until almost 9:00 pm.  I unpacked a little while they were here, but mainly I pointed to furniture and rooms.  The unloading started on Wednesday and the final box was unpacked Saturday morning at some point.  By no means is it all done, but it sure is close.  When you live in a state of transition for six months order and routine are much appreciated.  

I'm not sure when my closet was put together, but it was pretty early on.  If I ever felt overwhelmed I would go look at my closet.  It was my happy place.  

Our finished bedroom...Speaking of a happy place.  No boys (sans Fred) are allowed in here.  

 Living room corner...

 I put my recipe file in my kitchen.  The recipe is from a precious lady in Paris...in her handwriting.  Each time I see it it makes me smile.

 Playroom before my Aunt Christie hung pictures...

 When the movers were here Wednesday they were unable to get my grandmother's couch in to my bedroom.  Two precious men came over from church and got it in.  I will forever be grateful!

This same day we picked up another Shackelford family at the airport.  The tall guy with the hat on belongs to us.  His crew is a few steps behind him.  We have pretty much been together since they got home.  We've gone to Shelby Farms, the Shackelford's house, and on and on...

 Just Fred and Renee joined us for a movie in the park in Bartlett.  It was a fun night.

I even got to take this sweet crew on a date to Sonic.  Milkshakes for everyone!!  Woohoo!!  The crew below also attended Grizzlies basketball camp together last week.  They spent most of the week together at Fred and Renee's.  Fred and I went to Lambert's Restaurant with our senior adults one day while they were at camp.  Good times!

For Father's Day everyone convened at Ellendale for church.  When you are in the ministry spending time with your family on holidays is virtually impossible.  For the first time in 17 years this crew was all together...at our new house...for lunch (or Sunday dinner as my mother-in-law calls it, but that's a completely different, confusing post).  I don't know if that fact or getting the picture below is more of a miracle?!?

Shortly after the above photo was snapped I headed toward Jackson to give my dad his Father's Day gift and then meet up with this crew below for Jack's birthday party.  I actually sent this picture during church (I know, tsk...tsk...) to tell their parents we made it.  My friend responded with "you know your friend's husband is a pastor when you get a picture of them sitting in church."  Classic and so true.  They were troopers to sit through church.  In total we had seven boys spending the night at my house Sunday night.

It was nothing short of a miracle that all seven of them were sitting at my kitchen table by 7:15, dressed with socks, shoes and deodorant (the last one was my request...grin.).  We were at church by 7:50 (with the above mentioned AND teeth brushed!!!) for VBS.  Again, you know your friend's husband is a pastor when you take seven boys to VBS...

After VBS we gained two more boys, because 7 just wasn't enough (HA!) and headed home for a birthday lunch of chicken fries and mini corn dogs.  After lunch we headed out for a game of Laser Tag and then swimming at Fred and Renee's.  Since the lighting is not good at laser tag there are no pictures, but here's one of the swimming pool.  That is a pool full of boys!

 We had pizza and ice cream cake to continue our celebration.  

 I love this eight year old.  He has his daddy's face, size, thighs and laid back disposition, but he has my heart.  Sometimes when I look at him my heart feels like it is going to jump out of my chest.  God has gifted him in so many ways.  I cannot wait to see what the future holds for him.  For now, I'm just going to enjoy watching him grow every day...literally and figuratively.

 After cake we headed home for showers...our fourth and final activity of the day!  It proved to be quite the challenge.  Fun, but challenging.  Ha!  The original seven, plus one more spent the night Monday night.  It all went smoothly.  We went to VBS and then drove through McDonald's for lunch.  We headed to Jackson to meet up with a friend from Paris and after one last swim they headed home...except that not all of them went home.  I kept one.  He'll be here through the end of the week.  He wanted to stay.  What can I say?!?  He's my fourth son for the week.  I'll take it!

All in all June has been a pretty busy month--We sold on a house and finished a chapter of our story.  We bought a house in Bartlett and moved in.  We celebrated part of our family coming home.  And we watched a little boy grow into an eight year old young man overnight...literally right before my eyes.