One of the Best Parts of Our Summer

Each summer the kids and I have taken some extra time travelling up through Ohio up to Pennsylvania to Ligonier. We get to love on Team Paul and Ristow gets to go to camp at LCCC. It is always wonderful to see my brother Jim and my lovely and hospitable sister-in-love Zan. I get to hug my niece and nephew and watch my daughter chase the chickens. What could be better?

Last week we got back from such a visit. Jim was able to take a little time off from his busy camp schedule and we got to hang with our little ones. It was great. He even took the kids and I on jet ski rides while we were there.

We also got a grown up night out which was wonderful.

While we were there, Ristow and his cousin Dylan both got to be a part of Little Ligs which is a two night camp for kids 6-8. They do much of the same super fun camp stuff as the older kids on a shorter scale. Dylan is almost 6 and got to be a part of camp during the day and come back at night to her own bed (best of both worlds). They loved it so much! It means so much for Ris to be able to be a part of this great camp and he totally loves that his Uncle Jimmy works there ;)

So thankful for such a great visit. We love them tons!

Oh and I had to throw in a cheesy smile of Jess and James for fun!

The Life Yet To Be Lived

It has been over a year since my last blog post. Lots of life has happened in that year, lots of laughter, lots of tears, lots of changes of who I see myself as. One thing that has stayed consistent is my faith and hope in God's love for me and the fact that He will never leave me nor forsake me.

Life may be hard at times, but it is the life that I have yet to live that excites me right now. It is the experiences that I can share with my kids and all the amazing wonderful things I can teach them. It is the excitement I have of growing and learning while in Grad school right now that challenges me to be a better me. It is the love and support and encouragement of my family and friends that lifts me up and reminds me who I am. It is the realization that whatever expectations we have of our life and our future may not work out to be what we thought they would, but we set the disappointment aside and heal and grow and take that big bold step onto a different path that is lined with hope and God's promises and a bright future. I will weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice and am super thankful for the amazing people who have wept and rejoiced with me over this last year.

The life I have yet to live beckons me forward...
You are welcome to join me!

Candles? It must be a Party!

A few weekends ago, we were up in Ohio visiting Christopher's family. On Sunday we went to their church and as the music was starting we noticed that because the alter had communion sacraments on it, the normal alter candles that the acolytes light were on the piano. The acolytes went up and lit them and Jessica pipes up and starts singing Happy Birthday to the guy at the piano thinking of course it must be for his Birthday! She delighted the people around us 3 different times during praise and worship with her Birthday song.

This past week, we had an evening where the power went out and we pulled out the candles to light up some rooms around the house. It was out for a number of hours and most of that time was spent convincing Jessica that we were not having a Birthday party and there was no cake (which was kind of a shame :) and she couldn't blow them out since we needed the light.
Since the candles were still on the table the next morning, I did let her sing a couple rounds of Happy Birthday and blow out the candles a few time after breakfast!

I think that Happy Birthday is probably one of her favorite songs and my kids are both pretty much pros at singing it, if extended time spent on an activity is any indication of professional status ;)
So if you are in need on any extra Birthday cheer at your next party, know that the McClintock kids are always ready for a party, as long as there are candles! (and cake doesn't hurt either)

Word Play

When I was little, I argued with my parents that the lyrics to  the Song America were not in fact

My country,' tis of thee, 
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;

But sweet land of liberty, of V I C  (whoever Vic is?)

I know that it doesn't make sense but when you believe something when you are little you tend to be
very passionate about it, even if it is wrong.
Well, Jessica sings a little song she learned at school when we say grace before meals.
It goes:
God our Father, God our Father
Once again, once again
We bow our heads to thank you, we bow our heads to thank you
Amen, Amen

Jessica's version is as follows:

God our Father, God our Father
once again, once again,
Bob the Builder, Bob the Builder
Amen, Amen

It makes me laugh and I don't have the heart to correct her 

right now. She will figure it out soon enough and change it

on her own.

So right for now we will thank God for Bob the 

Builder too!

