I can't breath...or move...


June 30th...
Well, since I have 30 days to pass a PT test to try and get into a new Reserve Unit down here, I figured it was about time to try Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. All my friends are doing it (or have done it) so I guess it's time to jump on the band wagon! I did the first workout tonight after I put the kids to bed and...I want back off the bandwagon! I seriously thought my legs were going to fall out from underneath me. I could hear Jillian's voice saying "I know it's burning, this is the part where you make a change for yourself! No breaks! Work through it!" and I was shouting back to her "Shut up! You're going to kill me! How many cesareans have YOU had missy?" Ok...Averi is 7 months old, maybe it's too late to use that excuse, but still. I knew she was right, that's why I didn't stop, but I did get off count a few times because my repitions were a tad slower than what those girls on the DVD can pump out. Anyway...day one is over, day two is coming, I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I can see my bubble bath filling up. That will make everything better for a few minutes! And YES, those are my spaghettio weights. Some of the arm exercises weren't really doing anything for me, so I think before tomorrow I should invest in some cream of potato or something. Something with a little more substance and umph to it, so I can really feel the burn.
Oh yeah, one more thing: I bought this book today, it's called Twilight. I don't know, I have never heard of it before. I guess I'll give it a shot and let you guys know if it is any good...

What a nice brother


June 29th...
This morning we were all lounging around in the bedroom while I talked to Derrick on Yahoo. Cael was watching Dora and eating his breakfast, and Averi had a few toys to play with on the floor. I don't know how she does it, she doesn't know how to crawl yet, but every time I turn away and then look back at her, she is at least a foot from where she was previously sitting. I turned around at one point and she had a foot under my bed. She was still playing contently so I left her there, 5 minutes later, she was under the bed from her belly button down and I started to laugh. I still didn't rescue her because she didn't seem to need rescuing, and when I looked back just a few seconds later, she was only a head! Lucky for her (and me) her helmet didn't fit under the bed she was still able to be grabbed. Did I? No. I was talking to my husband after days of not hearing from him! Don't call CPS, she was fine....she had her older brother to look after her! He brought her blankets and pillows, he even let her play with a few of his toys and THAT...doesn't happen! And she was content as can be, I bet it was nice and cool under there!

Mrs. Hulk


June 28th...
I know what you are thinking...but yes! I got that dresser into the closet all by my lonesome. And I know the picture only shows half of it, and you know why? It's HUGE! I didn't think I would be able to do it either, sometimes I surprise myself. See?!?! Who needs a husband? KIDDING, I do...I really do.

Someone has hair!



June 27th...
The doctor who made Averi's helmet told me on the day she got casted "Oh, before you know it hair is going to be sticking up right out of all these holes!" I was starting to think he was lying, or that Averi was just destined to be one of those babies with very little hair until she was a toddler, but today getting her out of the tub I noticed how much it really is growing! I wish I could put a little barrett in it, or maybe one of her adorable head bands...but nooooo, gotta wear the helmet! I should just decorate it, I don't know why I haven't yet. Time to get out the rub ons!

Not a good day for the park


June 26th...
Our friend Tiffany was planning on coming over today, so I thought we might head her direction first and play at the park near her house before she came over. It seemed like a good enough idea, beautiful summer day, the park is surrounded by trees so the equipment wouldn't be sizzling...didn't exactly turn out that way. What looked like a nice perfect day from inside my air conditioned house turned out to be blistering hot and made the walk to the park absolutely miserable. The equipment was nice and shaded so that part I was right about, the kids played on the swings and were happy as can be for a while, but Tiffany and I were absolutely dying! After the swings, I let Cael play on the playground for about 30 seconds before we decided to call it quits and head back to Tiffany's for Popsicles! As much as I would love for the kids to be playing outside and getting fresh air and exercise this summer...it's only worth it if momma doesn't keel over in the process!

Where's Cael?


June 25th...
Cael is such a goon! He has started playing with all of his stuffed animals lately (as well as some of his sister's) He has animals that he has never even touched before, I didn't think he even knew he had them. Some switch got flipped in him somewhere and now they are all he wants to play with. He has a "Tica" (horse) that apparently can fly. He very patiently places each and every other animal he has on that horses back on at a time and flies it from one side of his lap to the other, then he takes that animal off and puts on another. It's so funny to watch, and I love the fact that he is playing with other toys and giving his poor cars a break, I don't know what they are going to do without him.

