A Day To Write Home About

Let me just tell you about my day yesterday. This is kind of long so sit back and relax. I'll start off by saying I'm glad it's over. I had our Young Women New Beginnings Program last night so I knew it was going to be a busy day. But I was unprepared for the added craziness.
I was looking forward to Chloe's naptime because that meant I had 2 hours to get things done. 30 minutes into her nap she woke up and refused to go back to sleep. That's when it all started. I love Chloe to death but she can be a bit of a handful. I am frantically trying to finish writing my talk that I'm suppose to be giving in about 4 hours. YIKES!! Can anyone say PROCRASTINATION( see Stevie I am good at this too). Channing and Chloe are playing a game on Ryan's laptop and I'm thinking to myself, this isn't so bad, at least they are quiet. Then I hear this...
Channing: Ohhh Chloe. Mom, Chloe peed on the floor.
Me: What??
I turn around and Chloe is standing in a puddle. I'm thinking, I don't have time to be giving baths and scrubbing carpets, but I do it anyway. As I'm getting Chloe out of the tub she very sincerely says, "Mom, I'm sorry I peed in my pants." How can I get mad at that.
Ok, back to my talk.
Channing: Mom, we're hungry. Can we have a snack.
Me: You can have the chicken nuggets that you wouldn't eat at lunch.
Channing: Ok.
They trot off to the kitchen to eat.
Back to my stuff. Now I'm printing programs. I have just enough colored paper to print 2 programs per page. I push print and walk away to gather the stuff I'm suppose to take with me. As I walk toward the kitchen I see a trail, about 5 feet long, of dark red barbeque sauce on my light, did I mention LIGHT, carpet.
Me: Who did this?
Channing: Chloe.
Once again I'm thinking to myself. I don't have time for this!!! 2 different carpet cleaners and 20 mintues later the carpet is better but not clean. I love clean carpet and try hard to spot treat my carpet frequently, so in my mind I still see big splotches of BBQ sauce. Oh well.
I get back to the computer to check the printed programs, only to find out I forgot to print 2 programs per page. I now have 9 programs instead of 18 and I don't have any more colored paper. So I turn the paper over and reprint on the other side. But now I have to trim them all and glue them onto white paper so you can't see the mistake on the other side.
As I'm doing this I hear...
Channing: Mom, Chloe peed on the couch.
Me: WHAT!!
I'm now screaming to myself "I SERIOUSLY DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!"
Sure enough, Chloe is once again in the middle of a puddle. I'm not sure wether to scream, cry or laugh. I bite my lip and scoop Chloe up and run for the bathtub. Another bath and another, "Mom, I'm sorry I pottyed in my pants." As I'm cleaning the couch Chloe wants a drink of milk. I can't find the cup she wants so we agree on a Tinkerbell cup that has a lid and a straw. I must have said 5 times, "Chloe, stay in the kitchen with the milk ok."
I'm now preparing the appetizers I have to take and I hear...
Channing: Chloe, you're suppose to stay in the kitchen.
I peak around the corner and Chloe has tipped her cup upside down and shaken all the milk out onto the coffee table.
Me: You've got to be kidding me. Chloe get in the kitchen!!
I wipe up the milk, finish preparing the food and race back to the bathroom to get ready. Ryan calls to inform me he is stuck downtown in horrible traffic, due to the pouring rain, and won't be home in time for me to leave when I need to. Can anything else go wrong? I call my neighbor for help, she's not home. I call Sheriee and she is home and very willing to help. I'm am so lucky they live close. I'm dressed and putting my makeup on and Channing comes in and says...
Channing: Mom, are you SURE you're wearing those pants tonight.
Me: Yes, why. Are they not cute?
Channing: Well.... yeah, but they just aren't "young womeny"
So I guess I'm wearing old lady pants.
My neighbor calls back and can come and watch my girls until Ryan gets home. Before I leave Chloe spills her milk one more time, this time down the side of my bedspread and all over the carpet.
Once I get to the church things go great!! The evening turns out better than expected and I can now breath a HUGE sigh of relief.

"Antlanta" Trip

We just got back from our trip to Atlanta, or "Antlanta" as Channing calls it, to see Tiffany, Kevin, and kids. We had so much fun. The girls loved hanging out with the cousins. We went to this place called Pump It Up, which has huge inflatable bounce toys. It gave the kids a bad case of the "Justice socks."
We went swimming at a pool where weren't allowed to have any sort of flotation device, not even life jackets for the little kids, no goggles that cover your nose, and no toys in the pool. I'm surprised we didn't get in trouble for laughing and having a good time. But the kids still loved it and several of them threw a fit when it was time to leave. We also went to the The Underground (which used to be the original mainstreet where slaves were traded and sold. They have built present day ground level above it and restored the original into a shopping center/tourist site. It was cool.
I think we made cookies every night we were there. They were usually gone by the next morning. One morning we actually had a few left but Corbin knew it wouldn't last long. He was so worried that if he went to school he would miss out on the last few cookies. We love our sweets!!
Thanks Tiff for making it a fun-filled weekend. I love hanging out with family and wish we could be closer to everyone. We are looking forward to our trip home for the Family Reunion in July.

Why the girls love it when dad babysits

This is the conversation I had with Channing as I was walking out the door to Young Women's last week.
Channing--Mom I really wish you could stay.
Me--Me too sweetie.
Channing--But you can't, because if you did we couldn't have movie and popcorn.
Apparently Wednesday nights have turned into movie night. The girls love it and can hardly wait to push me out the door claiming they wish I could stay, but SEE YA!!
Now every time I say I'm going to a meeting they think it's automatic movie and popcorn night.

Brazos Bend State Park

A few weeks ago we spent a Saturday afternoon at the "Alligator Park." We had a great time. As soon as the girls saw the first alligator there was a barrage of questions from Channing that was followed by several minutes of reassuring explanations from Ryan and I about how we were safe, even though the alligators were RIGHT THERE!