Have you seen it?

My sanity, that is? I think I've misplaced it...

In case anyone is wondering...It is NOT a good thing for me to be out of the office almost 3 full days the week prior to when students get their pre-registration date and the week prior to Parents Weekend. And the week prior to when applications for both a summer research program and a university-wide awards program, both of which I get to coordinate applications for, are due.

Really. Just not a good thing.

Even when I have access to ALL of my emails as they beep at me on my cell phone. Every five minutes. And even when I put a very detailed auto-reply on my email. And even when I answer emails using said cell phone (at least the ones that I can answer without having access to other programs and systems).

And people get REALLY angry and put-off when you don't call them back after 1 business day, scratch that...4 hours! - nevermind that they don't give you a chance to say that you've been out of the office on business and haven't had a chance to check or have gotten the voice mail...And nevermind that if they had bothered to read the call for nominations that was sent out clearly indicating to whom the application packets were to be sent that they wouldn't need the clarification - heck, even the cover page that should be going with the nomination packet for that matter. But whatever...

It IS a fun time in the office...although it is TOTALLY CRAZY right now. There a so many things going on that I really think my head is going to spin and I'm quite certain I'm going to lose track of something...but I'll make it work somehow! The undergraduate banquet will get planned, the textbooks will get ordered, the awards banquet will get planned, blah, blah, blah, and I'll get to see all of my students in the next three or four weeks in droves as they come in looking for me to tell them which classes to take in the coming months...Fun stuff!

This one, too...

Toby Mac...Made to love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1dEtbJY96c

Verse 1
The dream is fading, now I'm staring at the door
I know its over cause my feet have hit the cold floor
Check my reflection, I ain't feelin what I see
It's no mystery
Whatever happened to a passion I could live for?
What became of the flame that made me feel more?
And when did i forget that...

Chorus
I was made to love You
I was made to find You
I was made just for You
Made to adore You
I was made to love
And be loved by You
You were here before me
You were waiting on me
And you said you'd keep me
Never would you leave me
I was made to love
and be loved by You

Verse 2
The dream's alive with my eyes opened wide
Back in the ring You've got me swinging for the grand prize
I feel the haters is spittin vapors on my dreams
But I still believe
I'm reachin out, reachin up, reachin over
I feel a breeze cover me called Jehovah
And Daddy I'm on my way
Cause I was made to love...

Chorus

I was made to love You
I was made just for you Made to adore you
I was made to love and be loved by you

You were here before You were waiting on me
And you said you'd keep
Me never would you leave
I was made to love and be loved by you

Bridge
Anything I would give up for You
Everything, I'd give it all away
(Repeat 3x)

I was made to love You, I was made to love You
I was made to love You, I was made to find you
I was made to love You, Made just for You
I was made to love You, Made just for You
I was made to love You, Made just for You
I was made to love You, I will love by you

I'm so glad I started turning off the actual TV and turning on the music channel while we were at home!

I just love this song...

Casting Crowns...East to West

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyoVJfADlwo

"East To West"

Here I am, Lord, and I'm drowning in your sea of forgetfulness
The chains of yesterday surround me
I yearn for peace and rest
I don't want to end up where You found me
And it echoes in my mind, keeps me awake tonight
I know You've cast my sin as far as the east is from the west
And I stand before You now as though I've never sinned
But today I feel like I'm just one mistake away from You leaving me this way

Jesus, can You show me just how far the east is from the west
'cause I can't bear to see the man I've been come rising up in me again
In the arms of Your mercy I find rest
'cause You know just how far the east is from the west
From one scarred hand to the other

I start the day, the war begins, endless reminding of my sin
Time and time again Your truth is drowned out by the storm I'm in
Today I feel like I'm just one mistake away from You leaving me this way

I know You've washed me white, turned my darkness into light
I need Your peace to get me through, to get me through this night
I can't live by what I feel, but by the truth Your word reveals
I'm not holding on to You, but You're holding on to me
You're holding on to me

Jesus, You know just how far the east is from the west
I don't have to see the man I've been come rising up in me again
In the arms of Your mercy I find rest
'cause You know just how far the east is from the west
From one scarred hand to the other
One scarred hand to the other
From one scarred hand to the other

Cloth diapering...no longer an "optional" item

Well, little miss Tatum is recovering quite nicely (I think) from her ear infections. I still need to make a follow-up visit for those, as well as her 1 year well check this week for her. Remember I mentioned that the 1st antibiotic had given her a yeast infection diaper rash? Well, we had a cream to put on her to treat it...and when you have to put creams on, you are forced to switch to disposables, which we did.

Our thought was, switch while she was being treated for that nasty diaper rash, clear her up, then switch back.

Nice thought, and logical too, right?

