Our Little Road Warrior

Abigail's 1st official trip to Aggieland
Bathtime at the Quality Inn and Suites

"Gotta have my shades"

Daddy's Alma Mater (Southern Nazarene University..."It's a time to begin"!)

Abigail gets her 1st taste of "Go Pokes Thursday" with the OSU girls

Abigail's 1st Hot Tub Adventure with Daddy

Pistol Pete welcomes Abigail onto the OSU Campus

Abigail gets a picture in the MSC with the newest Reveille

Recruiting season has begun and that can only mean one thing...time to hit the road! For 7 years now, Josh and I have been blessed to spend our springs traveling together recruiting staff for camp. Traveling together is not only easy but fun! In a sense you could say we have recruiting together down to a perfect science...that is, until now. Let's just say that this year recruiting will look a little different for the Smithson's. For one thing, there will now be a car seat in the back seat of the two-tone camp suburban. That's right, we're taking Abigail with us. She will officially be the youngest recruiter on the road. We're hoping this will work to our advantage...after all, who wouldn't want to stop by the table and look at the cute little baby?

We just finished our longest stretch of recruiting and I'm proud to say that Abigail was a champ! For 3 weeks now we have been out on the road recruiting in both Oklahoma and Texas and for the most part she was a little angel. She had her fussy moments, but who could blame her? It's hard getting off schedule, sleeping in different places, being passed around from one person to the next, and constantly having people cooing in your face.

Nothing quite could prepare us for recruiting with a 10 week old but after much trial and error I have compiled quite the list of words of wisdom and advice to take with me on the road in the future:

1. Not only is it necessary to take multiple changes of clothes for Abigail whenever we go out but for myself as well. Nothing beats having to reschedule an interview so that I can run to the hotel and change my pants because my has daughter pooped on them.

2. You can't really have the luxury of picking clean, relaxing places to nurse/pump...when it's time to eat, it's time to eat. From the floor of a bathroom stall at OSU to the back seat of the two-tone, Abigail and I have seen it all over these last few weeks.

3. If Abigail can spit up on the floor of a hotel room and I am okay with rubbing it in with a towel, there's no telling what other kind of filth has managed to soak into the floors of hotel rooms over the years and we just don't notice it.

4. According to "Daddy" it's never too early to introduce your daughter to the "Hot Tub" scene.

5. In the world of school mascots, Reveille is much nicer and better looking than Pistol Pete (Sorry if you are a Poke and following this blog...it's the truth though...just look at the pictures for proof).

6. No matter how much practice you have it's never easy to focus 100% when interviewing someone if you daughter is screaming in the background.

7. Recruiting with a baby produces 10 times more female applicants than male applicants.

8. You can never be too prepared when it comes to packing for your child. If you thought I was a horrible packer before, you should see me now! The difference is, Abigail is now the one with multiple pieces of luggage...not me!

9. It's never too early to start "arranging" marriages for your daughter, especially when all of your friends are having boys.

10. There will be good days and there will be bad days but regardless, at the end of the day I still have the most loveable, huggable, precious baby girl in the whole wide world.

I'm sure this list will only multiply with each trip we take. I'm thankful to have a job though that is flexible and allows me to travel and work day in and day out with my two most favorite people in the entire universe. I am blessed beyond belief.