Parenting Rule #1: It's always dangerous when they get too quiet.

and why, yes, he IS naked. In our front yard. In the middle of the afternoon...

Shaving cream and food coloring. (Because I can't think of anything more creative than that.)

         I'm editing a photo session from last night, and I took a little break to upload and look through 54,000 photos I've taken since March which, in the craziness that has happened since then, got abandoned. Sad. But I found these! And since I told my friend I'd post this, oh, 2 months ago or so, I'd doing it now. Plus they're fun, and I think a little fun is needed around here...

This is my friend Beth. She's great-creative, funny, and waaaay more organized than I am! So when she showed up at my house the day before we left on our grand adventure with a kiddie pool, shaving cream, and food coloring; I just grinned and said "Oh, yeah!!" 

We stripped the kids down, and kid bliss commenced. Except for Blaise, who stayed as far away as he could...Beth put some on his walker and he freaked out. (Seriously, the kid wants to climb the rock wall of the fireplace, but shaving cream? Too scary, people. I love toddlers.)

 The big kids all looked like Easter eggs by the time they were done; it was a great lesson in color-mixing, too. (Science class!) Pax and Charissa (Beth's oldest girl and Pax's buddy) decided to jump in the pool after we'd hosed them off; and swim season was officially opened-in March. Yes, the pool was about 65 degrees. Nope, Pax wasn't about to come out!

  This was SO fun to watch, so easy to set up, and-best of all-a wonderful brain break from packing for both the kids and I!

Beth, you can bring your organized creative-ness to my backyard anytime ;)

Diary of a P.A. Student{'s wife}: here we go!

It's here. Really, truly here...after 8 years of praying, dreaming, planning, moving, schooling, applying, working, trusting, moving again (and again...and again...), applying again, interviewing, waiting, trusting, celebrating....
The A.T. Still University class of 2015 has successfully made it through orientation, collected their medical supplies, had their scrubs embroidered with the school logo and their class specifics; and hits the ground running today at 8 am. Actually, Adam has already hit the ground running...they were told that they would need to be familiar with the material before they get to class, so he's already spent some time this weekend studying.
I know we're as ready for this as we think we can be-but I have a feeling there is no way to actually be prepared for this!
      It doesn't matter, though. We're here. We continue to trust God. We continue to choose joy, to take every thought captive...no small feat, for me. I've been slammed this past month with fears and insecurities I didn't even know were in my heart; but that I'm discovering have roots in the loss of my sister, the loss if Celine, and the start of Adam's P.A. Program. Too much deja vu for this human heart to handle....so it's a process I'm working through, daily. But we're ready. SO glad it's finally here and the anticipating can become reality, whatever that looks like. Adam is so very, very ready-nervous as to how to juggle it all; anticipating what he will learn. He's gotten antsy the past few weeks, wanting to get started. Watching the surgical videos the school has uploaded and explaining to Pax "what all the red stuff is" and that that is what your stomach looks like on the inside ( surgery is amazing...I do not have the gifting Adam does. He's looking forward to that part maybe more than anything, whereas I get squemish at just the thought of cutting open another human being!).  

So it begins...again. Last Monday night there was a potluck at the home of one of the students, open to all families/spouses/significant others as well. We debated for awhile about taking our crew- honestly,we were pretty sure we'd be one of the only couples with kids, especially 3 kids! We were plesantly surprised though-there must have been 6-8 families there. And several couples right around our age with 2 or 3 kids each, just about our kids' age. This is a HUGE answer to prayer,as now there are men that Adam can relate to who are in the same situation as he is...and a couple of women, too. The hostess has FIVE kids and SHE is the one in the program! I joked with a couple of the wives that we needed to start a "wives-of-P.A.-students-with-kids" support group...except, I'm not joking about that. Not even a little bit. I know that all of us will need those relationships at times to help us get thru the next 27 months of craziness. So tomorrow night, we're leaving our kids with some good friends of ours and heading to yet another P.A. School thingy, this one just for adults from all three concurrent classes (class of 2013, 2014, and 2015) and their significant others. Hopefully we can meet up with some of the folks we connected with last week and talk to some of those who are a bit ahead of us. I don't know-can't know-exactly what lies ahead for us in the next 27 months. But I know I'm crazy- proud of Adam and excited for him. I'm trusting God with expectation-not just gritting my teeth to "get through" it. Thank you, thank you to all who have supported us in this adventure and continue to support us. We wouldn't want to (really, we couldn't) do it without you.