Sunday, June 24, 2012

Claire's Big Poo Catastrophe

It's always something in our house when we are already pressed for time or while we are out trying to get somewhere. Things just seem to happen in our day to day life, I am often wondering if this crazy stuff happens to anyone else like it does our family.
This morning was already rushed, Makayla needed to be at church at 7:20 am to practice singing on stage with Tehelliah. (I'll blog about what that is later!)
We had been in Peoria yesterday so we all had a late bedtime, usually the girls go to bed at 8:00 and bedtime last night became 10:30. Since I was nowhere near ready, Greg headed to Effingham with Makayla and I was following with the other girlies to go to the 8:15 service. It was rushed, I was not being the most pleasant Mommy around but I managed to get myself ready and kids fed. All I needed to do was get Claire out of the highchair, change her clothes and we would get to church right on time.
That's when it all came crashing down. I lift my content little baby up out of the chair, put her up against my dress and hear a splat. I look down, there is poop all over the high chair, all over my dress, splattered on the floor and all over my sweet little baby's legs. I wish I could say I handled it with grace but I did not. I started crying. I was shouting at Hannah to get the wipes, she was flustered by my reaction and could not focus to grab the wipes that were out in the open. Claire started crying when I laid her on the floor to strip her down and probably confused as to why her Mommy was a complete basketcase. Greg called in the middle of the chaos and got an ear full before I hung up and tossed my phone to the living room (away from the poo!) I wiped some of the poo off the floor and left it all. The diaper and outfit stayed on the floor along with the rest of the disaster. Since I had decided I was still going to make it to church, I had to get moving with people cleanup!
Claire was given a 2 minute bath and was happy as can be about it. I am so glad I had caught up on laundry this week and actually put it away so I didn't have to dig for something to wear. We managed to get out the door as church would have been starting and got there as the last song was being played. I did not miss it though, the kids sang for all 3 services so I was able to see it during 2nd service.
I feel kindof guilty, as I am typing this my lovely hubster is cleaning up what was left behind. Greg has the weakest stomach when it comes to the kids bodily excretions so this makes him a superhero this afternoon. Although he is grouchy about it.......so far I have not heard him gagging!

So does anyone else seem to have this crazy stuff happen to them on a regular basis like this???

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Jesus Freak Alert!

It's been awhile since I have gotten all Jesus-y on my blogs, either one of them, but today I'm am just bursting with a renewed feeling. To say that I have been in a dark cloud for awhile now would be an understatement and to have this feeling again, why wouldn't I want to share it!! I do not often talk so openly about it but I have no problem writing it all out and putting it out there :)

I had never felt more filled with God's presence than while I was pregnant with Olivia and a few months after her birth. In those moments I had such a hunger for God and I knew with all my heart that I could not face that journey on my own. I did not want to rely on my own strength and would call on God to carry me ever step of the way and He absolutely delivered. It was still difficult but I had such a peace through it all.

As my life began moving forward, I became busy, started working again and became distracted. My bible reading began slipping, I was so focused on trying to conceive again and caught up with other things around me. It did not happen overnight but fear and worry began to creep in and I really had to push to keep my mind focused toward God. I stopped asking for Him to guide my life, I began relying on my own strength.

Throughout the last year and a half, I have had glimpses of that same hope but it has not been the same. I gave fear/worry/doubt/anxiety full control of my life and emotions and entered a period of darkness. I know that dealing with grief has no timeline and that darkness will still try to creep in. Our family has taken a few hard blows over the last 2.5 years and I was just overwhelmed. Right now, and for the month, I have just felt renewed and have the hunger once again to be fully in God's presence.

I ordered a book to do a bible study with other women a few months ago and I am excited to finally start it again. I tried and only got through one paragraph and just could not do it, I was exhausted and beat down emotionally and just closed the book. It's Breaking Free by Beth Moore and I am glad to know that there are others who have done it before me so if I am stuck or need encouragement, I do plan on calling or messaging them!!


I know that God has some AMAZING plans for our family in the near future and I cannot wait to find out what they are.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Kentucky Part 2, Kentucky Down Under

......Continued from Kentucky Weekend.....

We arrived safely at Kentucky Down Under and received a map and a time for the cave tour. We looked up prices before going and thought it was more than we would want to spend but everything is all inclusive. There are no extra fees for anything except food, drinks and souvenirs.

The first stop for us was the birds. Once inside, we were each given a little cup of seeds and the birds would come down and eat from you.

