The plane has landed!

He's home, He's home!!! and he's tired. Eddie crawled into bed this morning about 5:30. The boys woke up right before 7:00 and came bounding down the stairs. I heard Cameron say "Matthew, Daddy's home!", when they saw his bags by the door. It was sweet the way he said it- like Santa had been here. They were so excited. And when Eddie opened his "sack", you would have thought it was Christmas morning with all the souveniers he brought home. Matthew was especially excited about the Honduran money Eddie brought back. He told me that daddy had given him a 100 dollar bill and now he could go buy a new lego ship. I told him he could buy it in Honduras. Then he ran to ask Eddie if they had legos in Honduras. We haven't had time to get all the details about the trip. I did get an email update yesterday before they returned and it had said that they had a great trip with about 20 baptisms, many bible studies set up and had seen 1400 people at the clinic. I found the camera in the bottom of Eddie's bag and went to upload pictures- there were none. I doubt he had time to take any pictures. Hopefully, someone will be able to share some with us. We are just happy that he has arrived home safe and sound. And we're looking forward to just spending time with him today!

One Week Down...

We made it... the first week of school is past us. So far so good. No tardies (Eddie will be proud). The boys seem to be doing well. Cameron has had no problems, smooth sailing. Matthew has had a few hang ups, but once he gets past them, he is just fine. So far his biggest hang up has been gym class. Apparently, during the first gym class this week, they played a game "hug tag". This really bothered Matthew and he was anxious about going to gym again. Luckily, they changed the game later in the week. Matthew is not much of a hugger or toucher when it comes to other people (not necessarily a bad thing). But overall, both boys have enjoyed school.
Eddie is in Honduras for the week. He left early Tuesday morning. I have been receiving forwarded emails from Valerie Shoulders, who gets daily updates from the Karns congregation. We all miss him very much and are ready for him to come home. Matthew asks everyday after school, where daddy is. Cameron drew a picture today titled "The best present ever" - it was of Eddie flying home. I feel like we've been busy enough to help divert our attention- playdates, etc.. But its not easy.
While the boys have been in school, I've been trying to get used to being alone. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself just yet. I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough. The house has kept me pretty busy. I bought over $1100 worth of light bulbs, smoke detectors and flourescent lights today. and there is still more to get. Needless to say, all that purchasing and trying to find the best deal, threw me into a migraine today. I'm just glad its over.

Pictures from the 1st day

here are some pictures- I hope they are able to upload.

First Day Jitters!

Today was the first day of school for Cameron and Matthew. Cameron is now an "older" 2nd grader and Matthew is in Kindergarten. For those of you who don't know (which other than Kristen and Ed and Lana, I don't know anyone else who reads this), the boys go to Ft. Craig School of Dynamic Learning, which is a year round, multi-age level classroom school. Boy, how's that for a run on sentence? Kindergarten is one age level, B-1-2 (bridge- like junior primary, 1st and 2nd), then 3-4 (3rd and 4th grades). For now atleast- 3rd and 4th will be split up next year, when the city school system moves all 4th grade classes to the intermediate school with 5th and 6th graders- don't get me started. Our school calendar is year round- we start mid July, go 9 weeks, off 3, go 9, off 3, go 9, off 3, go 9, off 6 1/2.
Anyhow,,, I digress. Matthew started school today. He was anxious. I was anxious. I was very anxious. Since, the last day of preschool, Matthew has told us he didn't want to go to school at Ft. Craig, Wesley was just fine. He reiterated that last night and once again upon waking up this morning. Cameron, although not totally thrilled to be going back to school, especially when his other friends have " like 17 weeks off and he only has what seemed like 3 days off", was fine with it. Matthew's morning started out slow and grouchy, but then he saw his backpack and the star wars backpack charms already (and stratically attached by myself) on. Now he was excited. He put that backpack on, made sure it fit right, readily put on his tennis shoes and was out the door. He even allowed me to snap a few pictures of him, Cameron and Eddie. He did great all the way to school. What was even better is that his best friend Todd, arrived at the same time and they got to walk in together. Daddy said goodbye at the front door and the three of us walked in, waving to our friends, Gregory and Tanner, to Mrs. Cox (otherwise known as Ms. Betsy or Aunt Bet-outside the library walls) and straight down the hall to our destination. I thought to myself, Wow!! this might just be o.k. Then we hit the classroom door. Since Cameron seemed to be alright, I told him to go on in to his room (directly across the hall from Matthew- how cool is that) and that I'd stop by in a minute. Matthew hid behind me. We walked in, hugged, hugged agian, said I love yous, hugged again... and said goodbye. I think we both whimpered. I walked out and across the hall to say bye to Cam. I stood in the hallway for what seemed like a very long time. Mrs. Stedina stuck her head out the door and gave me the thumbs up. She said he got teary eyed for about a minute, then found the legos, talked to her about Disney and his friend Todd. His 3 favorite things!! He breezed through the rest of the day. Said he had fun and liked school. Whew!!! He made it, and so did I (so far- there's always next week).
Cameron said he had a good day too. He got to go to Art (his favorite) and the library. By the end of the day, they were both wiped out. Me, too! I just tried to add some photos but its not letting me. so I'll try later.