I have amazing friends!


June 24th...
Today my good friend Faith came over and gave me a break from my reality. I can not even begin to tell her how much that meant to me. It has been one of those days, the kids decide to nap opposite each other so there is no in between time for me to get my bearings, the house seems to get messier and messier as I clean, and I am just in a bad mood. Maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I don't know. But anyway, Faith came over today and watched the kids for me while I curled up on my bed with the door closed and read a book! Actually, I read about a page and a half before I fell asleep. It was the best nap I have ever had. It wasn't guilt free though, I don't know how many times I apologized to her after I woke up, but she came over to help me out and she really did! I owe you so much Faith, I don't think I can ever repay you for today, I feel 100 times better!

Unfinished Business


June 23rd...
This is kind of a random blog since I didn't take any pictures of what we did today, but I started this painting out of pure boredom one day in high school. It's on like a foam board thing from my dads work, not even a canvas, and it's been on the back of my mind ever since because it isn't done. It has followed me from house to house. It's been to Spokane, Kettle Falls, Post Falls, California, Tekoa, Clarksville....and it still has no water! To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure the best way to paint the water on without losing my trees...so it will probably look like this for the rest of my life. It is stashed behind the headboard of our bed and I look at it every night and think "maybe tomorrow." Who knows...poor picture.

Hot Hot Hot day


June 22nd...
The weather was brutal today! I'm not sure exactly how hot it was, but the sun screen was melting off us and the kids as we were walking to the pool. Lucky for Cael, we were sharing a "real fruit slush" from Sonic and that really helped keep us feeling good. Those things are amazing! My number one way to beat the heat!
The pool was fun today, we went with Eryn and Sonia. Cael isn't so sure about the water yet this year, at least not without a death grip on me. He likes it fine I guess, he just doesn't trust it. I don't blame him, he is getting older and realizing he could sink. I am ready to get him into swim lessons, but I think that we are going to wait until next year so daddy can be here for that.

HGTV here I come


June 21st...
Ok so maybe it's not HGTV worthy, but I am pretty proud of this entertainment center! I got it for $10 off craigslist and it was yucky, black and looked about ready to be thrown in a dumpster somewhere. The guy selling it said it was trashed and for some reason I decided I wanted it anyway. It's nice and sturdy and heavy duty and with a fresh coat (or two) of paint I knew it would be much better than the hope chest my TV was sitting on before! I am walking on cloud 9 a little bit over this bad boy...not because it's beautifully done because it's really not, and I didn't do anything special to it...I'm just happy that I did something. My living room looks huge now, and coordinated!

Happy Father's Day!!


June 20th...
Today is Father's Day, and as weird as it was spending Mother's Day alone, today I felt more guilt than anything else. There are so many dads and sons spending this day overseas that it just doesn't seem fair. I know when put into perspective there are other holidays that are probably more worth coming home for, but every dad should get to hug his 2 year old today. Every dad should get to rock his baby girl to sleep tonight.
We did get a special call from daddy this morning and Cael (luckily, for everyone involved) was in a good mood and wanted nothing more than to carry the phone around and talk to his daddy! We got to talk for a good half hour and it was so special. We haven't talked on the phone in a month or two and it was great to hear his voice. Nothing will compare to the happiness we felt this morning! Well...nothing until he gets to come home anyway!

I didn't know I had color in my front yard!


June 19th...
So I was washing dishes today and I opened the blinds on my window to let in a little sun and BAM! Purple flowers! (Yes, I realize the flowers in the picture are pink...I'm getting there...)
I have a little shrub/tree thing (excuse my white thumb garden lingo) in front of my house, just outside my kitchen window, and I had no clue it was going to bloom! It is so pretty, I went outside to take a picture and guess what? The one next to it has flowers too! (pink flowers...)
It's so fun to move into a house in the winter time and just watch what happens when spring and summer roll around! I am thinking this is it for this house...but at least it's something! I couldn't be happier!

"family" dinners!


June 18th...
So a family dinner without Derrick will never really be a family dinner, but Cael, Averi and I were more than happy to have Faith over to eat with us tonight! Getting Averi's highchair has really made me get back to eating at the table again for lunch and dinner. She loves to be a part of the group, and even though eating at the same time as her means I always eat cold food...that's alright! At least we all sit down together for a while!
Faith is awesome to have around, especially at the dinner table. Her and Cael laughed the entire time, she even taught him how to smack the table when something is REALLY funny! She's a hoot!

