Spring Break 2019

Look, I know Spring Break was a month and a half ago and I'm just now getting around to putting it on here. I'm a single full-time working mom who is also going back to school and our life is crazy. I have no other answers for you. I have some farm pictures to put on the blog too... maybe I'll get those up before the end of summer. Maybe. Hopefully. Anyway, I digress. Back to Spring Break..

It was another limbo year of not knowing if the boys' dad was going to take them for Spring Break or not, which made planning anything pretty difficult. My original thought had been to take the boys to Big Bend National Park if they were going to be with me, but like pretty much every other place during Spring Break, it got booked up early on before I knew if I would be traveling solo or with the boys this year. A little over a week before Spring Break with no word from their dad, I figured it was safe to go ahead and plan something with the boys. But what to do on such short notice with everything being booked up? Korben actually ended up being the one to come up with an idea. A few years ago during Spring Break, we flew to New Mexico from Houston to visit one of my best friends and her kids. Now that we live in Abilene, we are within driving distance and Korben wanted a repeat of that Spring Break with our friends. So I called up Laura and as luck would have it, she was not booked up for Spring Break and we were able to reserve our free room and board at her house.

Before we hit the road to New Mexico on Sunday, we went to the circus that was in Abilene for the day. The boys asked if they could wear their onesie pajamas to said circus and on the way to NM. I have been saying "no" to the boys quite a bit lately because seriously, our lives are just so crazy and I am not a very good mom during the school year. But when we are on break and are rested and don't have a schedule or rules to follow, they get more "yes's." So onesie pajamas it was. Man, I had missed having legit, quality, adventure time with those two. 

The first act of the circus was clowns. When Logan first saw them he said, "Man I reeeaaalllly hope those aren't killer clowns." Because he is the best. He was pretty relieved to see the clowns do a comedy skit and not kill anyone. 

It was a pretty small show with just a few acts but the boys loved it. This was their first time to a circus and they thought it was pretty great. Look at me being a decent mom again with the day at the circus! Even though the only "yes" they got at the circus was getting cotton candy. Sorry boys, but I refuse to pay $20 each for a light up stick that will break in 5 minutes anyway. Enjoy the show with your $12 cotton candy.

After the show, it was time to hit the road. It didn't take long for this one to pass out. I don't know how he was comfortable in that position and it was probably illegal, but my number one rule as a parent is to never wake a sleeping kiddo unless absolutely need be. Sorry, officers. Thanks for not pulling me over while Logan was asleep in said illegal position. 

We passed by some cotton fields and Korben asked if he could pick some. I had done the same thing last year passing by cotton fields on my way to the Grand Canyon. I guess my oldest mini-me child really is his mama's son. Neither one of us can tell you WHY we wanted to pick the cotton either, so don't bother asking. Our answer will be, "just because, ok?" 

The longest part of the drive was just getting out of our giant home state of Texas. And we almost ran out of gas before making it to New Mexico. But alas, we finally arrived to the New Mexico state line. Of course we took pictures. Still in the onesies. Because it was Spring Break and we just did not care.

A few hours later, we made it to Laura's and got settled in. The next day, they had home school group stuff going on most of the day so we adventured on our own to White Sands. We drove through the mountains on our route and came across a stand on the way that offered snacks, bathrooms, flavored cider made from "real mountain apples," and a petting zoo. So we stopped and checked it out. The baby goats were the best. We have all decided that we now need a dog AND baby goats one day. 

The camel reminded us of Rupert, a camel at a drive-through safari that we visited once. Rupert took it upon himself to stick his head in the window and take all of Korben's feed, paper bag and all, right out the palm of his hands. We all laughed remembering that day. This guy looks like he would have done the same thing, given the chance. Don't you guys have food stored in those humps? Leave the innocent children alone! 

Next we stopped for lunch at this little Mayhill Café. But first, we had to pick the nose of this stone statue. Because why wouldn't we?

There were a couple of places you could pull over to look at the view, so we did just that. It was gorgeous.

Finally, we made it to White Sands. This really is such a neat place to visit if you ever get the chance. The boys loved trying different ways of sledding, like standing to "surf" down the dunes and usually ended up tumbling on the way down, which brought on quite a few laughs. We stayed for several hours before it began to rain and we needed to head back to our free room at Casa de Williams. It's a long drive through the mountains and I suggest being careful driving through the small town of Cloudcroft. You might think, "The population here is only like 7, so why do I really need to slow down? I will be through this town in exactly 2 seconds." And you will regret that thinking because you will get a speeding ticket. You have been warned. Carry on. 

The next day, we opted to all go see the movie How to Train Your Dragon. We had planned on visiting the zoo or a museum afterwards but as soon as we got out of the theater we were met with weather reports of high winds with gusts reaching over 100mph and tornado warnings all over the place. So homebound it was instead. There ended up being 8 tornados in the surrounding area that night and my friends woke up to texts from several of their neighbors showing the damage that had been done. Artesia wasn't on Spring Break like we were but school was canceled that day because of the lingering threat of high winds. We were rebels and ventured out with the Williams crew to Carlsbad Caverns anyway. Because they were not closed. And we could. And high winds don't scare us. Just kidding, it was mostly because we knew we'd be out of the winds down in the cave. We're really big chickens. Don't judge us. It was so great to have all of these kiddos together again! They have all been friends since they were babies and pretty much grew up together in Dallas before The Williams moved to New Mexico and we moved to Houston. I hope they stay friends forever. 

