Sunday, June 28, 2015

Random Updates

God showed off a lot this week. The only photos I took all week were incredible sky-scapes and did not edit them at all.

I text Greg, "I have good news and bad news. Good news: our son is not gay. Bad news: we already need to start 'the talk'. He is five!" I discovered our son climbing to stand on top of our deck railing to look at the young adults swimming in the pool next door. I instructed him to get down and stop spying on the neighbors. He responded he wasn't spying, he was looking at the girl. The eighteen year old young lady in question was wearing a bikini. She is quite pretty and apparently Ty noticed. He was removed from the deck and the next thing I knew, he and his little buddy were trying to lift one another up on the trampoline for further investigation. Lord help me. 

Erin called to invite Kate and Ty over to celebrate 6/26 as Lilo and Stitch Day. She took snack requests (Pringles) and hosted a sleep over. It was a fun surprise.

Lauren made some changes to her college career path. Instead of moving onto campus and pursuing substance abuse counseling alongside criminal justice, she is now attending a local campus for criminal justice only. We support her decision and are proud of her for looking at the student debt projections while making her final choice. She earned a $10,000 scholarship paid out over four years that will cover most of her local college experience and will pay the rest as she goes, most likely working for UPS who pays all hourly employees $5000 per year toward higher education. Some details remain to be settled but we'll tackle those when she returns from her final church camp experience on the fourth of July. We are just happy to not be moving another kid out of the house this summer.

"Mom! Look at this! Dinosaurs have been here recently! Like since Wednesday!" Ty swears he found dinosaur tracks in the road near our house. And they have arrived since Wednesday.

Apparently I am too old for technology changes. AT&T sent me a letter explaining they would no longer be able to service my old Blackberry phone because it only has 2G technology (whatever that means). They offered me one of three phone models for free with no service charge since I have stubbornly used my old refurbished phone for approximately five years now. I visited AT&T twice before making the decision to go without data I never use and chose the "simple model". I am 48 hours into the consequences of that decision and regret it immensely. I am avoiding the phone. It is just so awkward. There is a strong chance I will be re-visiting AT&T on Monday to insist they reestablish service on my Blackberry. I will acquire Greg's newer Blackberry in the future and he can upgrade into something post 2010. He is obviously more hip than me.

In other news, school starts back one month from tomorrow. No one in the Baughman household is impressed by this.  

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Father's Day Weekend

We quietly celebrated Greg this weekend because that's our style. We took a walk over the river, enjoyed ice cream treats and a steak dinner at home surrounded by our family followed by sprinkler fun. Well, quiet may not be the correct adverb to describe us after all but it was simple and fun.

I took a quick survey of the kids' favorite things about their daddy.
Kate: shooting bows and arrows with him
Ty: when he lets me sit on his lap and watch the race with him
Erin: the way he takes care of things, like my oil changes
Lauren: his gay voice and awesome dance moves
Makenna:his humor




Happy father's day to a pretty amazing dad.

Friday, June 19, 2015

A Glimpse

For a brief moment this week I was left speechless as Kate rambled on in great detail about something she read in a magazine that morning. Kate never lacks details in her verbal retelling; written word is another story. But there she stood with messy hair and a simple tank top and I suddenly saw her as a teen. It took my breath. Hold on baby, I am not ready.

I have two elementary aged kiddos this summer on a part-time basis. We are revisiting an activity from last summer working together to write and illustrate a story. We made a bucket list from which to choose daily activities to keep the drama to a minimum as toddlers and preschoolers are really much more my forte. We made snicker-doodles one hot afternoon this week and they caught onto my futile attempts to get them to help with housework by offering to let them play maid wearing aprons. It was worth a shot.


After a busy week with five extra children, I took advantage of having only two extras and ran around downtown New Albany today. We shared appetizers at Habana Blues, stopped by the library and shopped our favorite consignment store for fun. New Albany may never be the same but these guys were pretty cute.