Thanks a lot rain...



June 17th...
We had the funnest day planned today! A bunch of us were going to take the kids to the splash park on post and spend the day in the sun (or hopefully shade) Well, we woke up to thunderstorms. This is TN so of course the weather channel said they would pass, and they did. By noon the sky was perfectly clear. We all met at my house and hung out, ate lunch, napped Cael, took our sweet time...sure enough we get all changed and sunblocked up, get in the car, head up to the park...and we see that Ft. Campbell is covered by more storm clouds! It's pouring before we even make it to Amber's house which was only a block or 2's drive and we spent the rest of the day inside playing board games! There is nothing like a great group of friends when the weather turns nasty!!

Watch Out!


June 16th...
Cael got a special surprise today for being an awesome little boy and always helping momma out. (And by always, I mean sometimes!) I wanted to get him the trike that looked just like this one, still Diego, but it had a dashboard with about a thousand different buttons and sounds. When Walmart didn't have that one I thought to myself "talk about a blessing in disguise!" We don't have a paved driveway, so other than up and down the walk way, this thing will most likely be in the house, I'll take the quiet one! Lord knows I take the stinkin lawn mower and pusher popper thing away from him daily because they are so loud they always wake up the baby plus he insists on running over the dog! We went over a set of ground rules when we were putting the trike together and one of them obviously was 'No running over Jo', in Cael's defense I said nothing about little sister. Not more than 10 minutes after giving it to him, I was in the kitchen getting inner ready and I heard the 'thunk thunk thunk' of a tricycle trying it's very hardest to go up and over a helmet coming from the living room. I only had to tell him once and he left her alone, which must have been hard for him because Averi thought it was hilarious. I can't win I tell ya! I am trying to protect her and she takes his side ALL THE TIME! Oh well, as soon as she is old enough to fight back I am going to throw my arms in the air and just say "go for it" they can duke it out if that's what they really want to do!
Cael needs a few more inches of leg and he will be able to reach the pedals on that bad boy and then I get to break out the umbrella stroller for walks!

He Smiled!



June 15th...
OK anyone who knows Cael, knows that he is not the type to have his feelings written all over his face. When it comes to rides and things anyway. Believe I KNOW when he's mad, that he has no problem showing! But for some reason whenever we are somewhere like a theme park or carnival, he's a blank slate. He'll ride the rides for sure, he has an "I'll try anything once" kind of attitude, but it's so hard to judge whether or not he is having any fun at all. The only way I can tell if he liked a ride is whether or not he wants to go on again. Little Roller Coasters he is not too fond of yet, he doesn't like the ones that go so fast he can't get his bearings, but other than that, he is pretty easy going. I weaseled him onto this Nascar ride that him and Bradley wanted to go on (they were an inch too short and the carnie was not about to break his rules! but he gave in as long as the boys promised to hold on) The ride went super slow until the cars whipped around the corner of the race track, I was a little nervous for him. I kept telling him to hold on tight, but to my surprise Cael actually started laughing! Granted, he was laughing mainly because Bradley and Lily were laughing too, but still! I have never been able to get a smile out of him on a ride before, this is one for the record books!

My New Project


June 14th...
I have been in such a "better homes and gardens" type mood lately. I want to paint, I want to build something, I want to plant a garden....well ok not really, I am more stuck on inside stuff right now. I just want my house to look nice and decorated, and I would like to try and do some of it myself. After a few days of watching HGTV all day long I was starting to go stir crazy because I didn't know what to do. I can't paint, so that's out, but I can paint on a canvas and hang it up! So that's one idea I have when it comes to decorating my living room and kids rooms.
Well yesterday on craigslist I saw this old entertainment center for $10. I called the guy (who said it was in WAY worse condition than it really is) and asked him if a little paint would fix it up, or if it was falling apart. He said it was still sturdy and just looked bad, so I told him I wanted it! What better way to get my painting fix? It's a little bigger than I anticipated, but I will make it work. Tomorrow (would be today, but its been raining) we will head to Hobby Lobby and get some sand paper, a little paint and make this thing look awesome! (I hope)
I will post more pictures when it's done!

