We had the girls birthday party Saturday night. Just family and D&D brought their girls. It ended up being Strawberry Shortcake themed. Mom took Emma cake shopping at Harris Teeter Friday and she fell in love with their new 3 story Strawberry Shortcake cake (which Emma thinks is REALLY funny –cake cake–that’s a joke, mommy!). It turned out really cute with the kids table all decorated and red, pink and green balloons. And the 3 older girls had a blast opening presents. It was like Christmas for all of them. Lexi dug into the cake. I had serve everyone else’s cake from the opposite side. Which we had PLENTY of cake. And poor Lexi would NOT take a nap Saturday so she was about in a daze by the time we got to the end of her presents and she fell asleep after everything was done. They all had a good time though. The double party worked out good. Not sure if we’ll do it next year since Emma will be 5 but it was great this year.
what i did today
Catch up
So we had a great time in Maryland. Had a fun leaf pile fight on Thursday. Friday Mom, Heather and Grandma took the kids shopping and then we had a small, small party for Lexi’s party.
Saturday evening we had the big party for the whole family. It was like Christmas they got so much stuff and almost everyone was there. It was really nice to see everyone.
The ride home was ok. I got really car-sick which I am not used to. Lexi was a nightmare in restaurants. I mean, really, really bad. Actually, she was that way all weekend out.
I’m going to work tomorrow. First full day since Scott got hurt. Shouldn’t be bad for him. They have school in the morning and then his mom will come get them. We’re already planning a Mexican lunch. Yumm, can’t wait.
I voted today. Go vote if you haven’t and it’s not too late!!
Weekend
Lexi ended up staying with Emma at MILs on Friday night. Scott and I went out to Target late but it was really nasty outside so it wasn’t all that great. And then we woke up early on Saturday. He went off with a friend and I went to the gym. Boy, you can tell I haven’t been very often lately. I had to leave within 30 minutes. But of course I never have much energy in the morning when I go. I don’t know how those people go at 5:30 in the morning.
So I had a meeting at church around lunchtime and I got the girls from MIL then. We then cleaned out my closet and I wouldn’t even mention except to say I am donating 2 garbage bags full of clothes and I took out my summer clothes. I don’t think my closet has EVER been so cleaned out. It was quite a job. That evening was the Fall Festival at church. Both the girls looked cute and had a really good time. Lexi cracked me up with getting suckers out of everyone’s basket and wanting to open each one as she got it.
Sunday was the usual church, eat (ate at C&D’s house), nap, church. Emma and I did make homemade cupcakes for Lexi’s class today because Friday is her birthday. I tasted one last night and it was REALLY good. Emma and I had a good time. Me and her with leftover icing and cake batter was dangerous but it was fun. She’s such a good helper these days.
Tonight is our last bible study. I created this layout thing to teach the lesson from and I was pretty happy with it. Hopefully they will like it too. I’m not sad about not having to prepare two lessons each one (one for BS and another for SS) but I am sad about losing that connection with the girls each week. Maybe we will plan on a monthly outing just to keep us in touch. I know we see each other at youth but it’s not the same.
Party Day
Last night I was supposed to go to a Pampered Chef party and Emma was going to go with me. Scott had to go visit someone so I was going to have Heather watch Lexi at the house for about an hour. Well, Mom calls an hour before I needed to leave and said she and Heather were coming to pick up Lexi. So of course Emma cried when she realized Lexi was going off without her and Mom ended up taking both of them. I went to the party at S’s house and then met Mom at her house with the girls. Apparently she took them up to Clt to shop and didn’t get back to her house until after 9. So the girls didn’t get to bed until after 10 last night. And they slept in until 9 this morning. I’m supposed to go in the office at lunch today. Mom was supposed to get the girls but it looks like she has errands to run so Scott will have them himself this afternoon. Which I think is ok. He’s been doing pretty good as long as he keeps his sling on. But it is a very rainy day today and I’m thinking I’d rather not go in. But I don’t want to attempt the meeting I have on a conference call.
Yesterday we took the girls to their Fall Festival at their school. They both loved their costume. Lexi even wore her big fluffy Snow White costume onthe way there and the whole time she was there. She looked so cute. And Emma even wore her wig the whole time. Unbelievable. Lexi was into the games and candy. I was surprised.
I talked to their teachers and apparently Emma is the “idea maker” in the class. She tells everyone what they’re going to play and everyone goes along with it. There is another Emma that is in the class that is her best friend. Lexi’s teachers thought she was very smart and really has “matured” the past couple of weeks. Which I have seen that too. They said she is now handing over her paci and blankie when she walks in the door and never asks for it. They believe she is talking more because she doesn’t have that in her mouth. We really need to get rid of it. Maybe after we get back from Maryland next week and Scott is still out of work we can attack that. Ugh, I’m cringing just saying that.
