Man Cannot Live by Cashews Alone

Life seems to be moving in fast forward these days.  School is winding down and it's a good thing.  Last week I had to drive to Luke's preschool three separate times in a 45 minute time frame because I kept forgetting stuff. I think I'm losing my mind.  I'm just holding on to the fact that in a few short weeks, our outside demands will be significantly less.

I don't exactly love these super random rundowns covering long periods of time.  But like I said, I'm kind of going nuts, and can't sit down here often enough to make lots of  separate, concise posts.


In the last month we have had quite a few fun outings.

We went to Sea World at the end of April.

We stayed at the Wild Oak Ranch again and still loved it.  I swear one of these times, we're  going to skip Sea World all together and really take advantage of all of the fun things the resort has to offer.

Ava's one wish was to pet a dolphin.  She was a happy girl.

Thankfully the weather was perfect.

We enjoyed the shows.  Max especially loved the music in each show and spent most of their duration giving rhythmic thumbs up.

One of the best parts was this ride.  Ava and Luke rode with my parents the first time.  Luke was scared out of his shorts but wanted to do it again and again, which we did.  The sound of his screaming would have convinced anyone that he was on the brink of death, but time after time, at the end, he would beg for more.

They are on the front row in this picture.

We also went to the Dallas Zoo courtesy of Dan's work.  It was the 2012 Summer Picnic, so they paid for our tickets, parking, monorail ride, and carousel rides for the kids.  They also provided a free catered lunch.

Max still has a fondness for goats.

The birds were extra fun this time.

That place's HR department must be run by geniuses or something because they sure know how to deliver the perks.

We were also blessed with some cloudy/semi rain threatened weather which helped keep us pretty cool and the crowds at bay.

And then  last weekend we squeezed in our last camping trip of the season.  From here on until Fall, it will probably be too hot.

It was significantly easier getting ready for this trip because I assembled a camping bin last time.  So this time around, all I had to do was grab the bin, the tent, the sleeping bags, the camp chairs,  and pack food and clothes.

Alright, so it's still a lot of work, but Dan and I agreed as we were lugging stuff to and fro, that this kind of work is good for us.

Max downed 2 and a half Izze's, though I'm pretty sure only the half ended up in his belly.  The other two were dribbled down his front.

I forgot marshmallows.  So by the time I got them and returned, it was late.

And by the time we roasted them and ate s'mores it was really late.

And by the time we got the kids settled and laid down in the tent it was really, really late.

And by the time Max stopped wallowing around and whining and finally fell asleep it was really, really, really late.

Needles to say, the next morning came really early.

But when you're camping and you wake up with fuzzy marshmallow residue on your nose, you know you're doing something right.

Ava had a great time exploring our site.  We ended up across the path from our original, but this one had some fun differences.  It was slightly more private, there was an awesome fort/hiding place where the kids spent a lot of time, and Ava also discovered a snake.

She was pointing out what she thought was an animal's egg on the ground when I noticed a snake wriggling between her feet.  I panicked and picked her straight up into the air.  The snake slithered right under this log where he stayed with only a small part poking out.

For the next 15 minutes, Ava's kept asking me, "Did it get me?! Did it get me?!"


  We brought the kids scooters and instead of the 2.5 mile hike, they took a 2.5 mile ride.

They were quite tired and grumpy from our late night but they did it.  And when we got back to camp, our scaly friend had come out for a sunbath.

After some research, we are pretty sure our scaly friend is not so friendly, because he is a venomous Copperhead.

Not sure we'll be staying in that site again.

And now, here we are.

 Luke's school is done.  Ava has another week and a half.  Ava's birthday is tomorrow.  Dan's is this weekend.  I am trying to make our summer plans and hopeful that we can have a really fun time.  I just have to keep my head attached until then.

We are considering a few road trips, though I know those always sound better on paper than anywhere else.

I am holding out the tiniest bit of hope that my health issues may be resolved soon.  It has been such a long time and I am so tired of it.  I saw a new doctor last week and he was confident that we can figure things out.  Right now the signs point to some sort of autoimmune disease.  I am on week 4 of eating no sugar, no dairy, no wheat/carbs, and no fruit.

The good news is, it seems to be helping.  The bad news is, it seems to be helping.  You might be wondering, what does she eat?  And that would make two of us.

I eat vegetables. And some meat.  And when I can't think of anything else, I eat nuts.

Ostia Antica Day 6

In fifth grade I was awesome, or at least I thought I was awesome.  I was an old pro at the elementary school.  I was in the gifted program. I felt popular and well-liked. I had boyfriends (!).  And then my mom dropped the bomb that instead of going to a regular middle school with the rest of the soon to be sixth graders, I would be attending a traditional magnet school in downtown Lexington. Of course, no matter what, we would be split up by geographical area and there would be many friends I wouldn't see at school any longer, but this meant that I wouldn't even be with any friends.

