One of Austin's Latest Circus Tricks

While we were in WI, Austin decided to clown-it-up for the camera! (note: He can stand while leaning against something perfectly well. He was just being silly.)

4th of July weekend

This year was the most interesting 4th of July I think I've ever had. After celebrating with family in The Colony (fireworks included!) on Saturday, July 2nd, I spent the entire night in the bathroom with the stomach flu! Seth wasn't sick and was a great help to me the entire time. At some point in the night, Georgia Mae also started getting sick, so Seth was kept busy taking care of both his girls. Thankfully, Austin slept the whole time.

The next morning, though, Seth was sick. So, though I was still pretty queasy, I was now busy taking care of him. Austin was a great baby all day which was wonderful. He was content to sit on the floor and play with toys while Seth and I vegged on the couch nearby, just watching. We. were. exhausted. And nauseous. Seth and I took naps when Austin napped, and spent some time playing the Glad Game, so even though we felt like death warmed over, it was a pretty nice day. Just relaxing, chilling at home as a family. 

On Monday, the 4th, we felt well enough to go watch the Park Forest parade. It was super hot, and it did me in, so I didn't join the boys at the pool later that day. I had a date with my bed and some more medicine. Later that night, we found out that we had spread the flu to Seth's family, and both our niece and Seth's dad had come down with it. My guess is that I picked it up at VBS the prior week and "lovingly" gave it to several family members on Saturday. Nearly a week would go by before I was actually up to eating anything, though, so the rest of the week was pretty low-key around here.

Here are pictures I took of the Park Forest Parade.

The whole family, waiting for the parade to come. As evidenced by Georgia's tongue, it was HOT!

When taking the previous picture, I noticed that the tray was exactly at Austin's eye level, so we tipped it to the side so he could see better.

 Here comes the parade!!

The grand marshal is an original resident of Park Forest.

Lots of kids on bikes...

Our neighbor, Kerrie, had an amazing float!

Our neighbor, Carla, is the neighborhood photographer (she did Austin's newborn shots), but I was able to snap one of her!

Some friends/neighbors of ours... The Kowalewskis. Well, three of them.

We even had a baton twirler! She sometimes had two going at the same time!

The finale-- A patriotic-colored bug blaring patriotic music. So fun!

Privacy vs. Email

You may remember a recent post of mine where I mentioned that you could sign up to get email notifications of any new posts (if you didn't read it yet, feel free to now and come back to this when you're done). Well, it turns out that in order to have that service work --you actually receive emails from me when I've posted something new, I have to make my blog public. That means that anyone who knows the address is able to view anything I post. Since this blog is not meant to be public and I intend to share very private things here, that makes me uncomfortable. I mean, I don't plan on sharing super-duper intimate things, but I want control over who sees my posts. I feel uncomfortable knowing that anyone could be reading my words and I wouldn't know it.

I really wanted you to get emails when I post something new because though the stuff is private, I write it with my close friends and family in mind. I mean, I write about stuff that I want you to know. And, if you weren't going to get an email about it, how often would you remember to go look yourself? I know I would forget. Several people have expressed intense interest in reading what I'm writing, so it felt like I was letting people down--with not having the emails go out.

In doing a little bit of research, I found a tool within Blogger that will send an email to up to 10 people when I post something new. I went and looked at my Reader list, and I only have 10 people on there, so this is going to be my (temporary) solution. I automatically added all of you to the email list which will hopefully mean that you get an email notification each time there's a new post. (I imagine that'll be once a week or so.) This is my first post since then, so I'm praying this works.

If I ever get more than 10 Readers (you can have up to 100), I'm not sure what I'll do about email notifications, but I'll have to think about that at that point. If you are one of my ten Readers and would prefer to not get email notifications (for any reason!) please just send me a note and I'll remove you. No hard feelings. I'm not trying to push myself onto anyone, just trying to make it easy for those that would like it to be. Promise me you'll be honest about that.

Spofford Birthday Day/Lake Day, June 2011

The Spofford family is big on celebrations. We get together over 17 times each year for a variety of purposes/events and with a variety of different sections of the family! 

One of my favorite things is go to Seth's uncle's house on Granbury Lake. We meet out there twice each summer to spend time boating, swimming, and celebrating birthdays. (Anyone under 21 and over 65 gets a gift, the rest of us just get a card.) The day is a full one, usually including two meals, several gifts, and lots of people--11 adults and 5 kids, most times. I took my camera this last time and was intentional about capturing some shots of the day. Enjoy!

Austin and Daddy taking a swim just off the dock. Austin had a hat on most of the time during swimming, but I took it off for this photo. Does that make me a bad mom? (Looking at this picture, I wonder why I got in the water. yuck.)

Drying off post-swim... I love how that towel looks in photos, so I was inspired to keep on snapping photos!

And this large shade tree did wonders for lighting. I'm not a photography person, but I couldn't turn off the camera I loved the lighting so much!

Attack of the monster baby!

Look at those Baby Blues! (Which he gets from his Daddy, not his Momma.)

The smoker in the background is cooking our dinner. And, again, I just couldn't help snapping pictures!

He's a huge fan of those two fingers. (again, loving the towel in this shot)

There's something very Forrest Gump about my son from the back. I love it!

And he has one monster cowlick! Even when he had barely any hair, it was there, all curled around to the right.

"Mom, seriously. Please stop?" I can't! the lighting and towel are too good!!!

All the kiddos. 2nd cousins (C & J), Austin, 1st cousins (T, D, & I) (We gave that suit to Delaney for her birthday and I LOVE that she showed up that day wearing it.)

You Can't Go Home Again

The House I Grew Up In

Every time I heard this phrase growing up, I never understood what it meant. I'd think "Of course you can. Just go. If it's still there, of course you can go home again." But now that I've lived away from home (permanently, only visiting for a few days at a time while living out of suitcases) for 8 years, and having recently made my first trip home in 3 years, I know exactly what that phrase means.

You can't go home again. I mean, you can physically visit, but the places, people, experiences will be different because you are different. 'You' have changed; 'Home' has changed. Two changed things coming together again means that things won't be the same. That's what the phrase is about.... That you can never go back to what it was like when that place was actually your home.

Sure, it's great to see family, friends, places, and events that you haven't experienced in awhile, but it won't feel the same. It somehow feels new while feeling old at the same time. Almost like Deja Vu! It feels "perhaps imagined." It feels sad and happy and lonely and overwhelming and nostalgic and might make you want to move back home just as much as wish you could be home again.... In your current home. Where you'll go back to when vacation is over.

I recently went back to WI for the first time in nearly 3 years (2 years, 10 months to be exact), and I felt recharged going there. I had thoughts of how wonderful it was when I was there. But then, inevitably, you start to remember all the reasons you left 'home' in the first place. (If you left home, that is. If not, this doesn't apply to you.) I was left missing more than my own bed. I was missing my friends, my dog, my car, my towels, my neighbors, my computer, my church, my everything. And I realized that I didn't quite fit back there. I mean, everyone was wonderful about my entire trip--my visits with people were as good as I could have hoped for, but then I realize that they've all moved on, and it's my time to do the same. Back to my home. Which is currently in Dallas, TX.

I do plan on making the journey back to WI every other summer, though, because it's important to me that Austin know where his Momma's from, even if we don't live there. I want him to know my cousins, his cousins, (great-)grandparents, and his great aunts/uncles. It's important to me that he know he's part Cheesehead. Even if he was born (and currently is being raised in) Lonestar country. And, I want him to know what it's like for me when I go home again.

Austin doing a little modeling of his new Cheesehead we bought him!