Bedtime Stories


June 13th...
When my neighbor across the street was cleaning out her kids' bedrooms, she brought over a massive pile of books for Cael and Averi. There was so many I didn't even look at them all, I just put them on the shelf for Cael to discover. Well, I was picking them all up the other day and I found this one. It was about bedtime so I stuck it aside and told Cael we would read it for bedtime. That night, as promised, we read this book about how farm animals go to sleep and I loved it! It's such a cute book, and by the time it was over Cael's eyelids were getting heavy! We read it again tonight only this time I brought Averi in with us and we all read the story together. It was so nice, they were both calm and cuddly and we just sat on the floor and read a story. I could read to them all day long! (when they are in the mood to sit and listen anyway)

Just a Swingin...



June 12th...
The kids and I went to birthday party today for one of Cael's friends. It was at a park on post and it was hot hot hot! Heat didn't matter at all to the kids (with the exception of Averi, but can you blame her?) They were all over the playground! My two especially loved the swings, Averi didn't want to get out! It was so fun to see her enjoying herself in such warm weather, I can't even imagine the day that she is able to swing by herself...of course I said that about Cael too and now it's hard to remember him as a baby! Weird how that happens, but it is good justification for the millions of pictures I take!

Happy Late Mother's Day


June 11th...
I got my Mother's Day package yesterday from my mom and sister. It was a really good feeling to get it a month after, it reminded me that it really doesn't matter what day the calendar says. Mother's Day (or anybody's "day") is every single day. Cael and Averi didn't love me any more on May 9th, or any less every other day. It was just a really good feeling. I have never had a wind chime before as crazy as that probably sounds and I couldn't hang this one up fast enough. I love her, she hangs right outside my front door! There was also a pretty bee catcher and a wall hanging and guess what? They are BOTH hung up already! Go me!
Thanks you guys, you made my day!

DERRICK!!!!


June 10th...
OK, it's official now...I can't handle this! I need my husband back NOW. I turned around tonight and this monster of a spider was poised and ready halfway up my wall. Ready for what? I'm not exactly sure...find a nice hiding spot and have an ungodly amount of babies to run amok in my house *cringe*...or maybe find it's way to my bed and become of the 8 spiders I will supposedly swallow in my sleep during my life time (according to a snapple cap I have anyway.) Anyway, I stood frozen in my living room, trying not to cry and thinking of the easiest way to ensure a kill. Vacuum? No...I would have to look away to get it and it could use that opportunity to run and hide. Bug Killer? No...the spider is directly above it, I would have to reach over there giving it a perfect landing zone on my arm. All I have left is squishing it with a shoe. Lucky for me, I have big feet (never thought I would say that) and big feet means big shoes. It was pretty much a given that I would be able to do this. I just about dislocated my arm trying to reach 15 feet across my living room to grab my shoe, but somehow I got it and never took my eyes off the spider. I DID however turn my body and apparently that was enough to give it the confidence it needed for a mad dash! It tried walking sideways across the wall and couldn't so it fell to the floor. There it was, crouched behind the bug killer I had just bought at Lowes 2 or 3 hours before (ironic huh?) and all I had to do was drop my shoe on it? How hard is that? Apparently pretty hard because go figure...I missed! It took off. I don't blame it, really. I would have counted my lucky stars and got the hell out of there too! But it shouldn't have been in my house, as far as I am concerned, I have every right to kill it! (or try to) It stayed behind the bug killer a little longer and I reached over and opened the back door. I am hoping, hoping, HOPING that it went outside because I haven't seen it since. I walked around on my tippy toes for an entire day because I was so scared, but the bug spray is coming now! Then they will be sorry!
Derrick! You are totally getting your husbandly duties back the SECOND you walk through this door!

Freedom!


June 9th...
For as young as Averi is, she sure is taking well to her helmet. She is very tolerant even though it's hot and it's humid. She doesn't ever fuss or cry just because she has it on. She sleeps like a champ in it. But man! We sure get some smiles when she gets to take it off! Her favorite thing to do when she has it off is to rub her head against my shoulder, and it just breaks my heart! I can't wait until she gets to have it off for good, she's going to look great! She had her first appointment yesterday to have adjustments made and that was huge! That means it's already been a month! They said she was making great progress and I should expect nothing short of amazing results when we are done with this. I wish it was a faster process, but I am just so thankful that she is willing to let it happen. I love that Derrick and I were able to do this for her, and I can't wait to see the final result!

Ah-ha!