Cold Morning Fun

This morning at 7:30 Jess puts on Ristow's winter buzz light year hat and heads for the door. She wants to play outside. We look outside and see the lightest dusting of snow and a few flakes floating through the air and everyone is sold on the idea of heading out the door to play. We bundle up still in our pajamas, in hats, coats, gloves and such and head outside. Since there is barely even enough snow to draw in with your finger (and it is only 25degrees) the fascination for Ristow quickly ends and after he has spent the obligatory 5 minutes outside he is ready to head in for Hot Cocoa. (why else do we go outside in winter if not for the warm yummy beverage awaiting our return to the house) ;)

Jessica on the other hand, has found a stick and is poking every leaf and blade of grass with a flake of snow on it all while singing Frosty the Snowman the entire time. Why play on the playground, run around the house and dig some more with the stick. After an hour and multiple nose wipes I finally convince her to head in side. Ristow has been waiting for his cocoa and asking when we are coming in every five minutes. I think she would have stayed out all morning if I let her.
We had lots of fun and are now all snuggled up watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and drinking our Hot Cocoa! Not sure which one is better ;)

The Art of Play

Jessica is wonderful at playing. I know kids play all the time, but I love watching Jessica create story lines and scenes out of her fabulous little imagination and suddenly the trains are introducing themselves to mickey mouse and Ernie is riding Scoop from Bob the Builder.
Today's activity involved Jess finding my old Cabbage Patch kids (found in Mom and Dad's move this past weekend). We put diapers on them, fed them, rocked them to sleep, took them to the Doctor and even let them watch a little Frosty the Snowman ;) She was wonderful to them, she talked sweetly and sang songs and all the little special things that I normally do for her, and it made me feel like a pretty good Mom, at least for today ;)
She is so fun to watch as she creates, explores and builds, though she loves an audience and wants you to sit and watch and maybe play a little too.
I am so grateful for my sweet little girl and all the joy she brings!
(We've got to something about that crazy "CHEESE" smile!)

A Crab's Revenge

The saga continues with our favorite pets...ok our only pets.
About 2 months ago one of the crabs was molting and was buried down in the sand doing his thing. (From past posts you will remember that molting is a traumatic time for a crab and they are very vulnerable and weak until their new skin hardens.) Well the smaller punk crab took advantage of the situation and stole the poor molting crabs shell leaving him weak and defenseless without a shell. While it was very cool seeing the crabs full body I quickly added some shells to the tank for him to hide in. Well, no permanent damage done.

Fast forward 2 months. The punk crab has been buried down molting for the last 5 weeks. He finally emerges yesterday and I pull all the crabs out to clean the tank. As I pick them all up and check them out I notice that the punk crab who just finished molting is missing his big claw! His leg is all mutilated and black and he has no big claw anymore.

All I can figure is that the big crab decided to get his revenge on the punk for stealing his shell while he was down and out and made him pay by ripping off the punk's claw while he was weak and defenseless molting. Who knew that the world of crabs could be so violent and full of drama? I wonder if the big crab did it himself or if he ordered a hit on the other crab. Next thing you know there will be horse heads in my tank!

Birthday Central

This past weekend was filled with cake, ice cream, decorations, lots of presents and more cake. Both of my kids celebrated their Birthday! Ristow turned 7 and Jessica turned 2.
Here is a run down of some of the highlights...

Ristow had a rocking karate party at the Karate studio where he takes lessons. It was awesome and the instructor even cut the cake with his Samurai sword! It was everything he could have wished for.

Jess had a Mickey Mouse party and once she opened up the little Mickey figurines she had to show Mickey ALL of her presents as she opened them and have him help her. Totally cute. The highlight for her was the pony jack in the box she got. She turned the crank with eager anticipation and would get so excited as it was about to pop open.

We were glad to be able to share the weekend with Christopher's parents and managed to squeeze in a Birthday dinner at Logan's for Ristow, Breakfast with Santa at church, and a drive through tour of Christmas lights. It was a busy and wonderful weekend!

More pics can be found on my Facebook page

Pumpkin Carving 2011

This year carving pumpkins it was Team Werewolf (the boys) vs. Team Mickey Mouse (the girls) as determined by Ristow. Christopher and Ristow created some kind of Monster pumpkin while Jess and I opted for the cute pumpkin look.

It was funny to watch Jess tonight. She didn't know what to make of all the activity. She saw me drawing out the design on the pumpkin and thought she was supposed to be doing that too. She drew with pen all over it. Then once we opened it, she watched Ristow pull pumpkin goop out of his pumpkin with a weird look of awe and disgust on her face :) She loved making the "Blech" sound every time Ristow did and finally she reached in and touch the goop herself, with one finger. She was content with that and had fun watching Ris and running around. I guess you have to acquire the desire to touch pumpkin guts!

All in all I think the pumpkins turned out pretty good!

Fall Leaves and Pumpkins

This is Jessica's first fall season since she has been walking. It has been very exciting to see her discover and explore and have the words for all these new experiences. This past weekend I took the kids and my mom to the Pumpkin Farm. We fed goats, went on tractor train rides, the corn maze and played like crazy! It was a blast and so great to watch Jess. I think she tried to pick up just about every pumpkin there.

