Guest posting at Dreamer today.

My good friend, Karen, invited me to guest post on her amazing blog, Dreamer.  She has one of those blogs I wish I had written.  It's always lovely and insightful. 

She's doing a little series of guest posts about how the art we make impacts our lives.  Her blog is fascinating, so feel free to stop by and read my post, then stay over there a while and read some of her other writing.  Her color series, which she just finished reposting, is especially good.

Playing Catch up - Highs and Lows

It's been well over a month since I posted.  I'm fairly sure I could sum up everything that's gone on, but that would bore everyone (even me) to tears.  So I think I'm just going to pick out select highlights of the last month of our lives.  (Probably based on the photos I can find in my phone.) Should I do it as highs and lows?  Ok, if you insist.



The high that is on a different scale than the other highs:  Medman finished residency!  This is very exciting.  It is massively more exciting than graduating from medical school.  At that graduation you troop across the stage in your fancy cap and gown as they say, "Congratulations!  You are officially a doctor!"  Then they dive behind the podium snickering and snorting hysterically because even though they now call you a doctor, you still have to put in years of indentured servitude benignly called 'residency.'  But that is now done and Medman is a free man.  It is very exciting.


Colorado Mountains
The last week of residency Medman had a conference in Breckenridge, Colorado.  

High: Hello beautiful mountains, hikes, lakes.  Rural Missouri would be greatly improved if it had the Rocky Mountains in it. 

Low: Hello 10 month old baby who decided he wanted to play newborn and that it was impossible to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time.  Every night.   In hotel rooms where he was sleeping 2 feet from me.  Every night.  Every.  Night.

High:  Resort with a play room for the kids with arcade games and super simple mini golf.

Dalton was in heaven.  He must have played 300 holes of mini golf in 3 days.

Look who's so big.  Standing up and wanting steaks and spirits.

The obvious problem arising from having mini golf in the same room as arcade games...Does under the NASCAR game count as in the rough?

Liam really increased his 4 wheel drive crawling.  (FYI- face plants on pokey, fake, putting green grass make the baby cry, but are sort of funny to watch.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show of hands - who here is amazed that situations like this NEVER ended in injury? 

 

 

 

 

Belle had no interest in the putt putt, but she rode this motorcycle about sixteen hundred times.  Not with any money in it, of course.  I'm fairly sure she didn't even know that was a possibility. 

And dancing, dancing, dancing.  The girl jammed out on the dance machine for probably several hours, all told.  Which is extra funny when you know that it wasn't even turned on.  Luckily for her the cheapo claw game next to it jingled out some electric banjo music. 

Not high or low - just super weird
I saw this thing several times before I processed what I was looking at.  Off in a dingy corner of the game room was a life sized plastic cow.

Yes...it was a milking game.  See?

We did not play this game.



All in all we had a lot of fun in Breckenridge.  Not that there weren't some moments of boredom in the hotel room...

Watching Myth Busters for 13 consecutive episodes.

Hiding in weird nooks.

Low:  I may not have mentioned it, but Liam didn't sleep.    I don't want to add up the number of hours I stalked angrily around  gently carried him around dark hotel rooms alternately humming soothing music and hissing dire threats like, "Jason!  I am going right now to pack the car and we are LEAVING.  NOW!  At 2 am!  Screw your conference.  And I'm driving for FOURTEEN HOURS STRAIGHT to get home.  NOW!  And you're a doctor!  Prescribe this kid some freakin' sleeping pills!!!!"


Visiting in Denver:

High:  We got to see family and friends around Denver.  I sucked at bringing my camera to things.  And anyway I spent most of the time hovering over Liam who's dearest desire was to put the most lethal thing he could find in any given room into his mouth.  So just imagine happy faces of aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends smiling at you.  (And if we visited you and you have good pictures, please send them to me!)

Friends and fudgsicles.  What could be better?

Low:  Did I mention that baby-not-sleeping problem we were having?  By this time in the trip his exhaustion had overcome his white hot fury at being asked to sleep again somewhere besides his own beloved room and he did start sleeping through the night, but he was still reluctant to go to sleep.  Like the night he sat up as long as possible, finally just toppling forward face first. 

Yup, that's his right foot across in front of his stomach.  And both hands weirdly positioned with the palms facing up.  It is a testimony to how much I wanted him to sleep that I did not try to move him out of this position.  Just left him sleeping.

Fear not, all you soft-hearted readers, he did eventually get his limbs sorted out all on his own.



Dalton's Birthday

High:  My big boy turned six!  He seemed unimpressed when I told him that as the anniversary of me spending 28 hours in labor with him, I should be the one getting presents.  

For his birthday he wanted to go bowling.  So bowling we went.

No pictures of me, of course.  But I'll have you know I won both games.  The second game I even broke 100. 

Let's pretend these pictures are blurry because of the amazing amounts of action they are attempting to capture.  Not because kids are constantly getting fingerprints on my camera lens. 

Liam ate nacho chips.

 

Belle heaved around a ball that was exactly one quarter of her body weight.

Dalton hurled his ball with his own kind of style.

And Medman looks good, but he still lost.  To me.

Ok, that exhausts my phone pictures unless you want to see an inventory of the printers available at Walmart.  I'm leaning toward a wireless one, don't you think that's a good idea? 

Hope all of you are well.  It was lovely to see so many of you in Colorado!

xoxoxo