June 8th...
"Cael, what's on your shirt?"
"Ah-Ha!"
"Ah-Ha? Don't you mean monkey?"
"Uh-huh! Key-Mo..."
"Closer, but that's backwards. Monkey!"
"Key-Mo!"
"Close enough, What does a monkey say?"
"Oooh Oooh Ah-Ha!"
"Ohh.....Ah-ha, I get it now!"
"Eek Um Momma"
"You're welcome bud"

Ahhh Kids...


June 7th...
My crazy daughter insists on sleeping in the weirdest positions. She almost always has at least one foot up on the railing of her crib, sometimes they are both up there and crossed at the ankles. I love going in and peeking at her after she falls asleep just to see how she is laying. I don't know what it is about watching babies sleep...it's just the most adorable/hilarious thing in the world. I can hardly remember a night when Derrick and I didn't go in and check on Cael after bedtime and have to put our hands over our mouths to quiet our laughter. I miss him so much and it is breaking my heart to have to giggle at our sleeping kids all by myself. I feel more guilty than anything. I am in the Army too, why does he have to miss out on Averi's first year and not me? Why doesn't he get to be here to see Cael learn to talk and grow into a big boy? Because he is a bigger and better person than me probably, he is amazing and he can do that job over there better than anyone I know. I guess that's why!

A day at the Lake


June 6th...
Today Tiffany took the kids and I to a beach on Kentucky lake! She swam here a lot as a kid and was wanting an excuse to spend the day there, so being the awesome friend that I am, I gave her one! We got out there around 3 oclock which is totally unheard of back in Washington! If you don't get to the water by 11/noon it's almost not worth it, but here we weren't even the last people to get there! There were people still arriving to go swim when we left at 6:30! Cael was so excited to get there, he had been wearing his water shoes since he woke up this morning. He even wore his life jacket shirt thing around the house for an hour or two before we left.
I got a big fish floaty for Averi even though I wasn't really sure she would be big enough or stable enough to sit in it, I just know that there are certain places that are almost impossible to take two kids, and water is one of them! I figured if they could both float OK, then Tiffany would still be able to enjoy the water herself. To my surprise, Averi loved it! The whole time she was in there she was kicking her feet. She was even kicking when I got her out and held her in the water myself. And the sand was no different! She was all over it! She wanted nothing more than to roll in the sand and dig her tiny little hands in. It was hilarious because Cael was NOT a sand baby. When I took him to Hawaii last summer he would sit on his butt and balance there so his hands and feet were all up the air and he wouldn't have to touch the sand. I think it has something to do with the time he was born...he was born in March so during that first summer, he was still a baby baby and didn't spend a whole lot of time on the ground. If we went to the beach or pool, he was usually inside the air conditioned house, or his stroller in the shade. So by the time his second summer rolled around, sand and grass was still new to him. But with Averi, she was born in November so she is able to really be a part of everything we do this summer, she is getting an earlier start on being exposed to things like sand. Or...Cael is just a whiner! Either way you slice it, Averi likes sand and Cael could live without it :) Maybe a house in Hawaii isn't in our future afterall...Nah! He would get used to it, I'm sure!

Oh man...


June 5th...
Somewhere in this madness of a bookshelf is a folded up piece of ripped yellow paper. On it is a story I started a long time ago and would really like to type out and add on to....maybe even finish! I found my journal from my Creative Writing class in college and was instantly proud of myself for knowing where it was, only to be disappointed in the fact that I had taken all the loose leaf story starters out. I remember doing it too, when we first moved here and were unpacking the books I felt all macho and organizy and I started "cleaning" up the mess of loose papers I had. I know I didn't throw them away, I'm a procrastinator and a non-project finisher...but I'm not stupid! Those were my story starters and I was proud of them...some of them anyway. (I know, it's obvious I got off the "unpacking" track about the 4th shelf down and just stuck everything in...and there it sits 6 months later.) Anyway...the search is still on and hopefully I will be up all night writing. I am in the mood for that today. I am in the mood to paint too and if I can't find my piece of paper I might just break out the paints. It feels good to feel all artsy and crafty, this is how I felt in high school!


***Update, I tried to go paint just now and my paints are all garbage! Grrr! Who new acrylic paint doesn't last forever? Probably everyone but me...oh well.

I got something done!


