Busy, Busy, Busy

I would like to apologize for not writing in a while but seriously, life has just been busy. As much as I am looking forward to the summer and getting some down time from school, I look at the calendar and already it is starting to fill up.
Last weekend was GREAT, Lexi had a birthday party to go to and the whole family was invited. The kids had a great time playing outside in the water and in the inflatable bouncy house, while the adults got to hang out and just relax. After that, Jason's friend Dave came in for the night so we ended up leaving Stephie to baby sit while we went downtown to Savannah Smiles. We didn't get home until 2am which made for an early Sunday morning. None the less, we made it to church just fine and then Jason put new shocks on the Suburban.
Last night I picked Stephie up from school and then went into Savannah to do some swim suit shopping. Let me just say one word for that....DEPRESSING! Then we went to Olive Garden, sat down at the table where the waiter said, "would you like a free sample of some wine". I looked at him and thought, "I am sitting here with 5 kids, no husband and I've been swimsuit shopping, what do you think?" But I just politely said, "yes" and then ordered a glass to go along with dinner. Ahhhhh! :-)
Tonight Lexi has Gymnastics and I also need to get to Wal-Mart
Tomorrow night I am going to make Tye Dye shirts so that we can all wear matching shirts while walking around the Magic Kingdom. Before you laugh and make fun of us for being the dorky family with matching shirts, ask me about our last trip to Disney and how we lost a kid! Not going to happen this time when we all have matching Tye Dye shirts on!
Thursday I am driving into Hilton Head and getting my hair cut and colored. That pretty much takes up most of my day and won't leave much for anything until Thursday evening when Jason gets home and then we need to pack!
Friday we pick Stephie up from school, my parents from the airport and then head on down to Orlando. Once in Orlando we will be in Disney World until Monday when we drive home sometime in the afternoon. My parents are staying until the 31rst at which point I think Dave is going to come back up and spend the weekend with us again. After that Jason's parents are probably coming to visit along with his sister, brother in law and 4 boys! YIKES! I could keep going but I'll save more June and July plans for a later post!
Summer hasn't even started and yet I already see it slipping away!
Busy, busy, busy!

Am I paranoid?

Let me first start off by saying, I am not the type of mom who goes around snooping through my kids stuff. Stephanie has a Facebook account and when we set that up, the rule was that I had to have access to it and I was allowed to check on it from time to time. Just to make sure I know who her friends are and what she is doing online. Ok?

All that said, yesterday she got a message while I was by the computer and she saw that it said LOL and said, I know what that is, don’t open it, so I didn’t. Of course the way she was so quick to say, don’t open it, got my curiosity up.

After she went to bed I logged back into her account to check her Facebook messages. She had written to a girl from Siloam and all it said was, “Hey! Do you sat, blowed, burned or tried? Just curious?” Me being the paranoid mom that I am instantly thought of drugs or something. I know that Stephie is a good girl but I was starting to wonder what she was doing or knew about.

So I sent out some text messages to ask my friends if they knew these terms or if I should be concerned. No one knew but wanted an update once I got it figured out.

Well I got inpatient waiting for her friend to write back so I could figure it out and just asked Stephanie today. What she meant to type was “Hey! Do you SAY blowed, burned or tried?” I guess that when someone says something to you that is a slam the kids around will say, BLOWED! or TRIED! Anyway, it is just middle school slang for a slam! Ok, now I feel stupid! But hey, I am not naïve enough to think none of my children will never get curious or want to try things and I just don’t want to be the stupid parent that never saw it coming, you know?

Anyway, so that is what it meant and thank god that is all it meant!

Ever have one of those "shower moments"

We all know that as humans we are "creatures of habit". Everyday people get up and take the same route to work, stop at their same favorite coffee stop, order the same thing they ordered for the past year and do things exactly the same as we did before. I know life isn't the same day after day but for some reason we find comfort in routine and the "sameness" (not sure this is a word) of each day. All that said, I also have a routine for when I take a shower. You know how it is. Get the water ready, step in, first shampoo, then shave, then conditioner, while the conditioner sits, wash face and then body. Rinse conditioner, get out. Pretty simple, but I do it the same every single day.
So yesterday I was in the shower, the face wash bottle was empty finally so I grabbed the new bottle I had placed on the tub ledge. The new bottle was packaged differently so I stopped and looked at it for a bit. Decided to see if they had reduced the amount in the bottle (hate when they do that) and just did a quick comparison. I then washed my face and suddenly realized I couldn't remember if I had put conditioner in my hair or not.
Please tell me I am not the only one who has done this? I mean, if I had put conditioner in my hair I would have done like 2 minutes ago, how could I forget? I honestly had no idea though! It was like taking that 2 minute "reading break" had thrown off my groove and now I was lost! Ha-ha! I finally took a strand of hair and stuck it in the water to see if it turned silky smooth or was still needing conditioner. Of course I already had conditioner on my hair....I had just forgot! Duh! This does not seem like a good sign as I am only 30 "something" and will only be getting older and more forgetful! OYE!

An essay about the "Invisible Mom"

I AM NOT THE ONE WHO WROTE THIS. I GOT IT AS AN E-MAIL AND SINCE MOTHER'S DAY IS LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY, I THOUGHT I WOULD POST THIS ON MY BLOG. ENJOY! :-)

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!


One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:

'To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'


In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work. No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building as fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.' I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.'

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.
You're doing a Great Job! You are appreciated...even if no-one tells you that you are! Being a mom is amazing, even on the days that you feel invisible!

My dad

Well my sister just sent me an e-mail and my dad is already out of surgery! Everything went GREAT! No complications this time (Praise the Lord!) He gets to head home around 1pm, no work for 5 days. Most importantly he will be able to fly and come to GA the end of May! I can’t wait to give my dad a great big hug! Thanks again for all your prayers! I guess God wants my dad here for a while longer and I like that fact! J

Friday May 2nd

My dad will have his surgery tomorrow, May 2nd at 10am (central time)

As much as I know I need to trust God and trust Him to take care of my dad, every ounce of humanness wants to reach in and make sure my dad is ok tomorrow.

I will update again tomorrow after surgery

Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

Here is a picture of my mom and dad with my kiddos (it's a couple years old)