The last day

What would you do if it were the last day of your life? I've been thinking about that a lot over the last few weeks since Daddy Don died. He woke up like he did every other day. He went to work, but for some reason he went around and visited with people he hadn't seen in months. After work instead of washing the mud off his always clean truck, he spent his afternoon with JuJu visiting Rhonda, Lance and the girls and then coming to our house to visit with us. I wonder if he would have done anything differently if he had known it would be his last day. He did the things that were most important. He spent time with is wife, his kids and his grandkids. That's really all anyone could wish for on their last day of this temporary life, isn't it?

I started thinking about what I would want to do on the last day of my life which took me back to that day. I took these pictures of Jake on January 10, 2007, the last day of Daddy Don's life on this earth. I spent the morning with my children and had lunch with them and Mike. After naptime, the four of us went over to some property near our house where Mike duck hunts on a beaver pond. Mike had found some flint there a few days before, so we went to look for arrow heads. That's a favorite pasttime of our family and something handed down through the generations of the Munn family. We didn't find any but I found a piece of flint that had a rounded out place in it. It's still in the pocket of the camo jacket I was wearing that day. Jake was dressed head to toe in camo. He really is starting to look like a big boy. He and Olivia had such a good time scouring the ground for arrowheads. We walked about a half mile down from the road and on the way back Olivia rode on Mike's shoulders. Jake and I took our time as we always do, much to Mike's dismay. Jake and I tend to lollygag. We get very caught up in our surroundings and what we're looking at and forget the rest of the world exists. He and I are so much alike in that respect. It had been raining for days and the logging road we were walking back on was muddy and of course had huge mud puddles. Despite the cold weather, Jake wanted to walk through the puddles. I would say that's what little boys do, but I'm a girl and I still love to play in the mud myself. Jake meandered around and laughed mischeviously and then ran right through the first mud puddle we came to. It was hysterical. Mike was yelling from around the bend, but he couldn't see us, so we continued to take our own sweet time. I was laughing at Jake and taking pictures of him and he was lost in his own little boy world. Life was just as it should be. Easy and full of laughter. We managed to finally make our way up to the road, but not before stopping at every mud hole along the way. By the time we got to the car, Jake was wet and muddy from the waist down, but he was smiling from ear to ear and so was I! I stripped him down to nothing but a shirt and we headed home. As soon as we got home, I gave the kids a bath and they were just getting out and toweled off when Daddy Don and JuJu arrived to visit. Jake and Livi were running through the house naked just as cute as could be.

If that had been my last day on this earth, I couldn't have spent it in a better way. I hope when I get to heaven, I have mud on my boots and kisses on my cheeks.

Olivia is such a GIRL!!! It's still so bizarre to have a little girl in the house. I've been surrounded by boys for so long! Even our two dogs, Deacon and Phideaux, and our cat, Crookshanks, are boys! Our house has been swallowed by pink! It's everywhere! Even though Olivia is a girly girl, she's still a girl after her Mommy's heart. She loves Hotwheels, she loves playing in the dirt and she loves being outside. She also loves pretending to hunt, which is a good thing since she'll be going hunting with me this year. Jake has been hunting since before he was born so she has a lot of catching up to do! I killed a nice 7 point buck that hangs over my computer desk when I was 8 months pregnant with Jake. He loves that the name plate says Casey & Jake Munn on it. Maybe this fall we'll have a new one to hang somewhere that says Casey & Olivia Munn. Jake has moved onto hunting with his Daddy most of the time now and he has two European deer mounts hanging on the wall in his room to show it. Jake LOVES to hunt. I can't wait for him to actually pull the trigger on his first deer, then duck, then turkey. Those will be proud moments for this Mommy. Mike once held the record for the youngest child in Arkansas to get the triple trophy award. That's a deer with a bow, a muzzleloader and a rifle all in the same season. I'm hoping Jake will be getting the triple trophy award in the next few years. I'll be equally proud if Olivia chooses to continue to hunt as well. If she doesn't, at least I'll finally have someone to shop with! She'll be awfully bored through the end of fall and winter though!

Here are a couple of pictures of Princess Olivia. Please note her earrings! She is so PROUD of her earrings! She shows them to everyone we see, even strangers. We went to Wal-Mart right after I took these pictures and even though it was dark, she insisted on wearing her sunglasses the entire time we were in the store! She's so beautiful and I wouldn't trade this girly girl for anything in the world.

Happy Birthday, Mikie Poo!!!