Today, I raked up what leaves have fallen so far in our yard and taught Jessica the ins and outs of jumping in, kicking and throwing leaves. Though the throwing part she was a pro at ;) We had a leaf fight and buried ourselves in them. New lesson learned ... leaves are very difficult to get out of long curly hair!We laughed and played and had lots of fun. I love this season and am so excited to continue to share it with my kiddos. Though when playing in the leaves in short sleeve shirts because it is 80 degrees outside, it can be kind of itchy ;)

Ristow's Cool Cut

Ristow decided last week that he wanted a design shaved into the side of hair when he got his next haircut. We had a long talk about it and decided to let him try it out.

Christopher took his to the barbershop down the street which was a much better idea than to GreatClips that was going to charge him to two haircuts, one to cut and one to shave the designs!
The guys at the shop were pros and this is what Ristow came home with...
This morning he woke up and first thing he said was "mom, is it still there?" Yes, Ristow it is. We will see how school goes today with him showing off his new style. He was super excited and decided to wear his sharktooth necklace for the full effect. School pictures are next week and he couldn't be happier!

WARNING! Jessica can now open doors (sometimes)

This week Jessica and I were playing in the kitchen and all of a sudden she reaches up and opens the door to the basement. Yikes! I scooped her up, headed to Walmart and bought safety knobs for the door. Crisis averted.

Today, I was vacuuming the house and Jess was running around wanting me to chase her with the vacuum and playing with the cord. I must of been really focused on my task at hand because after a while I realized she was longer anywhere to be seen. I turned off the vacuum and hear a faint "Mommmmmmy!" I couldn't figure out where it came from so I called "Jess, where are you?" I then hear a small knocking on the closet door where I keep the vacuum. I open the door and there is Jessica in the dark closet and all she says is "Hi". I guess she can't quite open all the doors yet :)
That kid sure keeps me on my toes.

My Little Girl

Jessica is different from Ristow is sooooo many ways. Ristow has always been more of an observer at first and then will try something, Jess dives in head first. Ristow never liked to get dirty, Jessica LOVES mud, dirt, water and pretty much anything messy. When Ristow was little he never climbed things he wasn't supposed to or jumped off furniture (nowadays he does), Jessica yells "Parkour!" as she jumps from the ottoman to the couch!

Today we went to the playground and of course Jess wasn't content playing on the little kids playground, she headed right for the big playground suggested for ages 5-12 :) She climbs the ladders like a pro and slides down the big slides with no fear. She amazes me. It is hard to remember at times that she isn't even two yet.
At home she wanted to play outside more and found her special dirt spot under the climbing wall of our little playground. She loves to dig and explore!
She would play outside all day long if she could. Thank goodness for nap time or I would never get anything done inside :)

Warrior Dash

A number of months back I saw pictures of my cousin Carrie dressed in some crazy costume covered in mud. I thought to myself "what in the world is she doing?" Then I read about the race she competed in and how much fun she had and I thought "I want to do that too!"

As soon as I saw that the Warrior Dash was coming to Tennessee, I signed up. I was so very excited about it but wasn't really in shape for it. I hadn't been running in a while and definitely didn't feel strong. So in July I started training with one of Christopher's personal trainers Jason to work on my running and getting stronger. Wow, what a difference. Just in the month of August alone I knocked my fastest 5K time down by almost 4minutes! And, I could actually start seeing the outline of muscles in my arms and back!

By the time Saturday came around I felt super ready (besides the head and chest cold that I got Thursday) I suited up my costume, mostly donated by Ristow's costume bin :), braided my hair for the first time ever and was ready to face the challenge.
The atmosphere was energetic and there was great people watching to be done at the race. Christopher, Ristow and my Dad came to cheer me on (mom was kind enough to watch my sick little girl). The race started off and we faced everything from hale bales to barbed wire to junk cars to climb and giant cargo nets. Crawling on our hands and knees in the dirt to using ropes to pull up over walls. After each obstacle I got more and more excited proving to myself that I actually could do this! As you round the turn for the finish you jump over two rows of fire logs and then dive into the mud pit and crawl across to the finish line! It was AWESOME.
They had a few fire hoses to rinse off in but there were so many people crowding the hoses like a herd of cattle I barely got my face rinsed off. So we threw a towel over the seat of the car and headed home. Of course I was still wearing my fuzzy warrior helmet I got for doing the race :)

I am a still a bit sore today and I have a big bruise on my leg but both of those serve to remind me of what I accomplished and how hard I have worked over the last few months. My training has given me confidence and a more positive view of who I am and for that I am grateful!

