emergency diaper situation

Oh.My.Word. This morning started off with pure craziness.  Charlotte slept late, and I hold tightly to the old adage of “never wake a sleeping baby”, because that means that mama gets to sleep in too!  So when she finally did wake up, I heard her fussing. I got up, went to the potty, mixed up her bottle in the kitchen, then went to get her out of her crib.  And when I opened the door. Oh.My.Word.

She was holding her blanket up in front of her like she was terrified, and she was screaming at the top of her lungs.  I glanced around the room to see what she was so afraid of, but seeing nothing, I pulled the blanket down and then I saw it. She was wet up to her neck. Her onesie was completely soaked, even the long sleeves. The blanket was soaked, Duckie was soaked, and when I picked her up, I saw the puddle that she was sitting in.  Her socks were dripping, and the puddle had probably started to drip onto the floor.  I put her over onto the changing table, and looked around for a pair of scissors. I was going to cut off the onesie, all ER style, so I didn’t have to drag pee all over her face.  Finding no scissors, I unsnapped the onesie, and then I saw the REAL mess.  The diaper had literally exploded from the top. That gel filling was oozing out all over her stomach and it looked like the front of the diaper might burst open too.  I froze for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. And in that moment, she reached down and touched her stomach and before I knew what was happeneing, had some of that gel nastiness in her mouth.  Remember, she’s still screaming at the top of her lungs.  So I scrape out her mouth, with her still screaming, and then I grab the (soaked) blanket from her bed, wrap it around her, and proceed to take her to the bath tub.  As I’m walking across her room, that gel filling dropped out onto the carpet. Oh.My.Word.

So I get her into the bathroom, set her down nastiness and all, turn on the water, which takes 8 years to get warm on that side of the house. I get the temperature right, somehow get her undressed and standing in the tub, hose her off, while she’s screaming, crying, and sliding everywhere.  I get her hosed down, towelled off, and I take her back into her room.  I lay her on the floor, put a clean diaper on her and take her into the living room.  I lay her down propped up with the Boppy, and give her the bottle.  Then I go into her room, scoop up the gel on the floor, pull all dripping soaked and nasty clothes and bedding into a pile, drop it in the washing machine, then I throw away the onesie and the diaper + contents.

She was fine and dandy after her morning bottle, apparently I’m the only one that remembers this awful experience.  … But now she has a lovely rash on her tummy. Sigh. Remind me again why I want to have another baby?

simplicity

Jamie and I are on a quest to simplify.  I don’t really know when it started, but somehow we ended up here, questioning every single one of our possessions and “needs”.  When Jamie first got saved, he dumped everything.  He even gave away his bed and slept on the floor for a very long time after coming home from a mission trip.  He needed to purge his old life, the good, the bad, the neutral, in order to start a new life.  So many times our stuff, the things we think we need, get in the way of what life is really all about.  We aren’t in a place where we are just getting rid of everything, but we are seriously questioning everything.  Do we really need a set of 12 glass punch cups? Do we really need 2 waffle makers, even if they do bake different shapes?  Do we really need 3 bedrooms? Do we really need a tv? Do we really need all these clothes that just sit in the laundry basket or get shoved to the back of the closet because we never wear them?

We started in the closets, purging every piece of clothing that hadn’t been worn in a month or so.  We got our closet cleaned out, organized, and were able to consolodate into one dresser.  Which meant that one dresser was empty and ready to leave the house.  Then we moved into the kitchen.  We packed away all but a set of 4 of everything.  I knew that at some point we would have more than 2 other people over, so we did keep the extra place settings, but we packed them up so they don’t get used every day.  I mean, really, is it that hard to wash 4 dishes a day as opposed to grabbing a new dish everytime until you end up with empty cabinets and a messy kitchen?  Then my purging turned to Charlotte’s stash-o-everything.  That child has more of everything than is ever necessary.  I am so grateful for  wonderful friends and family who bless us with just about everything we need for Charlotte.  And my word did we get blessed with stuff.  So I wanted to bless someone else with our excess.  I packed up all the things that she didn’t wear but I wanted to keep for future children, then everything else went to Good Will.  Charlotte went through such an exaggerated growth spurt that she completely skipped a couple of clothing sizes, so I had a lot of things with the tags still on them!

And now we are turning our simplicity campaign towards our house search.  Part of the reason we are selling our house is to simplify.  We want to be able to save more money and have more disposable income to give where it is needed.  And while you can get amazing deals right now on houses, and technically we could get a larger house for less money than we pay for ours right now, but how is that helping us simplify?  So we are on a search for what will really fit our family’s NEEDS and not just WANTS.