Today is Mike's (aka Mikie Poo, Daddy & Michael - I'm the only one who calls him Mikie Poo and Michael though - and I often call him Daddy along with the kids despite the fact I said I would NEVER do that) 31st birthday! For the next six months we will be the same age, but he'll continue to remind me that I'm his "old lady." Hmmm. I would post a picture of my husband, the most gorgeous man on the face of the planet, but of course my computer isn't allowing that this evening. Ugh. I get to look at him face to face though which makes me the luckiest woman in the world! I would just like to take this opportunity to tell everyone in the world that my husband is an awesome man and an unbelievably wonderful father. He's as good as it gets. I am blessed to be married to a man who also works from home, so I'm with him nearly 24/7 and believe it or not, we actually think that's a good thing! Maybe sometime when I'm not so tired I'll tell the story of how Mike and I came to be. It's a fun story. Tonight though, I'm going to retire from the computer, snuggle with my hubby on the couch and watch a movie. Happy Birthday to the love of my life - the greatest blessing I've ever received from God!

I'm feeling old

I can blame fellow Dillon adoptive Mom, Rachel for the last ten minutes that I spent at retrojunk.com. Thanks Rachel! I feel awfully old now though.

I thought, hey I'll look at the 80's movies. That was a fun decade. Then I started looking specifically at movies made in 1987. That was 20 years ago. TWENTY years ago!!!!! That sounds like a million years to me! Ok. Get ready for the titles:

Can't Buy Me Love - This is one of my favorite movies of all time!!! I still have every word memorized. Not to mention this was the future McDreamy's debut. I even own this one on DVD!
Adventures in Babysitting - I used to watch this while I was babysitting!
Dirty Dancing - need I say more???? My best friend Jenni and I still sing the Sylvia and Mickey song.
Overboard - who doesn't love Goldie Hawn?!?!
Some Kind of Wonderful - gave us all hope for true love even when it's hiding in unsuspecting friends.
The Lost Boys - yet another of my favorite movies of all time. I love love love Keifer Sutherland and he was beyond hot with his blonde mullet :<) Ah... those were the days. I can't believe though that these movies came out TWENTY YEARS AGO!!!! If you know these movies as well as I do then you are probably feeling a little bit old now, too. Be thankful that I didn't post a list of all my favorite 80's movies! I'll give you clues to a few of them though. Enjoy reminiscing!

Bueller. Bueller.

Who ya gonna call?

Best Prince soundtrack to a movie - EVER!

Ralph Macchio (I had a poster of him next to my bed)

Yee haw!!! Jester's dead!

Freddy Krueger

Fast Times at ????????

Gizmo

Tuesday, February 13th - the day of flowing bodily fluids

Poor Jake. He has had a terrible cough the last few days and at times he coughs so much that he throws up. Well, last night we added diarrhea to the mix and he had an accident on the way home from town last night. He also had an accident first thing this morning. So all of the sheets, etc. have now been washed. Then Olivia wakes up and is wet. This is highly unusal for her. The day goes on. Jake hasn't had any more accidents but he feels so terrible that he actually fell asleep on the living room floor. More unusal stuff. I tried to get him an appointment with the doctor (I just took him last week) and of course there are none today and his pediatrician is out the rest of the week. We can see a different one tomorrow but we have to call between 8 and 8:15 am tomorrow to get an appointment. We will probably get a 9 am appointment and we live an hour and fifteen minutes away. Fun. Regardless, I just want him to see a doctor. Then Olivia wets herself again, but this time just a little bit. Again, unusual. We all eat lunch - did I mention we have NO food in the house? I have to go shopping this afternoon. Jake had corndogs and strawberries. Not so unusual - but still weird! Olivia had rice with soy sauce. Her most favorite thing in the whole world. Mike and our friend Robby had bologna sandwiches. (I'm such a good wife! I did cook pancakes for breakfast though, so that should count for something.) I had instant mashed potatoes with ketchup. Again, not so unusual, but still weird. I bet you couldn't spell unusual in a Scrabble game. Are there 3 u's in the box? Hmmmm. Then, Olivia for whatever reason wasn't wearing clothes - she does this somewhat regularly (taking her clothes off for no reason I mean) and she peed on the living room floor. On the carpet! I was two feet away from her so it wasn't that she couldn't find me for help. She just stood there and peed on the floor. I had to call Mike to come wrangle the kids long enough for me to get the steam cleaner out and clean the carpet. UGH!!!!!!!!!!! I am either going to strangle the kids or myself. I haven't decided which yet. Anyone want to come over and eat chocolate by the pound???

Together again!!!

We drove out to Dallas on Saturday to see our good friends, Mandy and Arnaud who we traveled with in Vietnam! It was exciting to see Olivia and Anna together again and Jake and their son Louis were finally able to meet. It's funny that like us they have a biological 4 year old son and then we both adopted 2 year old girls from the same province in Vietnam. It was meant to be! I can't imagine having traveled for three weeks with anyone else. God blessed us so much by putting us with this amazing family. We had SO much fun together while we were gone and being together Saturday was just like old times - well except for the insane motor scooters and constant worrying that we dealt with in Vietnam! All four of the kids got along famously and we were so happy to see Mandy and Arnaud again. To be able to spend three entire weeks with another couple and still be able to call them great friends says something about a relationship I think! They are a wonderful family and we are so blessed to have them in our lives.