On the last day of our New Mexico adventure, we went to a new place that we hadn't been to before.. Sitting Bull Waterfall. It offered some nice hiking to the top of the waterfall and then we headed back down to the bottom to eat lunch and entertain the idea of swimming in the freezing water, which nobody actually did. Because we hate the cold. Well *I* hate the cold. The kids at least tested the waters. Because they are crazy. Man, it was such a beautiful place all around though. We really could have spent all day there. 

There was a dog wandering around that Logan tried to bring home. Sorry, bud, not happening right now. That kid really does love his animals.

And a picture of the Chaney's and the Williams' all together (sans Mark) to end this lovely writing on Spring Break 2019. Thanks so much for hosting us, Williams Clan! We are so thankful for our time with you guys. We love you big and can't wait to see you again, hopefully soon!  

A Political Post

I didn't know what to title this post. A few titles came to mind but either it didn't fully encompass everything that's on my mind, or it was too long for a title. "Sorry Children of Mine: Looks Like You're a Racist White Supremist Based on the Grounds that You are White and You are Male" wouldn't fit in the title space.

I try not to write about too much political stuff on here or social media. I am pretty opinionated on things and I know that can come across as pushy if I'm not careful. I see so much drama and fighting between people on their keyboards and I genuinely don't want to add fuel to the fire. Peace would be a much lovelier option. But lately, I've wondered if in my vain attempt to keep the peace, I've just ended up losing my voice instead? Am I being complacent when I should be standing up? Honestly, I still really don't know what the right answer is. And I am a full believer in face-to-face conversations on the hard topics over the keyboard alternative. Because better conversations and understanding happen in person.  But also, I've kind of had enough.

Last night, a video popped up on Facebook from several different pages with titles like "Boys in MAGA Hats Mob Elderly Native American at Indigenous Peoples March."  Supposedly, a group of boys, from a Catholic school were taunting and mocking an elderly Native American who was at the Indigenous Peoples March. I saw it, and was upset. I was angry with those boys. Obviously they were acting like smug punks and needed to see some consequences for such behavior. But then today, I saw other videos. Longer videos. Videos that showed the boys waiting peacefully for their bus after participating in the March for Life protest that was happening the same day as the Indigenous Peoples March. The new videos showed the Native American being the one to approach the group of boys and get in THEIR faces. The boys seem to be uncomfortable and not know how to handle it so they awkwardly sing and dance with him for a while before the infamous stare-down. Audio gave sound to someone yelling to the white boys, "Go back to Europe where you came from!" There is also a group of black men shouting profanities that the school boys seem to try to stand up to.  Now the story is completely different. And I got angry again. Angry at whoever shortened the video to begin with to purposely betray the people who would watch it. Angry at every single media outlet who ran with that narrative. Angry at myself for being so gullible and buying into the lie that was fed to me.

I'm not saying that there is no fault with those boys. I wasn't there, I don't know them, and I still don't know the full story. That's the point. We weren't there so we don't know. So we should probably calm our little judgmental legs down. And I'm not posting any of those videos here. All sources I've seen with the shortened version are far left-winged extremists who are angry and pushy. And all sources I've seen with the longer version are far right-winged extremists who are also angry and pushy. Just google it yourself if you're so inclined.

Also, I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist. It does. And I'm not trying to say that there aren't people who act like idiots and assholes out there. There are. But it goes both ways. And maybe I just live in a bubble, but with all this talk about women's rights and Native American and African American rights, do you know who I see being targeted and bullied against and judged for their appearance the most? White men. There. I said it. Call me a bigot or whatever else you want. I don't care. Because it's just as bad to be racist against white people as it is anyone else. And I shouldn't have to feel some sort of warped sense of guilt just because my skin is white.

When I saw so many people angry at those boys in that video, I thought I would put the other videos out there to show another perspective. At the very least, people would know that there was another side to the story and show a bit of compassion for those boys whose images have now been unfairly tainted. But nope. There can't even be a POSSIBILITY of those boys innocence. They are forever guilty to the core, no matter what. And that truly makes me heartbroken. Because my own two children are white males. What if it were them? I don't want them to grow up to be be racist. I also don't want them to automatically be labeled as racist just because of their gender and the color of their skin. And I honestly, truly, fear that for them now. And as a mama bear, it pisses me off that I have to be worried about this bullshit. Because that's exactly what it is, bullshit. And my kids are good kids. Great kids actually. And they deserve better.

So much talk about showing compassion. But you get to pick and choose who gets shown that compassion? Show compassion for people who look and think differently than you. But if we look alike, you're on your own. Because there are only a small minority group of people that actually get our compassion. Oh and if our differences are politically based, again, you're on your own. Sorry.

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, I highly doubt that this is what he had in mind.

What a shame.