Where do these kids get it?

While Delaney was brushing her teeth, Virgil says "Here, let me help you" and proceeds to take the toothbrush.

Delaney says "Ok, Daddy, but be careful with my molars!"

Christian

Someone sent this to me via email and I loved it so much, I just had to share:

Christians
by Maya Angelou


"A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ
that a man should have to seek Him first to find her."

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin'"
I'm whispering "I was lost, Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say... "I am a Christian" I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible but, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I still feel the sting of pain..
I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.

When I say .. "I am a Christian" I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner Who received God's good grace, somehow!

My CRAZY day!!!

oh geez... where do I even begin... this day has been just CRAZY!!!

The craziness actually started yesterday!!! I had requested today (Wed) off to get the AT&T U-Verse Installation done. I was really looking forward to taking a day off and sending the girls to daycare so that I could clean out the back room since it's so hard to do those things with kids around.

Well... at 3pm yesterday (Tues), I got a call from the daycare... Cadence had a 102.4 fever... so I rushed out of work and headed out to pick them both up while I called the Ped office. They were able to squeeze her in around 4:30pm... Thank goodness because otherwise I would've had to cancel the AT&T Installation and it took over 3 wks just to set the day up!!! By the time I leave work, pick up the diaper bag from home, get the girls and head back out to the Ped office, I barely made it at 4:30pm.

So Cadence has a double Ear Infection... of course... since she was just at the Dr. office for her 15 mo. check-up on Friday and they told me she had fluid in her ear but she was fine... all I could think on Fri when they said that was "Yeah, right... she's fine... I'll see you within a week!" It never fails.

So after I leave there, I stop at CVS to get my things off the Grocery Game list that I had there and I know the CVS out near my work/Ped office the best, so I knew it would be a quick trip. Thankfully it was pretty quick, but I still had to take both kids out and do that whole routine, but Cadence was pretty good since she was lethargic and she just stayed in the cart.

Anyway, so after CVS, I had to drive all the way over to Rite Aid near my house where all our Rx's are and drop off the Rx. Then I headed over to the gas station since I was running on fumes by this time. By that time it was already 7:30pm and Virgil was heading home (he had to work late yesterday). Our church was having a fund raiser over at The Habit, so we went there to pick up dinner and decided to just eat there and Virgil met us there since it was such a nice night out and Cadence just sat on my lap and was content. We didn't stay long though... just long enough to eat. After we ate, Virgil took Cadence home and Delaney and I went to the pharmacy to pick up the Rx.

When we got home, there was cat diarrhea in our bedroom on a blanket that was on the floor (waiting to go into the wash) and another pile of it on the bathroom rug. It smelled AWFUL! of course, I had no idea which cat it was that had done it... argh...

We got the girls ready for bed and then I had to run to the grocery store. I got back home from there after 10pm and we had to clear out some stuff in the back bedroom. I didn't actually get to bed until 1am... Well, sort of... I climbed into bed and immediately smelled cat urine... on my bed... YUCK!!! So I had to strip down the entire bed (thank goodness we have a waterproof cover on it) and remake the bed and put all the bed linens in the kitchen to be cleaned the next day.

So... 7:40am, I wake up still exhausted and Cadence is super fussy, Delaney wants candy for breakfast and whines about it because I said No Way, and Virgil's trying to get out the door and get Delaney out the door. So I help him get Delaney ready for school while also trying to take care of Cadence. He gets out the door and I rush to throw some clothes on since the AT&T guy was supposed to show up between 8am and 10am. No shower for me... YUCK!!! Figured I'd take one once the guy was done and Cadence went down for a nap.

So Cadence was kind of clingy all morning and I was trying to get all that laundry done and the guy doesn't even show up until 10am... but I was pretty busy before he showed up... even if a lot of that time was spent just cuddling with Cadence, I couldn't get anything done I had planned on doing!

I tried to just clean up the house and take care of Cadence while he was working and it was really just non-stop. The guy managed to break the lamp in our living room and I just told him don't worry about it... it was old anyway...

I learned the hard way that my comforter is too large for my washing machine... it causes the entire kitchen to become a wadding pool for an adventurous 15 month old!!! That was fun to clean up...