*Sigh*

Well, in using our logic and our infinite wisdom (ha ha), what we did is make matters 100 times worse for our dear sweet girl. Instead of her dealing with just the yeast infection, which hadn't seemed to bother her, we ended up, unintentionally, of course, giving her a full-blown REGULAR diaper rash, too. And she doesn't just get a little bit of a diaper rash. It was so bad that her poor daddy was almost in tears when I showed it to him one night...red, raw, blistery, oh gosh...I don't even want to describe it.

At any rate...I decided to do an experiment to see if I could help - and I mean ACTUALLY help. The cream we had been putting on her at every diaper change (with the disposables) obviously wasn't doing to trick - we had been doing it for a little over a week and it was making matters worse, so I decided to switch BACK to cloth and stop the cream. I'm sure the daycare workers thought I was insane. We tried that out last Friday...

By mid-day on Saturday, her diaper area looked immensly better. And even better so on Sunday. Today, she looks almost completely cleared up, with just one or two little spots where the blisters were the worst.

My conclusion...cloth diapers are no longer an optional item in our household. We aren't cloth diapering to save money, because they're better for the environment, blah, blah, blah. We're now officially cloth diapering because my poor sweet Tatum's bottom CANNOT handle disposable diapers. Period. The rest of the things just happen to be bonuses.

I am completely and truly amazed at how she has reacted to my little experiment. Even Matt is amazed and completely sold that she can't wear disposables...Her little hiney just can't take 'em!

Happy Easter!

Jesus is Alive! Happy Easter everyone!

Yesterday we dyed eggs...(Tatum watched and played on her own...I wasn't quite brave enough to let her join in)


Kellen had a lot of fun picking out the colors, and letting them sit and turn, etc...

Can't you see him thinking, "Is it the right color yet?"

Let's check...

And then yesterday afternoon we went to an Easter egg hunt sponsored by one of the local churches. Tatum's version of egg hunting is very modest...two hands, two eggs - and she was completely happy. No selfishness here!

And then when we got home from the hunt, the eggs we had dyed were sufficiently dried to work on decorating...So here are some pictures of Kellen's decorating attempts. They didn't turn out quite as well as either he or I had intended...the stickers that came with the sets didn't actually stick to the eggs, and the markers didn't want to color on the eggs either...so we each "decorated" one egg and called it good!

Easter morning...Matt kept the kids occupied in our bedroom while I set up the baskets...one for each kid (not sure where Mommy & Daddy's basket went...we each had one last year, but it's just so much more fun to get stuff for the kids!!).

So here is a closer pictures of Kellen's basket...

And then one of Tatum's basket...

I wasn't sure if the ears would go over well, and didn't imagine that Tatum would keep them on very long, but she did like them! Although she put them on (or got them put on her) and then immediately took them off, she certainly seemed to like them - and tried in her own way to put them back on again - unsuccessfully, of course, but she was trying!

We packed them up and went to the 11 AM service, Kellen was so excited and ran to his classroom while Tatum, on the other hand, was sound asleep by the time we got to the church parking lot. And stayed asleep through check-in and me putting her in a crib in the nursery. In fact, she only woke up about 5 minutes before I picked her up and was still, in the words of the nursery worker still holding her when I did pick her up, "Still waking up," when I got her. Sweet little thing!

Here are the kids when we got home from church...too bad that Tatum wasn't completely awake, nor happy to be taking pictures quite yet...Oh well!

And what's a spring day without some dandilions?

Then Kellen and Daddy worked outside in the yard some...they just love to "bam" stuff together!

Have a blessed Easter...Remember how much you're loved!

Good Morning

Kellen's version of Good Morning...

Zoo trip, continued...

And then there was the splashpad. We visited it after the Children's Zoo petting area, a fine place to finish off the day, get all of the rest of their energy out, and cool off. I thought that they BOTH would love it, and I'm still convinced that they would have, if some rather large boy, old enough to know better, hadn't purposefully splashed Tatum in the face immediately upon her entrance to this splashpad.

Um...as much as she loves water - and she is QUITE the water baby - there was virtually nothing that MawMaw or I could do to recover from that. And we tried. A lot. I ended up pretty drenched in the process, actually.

See what I mean? This face pretty much exemplified her attitude about this particular splashpad. And I can't say that I blame her too much! I can say; however, that I was disappointed...I was so looking forward to seeing her excitedly playing in the splashing water!

I was successful at getting her NEAR the water, which I considered an accomplishment. Woe was us though, if one of the spouts happened to go off and squirt her. Oh buddy.

Oh, and about two seconds after I snapped this particular photo, she got slightly daring and decided to go further into the splashpad...and promptly lost her footing on the incline and did a header. Compare the photos from here on out...You'll need a nice little strawberry on her forehead after this one. Poor baby!

