This post is entitled "Stupid Things You Do When Under the Influence". Under the influence of crazy friends, that is. On Mother's Day weekend, I went with some ladies from church on an overnight retreat to Lake Cavanaugh. It was unbelieveable. I always subscribe to the idea that boys never grow up--I mean, my husband is almost 33 years old and he still asks me to pull his finger when he has to pass gas! For Pete's sake! O.k., so after this overnight thing, I have to say that girls don't grow up either. I got to know these ladies on a whole new level. It's funny what a little "time away", a whole lot of junk food, and the late hour can do to a group of grown women . We were "pinching and giggling" (to borrow an expression from my husband who says that's what us girls do when we get together--hey, better that than "farting and bragging", which is what guys do) into the night and morning, too. We didn't get to bed until 2 am or so, which I still haven't recovered from. Anyway, sometime during the evening, we were talking about Girls' Camp and skinny dipping and such and I mentioned the Polar Dip (you know, jumping into a freezing cold lake at 5am? It's a big hit at Girls' Camp). So, in my utter stupidity, I said I would do it. And then my friend, Amy said she would, too. Oh, we yucked it up, laughing and looking macho all night. Talk is cheap, I tell ya. So, as I lay in my sleeping bag, listening to the birdies chirping and trying not to notice the early light slipping in (which signifies morning, obviously, and time to get up--ugh), I recalled my bravado the previous night. "Oh, please don't let Amy remember," was my plea. Unfortunately, Amy remembered. And she said, "Come on. Let's go Polar Dip!" Or some such nonsense. I tried to back out. I wheedled and negotiated and reasoned. And I managed to put her off for most of the morning. Finally, we were all getting ready to go. And I knew Amy wasn't going to let it rest. She was starting to hint that I might be a "chicken" (you know, flapping of arms and "bock, bock, bock). That did it. I had dug my own grave (or water hole, as the case may be). Most everyone left, but there were a few who stuck around to witness our plunge into the lake. And another friend, Emily decided to join in the stupidity. Notice the photos: I refused to skinny dip (never done it and won't ever). We all went in fully-clothed. And I decided since I had to do it, I might as well do a cannonball. Luckily, we got some great photos. I mean, check out the air on my jump! Sweet. I'm telling you--that water was so dang cold! Apparently, the lake was full of glacier run-off. Double sweet. Not to mention the bottom of the lake felt like a slimy nasty stew of some sort. So, I did it. And now I am a celebrity at church. Fame has its price, I guess. Oh, and just so you know....there was one more photo. It was of us coming out of the water. My pants were falling off and there's a nice white chunk of my bum hanging out of the top. Wisdom suggested that I not post this photo (it would probably come back to haunt me). Hope you made it through yet another one of my very lengthy blog posts. Have a great day, all!

My sister Heather was in town at the end of April and she was showing me a few things on Blogger. Can anyone guess from these photos what she might have shown me? It has something to do with the direction of the pictures. It's maybe that the vertical photos are actually vertical and not horizontal. No more cricks in the necks on my blog! So, then Heather tried to help me expand my horizons by changing the background of my blog. Boy, that was frustrating. It turns out that I have a fossilized version of blogger or something and they have since updated it, but for some reason, my blog won't comply. I may just be stuck with a completely "kicked" background on my blog....forever!
Definition of "kicked" (just in case some of you are not familiar with this Jenny-ism--I used "kicked" in a sentence with one of my sister-in-laws this weekend and she looked at me like I was hitchin' a ride on the short yellow. Oops. Another expression): means totally ugly or thrashed-looking. Annnnyway. None of you really care about my blog background. You're here to see photos of my cats (Jenny-ism for "kids" or "spouse" or "whoever") and get the juicy details of the Adams family. Right?

So, Carter is finally playing a sport. He has wanted to for some time, but we have opted not to jump on this fast-moving bandwagon until now. Partially a financial decision and partially an "I-don't-want-to-be-in-the-car-driving-all-over-creation-and-dragging-the-other-kids-around-with-us" thing. I won't go into too many details about the baseball season (I can't believe it's finally almost over!), but I will say that Carter has had fun. His coach is kinda "kicked" (which can also mean "not-too-great")--he seems fairly apathetic and his own son didn't sit on the bench once the whole season. Also, I can't lie--it's been a sacrifice because it seems like our whole lives have revolved around games and practices. I have one big question: HOW IN THE WORLD DO PEOPLE MANAGE TO HAVE SEVERAL KIDS IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT SPORTS, OFTEN AT THE SAME TIME???? It seems that family time would have to be affected. In some ways, I wish Carter would have started at an earlier age. But, at the expense of what? Family time is definitely more important. Anyway, he's talking about wanting to do basketball and Avery's showing an interest in soccer....(sigh). Not sure I want to jump right in to "soccer mom". Have you heard how many soccer moms are addicted to stuff...like Red Bull? Yikes. I don't know what it is but whenever I get on this blog I tend to get diarrhea of the mouth (or brain or fingers or whatever, since I'm not in actuality talking to you all). So, baseball's over in a week or so. Here are the stats: Carter is on the Red Sox and so far, they've only won four or five games. But, we're glad for the experience (I think). Thought you'd enjoy these cute photos of my boys. Colby enjoys going to games and practices--an athlete in the making. I don't enjoy taking him, however. Watching the game is almost impossible, since Colby won't stay in one place longer than one minute. I guess that's the way it goes.

I will sign off for tonight. And bore you with more of our recent details tomorrow or the next day or the next month...or whatever. Nightie Night!