Pig tails and pink rain boots? Darling.
Layla is settling into our routine. She has a lot of energy and wakes us every morning with enthusiastic kisses. Oliver and Brutus are not fans of these wake up calls but it beats the alarm clock any day. However, she swiped a kiss during naptime today and Devyn woke up saying, "disgusting". The nap was cut short. We're working on Layla's manners.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Awesome Weekend!


On Friday Lauren purchased her first car. We can't decide who is more excited because Greg and I are pretty thrilled to have our keys back after all this time.

And then my friends arrived for a weekend full of laughter, awesome food and excellent conversation. Kristil flew in from San Antonio and Kristin arrived from Dayton. Collectively we hid away from nine children, three husbands and three homes in need of constant care. It was perfect.

As I wrapped up my girlfriend weekend I discovered Erin here doing laundry while the rest of the family gathered. I decided things were too quiet and pulled out water guns and soaker balls. It was a loud and wet blast. 
When Daddy picks up the water bucket.....

everyone takes cover

 






I picked up a bedtime bath bomb at Lush for the kids while shopping with my friends yesterday. Whereas I am not sure it relaxed the children, it sure was fun.


Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Friday, June 5, 2015

Summer Kick Off

Our little green ninja started day camp on Monday. He will be attending every weekday in June except next week which will be spent enjoying VBS instead. I made him wear real clothes. Once again, he technically obeyed. He wore his mask upside down though so he "looks different".


A big thank you to Ms. Cox and Anne who sent me photos of Kate on stage because I was not able to attend the ceremony. My new summer commitments started the same day.

Kate Bug wrapped up her third grade year with the top award for her class. She had no idea what it meant and was rather somber about the whole affair. The Bearcat award is given to one student from each class who is a good example to others, kind, respectful and made great progress throughout the year. At this point in her life, this is an excellent description of Kate. She also received the physical education award because she is the third grade student who stood out in the mind of the gym teacher as a student who always had a positive attitude, set a good example to others and enjoyed gym class. Once again, the honor was lost on Kate. She was just being herself.

Anna told me I was cute. I believe I was likely her age the last time someone said that to me. Lauren heard her and decided Anna was just talking and didn't know what she was saying. Some animals eat their young. Just saying.
Our library's summer reading program is super hero themed. Our little spiderman is pretty pumped.

I took the kids to the park to burn energy. I no longer had any energy to burn so I sat in the van with a cup of tea, a book and secret M&M's. Kate was suspicious because it was the only time I have sat in the van and not joined the fun. I dropped one M&M and searched in vain to locate the evidence. The same children who are unable to find their own missing shoes when they are actively seeking them have radar senses for hidden treats. My mind was racing as I watched the kids approach and decided when that darn M&M is located, I am blaming Lauren.
I promise this was their idea and they spent a ridiculous amount of time piled in here.

We have a neighbor who has had a boxer penned up for a year. Layla spent the brutal winter in the pen and the heat of the summer locked in that same dirty pen. When I look out the front of my house, I see Layla's pen and it's broken my heart since they built it. By Thanksgiving, the family wasn't even letting her out to use the restroom and barely noted her existence when they fed and watered her. I am not exaggerating when I say that there were times I had tears in my eyes as I watched her stare at her house from that cage. I started to plan a way to kidnap her. I wish I was kidding. If I thought I could get away with it, Layla would have been rescued a long time ago. I tried to convince my sister to take her over Thanksgiving break but couldn't get anyone on board with my deceitful plan. Never in my life have I wanted to take something that didn't belong to me but I couldn't keep looking at this sad puppy in the cage across the street.  On Tuesday night, Lauren spoke to the teen who lives at Layla's house and was told they were looking for a new home for her. If they didn't have her placed by the weekend, Layla would be going to a shelter. Lauren confessed I had been plotting a kidnapping and knew I would help find Layla a new home, even if it meant we would be inheriting another dog. After questioning the adults in the house about Layla's temperament and spending some time working with her, I talked to Greg about adding her to our family. He has also been upset about her living conditions and quickly agreed.

She has made herself quite at home the few hours she's been with us. Kisses are smothered on all of us at all times. We think she's going to like it here.
 Of course, not everyone has fully adjusted.
With enough time and attention, everyone should love her like Kate already does.