See what I mean? Note the strawberry and my continued attempts to get her used to the spouting water.

And we must have gotten through a little bit...or figured out that we needed to put her somewhere where she felt like she was in charge of something...or where she could decide if she got wet or not...So on top of the turtle, we actually got our first, "I'm having a good time and enjoying myself" smile of the splashpad experience.

Now Kellen, on the other hand, LOVED the splashpad...almost all aspects of it (there was that one boy...but we dealt with him). Not quite as many pictures of him, but plenty of video to make up for it...he was quite the hoot (and it takes ages to upload video, so I'll just do one).

And here are some examples of my little artsy self..I'm not saying there all good...I'm just saying I got artsy...*grin* I don't think MawMaw knew what she was in for when she suggested putting the kids by some flowers for some spring pictures. Here is just a small sampling of some of the pictures that I took of the kids...and only later - when they were both oh-so-done with pictures, did I realize that I didn't get ANY of the two of them together. Ug.

And Tatum was doing SO WELL with the pictures that I really took a lot with her. Apparently, Kellen started thinking that Mommy didn't want to take any pictures with him, and was getting his feelings hurt...Poor little guy. I guess every once in a while I get a dose of sibling rivalry reality - not too often, but every once in a while. Of course, I assured him that I DID want to take his picture, and then proceeded to do so...and he hammed it up (would you expect anything less?)

Although Kellen really and truly tried MawMaw and my patience that day, we really still had a good time. I told MawMaw that I gave it 15 minutes after we got into the car for him to be asleep...she didn't think he would make it out of the parking lot. We didn't even begin to venture on Tatum. She ended up falling asleep in the stroller on the way to the car, and stayed asleep through the transition from the stroller to the car and then again from the car to the house. Kellen made it out of the parking lot, but was asleep by the time we got past Minute Maid field...so less than 15 minutes after we left. And HE made stayed asleep all the way home, and virtually made the transition from the car to the house as well...I did a quick potty break with him, changed his clothes and got him into bed...told him that if he was still awake after I brought Tatum into the house that I would read him a story. Nope. He was out by the time I brought her back in...Hugging Buzz Lightyear for all he was worth.

Memories...Sweet memories...

Recap of Spring Break Fun...

Here's a photo and video-clip recap of last week's spring break fun...

Incredible Pizza (Thursday night):

We were initially tentative with Tatum and the rides...put her on the truly "kiddo" kiddy rides and climbing toys...

Then after having Kellen ride his beloved train, we decided to let Tatum give it a whirl, with me standing inside, guarding closely. She was probably thinking, "It's about time, folks!" Take a look at that expression! She was LOVING her train ride! Oh boy...we have another dare devil on our hands! And where, I ask you, did she learn to put her hands on the steering wheel???

Backstory for what you're about to see:

Kellen goes to Incredible Pizza quite often while visiting his MawMaw and PawPaw. And they play games while there. Lots of games. Lots and lots of games. Really.

When you play lots of games and don't cash in the tickets for the "crap" toys, you can really save up over time, especially when you have generous workers :)

Exhibit A for what I'm talking about...

I have NO idea why the lady behind the counter had to walk away, but poor Kellen was NOT about to let Buzz Lightyear out of his sight! He was going to follow her until he had HIS Buzz in HIS hands. Goodness. (And I still can't figure out what it was that she had to go and do? Get a manager maybe because it was worth so many tickets???)

And here is a picture of him absolutely in love with the almost larger-than-life Buzz Lightyear.

The Zoo (Friday):

Going in...we were already seeing monkeys!

Then it was off to see the sea lions...and Kellen wanted to jump in and swim with them...Hmmm...sounds a little like something his Mommy would have said...

Tatum and MawMaw decided to feed some of the birds along the way...


We were able to get some really good views of the elephants...and it made me kind of sad to think back and remember Kellen being small enough to say "epetant" for elephant...At least this time he didn't tell everyone within earshot that they were "HIS epetants!"

And what would a trip to the zoo be without seeing the monkeys? Kellen asked for them just as soon as we walked inside the gate...

The Children's Zoo...I had hoped that Tatum would really enjoy the petting zoo...she wasn't afraid of any of the animals, and I did get some pretty good video (I'll have to upload it on another post later...), but she was more interested in the, ummmm, pellets on the ground than the actual animals. *Sigh* Maybe next time she'll be a little more interested in the LIVE things. However, Kellen did a GREAT job of showing her how to be gentle to the animals, how to pet them, and helped me try to keep her from putting things she was finding on the ground into her mouth...What a good big brother!

I'll have to start another post later about the splash pad and then my slightly artsy phase at the zoo...I did get some nice shots of the kids, though! I'll be sure to share soon.