A Poem for Parents

 "Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you.

And though they are with you, they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

Which you cannot visit, even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth...

Let your bending in the archer's hands be for happiness."

-Khalil Gibran

More Quotable Quotes and Gardening

I was cleaning my desk this morning and found a few recent quotes from Spencer.

• "I just burped. (Puzzled look on face...) It came from my neck."
• "C'mon, Daddy let's find it. C'mon big boy!"
• Telling me a story: "Once upon a time a boy was making raviolis. He put salt and pepper on them."
• Mommy: "You're in a good mood this morning."
  Spencer: "Yeah, I am. I love you."

Spencer has the sweetest way of saying "one upon a time" - it's comes out sounding something like "puncepontime." He's very into telling stories right now and playing I Spy. Lots of imaginative play going on at our house. It rocks!

We planted a little garden last week and now we are watching our watermelons and squash (zucchini, yellow, acorn) sprout away. We got a late start on our summer garden and we know it'll be an uphill battle in this heat, but it's fun trying. Now we have to prune away some of our plants because they are too close together. I'll have to take some pictures....stay tuned.

Fun Day with Friends

Today we had an awesome time hanging out with Steffani, Chad, Ella and Steffani's mom, Carol. I hadn't seen Carol in a very long time (probably 15+ years) so it was a real treat to catch up with her. We swam and had a yummy cookout. Steffani has already documented the day on her blog (awesome pictures, Chad!), so click over there to get a recap of our day.

Spencer fell asleep not five minutes after we left, so Dave took his time getting us home so Spencer could nap. Well, that wasn't enough - Spencer continued his nap on our bed and didn't wake up until 6:45 PM. That was about a 3.5 hour nap. Tonight should be interesting...

Love That Boy

Tonight I was lying on the floor next to Spencer's bed while he fell asleep. He was facing me, head resting against the bed rail. I was looking up at his sweet little face through the bed rail slats as he was drifting off to sleep, when he opened his eyes and said, "Mommy? Thank you for cooking that food tonight." You're quite welcome, my little love.

Father's Day Recap

We spent Father's Day weekend at Pine Fork with Pop and Geep. And as an added bonus, Paw-Paw met us at the ranch Sunday morning then drove back to Austin and spent the night with us. We gave Pop an inflatable swimming pool, so there was lots of splashing around to keep cool, in addition to all the usual activities. It was Paw-Paw's first time at the ranch, so Spencer was excited to show him around on the EZ-Tractor (and point out the Toothache tree), show him how good he can cast his fishing pole, and play in the sandbox together. We had a nice weekend and loved celebrating the wonderful fathers in our lives!

Ta-da! Best daddy ever

Fishermen getting ready to reel one in

Showing Paw-Paw the sandbox

Quiet moment with Geep - watching Tag the deer visit the feeder

Summertime and the Livin' Is Easy

Ooh La La!

I am hijacking Spencer's blog today to tell you a little story...

I've been to Paris once. It was a very quick work trip - 3 days in December 2006. I was interviewing for a job with my company's Paris office and I was working under the assumption that I would be returning with David in the following weeks to explore whether we would seriously entertain the idea of relocating overseas. I really only had one day to sightsee, so I did not try to pack in all of the "must-do" Paris activities while I was there. Louvre? Check. Chocolate croissants, crepes and delicious coffee? Check. Shopping along the Champs-Elysées? Check. But I did not do the most important thing of all... I didn't go to the Eiffel Tower. I saw the tower of course, but I didn't visit it, or even take a picture of it for that matter. After all, I'd be back in a few weeks with my husband, right?

Well, things didn't go as planned. The exploratory return trip turned into "if you take the job we will fly you and your husband back to look for a place to live." The stars just didn't align for us to move to Paris and ever since I've tried to ignore that nagging resentment about not making the most of my earlier visit. I realize of course that if we had moved to Paris, things would be so different today - namely, we wouldn't have Spencer, so for that I am grateful we stayed in Texas.

Why am I telling you this story today? One of my favorite blogs, Oh Happy Day, is giving away a really cool trip to Paris and I want to throw my hat into the ring. The contest is pure luck of the draw (after you meet a few criteria, including posting a link to the contest on your blog), but daydreaming about Paris made me want to get that story out of my system. So if you're still reading, thank you for indulging me.

  Here's a link to the contest details: http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris.