Decide to DRIVE: My Distracted Driving Story

Senior Year. Those words kinda come with a certain connotation. Time to be dialed in to what's next, as well as living things up in all the best ways. I was involved in some good endeavors throughout high school. But in my senior yearbook, I'm listed as the class "Crash Test Dummy." My senior year claim to fame.

See, Homecoming Dance of my senior year, my date and I were driving home and didn't exactly make it there. I went to put lotion on my hands as we drove and it kind of exploded out the top when I did. It had gotten onto my dress and my date was trying to help me with the spill. He wasn't watching the road. We hit a canal bank, went airborne and landed on the other side.

It goes without saying that I grew up in a rural area. When I came to just after the impact, I saw a light a ways off and had the thought that it wasn't going to be too fun to walk there in my heels. But I went to get out and stand up anyways. And told my date that I thought something might be wrong with my foot. He looked and I think about passed out. I wasn't going anywhere.

11 Make-You-Smile Lessons in Motherhood from the One and Only... Mrs. Incredible

Source: TIME 

I've been wanting to write this post for a long while now. When Rachel from R&R Workshop asked if I'd be part of her fun series, A Month of Disney, I knew just what I'd be posting...

Fun Lessons in Motherhood and Wifery from the One and Only Helen Parr/ Elastigirl!

You get teared up sometimes during your kids' cartoons, right? I know I'm goofy, but I sure do! And some of them are kinda dumb, which means I simply didn't get enough sleep the night before- ha!

But there are quite a few scenes from my favorite Disney Pixar movie, The Incredibles, that get me choked up or thoughtful for good reason... all of them involving the awesome lady that holds the family together :) We're already super excited for Incredibles 2 next summer!

There could be lots more than I've written here even, but for today I've chosen 11 tips and scenes worth thinking about...

Boy Mom Soapbox: Important vs. Most Important

Recently our family went out to eat at a favorite local pizza/ pasta place. It's really popular around here, and pretty well every time we go we see groups of local high school kids there. This particular night, not long after we had started eating, in came what appeared to be an entire baseball team. All good looking young men, all apparently quite comfortable with each other.

I couldn't really help myself- it was, in fact, unavoidable- I started watching them; observing the details of their little party. I watched them watching the basketball game on the TV mounted in the corner, calling out what the players should be doing. I watched them on their phones, texting or posting or some such thing. I watched them carry in stacks of pizza slices and comment on each other's loaded plates. I watched them adjust their pants and their hats and their hair.

Blessedly, I wasn't offended by bad language or grossed out by pants that desperately needed to be pulled up. There was more to admire about these baseball buddies than not. But this vibe was also clear:

They thought they were pretty important.

Storing Time

Stephen is gone to Casper, Wyoming, to live it up cover someone else's vacation time for work

for the next nine days... Because we knew he'd be gone for the next while, we spent these last couple of days trying to store some time with Dad where we could.

Taron and Keaton split their Mother's Day weekend with us and got stuck helping their Dad with a wicked aquarium project...

As a side business, Stephen takes care of commercial and residential aquariums and sells livestock and equipment for them. The boys were an awesome help to their Dad and are real troopers for pitching in! The little boys were certainly distraught that they only saw the brothers for the blink of an eye is about all!

Normally Stephen's "side" endeavors are pretty much his own, but I can pretty well say lately that I'm getting to be quite the little partner... even if I do kinda feel like a bull in a china closet all the while! After seeing him off on his plane, we got to pick up and deliver a cool fish order to a customer:

Kinda neat, eh? :)

Monday Stephen was able to take a break in the day

to pretend again to fish at a city fishing spot very near his office.

Black Guy makes anything fun and fine :)

Cooper got really quite good at casting himself and loved playing with the worms no matter what!

Yet, again, not even a nibble, but at least we went and Stephen made the effort

to do what they enjoy with them before he left :)

And the next time we pick up Taron and Keaton it'll be on our way to go camping, not working!

I know lots of families deal with Dad traveling for work a lot, and I am as grateful as grateful can be for Stephen's job, but I know I'm sure not cut out to be without him for the majority of things. Everything runs smoother and simply IS better when we are operating together. Do you ever kinda wish that you could really, truly live off the land out in the middle-of-nowhere and work for the sake of survival rather than money, just enjoying family and each other as though there was nothing outside? In theory I do... How did life get the way it is over the course of time?  What a rhetorical question, eh?!  Anyhow... We have some fun things planned and intend to see some of our very favorite people while Dad's away, but we will sure be glad when he's home too!