I was not amused.  There was a dress code.  I didn't know anyone.  And by the time school started I had bad case of the Sixth Grade Chubs.  Life went from awesome to awful in the space of a few puberty-stricken months.

I was no longer cool, nobody even knew who I was. I was no longer even smart, relatively speaking, because everyone was smart. I was just a sad, chubby sixth grader, who longed for the glory days of elementary school.

The one thing I liked about school that year (and the next, before I moved to New Hampshire) was Mrs. Dahl and Latin class. It was my favorite.  And if I had a say in public education these days, I would be an advocate of learning Latin.  It helped my vocabulary so much and it was interesting to learn the roots of so much of our language.  But I also enjoyed learning all about ancient Rome.  I feel it gave me a good base of general knowledge I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Our study of Pompeii had me so intrigued.  The thought of volcanic ash covering up their whole world, preserving it, was just so crazy.  I have always wanted to go there and see the ruins for myself.  On our trip, we realized that we would not have the time to get down to Pompeii, but instead, Leah lined us up for a day trip to Ostia Antica, also a fairly well preserved, ruined city.

Ostia Antica was once the bustling port of Rome. I believe most of these ruins date back to the 1st and 2nd century.

Arranged on the banks of the Tiber River, it served its purpose, until it was outgrown and eventually when Rome was conquered, the city was left to ruin.

Due to silting, the river changed it's course and the city's ruins now lie 3km from the Tiber.

As we entered the site, we were approached by a woman hoping to give us a personal tour.

She was offering a great deal and she was obviously well qualified to show and explain the ruins, ruins that to the untrained eye were hard to recognize.

But being the penny-pinchers we are, we decided to forgo the tour, wander on our own, and if we were so inclined, use the tour summary of Rick Steve's that Leah had brought along.

I'm sure we would have learned significantly more had we taken her tour, but I'm not sorry that we didn't.

We could tell what some of the major ruins were, thanks to Rick.  And we also allowed ourselves the option to meander at our own pace and take as many rest stops as we wanted.  Yes, we were still tired.

The weather was perfect.

 The soft sunlight + the green grass + the old brick work = gorgeousness

We even stopped for individual photo shoots on the steps of the old temple,

right across from the old amphitheater,

I had a love affair with the trees.

 I would learn the next day that they are called Stone Pines.

There is just something about them that I couldn't get enough of.  

They dropped huge pine cones like this,

We saw the public latrines.  Apparently they stuck their sponges on sticks through those holes for wiping purposes. It is no accident that I was born in this modern era.

Throughout the site, many mosaics are largely in tact.

In the market place, the sellers booths were demarcated by pictures for the patrons who could not read.

I saw all of these intricately laid tiles and couldn't help but think of the hands that laid each individual piece thousands of years before.

 You couldn't just run down to Home Depot and buy those pre-made sheets of mosaic tiles back in 1 A.D. 

We finally found ourselves on a bench in a tucked away area.  And so followed a conversation of heart-growing proportions.  My sister and my mama and me.  Crying and laughing in our usual style.

The ruins were a little bit magical.

  I kind of wished I was seven years old again, the same age I had been when my family visited the Anasazi Indian ruins, where I had the most amazing time because I was completely wrapped up in my own imagination. This place would have provided just the same type of experience.

Alas, I am 30.  But at least I'm not in sixth grade anymore!

Mother's Day

I am happy to be a mother.  That seems such an inadequate statement for a job in life that covers such a wide spectrum of feelings and experiences. But after all is said and done, and I have dissected all the parts and pieces of motherhood in my mind, I always settle on the fact that I am happy about it.  I love being a mama.

And I recognize that I did not get to this point in my life by myself.  Quite the opposite, I feel like I was led by the hand down the winding, crazy path of life by some God-fearing women.  And all along the way,  I was being prepared to do this job while, behind the scenes, a million other things were prepared for me to step into my spot and be me. A me I am happy to be.  So much of what I love about my life I owe to other people.



I love this mama because she made my mama,

And I love this mama because she made me,

And I love this mama because she made my man,

And I love this man because he made me a mama,

And I love these babies because they are my mine,

and without them, no one would call me Mama.

I have grandmothers!  I have mothers! I have Aunts! I have sisters! And sisters in law! And friends!   All of whom are beautiful examples to me. Thank you and Happy Mother's Day to you all! The extent of a woman's influence truly cannot be measured.

