Where to start?

Whew! It is official. My life is crazy. The days are like whirlwinds... I'm blown all over the place, then left feeling dizzy when it finally comes to an end. Yesterday feels like a week ago and six months ago feels like yesterday. I am trying to let go of the little things and focus only on what is important! However, to a three year old, the little things ARE the important things. (See how complicated this can get?)
I've been wanting to blog for weeks now, but after a long day of figuring out who's turn it is flip the light switch off, trying to remember who had Tylenol last and what time, wondering why the floor's wet, dumping out the entire bottle of vitamins just to find the dinosaur with the sharp teeth and all the other mentally exhausting decisions I have to make... I just cant. So tonight I am putting away my selfish desires to sleep, in an attempt to update my beloved blog.


Let me fill you in. The last few months have been very busy with celebrations. We have Parker's birthday, my birthday and Christmas in December. Then, Ricky's birthday in January. Valentines day, Luke's birthday and our anniversary in February. I was so happy when we found out that Reese would be born in June!

Besides our annual celebrations, January had a downside. I found out I had some medical problems and had to have further testing done. Leaning on my own strength, I stressed out for days over what ended up being a false alarm.... Praise the Lord! Then, the earthquake in Haiti. It was a tragic sight for all of us, but it hit home for me because I made many friends there during my stay one summer. In the middle of trying to collect baby formula and arrange for it to be sent to Haiti, I came down with 104 fever and was put in the hospital with Pneumonia. I felt so selfish sitting in a hospital bed with minor problems watching injured Haitians on the news with no where to go. One night I got a text from Brent with a video of Reese crawling for the first time. I found myself fighting back the tears when my nurse came in. She asked what was wrong and I told her about the text. Later I found out her father was missing in Haiti. It's amazing how quickly the things that are so important to us can become so minuscule in the light of reality! BTW, the problems in Haiti are not over yet... so keep them in your prayers!

I've had a few stories stored in the back of my brain for blogging. However, only one comes to mind at this wee hour (it's 2am and I have to get up at 6am with who knows how many interruptions in between.)


Let me set the scene for this.... It's a cold, rainy, super windy day and my dearest lifelong friend and I decide to battle the weather (and the kids) and go to lunch. I'm still not sure what we were thinking, but that's not important anymore. After a long debate on where to eat and loading and unloading the kids twice, we settled for a home cooked meal, buffet style.
We marched in, two adults & 4 babies.... at this point in my life, the rude stares and loud counting as we walk past doesn't phase me. The restaurant was very crowded and the tables were uncomfortably close to each other. THAT made me nervous. I volunteered to sit with our preschool group while Jess made her plate. Then we switched off. When I returned, the color of Jessica's face was a shade darker than the tomato gravy on my plate. What could possibly have happened in the 2 minutes I was away? If you follow my blog, you know as well as I, alot can happen!
Jessica looked as if she were trying to blend in with her chair, but she wasn't doing a very good job at it. I just kinda frowned and tilted my head, asking what was wrong without saying a word. She started whispering, "opposite of skinny... opposite of skinny!!" A quick glance around and I knew right away what had happened. I looked at Parker and he was quietly eating his roll, as if nothing in the world was going on.
You see, there was a rather large gentleman sitting to the left of us and our tables were so close it was almost like he was joining us for dinner. And just in case Aunt Jess hadn't noticed him, Parker pointed him out... all of him! The urge to bust out laughing was almost uncontrollable. It was one of those moments where you want to laugh twice as hard just because you know you can't!
Later in the car, Jessica told me the whole story. Parker had said, "aunt Jess, look at that fat man! He's so fat! Look aunt Jess!" She asked me, "what do you say? You cant tell him he's not fat, because he is!" That was the most uncomfortable meal I think I have ever had to go through!
So Jess, this blog's for you!