I went over to my neighbor's house today to introduce myself and apologize for my little....naptime insanity from yesterday. After she sized me up and realized that I wasn't high on drugs or generally speaking ..... a few fries short of a happy meal....she revealed that when her son was 2 she had been outside cleaning the windows and had run into the house real quick for some more paper towels...when she came back, he was gone. She looked all over the street and in all of the backyards for him and then ended up going house to house looking for him. He was gone. At the last house she tried, there was no one home. She rang the bell and waited and waited...and then as she was leaving, she saw a little head bobbing in the hallway. The neighbor had gone to church and had left the door unlocked and....he had gone into their house.

She still regarded me with a little bit of suspicion, but...I think she understood.

I have had so many people comment to me about how much "bad luck" that I have.....and I started to wonder why that is. After the events of yesterday had finished unfolding, I kept asking myself why these things "always happen to me"....and the answer came to me today...as I realized that I am ready to try flying again..already.

I think that these things happen to me because I am able to dust myself off and keep moving forward. I put myself out there and try and live life to the fullest as best I can. Many of my friends couldn't believe that I would, for example, drive with the kids to Canada...or....attempt a flight with 5 children...and really, I don't understand what the big deal is. Life is an adventure.....and I guess because I have moved so many times, and have so many children....that the odds are greater that I will run into crazy neighbors or have a lot of .....interesting....parenting experiences! I have more than double the number of children as most of my friends. As a result, I sometimes have more than double the trouble...and sometimes...more than double the joy!

I have been through a lot in my life and it has changed me....I think that I might be hardened a little bit by the challenges that I have faced...I fall briefly when I face adversity and then I get back up and keep going. I'm not easily paralyzed by the obstacles in my life anymore.

I am like a Weeble.

“Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down!”

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And so I leave you tonight with a few images from how I started sorting through my stress today... This is my van....I have begun painting it and....plan on adding a lot of fun things to it this year!
I know, I know....pass the community haldol!
Before:


After...or...well...in the middle, because this is just the beginning. Regular photo updates to follow! I'm planning on adding a garden of flowers around the kid's hands with some little hearts peppered in...and well...on just having fun with this. I've always wanted to do this...and so...why not...just do it!







ummmm...some of these things might also happen to me because I do things like ummmmm paint my van...but come on...You know you wish you could do something like that too. I would have been so cool in the 70's. :> It IS a VW...it's crying out for some funk.[/quote]