More Lucy Than June

I have no words.

Simply that, Carey fought an incredible battle. She passed away early this morning.

Please pray for her husband, Geoff, and their children.

She leaves behind an incredible legacy.

Thank you, Carey. We will miss you.

Thought I could attract your attention with that title.
CAMPER:

We are the proud parents of a new-to-us pop-up camper.

We are all way excited. Even Caia thought it was something to behold. She christened it by unrolling part of a remaining roll of toilet paper all over the floor. Beautiful.

Here’s Kenni dancing around on one of the beds.

We are all very excited about the camping trip next week.

And we’re excited about making new camping memories as a family.

CELL PHONES:

As Stephen and I were leaving this morning to take the girls to the free movie, we played a game that has become a daily ritual in our house.

It’s called “Find Mommy’s Cell Phone”. Someone calls my phone, and then we all run around looking for it until someone locates it.

We never found it.

Until I came home and looked in the washing machine.

This is the SECOND cell phone that I have killed in the laundry.

The first met its untimely passing at a coin-operated machine in Chicago a couple of summers ago.

TALES OF POOP:

So after the free movie, we hit up Stevi B’s (nope, no poop story there), and then we went to Target to pick out camping chairs.

(This is not the poop story, but as we were driving through the Target parking lot, I was rummaging through Stephen’s glove compartment when I found a hospital bracelet from last summer. It was from the day BEFORE I had Caia…little not-so false alarm that they sent me home for. But, I picked the thing up and said,

Wow. I kind of feel like we just did this. And now we’re doing it again.

Stephen’s response:

We DID just do that. We’re insane.

I prefer to think we’re blessed with surprises, but whatever.)

Back to the poop story I know you have been waiting for.

Stephen goes potty as we enter Target, and I take the girls in for a diaper change for Caia.

I finished before Stephen so we waited outside the bathroom door for him with our buggy.

Now, it should be mentioned that Target at lunchtime on a weekday is a quiet place. And sometimes, my voice tends to carry.

Just as a woman was exiting the bathroom (take note of this), I realized Caia had dirtied up her fresh diaper. And since we were only going in to grab a couple of things, I just shoved a single diaper in my purse. So, of course, I have no back-up.

Out of frustration, I groan,

Oh wow. Did you just poop?

That woman who had just left the bathroom and was by now in the candy aisle, whipped her head around to me and shot me the dirtiest look I’ve been given in awhile.

She seriously thought I was questioning her about her bathroom habits!!!!

I couldn’t help but laugh outloud at the situation!

Then, I kind of felt bad that she thought I was so callous that I would ask a total stranger if they had just pooped. 

Oh…I just love a good poop story don’t you?

Hmmm…my house is definitely not clean. Definitely.

Since the onset pregnancy #3, there has been little energy to do much of anything short of keeping us all alive.

Let alone, break out a vacuum, mop, or any other cleaning device.

But if you only turn on a lamp or two at night, then you can’t see the huge smudges or dustbunnies on the floor.

They magically disappear with the arrival of dusk every night.

The laundry…well, I’ve never been great at keeping up with that anyway, but  at least we all have clean underwear at the moment.

I see this is as an accomplishment these days.

Once, I came up with a knock-out cleaning schedule that I was way proud of. Each day had an assigned task, and there were monthly “projects” as well.

No more, my friends.

And can I be honest? I really have a hard time resolving it with myself.

I mean, I want my house to be at least in enough order that I would not be embarrassed if a friend drops by.

But at this point, if the Fed Ex man drops off a package and has a peek in my house, I’m mortified.

And you know Fed Ex Man has seen his share of dirty houses.

Wanna know what I see from my vantage point right now?

I’d take a picture, but it’s too frightening to behold.

There are pair of pink, size 6, Crocs next to the computer, along with hairbows, candles, and cups.

The play kitchen set that resides in my real kitchen is spilling the contents of its cabinets out onto my floor. My cabinets are probably doing the same, but I can’t see them from here.

The baby’s highchair. I’ll just stop there. There are really no words to describe it.

McKenna’s table is laden with crayons, a green cup, and one of my cake pans. I have no idea why that is there.

The dining room table is covered in laundry. 

The toy shelf is groaning under the weight of all the toys that have been haphazardly placed within its confines. There is no order to any of it.

Go Fish cards lay scattered with wooden train track pieces.

Are you cringing yet?

I could go on, but I won’t.

It didn’t always used to be this way. But for this season in my life, I need to accept it.

At night, it doesn’t seem so bad.

Cause then I really am too tired to care, and like I said, darkness can hide a lot.

It almost looks cozy in here.

So cozy that I think I will lie on the couch while waiting for Stephen to arrive home from Surge camp.

As for the house, well, as Scarlett O’Hara once said,

I can’t think about that right now. If I do I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.

Only in this house, tomorrow is more like 4 months away…

I promised you a wedding story from this weekend.

I have failed to deliver.

There were no major mishaps, screaming sessions, or all-out mayhem that ensued.

I sat in an antbed at one point. But that’s hardly newsworthy.

The girls did fabulous, and it was a gorgeous wedding. Tons of fun.

The only thing that I can offer you are a few pictures of our experience.

I asked Stephen to pick three out of his 50 bagillion that he took to post on my blog.

These are what he chose.

So all in all, I can say that while this time of craziness with small kids may be….crazy, really y’all, it’s a blast.

I love putting Hello Kitty puzzles together, going to the kiddie movies, chasing around a crawling baby who thinks everything is funny and should be clapped at and given a good hearty, “YEAH!” I love it.

  It drains me. But I love it.

But I also love that my in-laws are taking my treasures for two days so that I can celebrate my anniversary on Sunday.

Yeah. I REALLY love that.