Mr. Right for Me

Everyone said once you have kids sleeping in goes out the window. Well, maybe it does in a sense. I remember being single and sleeping til noon recovering from a late night out with friends. While I don't necessarily get that kind of solid sleep, I do get a break Saturday morning. Steven gets up with Ezzy, fixes him breakfast and sometimes even brings me breakfast as I nurse Jules in bed. I remember him doing the same things when we were first married. He used to write me notes on the white board we have on our fridge. He wrote me love notes on the bathroom mirror. I'd sneak love notes in his lunch. He'd come home with a boquet of flowers after I'd had a hard day/week. Sometimes it wasn't a boquet, sometimes it was just a flower he found on his bike ride home from school. We had a vase by the kitchen sink that he always tried to keep something in it. I recall coming home from work one day and seeing that he put an avacado pit in it haha. One time he put holly in it. I looked forward to his "flower fridays" to see what he would come home with. I was so in love and talking all the time about how lucky I was to have such a doting husband. I remember hearing things like, " Enjoy it while it lasts" and "Oh yeah, he does that now, just wait til real life hits." I was constantly reminded of how it was all going to end. At least, the newlywed bliss that made me feel like I was floating on a cloud all day. I remember late nights talking to Steven as we held eachother before we fell asleep. I'd start worrying, " When are the good times going to end? When's life going to get hard? I'm so happy right now, but will I always be? I don't want "real life" to start."



Well, "real life" did start. But it was beautiful. The trials that we have gone through the last three years have only made us closer. Steven still buys me flowers. He writes me notes that make me cry. (Nice notes guys, not mean ones!) And he tries harder every day to be a better husband and father. I try too, promise. He tells me I look beautiful when I haven't showered or an ounce of makeup on. He rubs my back as I make dinner and does the dishes without ever being asked. He works SO hard at school and he still makes time to do little things to make life easier. Esmond just adores his Daddy and it warms my heart to hear his giggles as Steve plays cars or reads books to him. Jules face lights up when he talks to her. His calmness keeps me in check and tones down my urge to freak out at everything. He truly is my better half.
This picture sums it up nicely. (Sorry honey, the adorableness of this must be shared!)
 


While I know he isn't perfect, he's my kind of perfect. I don't know how different my life would be had I not been married 3 years ago to my best friend. Growing up people always said to find Mr. Right. But I know he doesn't exist. There is not one man. There are many that are Mr. Rightforyou. And I'm grateful every day for having found mine.

Camping Reality. You can still have fun as a Momma

Ever been surrounded by nature and just felt that calm bliss that makes you feel like you haven't a care in the world? I have many times. But they are more spaced out and far between these days.

That's why I love to camp.

I was recently able to go camping with my little kiddos (Steven had school) and although it was a lot of work, those couple days out in nature made it all worth it. I was able to have Elsie and Benson, my younger siblings, come with me. It made all the difference to have them there. They were such an awesome help! I can't believe I was thinking of going alone with just the two babies! I will admit, that camping is definitely not as fun when you're the parent. I have such respect and awe of my mother who would go camping every summer with 1-10 kids depending on the year. SO much packing!!!  But she must've loved it or us enough to let us have such fun adventures.

I remember going to the Australian outback and camping in the middle of nowhere with deadly snakes, spiders and other pleasant poisonous wildlife. On one camping trip, we were camping in someones "backyard" for a week. (Awesome. Esmond has discovered backspace. He just deleted a few sentences with his hand in a sock.)

Sidenote: He has an obsession with socks lately. I don't know if it's a Michael Jackson thing, or a Captain Hook thing, but he can always be found with one sock on his hand. Sometimes he will try climbing furniture with socks on both his hands and I can't help but laugh at some of his wipe outs. They are usually his socks, but he has just stolen Julia's socks right off her feet to fuel his obsession. What a kid!

Anyway, back to the "backyard", we arrived in the middle of the night and drove in our land cruiser down the canyon wall to the bottom in the dark. I remember my Mom crying in the front seat, but I also remember having a blast as we cheered my Dad on with each drop that we felt as we descended into the canyon. In the morning, we looked at the steep cliff we had driven down and were amazed that we made it. The camping trip was a blast! Dad almost got bit by a deadly red belly snake, Jeremy stepped on something in the water that he was afraid was poisonous, and we ran out of water and had to boil it from the river we were camping by. And yet I still remember having so much fun roughing it with my siblings. I don't know how my parents slept at all! I'm going to try to keep the tradition of having at least one camping trip per year but I feel slightly pathetic as far as "roughing it" goes. I think I did all my crazy camping trips as a child. :)

I went to Honeymoon Bay in Cowichan Lake and it was just beautiful. There were showers, flush toilets and running water. The first night, I started thinking that every single sound was some one (most likely a murder or thief) either driving/walking into our campsite, or some animal directly outside our tent about to eat us all. I worked out defence tactics in my head all night which by morning made absolutely no sense. I also worried about some one rolling on top of Julia or a blanket somehow suffocating her. I checked her and Ezzy multiple times through the night to make sure they were warm/alive. And every one slept right through the night including Julia (I think that made me nervous as well).  The daylight brought safety and peace of mind, and I was able to thoroughly enjoy time playing in the water and sun for a whole half an hour! Haha. It could have been longer, but not by much. I didn't really think about how much I would be scouring the beach for a shady spot. Luckily it wasn't too hard to find. Nap time gave me freedom.

Ezzy napped on the ground next to Elsie, Jules slept in a camping chair, and I escaped to the water. It was a gorgeous day and I was able to do the same thing the next day as well! So wonderful to be able to float in the water and enjoy a little bit of freedom. Cooking "hot shmoes" over the camping stove (fire ban), hot chocolate, Mexican rummy, awesome chats with my seestor, and cuddly naps were some of the highlights of a fantastically successful camping trip. I can't wait to go again :)

Anybody have camping tips, or memorable trips?