Surviving the Storm- Boat Day 2012

The adoption case took an unexpected turn last week, and while everything is okay, the details surrounding what happened created the perfect recipe for an emotionally devastating few days. My mom came down and stayed with me, we went out and had dinner, browsed a consignment shop for Abiella, and had a good 2 days together.  On Saturday, all my friends were heading out for a day on the lake. I had been looking forward to the day for months.  But as the week came to a close, I honestly didn't think I had what it took to attend. My spirits were at an all-time low. However, my mama didn't agree. She thought that it was the PERFECT idea, and she encouraged me to go, have fun, float in the lake, and spend time with friends. So I gave it some thought, and on Saturday morning I got up, threw on my bathing suit, scarfed down some breakfast, hopped in a van with 7 friends and headed to the docks to meet the other 7. My mom was right.  It was just what the doctor ordered.  All of my friends knew exactly what had happened regarding our case and they were amazing. (Sidenote: In case you were wondering, my husband was on the road.)

The day started out warm, sunny, and promising.  At 9 am we were out on the water, by 10 am the swimming and the cannonballs and the synchronized diving (attempts) were in full force.  By noon the burgers were grilled...

By 2 pm the boat hopping had commenced, the cat-naps were in full-force, the second-round of snacks were being passed around, and then someone said, "Was that a sprinkle?"  And before we knew it we were looking at this sky...

Who turned out to be this guy:

Immediately we lifted the anchor and started driving top speed towards the marina. As we drove, the storm rolled in like a freight train and we were nowhere near the dock.

As the boat flew towards safety we all shuffled around the deck, putting our shoes on, picking things up, packing our bags, organizing our goods, making sure we each knew where our phones were, etc.  We called folks on land and had them watch the news and despite all signs pointing towards: we're about to drive into a really bad storm and this is going to be difficult, we kept smiling and laughing nervously and pretending we weren't scared.  But we were.

And then it hit. I'm not kidding.  It was INTENSE.  At the beginning of the storm the lightning was still "3 Mississippi's" away.  I thought to myself, "Okay, I can deal with that... it's still pretty far."  And then before we knew it there were no "mississippii's" left and as we raced towards the shore, lightning was striking all around us.  I scooted away from the metal railing and made a pathetic attempt to surround myself with as much rubber as possible. Not exactly sure what that would even do, but it seemed like a decent idea at the time :) The rain was so rough, the winds were so high, and the water was so choppy that we were all huddled together in the middle of the boat, secretly praying that our friend driving (major props to Jonny Insogna) was somehow blessed with miraculous vision... after all... none of us could see anything but each other... everything 4 feet away from us was a gray blurb... and yet we kept moving forward... quickly.

Folks, if you've ever been on the deck of a boat when a severe storm rolls in and you can't get to shore, it's an experience.  You're in the middle of the driving rain, getting completely soaked, and desperately aware that you're the tallest thing in the water... oh, and that you  just happen to be made of metal. When we finally docked, the storm was at its peak, and we quickly abandoned everything on the boat and ran into a tiny floating boat-house as lightning continued to strike dangerously close.  We were joined by about 50 other folks (also fleeing their boats) and we waited it out packed in like sardines.

Eventually someone looked outside and realized one of the docks had just broken away, leaving a group of folks stranded.  Awesome.  And then someone said, "ugghhh... looks like we need to distribute the weight a little more evenly because the right side of this building is sinking."  Oh... even more awesome. Despite the crazy circumstances we were still having fun though... Nothing like surviving a severe storm on the deck of a pontoon boat to pump-up your adrenaline.

As soon as it let up (even a little) we ran back to the boat (in the rain), grabbed all of our stuff madly, and raced to our cars.  We didn't even say goodbye to one another.

All in all, boat day 2012 was a huge success though.  We may not have been able to relax in the sun for the remaining two hours of our day, BUT we were given a story we'll probably be telling ten years from now AND I left my friends feeling relaxed, refreshed, and so thankful I had gone.

