Correction!

I know, I know there is a typo in Kelsey's video. I finished the dang thing at around midnight one night. I had looked at it for days and days and hours and hours. I will get it fixed and repost it.

A special prize to the person who can spot the problem!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Kelsey!

My niece just turned 11. It is really hard for me to believe that 11 years have passed already. Kelsey, you are growing into an amazing person and I am so proud of you.

Here is your birthday video!

Enjoy!!!

Share the Magic

I have a very important challenge for all of you parents out there. Do something with your kids that you aren't supposed to do. Mix it up a bit and teach them that while routine is great, it gives you something to depend on, the magic happens when life throws you the unexpected.

Every so often I try to "break the rules" with the kids. Every time some amazing memories are made. Our most recent "magical memory" was made Friday night. The kids were all bathed, read to, prayed over, and tucked in by 8 pm as is routine at the Dunbar house. Then I took off to walk up to the gym for my workout. As I was walking across town, I passed a house that has a giant yard. The moon was huge, full and the most amazing orange color. Its moonbeams were shining across the lawn of this house making it almost glow. As I got closer to the house I noticed the lightening bugs! I am not exaggerating when I saw there were close to a million of them. I couldn't believe my eyes!

Right then I decide this was one of those times to break the rules. I called back to the house (I know carrying a cell phone to the gym, what the heck) and asked if the kids were asleep. Jamy said Abby was still up so I had him get her dressed and meet me on the porch. I ran back, put her on her bike and we headed out. When we got to this house I just stood and watched her. The sight of her running around with a million lightening bugs all around her in that moonlight is not something I will forget for a very long time. We probably stood on that corner for 20 minutes while she played. We decided to make a night of it and went for a long night walk together after that. I never made it to the gym, but, man, did my heart get a workout anyway.

So, take your kids and teach them that the world is a magical place just waiting for them to discover it. Heck, you might even learn the lesson as well.

A Life That Matters

I woke up last night for no apparent reason. Nothing wrong, no worries, just "poof" wide awake! It happens to the women in my family. By nature most of us are night owls. If we aren't night owls than any amount of sleep at night counts as a really good nap. If we get woken up in the middle of the night going back to sleep becomes virtually impossible. I have found I often do my best thinking during those times in the middle of the night while the rest of the house is quiet. Maybe because it is the only time the house is quiet!

Last night among other things I began thinking about an old friend of mine. I hadn't seen her in awhile and I missed her. We used to go to DQ in college and get blizzards. She went with me the first time I cut my hair short. Of course, the plan was for her to do it as well. I buzzed mine like a little boy in the back. Next thing I know, she is stepping around the corner with maybe a centimeter cut off of her hair. Friendship, you can't beat it can you???

Thinking about my friend made me think about life in general and what really matters. I know, I know, deep, huh?! I began to think how the meaning of life has varied depending on what stage of my life I was in at the time. Who I wanted to be and what I wanted to achieve has grown and evolved with every experience life has given me. When I was a kid all I could think about was being an astronaut. I was ready for the space program, let me tell ya! Then I went to college and discovered that I could have a career doing the things I loved to do, hiking, camping, playing with animals. That realization centered me more and put my feet back on the ground. No longer was I going to fly to the moon; now I was going to stay right here and save the planet's animals from destruction. I was going to spend my days hiking in the woods observing animal behavior and my nights sleeping in a tent.

Not long after I was blessed with my first niece. All of the sudden, running off to the mountains wasn't so important anymore. It was more important to me to stay closer to home and be the kind of aunt who makes a difference. More nieces and nephews followed and I discovered I REALLY loved this aunt gig. I don't think my oldest niece knows how much she influenced the direction my life would take. I hope someday she can really appreciate the impact she makes on the world around her. Just a month after she was born, my first nephew came along. I was in love with the little elf the first time I set eyes on him. I don't get to see him or his brother and sister as much but his arrival just reaffirmed the decision I had made. The girl was going nowhere!

I then I took a job working as a student advisor at KU. It was just going to be a six-month filler job while I waited to go to grad school. Again, my priorities changed and the meaning of life became something different. I discovered a love of teaching that almost rivaled my love of biology and nature. Now what to do!! Off to get a teaching degree I went.

Meanwhile, the two most life changing events happened. One, I married the man I had loved darn near all of my life and two, we had babies! Anyone who has done either one of those things can tell you that the meaning of life really changes when you become your own family separate from mom, dad, brothers and sisters.

