Success

Today was a fun day - we went to a nearby water park. Technically this park is for the residents of another housing tract but we visited it nontheless. The kids had great fun even though we weren't able to stay very long because they had a 4th of July barbque planned. We will definitely visit it again soon. The weather has been very water park friendly; its been around 105 each day. The overnight low is only around 82 or 83. There really isn't any reprieve from the heat. We are just beginning to enter the monsoon season. We have yet to have any rain here, but we're looking forward to it!! We watched a great lightning show last night on the way home from my first pharmacology class. It was off to the north, quite a ways away, but still beautiful! There was another lightning show tonight that we could see from our front yard. Lowell and I sat out in the back of his truck and watched the clouds light up from the inside out. Our next chance for rain is next weekend.

My first class was great. It is going to cover a ton of material, but I'm excited that I'll know so much when the class is done! This will be my first experience with this new professor; our first class was taught by Ellen, the professor that I had for my last class because our new prof is on vacation.
Speaking of vacation... I have to say that Lowell and I have been on sort of a three month vacay... Neither of us are working and while we certainly don't have a whole lot of money, we've been blessed with being able to spend a ton of time together! :) It was so wonderful to have him to help me set up our house; moving furniture is much easier with a man to help! :) In addition to the practical things, we've also been spending time together as a family. We even went to the zoo on Tuesday. The kids loved it. It was very warm indeed but the Phoenix zoo has added a couple of water parks. We didn't know about these new additions and therefore didn't have on appropriate clothes but this didn't stop my babies from getting soaking wet! :) I even got a little damp. I was the only parent playing in the spouts but I tried not to let that stop me from having fun. I did refrain from going down the water slide in order to keep some of my dignity. :)

It was a great day and I really hope to take advantage of more of these moments because they are fleeing fast. The time I have with my children while they're young is so limited... And yet I don't take advantage of them nearly as often as I should... So frequently I let cleaning or tv or other things get in the way. So often I get aggravated instead of seeing teachable moments or even finding joy in mistakes and silliness. When I'm laying in bed later, I feel so guilty about it- that I've lost these opportunities... I can only pray that my kids see how much I love them and that I learn, day by day, to see more joy in the messes and to let myself be in these precious moments with my beautiful angels instead of getting caught up in the unimportant.

For today, at least, at the waterpark, I was successful. We had a great time! Here's to the little successes! And to the little moments of joy.