A Day In My Life

Yesterday was SUPER busy for me. I was invited to play with the Pantex Fire Department softball team in the Lifestar Tournament at Southwest Park. Last year, John and I both played, but this year he was on shift. Knowing that there is usually a big need for female players, I gladly accepted.
We did great--got 2nd place. The only bummer was that we were forced to take 2nd by the huge downpour of rain around 6:30pm. I believe we could have won the tournament again (this is the 3rd annual, and Pantex Fire won the first 2) if it hadn't been for the drenching we got. I have seriously not ever seen that much rain at one time. It was crazy! I was soaked to the bone by the time I reached my car, and it took me about 15 minutes longer than normal to get home. Our housing edition entrance was flooded, and there were wrecks and stalled cars everywhere.
I pulled into the garage, quickly shut the door, and was super thankful I had a warm bath in my future.
Knowing that my mom and kids were at my grandma's house, I decided to strip down in the garage before going into the house for my bath. After all, everything I had on--from my hat to my softball shoes--was wet. Once completely in my birthday suit, I headed for the door into the house.
I tried to turn the door knob...
It was locked.
Oh my goodness. Now what?
There I stood--a stinky, wet, NAKED mess.

Ok, don't panic. There's always a plan B, right?

I called Mom, who happened to have my spare house key, and tried to work out a plan for her to drive back over. She was in her camero, so it was questionable whether or not she could even make it down the flooded Amarillo streets.
Sheesh.
At least she was willing to attempt the drive. After all, her only daughter was standing naked in a garage while a torrential downpour was still going on outside. It wasn't like I could just get back in my van and drive to her.

There I sat...on the ice chest in the front of our garage...with my ipod and phone as my only company.
Did I mention I was naked?!?
Bleh.

30 minutes passed before I got a call from Mom. She couldn't make it down the flooded streets and had to go back to Grandma's.
Just peachy.
She actually had a plan C though. Dad has a big 4x4 truck, so he was going to come get her and the kids at Grandma's and then come to my casa to rescue me.
Dang.
Now I DESPERATELY needed to find something to put on.

Oh--and did I mention that I really needed to pee at this point? Well, I did. And the only bathroom was on the other side of that darn locked door.
What to do, what to do? I searched through John's tool cabinets hoping to find something I could borrow to relieve myself in. Amazingly enough, John keeps his stash of 16oz. styrofoam cups in the garage.
Bingo.
I grabbed one and let loose.
Ahhhhh, much better. Now I could wait in comfort.

Luckily, I also found an old ratty t shirt, and I was forced to put my wet shorts back on. I didn't want to scar my children for life if they happened upon me...in the garage...naked. Things were definitely looking up.

Another 25-30 minutes passed, and I heard Dad's truck pull up. I can't even tell you how happy I was to see everyone. The kids were totally freaked out by the fact that their mom had to pee in a styrofoam cup.
Oh well, it could be worse.
Right?

One nice hot bath later, I was feeling like my old self again.

~Mel

Caroline My Sunshine

This is Caroline Sunshine (Grace) Haskell.

She is my delightful little 2 year old.

She loves to dress up, have her hair fixed, wear clicky-clacks (AKA: high heeled shoes), twirl around, go to gymnastics and ballet, carry baby dolls, and read.

Caroline is very independent. In fact, she doesn't let me do much for her anymore.

The potty training phase is now complete, and she has been accident free for over a week. That makes this momma sooooooo happy.

She may be a bit ornery, but I love her to pieces anyway.
Even when she runs with safety scissors.
And uses my stamps and ink pads to decorate her arms and legs.

Caroline is a master bug killer. In the past 2 days, she's used several wads of toilet paper to smash little crickets, ants, and moths. She's so kind---she takes the dead critters and makes sure Caitlin sees them before she throws them away. I'm sure Caitlin thanks her for that generous act.

She can count to 10, say just about anything she wants, and use a computer mouse. It's unfortunate that she figured out the computer mouse.
Somehow my programs and open documents are "mysteriously" disappearing and being altered without my knowledge. Nice.

And finally, Caroline has an appetite like no other. For instance, at Mimi & Pappaw's house, she ate 1 serving of pork chops, 3 servings of mixed fruit, 1 serving of peas, 3 servings of mac & cheese, a small bowl of jello w/marshmallows, and 1/2 of a Hershey bar. She was SO FULL that we had to let out the high chair tray--it was squashing her huge belly. I call her my "built in portion control monitor" because she eats the majority of my food before I get to it. That way I keep my portions small. :)

I love my sweet Caroline anyway.

~Mel

Summertime

I love summer. For us, it means the water park is open, all 3 kids are home, and we really don't have a schedule.
I find myself being annoyed with summer because we don't have a schedule.

Truly, it's a love/hate relationship.

I am a woman of structure (no, not like Kate Gosselin, but similar), so any time we are left to our own means without something to do it gets on my nerves. Like anyone, I enjoy my time of just chillin' and relaxin', but I do like to have something to look forward to on a daily basis.
That all being said, I'm trying harder this summer to have something that resembles a schedule. We have certain times of the day for tv watching (VERY little though), imagination games, outside play, water park attending, gym time, etc. That way the kids don't drive me crazy and I don't drive them crazy.
So far so good. I am totally enjoying my time with my babies, and I know school is just around the corner again. This year will be so weird--Christian starts kindergarten, thus leaving me with just one sweet baby at home. *deep sigh* I'm not ready for that yet.