How was your weekend?

        

When It Don't Come Easy

I'm not at liberty to share much right now, but let's just say our tiny world was rocked yesterday.  It was a difficult day to say the least. I'll have more information as the days follow *hopefully* but for now, I'll let Jen Hatmaker's words from her latest blog post (regarding the adoption stage we are in right now) explain what's happening:

"This is the hungry, manic process of paperwork, dossiers, referrals, court dates, in-country travel, Embassy appointments, and deferred hope. Maybe 5% of my adoption friends sailed through this stage. For the other 95% of us, expect delays, frustrations, snags, unforeseen interruptions, bottlenecks, slow-downs, obstructions, and an obliterated “timeline.” (Dear People Who Give Us Timelines, please stop doing that.)

Here is the upside: This is the stage you realize God can put a vicious fight in you for a kid without your blood coursing through his veins. Those early doubts about loving a child without the helpful instincts of biology are put to rest. Of course, you don’t know this kid yet, but you love him in your heart, in your bones. You’ll fight like hell to get to him. You can’t think of anything else. You are obsessed. You dream about him like you did when you were pregnant. You realize that when God said He sets the lonely in families, He meant it, and He doesn’t just transform the “lonely” but also the “families.” He changes us for one another. God can create a family across countries, beyond genetics, through impossible circumstances, and past reason."

Amen. 

Amen.

Amen.

Recently-

I've been art journaling... 

Snuggling with this chick:

Hanging at a lake so far in the middle of nowhere that we're "forced" to get dinner at a gas station (hello, chips and dip, velveeta macaroni, m&m's, and popcorn...)

Loving BarreAmped (my walking like a newborn filly status is slowly waning)... 

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And lastly... thinking about this little blog and how much I love it and how much I love y'all...

Boom. 

That's it.

Happy Monday Night Friends.

mm

"Your **** is our bread and butter."

I found these images HERE and thought they were fairly entertaining.  The maps list one good fact and one unfortunate fact about each state. For me, my state has the most caves (I guess that's a good thing?) and the most amount of sewer overflows (gross...)  Which reminds me of a plumbing business my mother found one time in which their slogan was "Your sh*t is our bed and butter."  Interesting.

What is your state good and awful at?

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Did your facts surprise you?

*mae*

There's a colonial woman on the wing... and other exciting sightings...

Over the past few weeks, I have been helping a friend collect ideas for her upcoming wedding. We often exchange emails with little ideas, things to remember, etc. Well, two days ago I received an email from her with the word "Bridesmaids" in the subject line.  Naturally, I assumed it was a picture of a dress, a list of girls names, or something similar.  Instead, it was this:

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I about spit my coffee out. If you haven't seen the movie Bridesmaids you won't find this nearly as funny.  But this is the scene that Kristen Wiig must have been imagining when she grabbed the microphone and spoke over the flight attendant saying, "I have an announcement too.  There's a colonial woman on the wing... I saw her, there is something they're not telling us!  There is a colonial woman.  She was churning butter.  She is churning butter, she is out there RIGHT NOW."  I literally get tickled every time I think about it.  Oh hallucinations... you are so funny.  Just kidding.  I have never hallucinated and never, ever want to.  Ever.  Speaking of hallucinations, my friends saw a super famous person last night at the most unsuspecting of places... a hallucination would have made more sense, but alas, it was real-life, eyes-wide-open, mind-fully-functioning situation. I'll just let her tell you about it... HERE.

Happy Wednesday!

***

I'm a Sleep Texter...

A few years ago, Sean was on the road when I woke up to my phone beeping incessantly.  I was receiving text after text after text.  Worried that something was wrong, I sat up, grabbed my glasses, and began reading the texts. They were all from Sean:

SEAN: What????
SEAN: Who are you with???
SEAN: Where are you???

Huh? These texts were highly confusing. It was 3am on a work night, wouldn't Sean know I was at home sleeping?  Why did he sound so panicked? What did he mean, "Where was I?" It was all  very strange. 