In what ways have you simplified your family’s life?

photo by Miss Jee’s Photography

freshy mcfresh

You know those days where you just wanna hide? When you don’t want to get outta bed b/c you know whats waiting for you outside the covers? Ugh, I had one of those days today.  I was tired, ticked off, disgruntled, and generally mad at the world. … BUUUUUt, of course its those days that others need you. As the day progressed and Family Emergency #2 surfaced, I thought, “Geez, why is it that the ONE FREAKIN day I wanna hide from the world and be a selfish snot face, is the one day that the world seems to need me.” But of course, even as I was thinking those words in my head, I was getting a spiritual thump from the Holy Spirit.  And if you’ve ever been thumped by Pastor Steve or Pastor Micah, then you have a general idea of what a thumping from the Holy Spirit can feel like, lol. And then my wonderful husband decided that it was time that we pray. (Why does it bother you when you know you need to pray, but someone else says it??!!) So we prayed, and as we were praying, and I was trying my best to keep a sour look on my face just because I felt like staying mad, I was reminded of something Carl Lentz at DBTW said .  He reminded us that Proverbs 11:25 says that those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.  That kinda sounds similar to the reaping + sowing deal.  God’s a funny one. So, I tried to suck it up and help my family out. And you know, I kinda do feel better.  Sure, I could sit here and dwell on all the things that still bug me that aren’t resolved yet, but why? I’m gonna take that freshy mcfresh feeling and roll with it.

So who can you refresh today?

i just call you mine

This summer has been challenging. In many ways.  We put our house on the market, we’ve been meticulously watching Charlotte’s weight gain, and Jamie has traveled. Oh has that man traveled.  And its been the traveling that has been the most challenging.

I should know and understand what my husband does for a living and why travel is a part of it. But that doesn’t make the long days by myself any easier. To be honest, I’ve had a hard time not being mad about it. “Oh great, you’re going to be gone for ANOTHER week. Yay.” And sometimes that lack of enthusiasm has spilled out into public view. Which is wrong. It doesn’t matter how I feel about any situation, I should always be the picture of support and encouragement to the outside world.  But ya know, God has a funny way of reminding me of things.

I was reading blogs today, like I do every morning, and I read a post a wife had written about her husband’s birthday.  This passage especially caught my attention:

“He was full of adventures, tales of travels, and a sparkle in his blue eyes that told me his adventuring had only just begun. I had known nothing in my life as strongly and instantly as I knew that day that I wanted to be on whatever adventure he was on.”

That is exactly how I felt when I met Jamie.  I was young, excited about life, and wanted big adventures to go on.  Jamie had the same passion.  So why now, when he is finally living out his dreams and adventures, do I sit back and whine about it?  Being the mother of his children is the biggest adventure I can be a part of, being his wife is so exciting, being his ministry partner just takes my breath away. I, me, Jennifer, get to be in the passenger seat of his adventures. I get to go with him where he goes. Maybe not physically all the time, but I’m there. We are on adventures together. What is more exciting than that?? The day-to-day of those adventures aren’t always glamorous, and can be kind of mundane.  I mean, reaching the summit of Mt. Everest is accomplished by a lot of tedious work.  But its worth it.

I heard this song on the radio the other day, and it had me in tears. This is EXACTLY how I feel about Jamie. “Everyone who sees you, always wants to know you. Everyone who knows you, always wears a smile. Everyone calls you amazing, I just call you mine.”

critiquing or creating?

Ouch. I was doing my morning blog stalking, when I ran across this post:

Being a Christian Culture Snob

I scored at 32. Seriously, a 32. I know he’s all funny and joking and stuff, but wow, that kinda stung.  Do I really spend more time critiquing than creating?? Something to think about.

disconnected

Tonight I was driving back to Cynthia’s house to pick up Charlotte.  It was after Stage20 so I was driving through Wake Forest… and my windshield wiper came off.  Just started flopping all over the place. Great. Its raining. I’m alone. Its dark. And I had to pull off into some neighborhood to try and fix my windsheild wiper (the idea of me fixing anything car related is quite hilarious).  I get out, and I can’t fix it.  So I call Jamie, though it wasn’t like he could help, he was way far away doing something else, but I needed to complain to someone.  He told me it was probably not broken but just disconnected and that I should reconnect it. Oh yeah, that sounds easy. So after much twisting and prying and general “monkeying” with the stupid thing, I got it back on (I heard some Canadian lady on tv today say she “monkeyed with the picture to get it right”, I liked it, so I stole it).  But it almost took my hand with it.  I’m lucky to have survived such a brutal attack.  I digress…

I got back in my car thinking, “Really? REALLY? Did this really need to happen now, I mean, it’s RAINING!”  And then a funny thought crossed my mind.  Of course it broke while it’s raining, when else would I be using the wipers?! Isn’t that so like life, though?  When things are going smoothly, we aren’t really doing anything but just being, nothing breaks.  Everything sits there all pretty and ready to go, and we don’t ever know there is a problem.  Until the rain comes.  The problems, the stress of life really show us where we are weak, where we can break.  Pastor Micah always says you don’t know whats in a tea bag until you add hot water.  Its not until the craziness happens that things can get all disconnected.

