More Lucy Than June

If you’re a mom, then you know…The Mommy Arm.

Oh, you may not KNOW you know The Mommy arm. But you do.

Let me enlighten you. Thank me later.

The Mommy Arm has the amazing ability to reach under the tightest of spaces (like say, a carseat), the highest of heights, or underneath the crumbiest of couch cushions to retrieve a child’s missing sippy cup, toy, or pair of underwear. (Why yes. That has happened.)

Once, when McKenna asked me to get some….something...(I don’t remember…I wrote a post on Mommy Brain several weeks ago), my response was,

Well, I’ll have to break out my Mommy Arm

To which she replied,

What’s a Mommy Arm?

And then I said,

Go ask your daddy what a Mommy Arm is.

So, then she asks Stephen,

What’s a Mommy Arm?

And then he was all like,

I have no idea.

And then she goes,

He said he doesn’t know.

So then I say,

It’s like….ummmm…Go-Go-Gadget-Arm!

And then she was all,

Huh?

And then I decided that it was shame that my kids didn’t know who Inspector Gadget was. So later on, I whispered a silent prayer of thanks for the invention of Hulu so that I could introduce my kids to the trench-coated, big-nosed man with stretchy arms, legs, and I think, stretchy neck.

They loved it. And Kenni finally caught on to what The Mommy Arm is.

And I know this because last night, she came running to me when Jack had wedged a doll between the guest room futon and the wall (how do they DO this stuff?!), and yelled,

I need your Mommy Arm!!!

Ah yes. Mommy Arm to the rescue.

She appreciates and sees the value of this appendage reserved for only those women who love their kids enough (or just want them to stop whining…or both…sometimes it’s tough to differentiate between the two) to shove their arm under a carseat that could contain who knows HOW MANY forgotten and discarded once-milk-filled-now-cottage-cheese-filled sippy cups to retrieve some 20cent piece of plastic that the aforementioned kid (or kids) “must” have.

One final note on the Mommy Arm: Mommy Arm is also excellent for passing out (or tossing from the front seat of the van to the very rear seat of the van) any and all various menu items from any and all selected fast food restaurants kid’s meal.

A year ago, we packed up (almost) everything we owned, sold some stuff we owned, and loaded the three kids we owned into a trailer and moved it all to Charleston, South Carolina….confident that this is where God would have our family be.

Has it been easy? Well, no.

Have we had some very difficult moments? Well, absolutely.

Have I felt God’s presence as closely and seen His hand provide and guide and direct like never before? 1000% yes.

There were many long talks that led up to the decision to move to this city to help start and build (not in the literal sense, mind you) River Church. There was fear and doubt and apprehension and questions.

And those were mostly from me.

What if we pack it all up, go for broke, and this thing fails miserably?

Oh yeah. I thought that.

I thought that ALOT.

Today, God laid rest to all of our fears.

River Church is truly starting to change the Charleston community for Christ…and I am getting to see this firsthand. We are thrilled, humbled, blessed, and encouraged by the things that God has done.

And for us, the things He has done, have not been small.

We have faced many challenges since moving here, not the least of which has been the financial side of things, but God has seen fit to provide for us every step of the way. Sometimes, it has been just enough…and sometimes, it has been in abundance.

Shortly after moving here, we became a one car family.

A few months later, we had three cars sitting in our driveway…so we were fortunate enough to be able to loan out the “spare” when others needed it.

We moved into a much smaller, older, and…”less attractive” home than the one we left behind in Georgia.

A year later, we are in a bigger, newer, cleaner house. And the rent payment is cheaper.

I moved to Charleston with severe back pain that required a return trip home for major surgery to repair it.

Today, I am free of the horrible pain that plagued me for the better part of a year, and at times, left me immobilized and unable to pick up my baby.

Yes. There have been days where I have cried for the friendships back home, but God has been faithful to keep those friendships alive and strong. Some of them are even more solid than when I left Georgia.

And He has brought amazing women and friendships into my life here…women that are walking alongside of me and witnessing and experiencing themselves the amazing journey that God has placed us on.

McKenna will begin Kindergarten this fall (sniff sniff), and she is attending the school that River Church meets at. And the assistant principal of that school and his precious family are attending River Church.

It is all coming full circle.

We are seeing firsthand the fruit of our labor. We are watching lives change. We are watching Charleston change.

Is this where I thought I’d be at 35 years old?