Cadence finally went down for a nap around 12:30pm, just in time for the guy to need me to help with the final stuff for installation (all the set up stuff and showing me how to use it).

The guy leaves around 1pm and I finally throw a Lean Cuisine in the microwave in hopes of scrafing it down and jumping in the shower. Nope... The Lean Cuisine wasn't even finished cooking before Cadence woke up... sigh...

So I ended up eating a cold Lean Cuisine about an hour later when Cadence finally let me put her down... then, around 4pm I head into the bedroom and there... on the blankets we had used last night (I had managed to make the bed earlier with the cleaned stuff), there... on the fresh blankets only used once... was more cat diarreah... AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

So I take that blanket into the bathroom and hose it down and call the Vets office. I have to bring both cats in since I have no idea which cat has the problem!!! They can squeeze me in at 4:40, just 20 min... ack... So I scramble to get the carriers out of the garage, get Cadence's stuff together, get the files on the cats since they've never been to this vet (my old vet moved away), and actually catch the cats to get them in the carrier... don't ask me how I actually made it the vets office on time... let alone, carried a 15 mo. old, my purse, a diaper bag, and 2 cat carriers into the vets office all at the same time!!!

So, there I am, in the little patient room and I smell something... no, it's not the cats this time... Cadence has a HUGE mess in her diaper and it's EVERYWHERE!!! So I clean that up and have to change her and for some strange reason I have winter clothes in the diaper bag as a back up when it's in the 90s outside... the girls at the office were nice enough to get me a bag to put her clothes in.

So they find out that it's Ding-Dong that has the diarreah and ask if I'd like to get Snickers vaccines up to date while I'm there and so I said go ahead. So while they're vaccinating Snickers and running some more tests on Ding-Dong to find out what's wrong with her, I have to run out to go pick up Delaney since it's after 5:30 already.

I head back to the vets office with both kids this time and Delaney tells me she needs to go potty... so I ask if I could use their restroom and they inform me that they don't have a public restroom because there's is back in the treatment area and they can't have us back there... so I go down to the Little Ceasars and they tell me it's not working... YEAH RIGHT!!! Why is it that no one's bathroom is working when Delaney needs to use it? Why don't people realize that small children can not hold it?

So we run across the street to the Taco Bell, but by the time we get in the bathroom, Delaney didn't make it. I had no back up clothes for her with me since this trip was not planned out at all. So I had to put her in one of Cadence diapers and then took the size 9 mo. sweatpants off of Cadence (since she was in a long sleeve onsie) and put them on Delaney... They actually fit... the girl is so darn skinny! But they've become capris... whatever... at least I don't have to lug a 4 yr old in a diaper back across the street, right?

So I get back over to the vets office there's a family there crying and saying goodbye to their kitty that they have to put down and of course, as they leave I start bawling and realize I can handle this, right?

This time the girl helped me out to the car, and I had to run back home, unload the cats, and head out for our chiropractor appt... but no... Ding-Dong managed to poop in the carrier and then knock it over in the car which covered her in the mess... ARGH!!!

So I unloaded Snickers and then took Ding-Dong into the bathroom and gave her a FAST bath, toweled her off and head back out the door... Make it to the chiropractors office, stop in at Taco Bell because the girls are starving now that it's 7pm and then drop Delaney off at church with Virgil (she really wanted to see her friends at church) and head home with Cadence...

I pull another load of laundry from the dryer, throw the load from the wash to the dryer and start the next load... eat my Taco Bell with Cadence and then get her into the bath. I'm pulling her out just as Virgil is coming home with Delaney, so she jumps in the bath behind Cadence and the nighttime routine begins. During this routine, I do another laundry rotation. I FINALLY get the girls into bed and FINALLY get my MUCH need shower. After that shower, I sat down to write this "Novel" and now I'm ready for some BEER!!!

Cadence's Vocabulary

Cadence is starting to speak her mind! I thought I'd start tracking some of the things she's saying these days. I put them in order of when she said them:

Dada
Mama (constantly saying this one)
Uh-oh
Dis? (This - when she wants something she points and says "Dis?")
Nie Nie (Night Night)
Ba Ba (Bye Bye)
Bahw (ball)
Naney (Delaney)

Mental Video Camera

I sometimes wish I had a Mental Video Camera where I could capture everything that I saw! Today was one of those days.