Odds and ends
This week has been SLOW. I don’t think I’ve gotten showers until lunch or after. Work is slow. We’ve done barely anything really since the lock-in last Thursday. Last night just the four of us went to get Japanese which was a half-pleasant experience. I only say half-pleasant because Lexi was wanting to get out of the seat until the food got there and then I spent the whole time telling Emma to eat or asking Lexi to eat, etc. And then, to top it off, I went to the restroom at the end and dropped my keys in the toilet. It was clean water and I hadn’t gone yet. I stared down at the keys and I was like, that’s $250 sitting down there, I’ve got to get it out. So yes, I reached IN the water to get them out and rinsed them as best as I could. Oh well. But the girls ate pretty good while they ate and I was able to finish my meal. So that’s good.
Scott and I have been playing Scrabble almost nightly the past few days. I LOVE Scrabble although I usually lose. However, I managed a 100 point win last night over him. Usually my sister gets in on our games if she’s here but it’s just been us this week. Which is kind of nice. Because we actually are doing something together that is not required and it’s just for fun. And it’s at home. Well, I can think of one more thing like that we do, but hey, this isn’t THAT type of blog. LOL.
In other news, Lexi has thrown up a couple times in the past 5 days. Saturday morning was random but I think it was due to a bunch of Sprite she drank Friday night which she has never done and then yogurt on top of that. She was fine all weekend and then threw up a good bit Monday night. And of course that was red kool-aid. And then she had some more of that kool-aid Tuesday morning and threw up a little more. And then she was fine. So I think that was due to the stir-in red kool-aid stuff she’s never had. Anyway, she’s eaten chicken, fruit, crackers, pop-tarts and stuff since then so she seems fine and it doesn’t seem like a virus.
Next Wednesday we have decided to go to Maryland until the next Sunday. Whoo Hoo! I’m technically out of vacation except for a few hours I intend to take at Christmas when we go up so I will be working from up there. Bummer, but what else can I do? At least it will be different and I will be able to see family.
Lexi’s birthday is next Friday so we’re having a double-party for them while we’re up there. My [extended] family never gets to see them on their birthdays so I think it’s pretty cool. Although my ILs didn’t seem to like the idea. But I never apologize when it comes to that because they get to see them like 3 times a year and if they situations were reversed, it would be the same for them.
Monday I am taking snacks to Lexi’s class for her birthday. Hopefully this won’t be one of those things that stresses me. I was thinking about getting Emma to decorate some cookies and maybe taking all the kids some bubbles or something. I mean, what do 18mo-2 yr olds really want?? Half of them will not even realize what is going on. I’m hesitant to go in her room. I’m afraid she’ll have a fit when I leave if I go into her classroom. But I would really like to see how things work around there so I’m going to try to go. Not sure how that will work with my work but I’m going to try. Especially since usually drop her off at 8:45 and they don’t eat snack until 9:40. Maybe I’ll just take in the snacks. Who knows.
Lock-in & Accident
So the lock-in. We showed up around 4:30-5 just to drop some stuff off and ended up never leaving. The printer to print the pictures of the kids gave us troubles. Not really troubles, but the second one that someone brought of theirs was like two-three times as slow as the new one we had and we were printing pictures all the way up until 11 that night, right before he needed them during the service. There was about 115 youth there which is about twice as many as we have on a normal Wednesday night. Everything went really well. The service was awesome. He had a tough time getting started because of technical difficulties but once he got into it, it was very powerful. I think 16 youth got saved and many more made other decisions.
We left around 12:15 for Zuma (place with video games/go-carts/batting cages/putt-putt). I could not decide whether to go or not. I even said to S that I wasn’t sure I’d be safe driving by myself that late at night. But I reasoned it was 99% interstate on the way home and I’d be fine. Not a lot of oncoming traffic. Everyone was having such a good time and I didn’t want to disappear and the girls were spending the night at Mom’s so I wanted to make the most of it. Anyway, I only stayed until about 1:45am and decided I had had enough and was going to go get some sleep. I remember being on top of one of our interstates and I think I might have even prayed out loud that God would keep me safe on the way home. Not two minutes later, I was in Lane 2 of 4 and the left front of my mom’s SUV struck a car in Lane 1. The left front swiped the car and it damaged the side mirror. I stopped about half a mile down the road. There were two other 18 wheelers pulled off the side of the road and I parked in between them. I didn’t attempt to get back up where that car was. I immediately called *HP and then Scott. I saw that another trooper was north bound “across the street” and was heading our way. So I stayed put in my car. Scott talked to one of the sergeants and he said he’d come talk to me. Another truck hit this car right after me and his tire went flat and air bag came out. Neither of us were hurt. A security guard from the welcome center came to talk to me. He said there was a car that had wrecked and was sitting in the lane and that’s what I hit. I later found out that it was unoccupied. The security guard ended up going back up there and sitting his car behind the car with lights because the wrecked car had none. There was not good lighting on that stretch of the interstate and I didn’t see a thing. I also saw a third car jerk very hard to not hit the car. I called Mom and let her know I had wrecked the car. She of course was just happy that I was ok and ended up staying on the phone with me until I got home. The wreck report shows that the other guy was at fault for the wreck but Mom’s insurance seems to think they may argue and basically say I hit a parked car. Um, no, I hit a wrecked car that was in the middle of the interstate unmanned. Not good. Anyway. that was my first wreck ever. Hopefully I won’t lose any insurance points, discounts or whatever. I´m just going to get young drivers car insurance to make sure I´m covered.