I highly recommend the Warrior Dash!

Thankful for Famly Time

This past week we were lucky enough to have Christopher's sister Amy and her little 11month old daughter Alma visit us here in Nashville. We loved having them here! Here are a few pics from their visit.

We went on Saturday to Centennial Park to feed the geese and ducks. Ristow and Jessica had a blast throwing crackers to the geese. Jess wanted to grab them. As we were feeding the geese in the pond, we look behind us and a giant army of geese are closing in from the rear. It was a crazy parade of them. Once they got right up to us we decided it was better to take the kids to the other side of the pond for a while :)

This is what Alma did while we fed the ducks...

Even though Jess and Alma whined and cried and tried to hit each other more than play together, we still loved having that time together. Ristow on the other hand LOVED playing with Alma and making her laugh and was absolutely great with her.

Thanks for making the trip Ames. We love you guys tons!

First Day of School & Jazz Hands

Thursday was the first day of 1st Grade for Ristow. He was super excited. He had his new light up shoes, his new Ironman belt, his new backpack, a cool shark fin haircut and he was reading to go!
I took some pictures of him before he headed to the bus stop and he said "wait mom, I've got to do one with Jazz Hands!"
Ristow has all of sudden been doing Jazz hands all the time. Not sure where he got it from or why he thinks it is so funny, no, ok, I get the funny part. But he even wanted to take a picture of Christopher and I but wouldn't take it unless we did Jazz Hands. That kid cracks me up.

So the first day of school went great for him, he loves his teacher and all looks to be headed in the right direction. As long as he doesn't make all the other kids do Jazz Hands ;)

Freedom in Swimming

For the past three weeks Ristow has been taking swim lessons. They are only 10 minutes long 5 days a week. Now you may wonder what anyone can learn in only 10 minutes and I thought the same thing at first. These swim lessons are basically survival swimming. Teaching babies and kids the basics of how to survive if they fall in a pool.
Ristow has always been afraid of getting his face wet and for years I have been trying to get him to just stick his face IN the water let alone under it. Now that he is 6 1/2 yrs old, we decided it was time. Christopher knew of a woman who did these survival swim lessons and we thought we would give it a try. She is amazing! Ristow went under the water the first day (to my amazement) and took off from there! He swims under water, floats on his back, does jumps off the side and is learning the specific strokes now. He has loved swim lessons but more importantly he has loved what learning to swim has given him... Independence!

This summer we swam at the camp pool when we were up visiting my brother in PA. There were lots of other bigger kids in the pool and Ristow didn't want to swim because he didn't want to have to wear his arm floaties. That is when I understood that he was finally ready to make a change.

Today I took Ristow and Jessica to the community rec center for a last day of summer vacation swim. It was awesome. Ristow was playing in the water and doing Cannonballs like he had been doing it his whole life. I actually was able to take Jessica to the kiddie pool and watch Ristow from there while he played we some other kids his age in the big pool. He LOVED it! He jumped and swam and played just like all the other kids.
Today, as we left the pool Ristow walked with his head a little higher and a big smile on his face. He said "Mom, that was a great time, wasn't it?!"

Dinosaur World!

For years we have seen this dinosaur as we drove up Interstate 65 on our way through Kentucky to Ohio and for years Ristow has begged to stop at Dinosaur World. Well this past Saturday we finally made the trip he has been waiting for!
It was pouring rain as we stopped and had breakfast on our way out of town with the kids. ( An amazing breakfast by the way at a new restaurant in Brentwood) We drove north through crazy downpours praying that it wasn't raining in Kentucky. When we cross the state line the clouds parted and it looked like we were going to finally see the Dinos.

It was a fun place. It has over 100 lifesize dinosaurs throughout the park, a museum with fossils, a playground and a fossil dig where you actually get to keep 3 of the fossils you find. Ristow dug and found 2 sharks teeth and a sea creature fossil. Christopher and Ristow had fun pretending to fight the dinosaurs.They had a mammoth area that Jessica loved because she got to touch the "elephant" and made tons of elephant noises.
It turned out to be a hot and sunny day with no rain. Definitely worth the trip.
After Dinosaur World we hit Onyx cave. Ristow had never been in a cave before and we thought it would be cool. It was a little intimidating for him but in the end he liked it.

Then we hit a local restaurant that unlike breakfast left much to be desired. We did get to meet the local funeral director who was sitting in the next booth initiating some interesting conversation :)

All in all it was a fun family day! Then Christopher and I actually got to go on a date that night at a great restaurant and then to see Captain America. So thankful for a fun day together.