Mrs. Adventurer Reporting for Duty...

You may have wondered these last few weeks where I've actually been and what I've been doing since posts have become sporadic at best. In September we announced that we were moving to Alabama and our plans were to be there right about this time, actually. We got busy cleaning out the house, packing boxes, having a HUGE moving sale, and everything seemed to be going great guns...until we put our house on the market. I never realized that it's much easier to buy a house in these economic times than it is to sale one, especially when property values have decreased around 20%.

I'm not joking about that last statement. Twenty percent is a big number when you're talking thousands of dollars.

So it's during this time of shifting, changing, and then pausing in our endeavors until our house is sold that I begin to look back over my life. It was during one of these crisis moments that I began to hyperventilate had an epiphany. Somewhere between becoming a Mommy and today I have lost one of my greatest senses: my sense of adventure.

Whatever happened to that girl who once flew 12 hours away to a foreign country without her parents? That girl who spent the night on a farm in the middle of nowhere in said foreign country and woke up at 4 am to help milk the cows...by hand. Where is that girl who milked a cow directly into a glass and took a drink, knowing her mother would have a cow of her own if she knew what her daughter was doing? Why did that girl not fear the fifteen pounds she was sure to gain on that two weeks trip because she was game to try any and ALL foods that were not American...at least North American?

And that same girl, the one who has traveled to almost every state in the continental US and three foreign countries; met a man over the internet, kept up a fruitful long distance relationship and actually MARRIED that man after only seeing him in person a total of fourteen days. She then came home from her honeymoon, packed all her possessions and moved twelve hours away to a new home, new church, and a brand new extended family.

Yes, I've lost my sense of adventure..and sometimes my sense of humor. I fear for my children, the mistakes they will make, the scrapes they will get themselves into, the disappointments they will inevitably have to face and deal with. No parent wants their children to ever have to go through what they have gone through...those moments that changed us, shaped us into who we are today.

Fear can be a good thing but it can also be a hindrance, something we hide behind because it's easier to error on the side of caution than to experience something new. To just live a little...

So in the last few weeks I've been learning to do just that: LIVE. Like trying Flamin' Hot Cheetos and finding out that they're AWE-SOME! Black Olives? I used to pick them off my food but found out five weeks ago after my third piece of Meat Lover's pizza that I've so been missing out. Oh, and the cherries that made me gag the first time I tried them? Well, they still make me gag BUT I actually tried one twenty-five years after eating one for the first time and realized nothing has changed.

I wrote all that to say this: in regaining my sense of adventure I went out this last weekend and did something I've never, EVER done before...

Let me give you a hint...

No, not for my eyebrow or lip. Definitely not for my nose! Ew!

I got my ears pierced!! And I was still grinning "ear to ear" (Har har) when it was over with. I think it was due to the fact my four year old held my hand during the whole ordeal. He was so proud of his Mommy. See how he held my hair back so you could see my new earrings?

Yeah, I'm kind of proud of the ol' girl myself. Welcome back, Lil' Mrs. Go Getter! May your smile never grow dim in the light of each day and the new adventures that await.