Lifest and Misc. Ramblings

It's that time again – Lifest! It's a Christian music festival held every year at this time. This year is their 10th anniversary. I think I've gone the past 5 or 6 years with the exception of last year. I had only planned to go only one day, Saturday. It turned out to be the day after my mom's funeral and although 2 of my sisters went that day, and it might have been healing in some ways to go, Jay had done double and triple duty with the girls in the weeks before that since I was so busy with my mom, I didn't want to leave him with the girls all day again. I was also pretty well exhausted at that point. So I gave my ticket away. This year I bought a full event ticket as I usually do and Jay bought a one day ticket as he usually does. I went with just my sister last night, we're skipping today, we will all go on Friday, and just my sister and I will go again all day Saturday.

Highlights from last night:

*We parked our car and then I couldn't find my ticket. I knew I had brought it along because I remember looking at it in the car shortly after we left home. I had stuck it in the book I brought along to read but it wasn't there when I went to get it. I paged through the book at least 5 or 6 times, my sister paged through the book several times, we tore apart the car looking for it before finally finding it.....in my book! HOW did we both miss it so many times?

*We saw Natalie Grant (excellent!) and about ½ hour of the Newsboys. We left in the middle of their concert because a) we've both seen them before; b) we were both tired; and c) we were getting cold.

Friday night we will see Steven Curtis Chapman. It will be his first concert back since his daughter died. I can imagine how emotional it is going to be. We couldn't find a babysitter for the girls so we are taking them. It's going to be a long day!

We also plan to see Mandisa (formerly on American Idol) and Denver and the Mile High Orchestra (seen them a million times already but they're still fun to watch).

Saturday: Most years we are conflicted at least a few times about which concert to attend when there are several going on at the same time that we want to see. This year there are really only 2 people I wanted to see for sure during the whole festival - Natalie Grant (check) and SCC. But Casting Crowns is playing Saturday night so we will see them, and also Chris Sligh (another Idol contestant). Otherwise we will probably just walk around and decide on the fly who to watch. It's going to be fun no matter what!

In other news:

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my mom's death. It's so hard to believe I haven't seen or talked to her for a year. It still feels so wrong sometimes to be going on with my life, doing normal things, when she's gone.

Lindsey got stung by a bee on her finger on Tuesday after her t-ball class. She screamed at the top of her lungs for about 5 minutes. I mean she SCREAMED! She held ice on it for about an hour and then she was fine. No bad reaction so now we know she's not allergic to bee stings anyway.

She asked me this morning if I love her and Allison "to the moon and back ninety hundred and five times". I said yes. :-)

She's in the middle of the second session of swimming lessons. It's the first time she's taken them. She took Level 1 in the first session, didn't pass and is back for another round of Level 1. We're not going to the last session. I want August to be a little more laid back with not so much running. She just finished a 4 week t-ball skills class. She's going to 2 days of Safety Town in August at the same place I went to Safety Town when I was her age. Oh she's also taking swimming lessons at the same pool I took them at as a kid. Then I took Ben to lessons at that same pool, and now here we are again. Sort of a surreal feeling. The last thing she's signed up for this summer is a one hour "Kids in the Kitchen" class. She's doing that with her 2 cousins Andrew and Thomas. They were all adopted within a few months of each other back in 2004. Lindsey from China, Andrew from Russia, and Thomas from Guatemala.



Allison has elevated whining to a new level. Heavy sigh. She can say almost 50 words now. She's still about a year behind in her speech but making really good progress.

Her taking off her diaper is going to send me to the looney bin. We've had over a month of this with no end in sight. We have to duct tape her diaper on at naps and bedtime otherwise she takes it off and pees on her bed or the floor. Yesterday she discovered a new trick - taking her diaper off from under her shorts, then wetting her shorts. Just lovely. Both my girls are quite challenging in their own ways, but that's another post for another day.

Ben will be 18 next month. EIGHTEEN! I can't believe soon he's going to be a legal adult and can vote for president in November.

That's it for now. It took me over an hour to write this post and now it's almost time to leave for swimming lessons and I've gotten nothing done except feed the girls breakfast and get them dressed. Slacker! Have a great day!