And then as I stared at my phone, I began reading the texts more carefully and discovered that there were some texts before those that I hadn't read yet. I was shocked at what I saw.  According to my text history, Sean had texted me at 2:45 am with this:

"Leaving venue, what are you doing?"

To which I responded at 2:46am,

"Oh not too much.  Just hanging out playing cards with the boys."

HUH?!?? WHAT??!!?? Why would I have said that??? When did I say that?? No wonder he was confused!! 

I picked up the phone and called Sean.  Naturally, he was baffled and worried as to why I would be spending the early morning hours (2 hours before my alarm went off to go teach) playing cards with an unnamed group of gentlemen.  I sat there and explained what had happened... that I had just woken up and seen that I sent that text and that I had no recollection of typing it whatsoever... And that NO I wasn't playing cards with "the boys" but was, in fact, in a deep sleep and still very, very tired.

After a few minutes of trying to figure out what had just happened, we came to understand that I had sleep texted. Some people walk in their sleep... I apparently text in my sleep . And yes, that is terrifying. My first thought was "who else have I texted in my sleep? What did I say??"  Then those thoughts were immediately followed with,"Well done, unconscious Mae Mae. You spelled everything correctly.  You even used punctuation.  Impressive."

So if you know me in real life, the next time you see me doing this:

Beware.  

I could be sleeping. 

Creepy. 

Storms, a Redneck, the Closing Ceremonies, and Stinky Armpits...

It is storming here right now... Lots of thunder, super-hard rain, warnings on the tv...  In fact, I should probably unplug my computer... but it's about to die and I want to keep blogging...  I'll just plug it into the surge protector.  Hold on...

Okay, now I'm back.  How was your weekend?  Mine was good.  We went to the Tomoto-Art-Festival  in East Nashville.  The Tomato Fest is always so much fun and this year proved to be no exception.  Miraculously, 10 of our friends showed up at the exact same spot at the exact same time.  (Unheard of) So we were able to wander the booths, grab some BBQ and hang out in front of the misting fans together.  By 1:00 we were all exhausted and went home to take naps, watch movies, and lounge.

At 3:00 I scratched my neck and discovered that my lack of sunscreen was a costly error.  I was burned everywhere my tank top didn't cover.  Oh well.  Such is the cost for a great time in the sun, and I figured being as red as a tomato was my way of honoring the festivities... no? no.  Next time I'll remember.

That's me (in the ball cap closet to the camera) rushing towards a booth with cool chalkboard frames... completely unaware that my back was sizzling...

As for the rest of the weekend, I watched two movies (has anyone seen "Timer"? I found it on Netflix and actually really enjoyed it. Very bizarre plot line but entertaining none-the-less...)  AND I watched Where the Heart Is.  Remember that one with Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd?  So, so, good.  God bless those writers.

Sprinkle in some food, an easy cookout with friends Friday night, a quick shopping extravaganza, and a few tears during the recap of the Olympics (prior to the Closing Ceremonies) and that's my weekend... Speaking of Closing Ceremonies... what were your thoughts? Highlights?  I especially enjoyed the Spice Girls (don't judge.)  I actually prepared myself for being sorely disappointed BUT their energy was pretty awesome and those cars? Too cool. Might be cheesy but I loved it.  Well done, ladies.

Also, my father found my New Years Resolutions from 1993... My favorite one was to "Be More Igreable."  Say what?!?  I thought 8 year old resolutions were like "Learn how to do that cool thing on my roller blades."  but "Be More Igreable?"  Hilarious. (Obviously I meant agreeable, don't worry, I'm a slightly better speller now.) My complete list of all of my New Years Resolutions circa 1993 coming soon.

AND... last but not least, my sister Maddie has begun a series today that you HAVE to check out.  I read her first post this morning and about spit my coffee out.  Spoiler alert: it involves stinky armpits, unicorns, and soliloquies.  You won't be disappointed.  Head over HERE to see what I'm talking about. 

Happy Monday!

mae