On the drive home after picking both girls up from school and daycare, I looked in my rearview mirror at a stop light to see why they were so quiet and I saw them reaching for each other. Now the way their carseats are installed right now, there is a gap between them and Cadence is still rear facing so I couldn't see her, just her arm. Delaney is seated behind me, so I only saw her arm as well. But when I looked in that mirror and saw the 2 of them trying so hard to hold hands, it just melted my heart!

I will forever have that imagine recorded in my mind, but I only wish I could play it back for others to see as well.

When it rains it pours!

Friday, I was thinking that this weekend would be a nice relaxing calm weekend where we had nothing specific planned.

But, then I got hit with the news that Virgil had been laid off and my head has just been spinning all weekend. ok... so that's pretty normal feelings, but when you add that to Cadence throwing up Friday night, then getting a fat lip in the morning and then Delaney throwing up all last night and I woke up feeling pretty crappy... sigh... I'm just exhausted! So much for my easy going weekend.

But I'm hangin in there... I know that something really good is going to come of this! It's just been a tough weekend!

Blessing in Disguise?

Well, our prayers have finally been answered! Unfortunately, not the way we had hoped!

Virgil was laid off today and surprisingly, he's in a much better mood tonight than he has been in a long time! As he put it, he's not dreading Monday for once! His work situation was a miserable experience for him and he'd been looking for a new job since before I was laid off in February last year!

Yes, things are going to get rough for a little while, especially with the economy the way it is... but really, something good is going to come out of this! God will prevail! The hardest part is that he only got a 2 wk severance and we had pretty much used up our savings when I was laid off last year and was out of work for 7 months! So we really don't have that much to fall back on.

Starting Monday, Virgil will be a stay at home Dad to save money on daycare/preschool expenses until he is able to start working again! Delaney will still go to preschool on a part-time basis, like she did when I was out last summer. I know he's really going to enjoy that time since he had said his time home while on Paid Family Leave was so much better than going to work in the job he couldn't stand! He's also going to have much more focused time to find a new job.

hmmm... speaking of... I wonder if he could finish off his PFL since Cadence isn't a year old yet? It would pay better than unemployment! Either way, I know we'll be ok. God has always taken care of us! However, all your prayers would be greatly appreciated!

Please pray that the right position come quickly and that it's close to home and pays him what he's really worth!

3 yr old Drama Queen

How on earth did I raise such a Drama Queen... oh wait, I better not say that out loud... err... I mean "Princess!"

That girl has so much attitude, it makes the preteen girls on the Disney Channel look dull!!!

Just so you have an inkling of an idea of what I'm talking about, here is my conversation with her this morning:

(Showing her 2 pairs of panties): Delaney, which ones do you want to wear today? Elmo or Butterflies?
Delaney: I don't want those, I want Princesses.
Me: Delaney, all your Princesses are in the laundry, so you can't wear them.
Delaney: (Rolling her eyes) Then buy me more Princesses Mommy!

Example #2 - Conversation while doing her homework

Delaney: Ok, I'm done
Me: Oh, you forgot to color the letters
Delaney: I don't want to color the letters
Me: But your h/w instructions say you need to color the letters. How about if you color each one different?
Delaney: (growling) I SAAAAID I don't want to color them!
Me: Ok... then Ms. Sherida won't give you a prize for finishing your h/w
Delaney: Oh... ok, which color should I use?

Those are just from the last 24 hrs!!! What am I going to do with that girl!

Great Idea!

When Delaney wants something, she no longer uses the standard method of asking for things "I want to watch TV" or "I want a special treat!"

No... instead she has decided to be super cute and make her demands irresistable by saying "Mommy, I've got a Great Idea!"

Forcing me to respond with "What's your Great Idea?"

And this is where she proceeds to turn on her super cuteness in an effort to get me to have a hard time saying No: "My Great Idea is, we sit on the living room floor and watch a tv show and have a picnic with special treats!"