So last night as I lay there thinking about all of these things and marveling at the way my life has become something pretty amazing I realized something. I realized that even though my goals, dreams, priorities and the meaning of my life have seemed to change so much over the years one thing really remains constant. Through all of the places I have been, no matter what I thought I wanted to do with my life my priority has always been to live a life that mattered. I think that is really what we all want when it comes down to it, isn't it? We want to make a difference in the world around us. We want to touch a few lives along the way. We want to stand at the end of our life and be able to say with pride, "That was my life and it mattered."

I realized that, sometimes knowingly but most of the time just by the grace of God, I have always tried to live every day so that it matters. Every day can't be rainbows and sunshine, but it should make a difference in your life and the lives of the people around you.

When you are faced with a scary decision or a challenge, decide in favor of the choice that really makes your life matter. When you are stuck in a rut and seem to be spinning your wheels, do something that matters!! Make a change. Don't be scared, just do it. Quiting my job to stay home with my kids was such an unknown for me and for Jamy. Financially, could we make it? Would I be bored out of my mind? What would happen to my identity? Blah, blah, blah, blah!! In the end though, I knew in my heart making the choice I did was the way that would lead me to a place where I could have the greatest impact upon the world. Raising our kids to be good, happy, healthy citizens makes my life matter.

As I get older, I know there are even more stages of life to come. Each one will bring me to a new place with new goals, dreams and priorities. I still hope someday to figure out a way to teach while also spending time in the woods studying animal behavior and sleeping in my tent at night. I just know there are more important things I need to be doing right now. The rest can wait awhile. I also know that when I stand at the end of my life if I can look back and say, "That was my life and it mattered!" I will have achieved everything I wanted to do.


In the spirit of my new found realization of the meaning of life, here are some pictures of what we did this weekend to make our lives matter. We had so much to do around the house, but made sure to take lots of breaks to spend with the kids. I have much better memories of swimming at the lake with the babies than I ever would have if Jamy had spent the whole weekend on the roof and I had a houseful of clean toilets!!

Enjoy!!!

Stuff That Mommy and Daddy Do After the Kids Go to Bed!

If you read the title of this post I bet right now you are in the same dirty little place my poor confused husband is right now as I type this. Here is the scene:

Jamy, who has been up on the hot roof all day, is sitting on the couch in the living room. I was in the kitchen cleaning up from supper. Abby and Weston are blowing bubbles in the house because it is raining out and what the heck. Skylar is sitting learning what it means to be a part of this crazy family. All of the sudden I hear Abby say to Daddy, "Daddy, tonight when you and Mommy are doing your stuff, can you clean up this little bit I spilled?"

Jamy responds: "What?"

Abby says: "You know when you do the stuff with Mommy that you do after us kids go to bed."

Jamy, even more confused: "What?"

Abby, starting to think Daddy is an idiot: "Daddy, Mommy told me all about the stuff you do with her after we go to bed. Can you clean up what I spilled while you are doing it?"

Jamy, now shocked: "She told you WHAT?!!!"

The conversation just kept getting funnier from here. My poor husband, who on some matters still thinks like a 13-year-old boy, obviously is thinking that I have enlightened our five-year-old in the ways of marital relations.


Now flashback a few weeks so you can understand.

Abby and I are sitting on her bed talking while I put her down for the night. She asked me if I would read books with her in my bed. This is one of her favorite things to do. I felt awful but that night I had a couple of things that I had to do so I told her if she was still awake when I came up we would read together in my bed. She asked me what I had to do. I told her that Mommy's and Daddy's had things around the house that we have to do once the kids are in bed so that we can play with the kids more during the day. She thought this was okay and since then asks me every now and then if I have stuff to do that night after she goes to bed.

So now the question is, do I go in there and bail poor Jamy out before he says something he will regret telling our daughter or should I just sit in here and laugh for a little bit longer? Bet you can guess which one I pick!!!!!

Why does it always happen this way?

Picture this... two days before we were scheduled to take Skylar and Weston into Children's Mercy hospital for some tests my littlest darling was playing in the living room. She loves to run giggling through the house. It is such a beautiful sound! This time she took off toward the stairs in the living room. Her little foot hit a toy that was on the floor. Her whole body went airborne and then WHAMMO she landed right on the edge of the bottom step. I am telling you, people, these 120 year old floors are HARD. She landed right on her squishy little cheek. By the time I got across the room it was already a nasty black and blue mess.

Then, we got to take her into one of the largest children's hospitals in the state. I was pretty sure they were not going to let her leave with us.

At t-ball that night, everyone thought her face was dirty and kept trying to wipe it off for her. I am not sure if I was more worried that some one would think I beat her or that people thought I would let her walk around with such a dirty face!

Here are a few pictures I took FOUR days after the tumble. Nice, huh????