"So it goes"...

One of my favorite quotes from a book, Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. So it goes... life that is. Life happens. Last night the boys went camping in Townsend with Cameron's cub scout den. This morning they all returned, exhausted and cranky. Cameron asked Eddie if he had had a good night's sleep ("no"). Apparently, Cameron did not because he said he had slept on a sharp rock. Matthew on the other hand, must have slept well. He had visions of dollar signs dancing in his head (dollars already "spent" on some lego set, I'm sure). Matthew lost his first tooth last night while camping. This morning, I awoke to Matthew running in to our room with a huge ziplock bag holding his teeny, tiny baby tooth. He told me the whole story and how he just pulled it out and it didn't even bleed. Since tooth fairies are rarely spotted in campgrounds and we have a friend staying overnight tonight, its my guess that she'll show up tomorrow night, as long as we remember to put his tooth out. So, life is happening... My youngest son, age 5 1/2, lost his very first tooth, the very same week he is about to start Kindergarten. All this life happening stuff is a little overwhelming for mom.

In the midst of tooth fairies, dollar signs and new backpacks for Kindergarten, I had a car accident this afternoon. I really just thought I'd try to add a little more stress to our already hectic life, and that Eddie needed extra icing on top of his stress cupcake. Not a bad accident. Happened in a parking lot, other car pulled in to parking spot, I, through my rearview mirror, saw this, and thinking they were now parked in their parking space, proceded to pull out of mine. But, then I heard a crunch. I guess the other driver didn't like their initial parking job, and needed to straighten out a little. The man's wife asked who was at fault, to which he replied " I guess we both weren't looking" , to which I replied, " I know I was looking because, I saw you pulling in to the spot and was waiting to back out. You must have not seen me, when you decided to straighten your parking job". We exchanged names, numbers and insurance info. Isn't that what you're supposed to do? But, I didn't call the police, there is no report, and no way to prove who's at fault. My guess is that a police report would have been of no good and there's no real way of determining who was truly at fault. Not that I'm admitting guilt. But a little voice is telling me, that calling the police would have been a waste of time. I did at one point in my professional career as a chiropractic assistant, chase ambulances once a week at the Goldsboro Police Department, and have read over 100s of accident reports. Ahh, so it goes...

But, leave it to a child to provide a little comic relief (literally, read on). Only minutes ago, while on the computer, I heard a child stumble across the living room floor from their bed on the couch. I figured it was Matthew. Then seconds later, I hear the sound of one relieving themselves on hardwood. Maybe, he was dreaming he was still sleeping out in the wilderness. More than half asleep, when I asked Matthew if he knew where he was, he asked me, what I was doing! To which I responded, pull your pants up and go back to bed. There's nothing like mopping at 11:45pm. Well, I think I've had enough of life moving forward for one day, I'll go close my eyes for awhile and let it stop til the morning.

"and we have cockroaches!"

Is anyone reading this? Kristen? are you out there? Funny story... last week, as I was driving the boys (Cameron, Matthew and Corban) home from camping with Nan and Papaw, the boys were describing our rental house to Corban. Cameron was telling him about their room and playroom upstairs and the backyard. Then Matthew blurts out... " and we even have cockroaches!" Which, unfortunately is true. I cringe at the thought. The house isn't dirty (cluttered, maybe, but not dirty) and we don't leave food just sitting out. But, occassionally, we will see a cockroach scurry across the floor, or dead in the basement. The house is old, very old. Anyhow, Corban got to hang out with us that day, here at the house, and the boys really wanted him to spend the night. He graciously declined- my hope is because he was exhausted. But I can't help to think, that maybe, the thought of cockroaches scared him from staying the night with us. Cameron and Matthew can't get enough of Corban. They love spending time with him. Yesterday, Ed and Lana took Corban and Cameron to Dollywood (Matthew opted to stay home- he was missing us- since they've been over at Ed and Lana's a lot). Lana said they had a great time! If the weather holds out, we're going to take them searching for crystals in our friends' yard and fishing in their pond on Thursday. Maybe, we can convince Corban to stay the night with us that night.

Jeepin' on the 4th

This past Friday, July 4th, we went on the 2nd annual "Jeepin' on the 4th" jeep ride with the Hurst and Owens families. Since, Corban is visiting Tennessee for a couple of weeks, he got to come with us. Our adventure took us into Cade's Cove and up Parson's Branch Road. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride. We stopped to have lunch at the Cade's Cove visitor center and also, stopped to play in the water along the road. Along the way, we saw tons of butterflies, a dead snake, and minnows. The boys wished they had brought their nets. Matthew and Cameron took turns riding with the Hursts, so Corban could ride with us. Parson's Branch Road leads you out to Hwy. 129, also known as "the Dragon". Lots and lots of curves. We took Foothills Parkway from there, saw gorgeous views of the mountains and all headed back to the Hursts for a little swimmin' and grillin'. We ended our evening out at the cabin watching a fireworks show put on by Eddie (much better than last year) and the fireworks display from the neighbors down in the valley.

Hey Kristen- notice the matching shirts? We typically have a "uniform" on family outings such as these!