MacKenzie

Since not a lot has been going on around here- just enjoying all of this spare time that has suddenly been heaped upon me- I decided to put up some photos of MacKenzie. The second photo above was her tonight after having Marla over to play all afternoon (see Mac and Marla digging for toys in photo 1). We played ball, went for walks and played more ball. She is beat!

After her ball game this afternoon, MacKenzie took a break with Jackson. I think they're so cute!

The little bear that is in a heap on the floor is a bear named "Jackson" (named by the manufacturer- not us) that our friend Carla once got for MacKenzie. We thought Jackson was too cute to be a MacKenzie toy so we put him on a bookshelf. I guess MacKenzie disagreed and pulled him down for a little game. I love the look on her little face like, "what? He is my toy!" This was a few days ago, but the photo was too cute not to share.

Finally, this was MacKenzie greeting us for bed the other night. I love how wherever the blankets have been turned down automatically becomes her spot for the evening. She's such a good little dog and we just love her (I'm sure none of you could tell that we adore her or anything).

"Happy Birthday, Aunt Ninny"

This just might be the cutest photo that I have ever seen! My sister calls me "Ninny" because when I was a little girl I had a hard time with Jenna and reverted to calling myself "Ninny." It made sense back then. Now? Not so much. Anyway, Ninny stuck and she's pretty much always called me that. She then decided that Alex would call me "Aunt Ninny." When she writes thank you cards from Alex she always makes his handwriting really funny. This photo is just priceless. Alex is just the cutest baby. I cannot take it. I miss him so much!

Yes, this is me admitting that yesterday I turned the big 2-6. Gasp. Tear. Scream. Thank you to everyone for the phone calls, cards and facebook messages. I had to work and had class until 10. Happy birthday to me! ;) Today I had to work again and then Jackson and I went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was delicious. I had a very chill birthday and that was fine with me. Let's hope that 26 is a good year!

Rainy days

Well I haven't blogged much this week because I was sick for most of it- yuck. Work has been insanely busy. I had a make-up class on Saturday afternoon due to Memorial Day. That was annoying, but at least it was cold and rainy so I was not missing out on anything.

It has been insanely cold here this weekend and we are so glad that graduation was last weekend. We have not gotten out of the low 50's here. Crazy. We've also had some horrible storms that have caused MacKenzie to decide that she's now afraid of thunder. GREAT.

That is about it. It is has been pretty boring around here this week. I've done a lot of reading for fun- that's been great. Jackson has not been able to play golf or go to the range all week. We want summer back!

Whitewater Rafting

The view from the river.
Grace and I helping Susie get her life jacket on. Those things were so tight that it was pain in the butt to get them snapped.
Grace after we finished the ride.
Susie and Jackson on the boat.
Kathi helping Grace into her wetsuit. She was COLD the entire trip (it was seriously 95+ every single day) so we made her wear a wetsuit, a splash jacket and her life jacket. She STILL complained that she was cold. ARG.
We loved the rock formation on the left in this photo because it looked like a gorilla.

We had so much fun. I obviously took photos when the river was not raging. We got an old school waterproof camera that Susie had to take to get developed- imagine that!

Success

I'll never forget the Full House episode (side note: Full House has always been my favorite show. Always.) where Danny (the Dad) is teaching Stephanie (one of the daughters) to spell success. He tells her, "double the 'c' double the 's' and you'll always have success!" I still think of that every single time that I write "success."

Anyway, what is success? Dictionary.com defines it like this:
1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.

I think success means something different to every person. Sure, we can agree that something or someone is a success, but what it means for us differs. Maybe for some people a success is graduation from high school. Maybe a success is raising happy children who are productive members of society. Maybe success is opening an orphanage in Africa. Perhaps a daily success is something as small as getting a stranger to smile or laugh. But what is the kind of success that leaves one on their death bed knowing that their life was not in vain? I do not know what that is for me yet. Do you know what it is for you?

I've always thought long and hard about how I want to live my life. I think about which things I want to focus on and which things are OK to somewhat ignore. I, for one, love being educated. It is just something I am passionate about. I would go to school forever if it paid me and not the other way around. I'm interested in so many things. That is not realistic, though, so I'll have to join the "real world" sooner or later. Sometimes I feel conflicted about my choice of careers. Let's face it, no matter where I go I'll be dealing with people who simply do not grasp how fortunate they really are. I currently deal with wealthy old men who whine when the stock market dips their assets' value to below $1 billion. If I get the IRS job that I want I'll still be dealing with them, but on the other side. (Which I think has got to be more fun. Right?) I always feel a little empty in that my job doesn't really help anyone who needs it.

When we were whitewater rafting, our guide told us how his sister is a nurse and his brother-in-law is a dentist. They moved to Africa 2 years ago to open up a clinic and are going to serve there for the rest of their lives. I looked at Jackson and told him that we had no services that were useful to anyone but wealthy Americans. It makes me sad. (I know people say we could build houses, etc. Maybe Jackson could do that. I cannot. I'm just not handy. I do think I could teach mathematics. That's universal, I think. Jackson assured me that if you have no food or healthcare then math does not matter. Shoot.)

I do not feel any closer to my goals for my life by finishing my graduate degree. I feel like I have so much more to do. I always thought I'd feel a little closure when I finished, but I just do not. I honestly feel a bit empty. I'm guilty of identifying myself as what I do: "I'm a graduate student." "I'm a tax accountant." instead of who I am. I'm working on that.

I tell myself that once I finish the CPA exam that I will feel successful. I won't, though. I may feel like quite a success if I can get into an Ivy League law school. (Are you listening Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Yale and Penn admissions boards?) Still, some people would look at my life and think that all of my schooling was a waste and they prefer their success to mine. That's fine. You cannot please everyone. There is always someone doing more than you. There is always someone better than you. I guess part of being a success is being OK with that fact.

I wrote all of this to say that I do not know what a success is to me. I'm going to work on figuring that out. I do know that at the end of my journey that we call life I would like to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And maybe that is all that I need to know.

Ms. Grace

I loved this photo of Grace wearing my hood before graduation. She's so funny.
We told her to pretend that she was really going to jail. She really did it up!
She got her face painted at Texas Roadhouse. She looked awfully cute to do her birthday shopping with Aunt Jenna.
She's always down for a silly photo.
Grace just could not stay awake after whitewater rafting. Poor Kathi's arm was falling asleep.

Thanks for coming out to play, Grace. We are ALL (MacKenzie included) exhausted from keeping up with you! :)

The jail

On our way to the Royal Gorge today we passed a correctional facility with a museum next to it so I decided that we had to stop in on our way home. It did not disappoint. ;)
Jackson just outside of the prison walls. There was a guard in that tower with a huge gun keeping a watchful eye on the inmates on the other side of the wall. Creepy.
In the "museum" there was a real life gas chamber that had been used to kill 8 inmates. I was beside myself on how very spooky it was so be so close to a place where 8 people died.

Yes, that is a real gas chamber. (I'm really against the death penalty so it was really hard for me to see this thing.)
Of course they allowed us to pretend that we were in prison. "I'm innocent!"
Kathi telling the warden her sob story.
Susie was awfully bummed to be in the slammer.
Jackson just looked angry about his sentence.
Grace and I pleading with the officers to let us out. :)

We had a lot of fun being silly at the jail museum. It was only slightly alarming that we could hear the prison's intercom system giving the inmates instructions. And then there was the armed guard thing. But other than that it was a really cool place. ;)