love.serve.pickweeds.lockyourbabyinoffice

We just finished our 4th annual mission trip to our town.  This week is always a lot of work for all of us, but it is a super rewarding week, for our students and the hundreds of others we serve throughout the week.

Our youth group joined with another youth group, totaling about 60 of us, as we converged on our community, doing any and every type of service project that was needed.  In the evening, we all join together after a hard days work and worship together and hear from a speaker. 

It's an amazing week, filled with sweat, laughs and honest moments before God.  Many teens not only find purpose in serving hundreds of others others with love, but are renewed in their faith and calling. 

Some of the kids on the bus.  From one project to the next!

It was an incredible week for the students.  Some said it was the best week of their lives. 

It was sort of a tough week for our family.  Dallas' back went out, which isn't a good thing when you're doing manual labor and helping manage so many people.  He didn't have the time to rest and try to recover from his injury so unfortunately, he is still in a lot of pain.

India joined us for as much of the trip as possible. 

Helping pick (or maybe eat) weeds

She was a bit overwhelmed with all the kids who loved her so much, and I had a bit of personal struggle as I wanted to be serving alongside the kids AND take care of India, but I'm not superwoman, and I normally had to choose one or the other. 

In the ERGO as we clear brush

She was a trooper, even though she had several traumatic moments like...

...when she got locked in Dallas' office, which was a very brief, but emotionally charged event.  I thought Dallas was watching her, Dallas thought I was watching her.  I came back to the office and the door was shut and locked.  Mothering fail.

My baby was crying. 

I ran to find Dallas to ask for his keys, but they were locked in the office, with my keys, both of our phones and now a screaming baby.  I had to keep myself calm, even though every bit of me wanted to hyperventilate, cry, or bust down the door and rescue my baby!

Almost as quickly as it all started, my clear-minded husband had made a couple of phone calls, and a man from our church arrived with his key and unlocked the door.  I wiped India's tears, helped her calm down, and held her so tight. 

In spite of whatever personal hiccups we encountered, all of the youth did such a great job and I am so proud of them!  I loved them before, but I love them even more now. 

No matter the pain I saw my husband in, or how I felt pulled in two directions, it was worth it!  I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!  I just want to bypass the whole locking your tired, hungry, overstimulated baby in the office thing! ;)

A ginormous sheet, in which after a time of prayer, the kids wrote what their callings were...VERY moving!

Mission 2012?  Most definitely!

What a craptastic day.

I had a most divine day yesterday.  I did. 

Although it was filled with appointments and teaching piano lessons, which were great and uneventful, my day ended with a GNO.

A girls night out.  Good food, good drinks, good laughs.

I'm not huge on 'I need to get out of the house to keep my sanity' because mostly, I'd rather stay home with my husband and baby and cuddle and talk and watch PBS.   The only thing that could make me seem more boring than that is if you put some embroidery floos in my hands (no offense to my most excellent embroiderer friends-I'm inspired by your work).

Last night while out with my girls, I realized that it is good for me to talk with other moms and hear what's going on in their lives.  We also like to talk about other non-momish things.  I love my girlfriends, and after a night with them, I always feel encouraged and refreshed.

I guess that all of yesterday's good was preparing me for today's not so good, but not horrible, day.

I was stockpiling goodness.  I probably should've stockpiled some more.

Today, I spent all morning running around the house, cleaning, doing dishes and laundry and taking care of a little girl named India. 

This little girl named India, started to go to the bathroom, so I quickly took off her pants and diaper and rushed her to the toilet to do her business.  I use a thin, flushable liner to catch her poo.  If she happens to poop in her diaper, I just take it off and flush it down the toilet.  No rinsing the diaper.  Easy peasy.  And most of the time, she comes to me, starts pooping a little, and I get her to the toilet, where she does her duty, and we have no mess. 

After she is done, I put the disposable liner in the toilet, flush and put on a new diaper and liner. 

I did all that, except the flushing the toilet part. 

We went back to playing, when I noticed she had to go again.  Quickly, I ran her to the toilet.  While I was trying to set her on the toilet, I was juggling the poopy diaper in my other hand...and it wasn't firm by any means, if you know what I mean. 

Wiggling 9 month old with a poopy butt in one arm, Mama with fresh clean clothes on and nasty diaper in the other hand.

Ooooh, you know this is going to be bad.

Because of my multi-tasking, I was totally deserving of having that diaper not only fall and slide it's way down my pant leg, but through the course of trying to avoid it, it landed on my nice, fuzzy slippers and I then smooshed it all over the bathroom floor.

Yuck.  After she was finished on the potty, I tossed the liner in the toilet, and was so quick to get the shitake off me that I rushed to change her and me, and forgot to flush.  Again.

I had already started the laundry, so I had to do another load, with just my pants and slippers.

Sigh.  This day had started pretty stinky in every way.

We had it set up that while I was teaching piano lessons and Dallas was officiating baseball this afternoon, India's grandma Shelly would babysit her.  Unfortunately, Grandma Shelly had to cancel due to illness.  India's never had a non-family babysitter, but I called my neighbor to see if her daughter could come over once she was finished with school.  She said yes. 

Babysitter crisis averted.

Next, I get a phone call from a number I know, expecting it to be someone I really like talking with.  Instead, it's someone that I don't enjoy listening to, so I was a little peeved that I was 'tricked' into answering.  There was a miscommunication between us, we went around on the issue for a while, and I was already feeling feisty, but I held my tongue.

Whew.  At least I didn't make a mess with that one.

About 25 minutes before one of my afternoon students was going to come, I went into the bathroom to brush my hair and put on a little makeup (maybe for the first time today), and I noticed that I hadn't flushed the toilet after India had gone to the bathroom. 

So I flushed.

And apparently, putting two disposable liners in the toilet is a bad, bad, bad idea.  Like, plug the toilet bad.


The water rose pretty high, but it was contained.  I went to change the laundry (remember my poopy slippers?) and came back to a poo-water flooded bathroom.

In just 5 minutes. 

Enter choice words.  I think I literally said, "oh shit"!

Just callin' it what it is.

Apparently, the toilet had been running.  I would stop it, then it would start again, flooding the bathroom even more.

India was as curious as all get out, and threw a complete tantrum when I made her sit in her least favorite spot, her exersaucer.  All she wanted to do was play in the water.

I threw every rag and junk towel that we own onto the bathroom floor. 

Then I decided to flush again.  And again. 

And oops. 

It was a disaster zone.  Less than 20 minutes before my piano student was coming. 

Screaming child.  Mama with no makeup.  Poowater bathroom.  Second pair of slippers full of diluted poo-ness.

In between leaving play by plays on Dallas' voicemail and trying to comfort India I noticed my piano student had arrived - early!  I quickly closed the bathroom door, and started piano lessons.

Lessons went good, and India's babysitter was great too.

As soon as lessons were over, back to the bathroom I went, sloshing up cold poowater with rags while thinking, "There has got to be a better way to do this!  Like, maybe some fuel and a torch"!

And here I sit, writing, eating barbeque potato chips as my dinner, waiting for my poor knight in shining armor to come home, to a nasty bathroom, in a couple of hours after officiating a double header and working over 12 hours yet again today.

And maybe dreaming that is was still yesterday and I was out eating yummy food with my cute girlfriends.  

Was my day that awful?  No, there was lots of great parts to it and I've had worse.  But it sure did make me laugh and say, this day surely was craptastic, in the literal sense of the word!

Now, excuse me, I'm off to find a working bathroom!

Truth be Told: Scissors

Truth be told....

My daughter was just playing with scissors.  I don't know how she got them.  Mothering fail.