Well, no. But I cannot imagine a different or better place for us.

The kids LOVE living here. They are beach babies, no doubt. They have scads of friends that they talk about every day…and when you’re three, it’s really important to have a friend who loves Dora as much as you do.

We are coming right off of an amazing weekend for River Church and the Charleston community. We were blessed to be able to partner with the local WalMart to host a 36 hour school supply drive for underprivileged kids in the area. We, well…I should really say…GOD, filled 312 backpacks with supplies and have $3000 in excess to give to some local schools.

You can check out some of the local news coverage on this event here and here.

This morning was a celebration of what God has done through this movement that River Church is simply calling LoveGave. You can check out the website here to read more about LoveGave and the gift cards that were given out several weeks ago to the attenders of River Church to spread the love of Christ throughout the city.

To everyone who has given to our family to help support us in our calling to be here in Charleston, a mere thank you of words is not enough. But please know that lives are being changed here in Charleston, and some of those lives are those that reside right inside this house.

So, to review…

Charleston. One year later.

God has amazed me. I am humbled. I am blessed. I am changed.

I was so blessed to have some friends of mine from our old small group in Georgia come to Charleston this past weekend. I love this group of gals…Each one of them has been in my life since before McKenna was born. They have watched each one of the kids grow, and I have been blessed to watch them welcome all of their bundles into the world as well.

There’s nothing like childbirth to bring a group of gals together, right?

I would like to say that I got more pictures than I did, but the first two attempts to bring my camera somewhere with me were unsuccessful.

First try…I forgot the camera.

Second try…brought the camera. No memory card.

Third try…success!!!!

But I’ll give you the pics that I got…

Their first night here, we all went downtown. They quickly learned that you don’t ask Annette how to get around in downtown Charleston.

My only advice was, “It’s a grid. It’s all a grid.” That’s what Stephen tells me when I get frustrated and lose my bearings.

Which is often.

I took them to the best dessert spot and we ate our yummies on the steps of…some really important building. I think maybe the old exchange building. But I can’t say for sure. Because…I’m a transplant.

At the hotel that night, they decided to check on rates for jet skis, parasailing, and carriage tours.

Did you know that if you call a parasailing business at 10:30 p.m. in Charleston, they WILL answer? Well, Captain John does anyway. I was a little weirded out by that.

The next morning, when none of them answered their cell phones as I waited outside in the parking lot, I found them casually munching on waffles. That’s what they were doing while I was dialing each of their numbers…three times.

There are four of them.

That would be 12 phone calls.

Obsessive much?

We trekked it to the beach, sans kiddos…beautiful!!! We had Publix subs, sat under a very tourist-y looking umbrella, and didn’t play with the paddle ball set that was purchased just for the beach trip. Actually, it was called Dom Dom ball…but I guess that’s not really relevant.

That night we went out for seafood…and concluded the evening with a ghost carriage tour.

Now normally I’m not one for ghost-y kind of things. But I had a feeling this one would be more cheesy than anything. And…it was.

Actually, I really enjoyed it. Lots of little interesting historical stories…and at the end of every one, the tour guide would tack on some little tidbit like, “And people have reported seeing his/her ghost wandering the streets…blah blah blah.”

It was a nice tour, temperature was great, the tour guide was (kind of) funny, and the horse…excused himself on the street.

I loved visiting with my friends from “home”! I am so incredibly thankful that, even though we are no longer in the same city, that we still have the beautiful bond of friendship that God has given us!

Laura and Shari eating seafood at Fleet Landing (only, Shari doesn’t eat seafood…so she had chicken)

Allison and Melissa (they’re the preggers ones in the group)

Me and Allison (I sat on the end of the table, so there was no booth-buddy to take a pic with. Allison saved my dignity and took a pic with me.)

Just getting started on the “ghost” tour (I despise this picture of myself. Can you tell I went to the beach and didn’t reapply the sunscreen? Just asking.)

This is us and our friend Jake. He was a little too friendly with me before this picture.

The Girls from Girls Weekend 2010

(Not my fave of me here either. But Laura was squinting in the other one…so I took one for the team.)

Laura, Allison, Melissa, and Shari…Thanks for coming ladies!!!! I love you all…and we’re making this a tradition! Only next time, I’m staying at the hotel with you…and we’re breaking out the Dom Dom ball set on the beach!