June 4th...
I am finally on my way to having a house I am proud of! When Derrick and I first moved down here we had planned to "spoil" one room at a time every other payday until we had the house decorated and furnished the way we wanted. Well...that didn't happen. There were too many big things to do, and other expenses kept jumping in, as usual. So today I finally decided to start somewhere, and I picked the living room! The black curtains were nice against the sunlight but they made it feel so...bachelor pad to me. Who has black curtains? A guy. Who has pea soup green curtains? ME! Kidding, they are sage, but they look pretty "baby poop" in this picture if you ask me. I instantly loved it the second I was hanging them up, they make my living room look so much bigger! I am no where near done and I won't be able to go nuts like I would like to...but eventually our house will be decorated as decorated can get!

And she's off!

June 3rd...
We spent the day at Eryn's house today to hang out with her and Sonia, who is now a crawler! It was so exciting to see her go. Cael was an army crawler, so it was awesome to see someone so little crawl around the house up on her knees! I know I should be patient and be happy that Averi still stays in one plays, but I can't wait to see her moving around! From here to the first birthday is my absolute favorite part of raising a baby! So far :)

Tie Breaker!


June 2nd...
Faith, her brother Joe, the kids and I all headed to Tie Breaker Famiyl Aquatic Center today in Hopkinsville! I didn't even know there was a water park nearby (closer than Nashville anyway) but it was really cute. It's mostly geared for kids, which is awesome, but there are a few big slides too. I can't wait for Derrick to come home and go to these places with us. It's definitely a different kind of parenting when you are on your own! I give a huge thumbs up to single moms everywhere, because doing even the simplest thing is about 1,000 times more complicated now. Lucky for me, I have some great friends who enjoy my kids as much as I do and were more than willing to sit with the sleeping baby, or accompany Cael out to the water toys. After a few hours of swimming Joe noticed the very threatening rain clouds over head and I completely shrugged them off, HA! 20 minutes later whistles were blowing for everyone to get out, wind came out of nowhere and turned a nice sunny day into the kind of "wrap yourself up in a towel to stay warm" weather. We headed into the locker rooms to get dressed and about 30 seconds after we came out BAM! Rain drops the size of marbles and they weren't falling from the sky...they were being thrown! We had to wrap the kids in towels and bolt for the car. By the time we got there we were more wet than we had been in the pool and struggling to get kids buckled in before Faith's poor car filled up completely with rainwater! It was insane.
I thought it might be just a quick storm, and there were some people in the park who were going to try and wait it out, but you look outside now and it is still rainy and gloomy out. It had that grayness that you only really see on days when it's rainy ALL day...it's almost hard to believe that just a few hours ago we were all getting sun burnt and playing in the pool!

Retard Day...everyone is allowed to have one!