The only bad part of the day was that my wonderful friend Erin was supposed to drive up Saturday with her family as well and her son came down with the flu and then her other son got sick as well. Send up a prayer for them! Erin no doubt has her hands even more full than usual. Erin also adopted a little girl, Selah, from Ninh Thuan and we really really wanted to be able to finally meet her in person! I talk to her on the phone all the time and she has become one of my closest friends and I haven't even met her yet! Perhaps over the summer we'll all be able to get together. Mandy and I were both so sad that she wasn't able to come.

Anyway, we spent the day at Mandy and Arnaud's house and then went to the Dillon International Lunar New Year Celebration (TET). It was also great fun and we were finally able to meet another Ninh Thuan adoptive Mom, Kim-Lan and her beautiful family and a couple from Oklahoma who are just beginning their process to adopt from VN. Christi - it was very nice to meet you!

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Here are our four beautiful children playing at Mandy's house.

L to R: Louis, Anna, Jake & Olivia

I love this picture! Here we have Mandy & Anna along with me and Olivia. Mandy has become such a good friend of mine. I couldn't have made it through Vietnam without her and I depend on her just as much now as I did then. We'll get through the terrible two's together!

Here is a cute picture of Anna and Olivia with their balloons. They are so adorable! Little Anna is just precious and I can't believe how much they have both changed in the two months since we've been back. It will be so neat to watch them grow as friends here on the other side of the world from where they were both born.

Your mission... if you choose to accept it:

One of my very best friends is opening a catering business. I'm so excited for her!!! She's going to be fantastic. Anyway, she's having trouble coming up with a name. I've thought of several - two of which I personally think are just right - but I thought someone else out there might have the perfect name for her new business! I won't tell my ideas just yet so as not to clog your thought processes! Let's brainstorm people! I welcome any and all suggestions!!!

earrings, green bean casserole & assorted ramblings

Well, I like to keep you guessing. No, there weren't earrings in the green bean casserole, but there may be soon enough because Princess Olivia had her ears pierced yesterday! Mike has been bugging me to get them pierced since we returned home from Vietnam, but I wanted to let her settle in to life at home before we put her through the trama of having holes put into her baby earlobes! Incidentally, I was two when I had mine pierced as well. Anyway, Olivia has been irritated the last several weeks because I put on earrings and she can't. She pulls on her earlobes and points to the earrings and says, "Mommy!" with her 'I want them, too' look. She's so cute! So, I relented and we took her yesterday. They did both ears at the same time and I was so glad of that. She cried for just a couple of seconds but as soon as we put her in front of the mirror and she saw her earrings, she was smiling from - well - earring to earring! She was so happy! She looks absolutely adorable. I'll get a picture of her up sometime this week with her fancy new look. Have I mentioned how cute she is?

Ok. Now for the green bean casserole. Olivia hates fruit. She also hates all varieties of milk. She is just not a healthy eater which is not something I'm accustomed to! I have a house full of fruit and veggies! Vegetables are another thing she generally dislikes. I am thrilled to report though that she LOVES green bean casserole. As she ate her THIRD helping of it yesterday, I couldn't help but think of that old Saturday morning commercial where the celery stick (or whatever it was) sings, "Don't drown your food!" Perhaps the green beans are still healthy even with mushroom soup and fried onions mixed in. At this point, I'll take what I can get.

We had dinner with part of my family tonight and it was so much fun. My Aunt Judith and Uncle Jimmie were visiting from Texas and were very excited to meet Olivia. We had dinner at my sister Cathy's. Her family was there, my sister Caren and her family and my Dad and stepmom. I am the youngest of five. I have three sisters and one brother. Oddly enough, my brother is one of my very best friends. I'm closer to him than I am any of my sisters although I certainly love all of my sisters, too. It was nice just being with some of my family. Lots of adults and 7 children under the age of 12. It's always fun when we get together. I just wish we did it more often. Life is too short not to make time for the ones that matter in your life.

Oh I nearly forgot! It snowed Thursday night!!!!!! Of course by Friday afternoon it was all gone, but we took advantage of it while we could. We all got up Friday morning, bundled up and went out to play in the snow! This was Olivia's first time to see snow and Jake hadn't seen it since he was 14 months old. He was SO excited!!! It was so much fun. Jake and I had snowball fights and he, Olivia and I attempted to make a snowman. Attempted being the key word. We rode the fourwheers all over the place and then came in for hot chocolate. I would give anything for a few days of good snow! Jake would have such a good time. He's finally old enough to really get our and play in it. Olivia is still adjusting to the cold weather much less snow! She still had fun though. I made snow ice cream Thursday night and we all enjoyed it. My Mom always made snow ice cream. She loved snow even more than I do and that's saying something! I love living in South Arkansas, but I wish we could see a bit more winter weather.

I'm done rambling now.