If you’re a mom, do you ever feel like you’re kind of just holding your breath? Like you’re waiting for the next big catastrophe?

Maybe it’s just me. And maybe it’s just cause I have three kids…ages 5, 3, and 18 months. But…I kinda don’t think it’s just me.

At least, I HOPE it’s not anyway.

As a side note here I need to stop and say that even when well-seasoned moms of many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren stop me in the store to ask if they’re all mine (I have THREE. I’m not exactly Michelle Duggar…who I think is awesome, by the way…but that’s a post for another day), if Kenni and Caia are twins, or to inquire their ages…and then I tell them and do this slow exhale kind of thing and say, “Oh honey. I had/my sister had/my mom had/ my best friend’s neighbor’s cousin had all my/their babies that close, and I tell you what…that’s a BIG job!”….yeah, well that makes me feel a little better. It makes me feel like I’m not over-exaggerating to myself about how stinking tiring and exhausting this thing can be. It’s like…what’s the word? (no. literally. I had to ask Stephen just now what the word was…) VALIDATION of my feelings.

This afternoon we were preparing to head out to our friend Zhenya’s new baby boutique that is opening downtown. (Sugar Snap Pea at 161 1/2 King Street for those of visiting Charleston anytime soon and need some super cute baby stuff…you can thank me later, Zhenya. I’d like 20% of all sales that come in mentioning this blog…)

I had to give all three kids a bath. And change into something suitable for a grand opening of a baby boutique.

And load them all up into the van, make sure everyone was sufficiently snacked and in possession of all lovies, woobies, duckies, and I-have-to-have-it toys of the moment. We also need to make sure we have diapers, wipes, change of clothes for Caia should she decide to not use the toilet at any point in our journey. And sippy cups and snack cups.

The whole process kind of just hung over my head the whole day. This was going to be so involved, and so much work, and this is where I say that I was almost LITERALLY holding my breath.

I’ve learned at this point, that just throwing myself into something as laborious as bathing and dressing and carting three kids somewhere (and making my self look presentable too) requires some planning. Some forethought. You don’t just go willy-nilly into that kind of thing. Chaos and insanity will follow.

Well, chaos and insanity will follow ANYWAY, but I guess the DEGREE to which the chaos erupts will be at a Mt. St. Helens eruption kind of status requiring immediate clean-up, evacuation, and search for survivors.

So, I chose to throw them all into the bathtub at once.

And I chose to throw them in MY bathtub so that I could get ready in my bathroom while they were in my line of sight.

Now I am not so naive as to think that I could actually get DRESSED before getting the Splash Bombers out of the tub, but I thought I could at least do my hair and makeup.

Well, I could put on some mascara. That’s what I got done before Jack decided he needs to get out of the tub himself, stand on the floor, and pee on the library book on the floor. Super awesome, buddy.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I have noticed that Jack can just about pee on command. And when he’s diaperless, he thinks this is super funny. And can start and stop his stream at will.

Yay.

(Now I know you’re wondering why there’s a library book on the bathroom floor. Well, I was trying to keep them occupied by reading stories. It would have been great….had Jack not urinated on the book. So if you’re downtown at the Charleston library anytime soon, I’d advise against checking out George and Martha…I’ll try and disinfect it, but I make no promises…)

I dressed Jack and decided to turn on some Bob the Builder cartoons. He LOVED it.

For about 2.4 minutes.

And then he dumped out his snack container of Cheerios. Then, he found his previously untouched snack container and dumped out the remaining Goldfish crackers. So now I have a pretty good toddler snack bar set up on my carpet. Just throw in some raisins and cheese cubes and I could open a buffet for kids 2 and under.

After much coercing, repeating, voice raising, threatening to leave them at home, etc. at exactly an hour and a half after beginning the Bathtime Battle of Wills, we were in the car headed downtown to pick up Daddy at work and then scoot on over to Moe’s for dinner.

And it was at Moe’s that I discovered that I didn’t have my wallet.

And Stephen didn’t have his either.

Awesomeness.

Sigh.

I’ll conclude by saying we DID eat dinner, all was fine, Zhenya’s grand opening was phenomenal, we got caught in a downpour on our way back to the car, annnnndddd…the girls fought bedtime with teeth and nails. (Almost too literally on that one….)

….And deep breath out.

July 18, 2007

July 18, 2010

Happy Birthday, Caia (aka Boo Boo/Sissy/Caia-Boo)