June 1st...
I have no picture for today...if I had even tried to take my camera out today, I probably would have dropped it. Or lost it. Or had it stolen. That's the kind of day I had.
It started off simple enough, puttering around the house for the first few hours after we wake up, watching DVR from last night and folding some laundry. I knew I had to go grocery shopping and pay bills and I figured I would wait until after lunch to get all that done...maybe, maybe I would do it just before lunch and get something while we were out. Or maybe I would just put it off one more day, I hadn't totally decided yet. I asked a friend to go to lunch with me figuring I needed to motivation to get out of the house anyway and when it turned out she was already busy I decided to put the kids down for a nap and put off my errands until the afternoon. Averi was wide awake but I was eventually able to get her down and as I was putting Cael in his bed I had a total epiphany. I told him to hold on one second and I bolted to the calendar on the fridge. Go Figure! Dr. appointment at 2 oclock! I thought to myself CRAP, it is 12:15 and I have to be in Nashville for Averi to get her helmet checked in less than 2 hours! Plus needing to eat and get gas...I had to leave in less than 15 minutes! Last time I parked in the wrong parking garage and spent 30 minutes walking to the right area of the hospital, so this time I called the front desk and left my cell phone number for them to call me back with directions. Then I woke Averi up got her dressed, Cael was already dressed and awake thank goodness, packed the diaper bag, grabbed a sippy cup and we bolted. I remembered as I was backing out of the driveway that I needed to put oil in my car and was instantly afraid to drive all the way to Nashville without getting any, I contemplated (like many moms do...I hope I'm not the only one) leaving the kids in the car, leaving the AC on and parking next to the door so I could just whip in and whip out. That may have worked out OK, I have never actually gone through with it before, I always get scared of kidnappers and end up taking them in with me, but I was in a huge hurry! It didn't matter though because right in front of me, a cop car pulled in to the space next to the door. Never mind that idea! I figured I should get gas anyway since we were already going to be there for a minute, so I pulled to a pump and started getting the kids out. Before I even had Cael unbuckled my cell phone rang and it was the hospital. The lady said
"...spell her name for me?"
"B-R-U-N-E-R"
"....who is she coming to see?"
"Dr. Wit--Oh crap! that's MY dr!"
"*laughter*"
Good grief! Had I not needed gas, I would been on my way to Nashville when they called, and for no reason! Averi doesn't get her helmet checked until next week! Talk about a basket case. So now I had an hour to kill before my own Dr appointment. We drove around, ate some KFC, and ended up sitting in a room at the clinic for an hour and a half just to get a referral to another dr. Sheesh. By this time it's 3:30 and we are all sweating bullets. Averi is cranky because her nap was interrupted, Cael is miserable because he hadn't napped at all yet, and I am miserable because I was wearing dark jeans and a black t-shirt! That's what you get when you have an AC in your house that works...a complete shock when you step outside.
Not even a mile and a half down the road, both kids are asleep and I still have to go to the bank and get groceries so I thought about the best way to tackle this. Ah-hah! The bank has a drive through window perfect! Well...like an idiot I pulled up to the tubes instead of the window even though I didn't have a deposit slip to fill out. It was too late to back up by then so I figured oh well, my old bank would be OK with this...(my old bank served a town of 500 but still...)
As I was pulling up there was a sign that read "Please stop at the first station" So I did. The closest one to me. The first one. After I spend a few minutes writing my account number and cash total on an old envelope that happened to be in my glove compartment, I stuck them in the tube, sent them up and realized there was a car behind me. That's when I realized by FIRST station, they meant the farthest one. As a courtesy. Just like at the gas station, so the car behind you doesn't have to wait for you. Whoops. If I didn't feel flustered enough by the point, the teller sent my retard envelope back to me with a real deposit slip and asked me to fill it out. I grabbed the tube to get my money out and asked her if I should pull forward to the other station. She said "Yes Please" So I did. I pull up and I go to grab the new tube thing, only to realize the old one is still in my lap! I could practically feel the poor lady behind me wringing my neck through the air. I contemplated what to do next...do I get out and run this back to her? do I drive off with out warning and head for the hills and never come back? Before I could make a decision though, the teller sucked up the green tube (the one in my lap was blue) and asked over the loud speaker "Darci, could you send me that blue tube back, and I will send you the right one?" Even in the privacy of my own car, I had never been so embarrassed! I did what she asked, avoided eye contact at all cost with the lady behind me and FINALLY got my money deposited. Ugh!
Now...I still needed to get groceries, even though all I wanted to do was go back into my air conditioned house and curl up in a ball. I got to Wal Mart with both kids still asleep, I tried to park near a cart station but there weren't any spaces so I was quite a ways away by the time I got a spot. I got Cael out first because he always wakes up as soon as I unbuckle him. Except today. He stretched out, wrapped his arms around my neck and fell right back into la la land on my shoulder. Awesome. Now I had to figure out how to shift his dead weight enough to let me get Averi out. It was a scene let me tell you. Poor Averi was awake, looking at me with those big blue eyes like "Just grab me mom. What are you doing? It's hot in here!" I got her on my hip finally, used my toes to close the door hoping it latched because it was going to have to stay that way, I had no fingers to reopen and shut it, and penguin walked all the way to the carts. You would think that someone passing me by would have said "Do you need a little help?" But no. I got a few giggles, and a lot of looks that said "that poor girl..." but no offers to help. Have you ever tried to put a 6 month old who is constantly kicking her legs into the front of a cart while balancing a 500 pound toddler on your chest? It's not fun, especially when it's about 50,000 degrees outside and I am STILL in dark pants and a black shirt!
I finally got her in, managed to get the cart inside the store, but it was a complete joke. Just to turn a corner I would have to pull the cart to a complete stop, shift my one hand to the other end of the handle bar and push with all my might, hoping it would make the corner and not knock over the big Mt. Dew castle that the employees probably had a ton of fun building. In the middle of the isle. I finally said enough was enough, I grabbed a pillow on clearance for $2.50, stuck it in the back of the cart and laid Cael down on it. THIS of course woke him up...the offer of being comfortable! Now they were both awake, I could steer with both hands and finally get one step closer to going home and going to bed. So...I made sure no one was looking, I picked up that pillow, put it BACK on the shelf and walked away. Wal Mart customer of the year, I know.