Mamas make the world go round!

Super Supper Shooter Tuesday

The last four Tuesdays have looked something like this,

Born out of our original idea to cook a month's worth of meals to put in the freezer, we ended up with Super Tuesdays or maybe more accurately Supper Tuesdays.

Each week, Mom and I each pick two meals to make.  And then we get together on Tuesday, bring our ingredients, and cook and talk.  We double our recipes so that when all is said and done and it's divvied out, we each have four dinners worth of food all for the price of an afternoon spent together.

That means with pizza (either homemade or take out) on Monday, we have dinner for the week.  Leftovers pretty much take us through the weekend.

And while I cannot, for the life of me, keep the family in clean underwear and unwrinkled shirts, at least they're eating. And that's gotta count for something.


About a month ago I got a new calling at church and I am now back with the Young Women. It's nice to get a break now and then, and I will serve where I'm called, but this was a welcome change from the Ice Water Coordinator for the Additional Relief Society Meetings.  The unofficial title might be long, but the job description was short. I was getting a bit antsy for something to do.

It has been a little slow getting acquainted with the girls, but I know it will come along with time.  I am looking forward to it.  They are a fantastic group.

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to get to go along on their shooting activity.  The girls who are attending their 4th year of Girls Camp, get to participate in an adventure activity prior to camp.  Usually its rappelling, but this year it was shooting.

I've never shot anything in my life.

That is, until this weekend.

It was really fun!

Hi, my name is Sister Sharp Shooter. What's yours?


We went to this shooting range.  It is run by a world renowned shooter lady name Jeanie.  She wears a rhinestone belt and cowboy boots, shoots pink bullets, and drives a pink and and black zebra striped truck.   She is kind of awesome.  And keep your eyes peeled, I hear she might be getting her own TV show. For reals.

I was nervous when the instructor put the shotgun in my hands.  He told me, step by step, what to do.  Feet apart.  Gun against my shoulder.  Rest my cheek on the gun.  Lean forward a little.  And yell, "Pull!" when I was ready.

"Pull!"

The clay pigeon shot across the sky, I pulled the trigger, and I blew it right up! Fantastic!

Then I did it again, and again.  I was five for five.  It was probably beginners luck, but I think I'd like to make another visit to the range, just to see. I would never have considered myself a gun person but I liked it!

Also, this past week, Ava finally had her cavities filled.  The appointment was originally scheduled for (and subsequently cancelled) right after she got out of the hospital.  She is still so scared of all medical anything and probably always will be, so we decided to go ahead and take out a second mortgage and have her sedated.

And boy did she need it.  Even with the meds, she stayed pretty coherent.  They eventually took her the rest of the way to la-la land with some laughing gas.

And now we are ever-more dedicated brushers and flossers at the Colton house.


Dan took Luke on the Fathers and Sons Campout.  They had a good time, despite the threat of a storm.  Luke called me from the tent that night to tell me he was "cary" and he thought the tent was going to blow away with them in it.

Soccer is done.

I know I bagged on soccer somewhere down there, but Ava was actually kind of getting the hang of it by the last game.  Still, she says she'd rather take horse back riding lessons, which was a 7 year old proposition.  And by golly, that birthday is just around the corner.



Luke had his Spring Program and Art Show for preschool and he was so cute.

After much debate, I think we have finally settled on Pre-K for next year.  It was a very hard decision.  I went in to change his registration twice but I think we've finally come to terms with our choice. Let's see what happens in August.

It's like he doesn't fit in either class.  Academically, he will be bored with Pre-K, but Sitdownandlistenforalongtime-ally, he won't be quite ready for kinder.  So the decision is:  Let him grow up another year, gain some confidence, hopefully come out of his very shy shell in Pre-K, and teach him his logarithms at home.  Not really, but he is slightly obsessed with numbers right now.  He counts everything.

Over and over again I hear,

"Mom, can I please count those?"

Referring to anything from cars in the parking lot to eggs in the carton, to people in a picture to how many hugs or kisses he wants before bed (I'm so mean I draw the line at 20). So far his knowledge of what number comes next has not been exceeded by anything he's tried to count. He can busy himself for half an hour at church thumbing through the hymn book enthralled by the page numbers and what is bigger, smaller, and what comes next.

Max is still kind of a toad.

He is cute and huge and naughty.  He uses yogurt as finger paint

 and puts real paint in his hair.

He turns everything into a "shooter", unless it's a light saber.  I was never one of those parents dead set against their boys playing with weapons, but now I know that even if I was, that fight would have been completely futile.  I cannot keep him from shooting things.

Actually, after this weekend... maybe now I know where he gets it.