Surprisingly I learned something from this wreck. I knew in my heart that I shouldn’t have gone to Zuma with the rest of the youth group. I NEVER worry about driving at night or any time. But I paused and knew I shouldn’t have. I really felt God telling me that if I don’t learn to obey his voice, it’s just as well that I never heard it to begin with. Learning to hear the Holy Spirit speak is one thing but it’s a whole other ballgame to try to obey what He says. But if you don’t obey, He may as well not speak to you. It doesn’t do you any good not to do what He says. I could have avoided that accident had I not gone but I certainly believed He protected me from any further harm. I was literally inches away from head-on collision at 70 mph that could have killed me and taken me from my family. I’m just thankful that even though I didn’t obey that God’s mercy was big enough to protect me.
New hairdo
Yesterday was an event. I decided to have my hair cut and colored by someone who was twice the distance but half the cost. She was highly recommended by a good friend. I was not disappointed. It’s a cute cut and I got 3 colors in my hair! The top was dyed back to my regular brown color (after I had put in sun-in in it this summer). The bottom half is 3 shades of brown darker. Then I have a one inch stripe of honey blonde about an inch back from my face. Yes, people, there are strands of blonde in my hair. I really like it. And my mom, sister and husband all like it and they usually are pretty upfront about reviews on my hair.
Here’s the bad part. The blonde came out too bright and the darker brown not dark enough. So she had to do it twice. And Scott told me while I was getting it done that he was supposed to be in Charlotte for a very important meeting in about an hour from then. So he had my sister come over to my house to watch the kids until I got there. Well, I took our Jeep to the salon and when I came out of the salon, it would not start. And Scott was already on the way to Charlotte. So Heather had to get Lexi up from her nap and bring Emma and my niece with her on the 35 minute drive to get me. So I ended up going to a little restaurant across the street (which was on Main Street in a small town) and had a salad and piece of pie. So from my end it was a nice afternoon but poor Heather had to scramble. The good news is Emma and my niece fell asleep on the way and I did get her out of about 2 hours of work.
Catching up
This week has been intensely insane.
Monday was our first bible study. I felt very prepared when I was there and it went very smoothly. All the girls and leaders seemed to have good reviews afterwards. There is one girl who has, uh, issues and it might be interesting to see how that plays out.
So Tuesday I had something to do but I can’t think of what I did. Wednesday was the Parents dinner for the youth so I spent the whole afternoon and evening at the church. Thursday we did grocery shopping and went to Cracker Barrel with Mom and Dad before Mom and Heather left for Colorado. And Friday. Oh lovely Friday. I worked that morning and then left for work at 3:45 to do an implementation. I didn’t get home at 11:15 that night. Then sporadically worked until 5 on Saturday. In between, I went to see E in the hospital nursery and cleaned the house. Sunday was church and I took a nap in between church. I was up again at 6 this morning working when my pager went off multiple times. We have one more job today that runs at 5 that I need to verify. Hopefully it will not interfere with bible study tonight.
I feel a little less prepared for tonight’s bible study than last week. I’ve just been so busy with work that I haven’t had much time to prepare. I barely got through Sunday School on Sunday. Scott was there so he could help fill in some gaps a little. Or at least make me feel like I wasn’t a dork trying to teach by myself.
Pretty much, I’m exhausted. And we’re not nearly done with stuff at work. Bible study is another 6 weeks and of course Sunday School is the entire church year. I was thinking about entering some stuff in a Consignment sale this weekend but I just don’t want to add anything to my list of stuff to do. I really love studying for bible study and Sunday school and working on the youth group’s web site. If that’s all I had to do (except of course raising two children) and not have to work professionally, I think I would be set. Except of course those little things called bills. Oh well, here I go complaining again about such a wonderful job I have and I don’t want to, I just am feeling a little overwhelmed right now.