They stayed pretty close to the top but would come down for food and climb on hands.

We all loved it but Hannah was just not a fan of the idea of birds touching her hands so she opted out of this one.

Our next stop was the cave tour. It was really neat, they showed us the original opening for the cave. The tour guide was very detailed in explaining all the different elements of the cave. I even learned that caves are still growing, I honestly had never thought about the process of making a natural formation. Within minutes inside the cave, Hannah had to go potty. If you know Hannah at all, when Hannah has to go, Hannah HAS TO GO! I'm just happy it happened while we were still at the front or she would have been majorly out of luck!


Since we had to wait until the next tour, the girls had their free taste of fudge in one of the gift shops. We walked over to more birds. There was a cage with dog looking animals on the way. We thought it seemed really random and realized later that they were dingos!
The birds had the best photo ops since you could get right up to the cages and they were not going anywhere.


Once we had finished with the birds it was time to head back for the second try of our cave tour. We learned that the cave was discovered by an 8 year old girl who walked by and felt a draft. Her brothers lowered her into the cave on a rope to check it out. I cannot imagine being brave enough at 8 years old to be lowered into God knows what in complete darkness but this little lady was! Hannah was the "line leader" for the tour and you could just see how proud she was of it.

Makayla was not a fan and stayed glued to Greg the whole time, I'm just glad they made it through without falling. The cave was cool and water continuously drips through it and she was not making it easy for him to walk.
We were able to get a family picture in the cave. We asked one lady to take a picture and it was just horrible. Then we asked another couple to take another one, the guy just looked at us and the lady just looked at him soooooo....I just put the camera in her hand and this is what we got, haha! It was super awkward but glad we have the picture.


We took our lunch and after the cave tour went to the picnic area. Hannah found an arrowhead, "special rock." She was so proud of it but accidently threw it away with her lunchable. Greg is such a trooper, he was going to dig it out of the trash then waited because crowds of people kept walking by. Unfortunately he was unable to get it but it was a great photo-op anyway.


Next we headed to the Land of the Lories where we had the opportunity to feed some rainbow lorikeets.


By the time we got to the kangaroos, we were all worn out and tired but we were not leaving Kentucky without seeing some kangaroos!!! The tour included the explanation of different kinds of kangaroos, how the pouch works and the babies grow and even petting the kangaroos and an emu! The girls would not even get close to petting one but Claire couldn't fight me. She grunted at the kangaroo and it just laid there.


There were other things that we would have been able to see and do but it was a full day, we were ready to hop into the hotel pool and just hang out for awhile.


Sunday morning we got up, ate breakfast and headed on our long journey home. We made a few stops along the way to make the trip more bearable for the little ones. By the end of the trip, it was so nice to be home but I cannot wait for the next family adventure!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Kentucky Weekend, Part 1

This weekend we had a little family getaway to Kentucky. I had posted on Facebook asking for suggestions within 5 hours and had alot of great response. Someone suggested a place called Kentucky Down Under, so we looked it up and decided to check it out. (Thanks Terwrin!!!)

Let me start out by saying that I am not the most.....laidback....person when it comes to planning and preparing an outing. I am anal, I get stressed and usually have a breakdown beforehand because I think that each and every detail needs to be perfect before taking this grand adventure. Soooo, in true Cynthia fashion, I was stressing about packing, I wanted to be able to walk right out the door as soon as Greg came in from work. I called my grandma in for backup to hold and entertain Claire so that my emotions would not completely errupt.

The trip down was pretty uneventful, thankfully! We did do a pit stop along the way for Cynthiana IN, the kids thought we were nuts but whatevs, this is their life :)


One perk of this trip was the free hotel stay, that's right, I said free! Greg's last job required ALOT of travel so he stayed in the same hotels to rack up points. We stayed at the Sleep Inn in Cave City, KY. The girls were very happy to get there, we rolled in around 11. We did stop at an Old Navy on the way down for the girls to get a new sundress. Makayla is in LOVE with Old Navy and I think it's the manican commercials that have her sold on this.
Happy to be there!


The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, stopped at Wal-Mart for a stroller (we forgot ours) and followed the GPS to Kentucky Down Under. The GPS took us the scenic route. It was absolutely beautiful but we were not sure we were on the right track. We stopped and asked a farmer if we were close....and we were only half a mile away, haha!!


To be continued......(when my baby isn't waking up from a nap!!)