So when things go all wompy-jawed, you have two choices.  Get ticked about the problem that you probably didn’t have any control over (like the rain), or deal with your weakness and make it strong again (reconnect the wiper).  You know, the funniest thing about all of this is that we are studying a book about joy right now in Stage20.  And tonight especially we were talking about how to react to situations better and not let negative emotions control us.  Haha, maybe I need to go back and re-read that chapter!!

Hail To The Chief

Yesterday (Wednesday), President Obama came to Raleigh NC.  He was holding a Town Hall Meeting at Broughton High School to promote his Health Care Bill.  Since there were so few tickets and they went too fast, I settled for standing outside to let the President know what I thought of his plan.

I wasn’t sure what to expect.  My mom goes to these protests all the time, but I’d never been to one.  Though I did know that if my mom went, they must be pretty tame.  So I headed down there with the baby+gear and two friends.  I didn’t make any signs, mostly because I just wasn’t sure how to put what I was thinking into a few words to make an effective sign.  But when we got down there, a guy had a bunch of these signs printed, so he gave me one.  I thought it captured my thoughts perfectly.  So, we were there holding our signs, waiting on the President.

For the most part the crowd stayed very civil.  There were a few crazies that wandered around, but most people avoided them.  I really don’t understand people sometimes, though.  Why don’t people understand the futility of yelling your point of view at others?

This guy was yelling at the people on the other corner.  They were there in support of the Health Care Plan.  They started screaming really awful things at each other.  No one is going to go, “Oh, wow, I’m so glad you yelled that at me through your MegaPhone. You are so right. I am so wrong. Thank you for letting me see the light.” It just ain’t happ’nin! Everyone is entitled to their opinion, that is part of the beauty of this country.  Feel free to disagree with people, but don’t stand there telling them they are stupid or that you hope they die of lung cancer (I’m not even joking, someone yelled that).  My whole purpose for being down there was to show the President that there are people, ordinary people, who do not like his Health Care Plan and want a different kind of change.  It was to support the others who feel that their freedoms are being enfringed upon.  It was not to change anyone’s opinions, it was simply to share mine.

I rather enjoyed the rally.  Can’t really put my finger on why, but I liked it. Perhaps it was being able to share with others who thought the same way.  Maybe it was simply exercising our constitutional rights.  Or being a part of something bigger.  I dunno. But I enjoyed it, and will probably attend others.  One of the really neat things that happened was that I got to see the President.  Granted, I don’t agree with many of the policies he has tried to pass, but he is still our President, and deserves the respect that office carries.  Plus, it was just cool to see someone so famous.  Like right there. In person. For real.  That was something I’ll remember forever.

the mommy diaries

My friend, St. Kelsie J of North Raleigh, gave me an awesome book.  Usually when she says “I have something for you”, it ends up being a chewing gum wrapper or something like that.  But this time she handed me a bag with a book inside.  It was the mommy diaries: finding yourself in the daily adventure.

I thought, “oh awesome, this should be funny.” I don’t really know why I thought it would be funny, but anyway… That night when I got home, I opened it up and by the end of the first page, I was in tears.  But the good kind, you know what I mean ladies. The book is full of stories written by moms about their mothering journey.  It was exactly what I needed to get me back in gear.  There were some areas of my life I was letting slip by the wayside, really for no other reason than laziness.  But this book was the inspiration I needed to step back on the right path and get back in the game.  So I wanted to share this awesome awesome book with you.  Here’s a small excerpt from one of the stories…

“The New Me” by Colleen Kappeler

Truth be told, it took years of motherhood for me to find peace in my new role and with my new definition of self.  For the longest time I kept looking over one shoulder, wondering what was out there and what adventure I was missing.  Wondering who this new person I had become was and how to identify with her.  But slowly, over time, I have found new ways to define myself.  I have stretched beyond the boundaries of my old self and created a new idea of self that connected to my original one.  … Motherhood requires flexibility.  You discover new things about yourself and rediscover old things that you though you had to give up.

ARG!

With it being the off season for most major networks (thank you, USA for having your shows run during the off season), I’ve quickly caught up on the “regulars”.  So with Jamie outta town, I had to fill up the time after Charlotte goes to bed with something, so I found a new show – Ugly Betty.  I was kinda hesitant at first because I didn’t know what it was really about.  But I was pleasantly surprised, its pretty good.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a lovely lesson, right there smack in the middle of a hilarious show.  So I thought I’d share it with you…

I was hoping to find a clip to show you, but couldn’t find one in the 2 minutes I spent searching YouTube.  Diligence= intense effort. I do it all for you. So anyway, its S3E5 if anyone finds it.