I digress....

John has been gone a lot already, and I'm trying my best to prepare to be a single mom for 10 weeks. Not that it's that difficult---after all, some women do it ALL THE TIME.
I haven't ever done it though.
We've done some traveling and actually have more planned, but until then it's the same song with a different verse everyday.

Father's Day was great. The best part about it this year is that I still have my dad. He had a mild heart attack a week ago, and he spent several days in the hospital. Thankfully he has no permanent damage! I was and am just totally thankful that he is doing well now. Coincidentally, the doctor let him out of the hospital on Father's Day.
John had a good Father's Day too, I think. We took him out to eat, and then we went to the park and tried out the kids' new kites (thanks Grandma & Grandpa Haskell!). I will post some pics from the park later. For some reason, blogger is kicking me off every time I try to upload them. Bummer!

Enjoy your summer---it goes by fast!

~Mel

Wordless Wednesday (Almost)

Notice the slight green tint? These are Saturday Spinach and Sour Cream Pancakes. They rock.

1st Weekend of Drill

John attended his 1st weekend of drill for the Army National Guard. He left super early on Saturday and got home Sunday evening. It was nice because he could call on his cell when he wasn't busy--it was just as if he was out at Pantex. He rode in a passenger van with about 5 other guys down to Lubbock to their training facility. He got to do PT (physical training), marching, drills, etc. He actually had a really good time!
I had to laugh when he called from the motel on Saturday night. Apparently the military doesn't give you 4 star accomodations--the Motel 6 was a bit scary. His main complaints were that the bar of soap was tiny, there was no shampoo, the beds were "iffy" so he chose not to sleep under the covers, and there were about 4 locks on the door. Haha! At least he didn't have to sleep in a ditch somewhere, right? :0)
All in all, I think it was a great experience. He has 1 more drill weekend in July and then off to basic in August. He gets to borrow his ACU's (the uniform below) until he gets his own down in Ft. Jackson.

As for me---I didn't have such a super swell weekend alone. Not only was my hubby out of town, but my parents were too. Usually they are my backup if anything goes crazy while John's gone.
And of course, what weekend alone would be complete without a few "mishaps?"

Jeez.

Saturday:
I got everyone dressed and ready to head to the gym. I decided to take the VW Passat (John had the Bronco) instead of my van, just to shake things up a bit. I got in, turned the key, and all of the dash lights flashed---nothing worked---battery was dead.

Great.

I made everyone get out and get in the minivan. There was no cause for concern since I had another vehicle, and I knew John could fix the battery situation when he got home.

It was too overcast and rainy to head to Splash, so we just hung out here. Fun times.

Sunday:
Got everyone dressed and ready to go grocery shopping mid-morning. It was looking rainy again too. Bleh. I put Caroline in the van and pushed the garage door opener button....it tried to go up and then fell back down. What??? I tried again...nothing.

I had to pull the emergency cord, get Caitlin to help me hoist the door up, and then try to find a clever way to keep it up---the spring was broken. THANKFULLY the neighbor behind us heard the commotion and came to help. He held the door up while I backed the minivan out, closed it for me, and then recommended I call a garage door company to fix the broken spring.
Yeah, I'll get to that...or I'll wait until the hubby comes home. I thanked him for the help and drove off.

Grocery shopping went fine until it began to pour rain. Uggggg.
Since I now had to park outside, I got drenched carrying the groceries in.
Obviously Splash was out of the question again. Super fun times.

One more thing: I volunteered to take care of my parents' poodle (Napoleon) and cat (Whiskey), which consisted of letting the dog out twice on Sunday and making sure both animals had food/water.
Simple, right? Not.
Apparently Napoleon has something against me. I think he associates me with 3 small children that give him heck when we visit Mimi and Pappaw. On the first visit of the day, I tried everything in the world to get that dog to go outside. He backed himself in the very back of his portable kennel, and wouldn't even come out when I turned it upside down and shook it. How he stayed up in there is beyond me. After about 15 minutes of "conversation" with him--that might have involved a broom--he went outside, did his business, and was happy as a lark.
I came back that evening to let him out one final time. He sat on the couch and watched me enter the house. As soon as I got near him, he bolted for the spare bedroom and got up under the bed. He WOULD NOT come out. I got the above said broom again, and he ran like lightning to my parents' room and went...you guessed it...under the bed.
Arggggg.
After running out of ideas and breath from chasing him from one end of the house to another several times, I called the 'rents. Mom clued me in on tricking him into thinking he was going outside to get the newspaper. It worked like a charm. Wish I woulda had that little nugget of information the 1st time. *deep sigh*
I think that if Napoleon could have kicked me in the rear on the way out, he would have. He's a cutey bug, but he certainly doesn't care much for his big sister Melissa. :0)

I have never been so glad to see John come home--even if he was only gone for a day and a half. It certainly felt like 10 days in my book. :0)
Can you tell I'm super pumped for the 10 weeks starting in August?!?
Just kidding.
But really....

~Mel