Betty is teaching Kimmie Keagan how to be the best assistant ever, and she, being the overly organized wonder-woman that she is, has an acronym for what to do.  Oh how I love Betty It’s ARG.

A- Anticipate: Know what people need before they do.

R- Research: Read everything, listen to everything, know everything.

G- Gumption: Take a deep breath, we are just getting started.

Here’s an example from later in the show:

Kimmie: So I noticed that Daniel’s cuticles were a little rough. I heard the editor talking about a new spa where they soak your hands in organic olive oil. They told me no openings till March. I told them no editors pick in Mode. Daniel has an appointment on Friday.

Betty: Wow! Well, you anticipated, did research, and showed gumption. ARG!

So while this show is about a fashion magazine, this is an awesome lesson for a wife.  Our role as wife is very similar to that of an Executive Assistant, believe me.  Your job is to make it possible for the CEO to do their job.  Sometimes that means doing glamorous things like planning and hosting big events, but sometimes it just means picking up their dry cleaning. As a wife, we have our own callings, our own path ordained by God.  But part of that path is to clear the way for our husbands to reach their goals.  If that means you work outside the home to make money so that he can pursue his dreams, good. If it means you work at home to keep life running while he is out the big wide world making a difference, good. Whatever it means for your family, your callings will always match, fit, and compliment each others.  As an ExecAsst, you have your own tasks, work load, things you want/need to get done, but you also have the job of taking care of the things necessary to get the CEO’s job done.  Just as your husband has his calling, but part of that calling is to spend time praying and seeking God in order to lead the family. But lets get back to ARG…

Anticipate – take time to think ahead. What’s coming up in the next few days?  Is your husband leaving for a trip? Does he have a day off? Is he about to go through a rough week at work with a huge workload? And what can you do to make that event easier? Is it laundry & packing? Is it planning fun activities for the family to do together? Is it making his favorite meals so that he has a pleasant end to a crazy day? Just think ahead.

Research – As a good ExecAsst, you know a reasonable amount about everything.  You may not be an expert at it, but you at least know where to find the needed information. This is important as a wife too.  Maybe its just a woman thing, but isn’t it always the wife that knows where the car keys are? At least in this house it is Be observant, keep your eyes and ears open.

Gumption- Take the initiative.  It may not be your “chore”, but do it.  Por ejemplo, in our house Jamie is in charge of the cars.  But I don’t let the car come to a sputtering stop before I mention to him that the service light came on (3 weeks ago!).  And Jamie is also in charge of the dogs, but I can make the appointment for the vet, even if I’m not the one who takes them.  Be the one to take initiative to make sure your home and family are operating like they should. Learn how to save more money. Learn how to earn more money. Just do something.

Some of you may be thinking, “thats not my job”, and believe me, that thought runs through my mind more than I care to admit.  But this is a great place for the principle of sowing and reaping to come into play.  If you do these things for your husband, they will be done for you, too.

So, ladies, just say ARG!

and i only lost a toenail

Well, there it was. Last night was Charlotte’s 1st Birthday Party!  We had family over to celebrate, eat food, and consume an ungodly amount of cupcakes!  Charlotte tried her own cupcake, though she didn’t like the frosting quite so much.  And she wouldn’t smoosh into it like you see on TV.  She’s  too much of a Mr Clean Princess for that.

The prep work was crazy.  All those cupcakes (oh gosh, they are still sitting on my kitchen table… must. not. eat. all. today!).  So much pink. And glitter! And in the process, I didn’t lose my salvation… just a toenail!  Well, most of it anyway.  (That mental image is my gift to you, You’re Welcome)  And can I tell you, it still hurts.  My poor little naked/bald/exposed toe.  I wonder how long it takes for toenails to grow back.  Can I paint the skin to match the other nails so my foot doesn’t look so deformed? Anybody know or have experience to share?  Speaking of sharing, if you are one of those people that just have to look at gross things, I’ll be happy to show you my poor toe if you’d like.  Free of charge. Again, You’re Welcome.

But anywho, this post was really supposed to be about Charlotte and her first birthday party.  I’ll have the videos on YouTube to share later, and I’ll try to hijack the grandmas cameras to steal thier pictures (my camera just kinda stayed in hiding the whole party. I think she’s shy).  But for now, enjoy the few pictures I did get…

all the naked cakes

the cakes with thier party dresses on

the birthday throne minus princess

Photo taken by Ann Mukherjee of Miss Jee’s Photography