What Goes Around Comes Around

After all the help we received last year while Timmy was in the hospital, it was nice to be able to give a little back today.  I received a phone call yesterday afternoon that the husband of a friend of mine was waiting for an operating room to become available for an appendectomy.  At that point, they didn't really have a timeline but she knew she needed someone to watch her 3-year-old son today.  He and Landon love playing trains together and we had nothing else going on but feeding the missionaries so not a problem!

Timmy, Callie and I got up around 7:15 this morning so I just had time to get them situated and take a quick shower before Tawna and Brennan arrived at 8:00.  Landon and Trevy were still asleep, but woke up fairly soon after and all the kids went out back to play.  The next thing I knew, Melissa was over helping collect the six eggs in the roost (hmmm...guess it had been a couple of days) so we had cheesy eggs and egg burritos all around!

With all the excitement, I wasn't able to get Timmy to stay down for a nap.  I even tried letting the kids watch a video.  My kids were all over that one (it's becoming a bad habit for them to pop a DVD in as soon as they wake up now.  Definitely need to break that one!) but Brennan wasn't too keen.  As I think most kids are with  "new" toys, he just wanted to play with everything he could find.  He knows where all of Landon's trains are and there's always something new he hasn't seen before - like Monster Bowling.  Since Timmy wasn't going down, we turned the TV off and played Elefun and Ring Toss and the kids colored a bit.  Around 11:30, we set about getting a picnic lunch together.  Alas, the swarming flies ruined the thought of doing it outside but the kids were still up for spreading the old towels on the kitchen floor.  Fine by me!  Ham and cheese and Cheetos all around!

Another unsuccessful attempt at a nap after lunch and then things started to get interesting.  Tawna called around noon to let me know that her husband had been asleep all morning so she wasn't sure what the discharge plan was.  However, her daughter would get out of kindergarten at 2:40.  Would it be possible for her to come over as well?   The girls have been asking to play with Maya so that worked out too.

Mind you, I had signed up to feed the elders again tonight.  I had invited Bridgette and Daniel, in the hopes that I would have a male in the house in case James couldn't make it again.  (Two times ago, he was very delayed at work, had forgotten that we were feeding the elders anyway and his phone battery had died so I had no way of reminding him.  I ended up packing up bean dip and green chili chimis and just dropping them off after sitting here waiting for half an hour.)  Unfortunately, Daniel was scheduled to close at work tonight and Bridgette also had another obligation arise.  Bless her, however, she ran by the grocery store for me for the few things I needed for tonight that I couldn't get by myself.  (Well, I'm sure sheer desperation could have worked the miracle but, tempting though the thought of hauling five kids to the grocery store for one small carton of whipping cream is, I really didn't feel like it.)  I debated also about whether or not the chocolate pie Trevy and I had made would be enough for everyone and finally decided to ask Melissa to pick up some ice cream for me on her way home from work as well, just in case.  Such amazing friends, neighbors and relatives!  And believe me, I'm sure there were some angels out there working overtime for all this to come together.  I can share a number of stories of times we have signed up to feed the elders and everything has gone haywire!  And yet, even with two extra kids and a non-sleeping infant/toddler, it all came together!  (And my hat is off to both my mom and my mother-in-law who had six and nine of their own kids, respectively, and were able to pull off mealtimes.  I think first of them and then of the octomom and I always come to the same conclusion - she's crazy.  How any woman could think she could handle eight little people on her own is beyond me! Don't get me wrong, I myself would love to have more and find these opportunities a great experience to see how I can handle having six little people running around my house, helping, fighting, playing together, making messes, pulling out every toy they can find...  But I think it's different having eight kids over at least eight years as opposed to eight minutes.  There's definitely a reason humans don't have litters.  But I digress.)

So here's how it went down: 2:15 - Trevy and I get the pudding whipped, placed in the pie shell and put in the refrigerator.  Stellar, packaging says chill one hour and we have three to spare!

2:30 - Bust out with the green pepper to let Landon and Brennan help chop with my Pampered Chef food chopper.  Brennan gets in one turn.  (And you can too!  Hosting another show November 5th!)

2:40 - Tawna brings Maya over and says that Chance did wake up but they won't be discharging him until tomorrow.  I invite her and the kids to stay for dinner.  Turns out she has a class tonight - any chance the kids could stay so she could go to her class (4-7)?  No problem.

The kids help finish chopping the bell pepper, celery and onion.  All added to my stockpot along with the sausage and garlic.  While I was removing the sausage casings, the boys go out back to play.  Landon comes back in carrying one of the green cups with the built in straw.  He shows me, marches through the kitchen and to the bathroom.  Minutes later, I hear banging in there.  I go to see what the banging is and discover him trying to kill some little red ants.  He has the cup in a sink full of water and is apparently trying to rinse off the ants but some had escaped.  I help him wipe the ants into the sink and return to finish pressing garlic.

3:15 or so - I hear a beep! beep! outside.  Melissa dropping off ice cream.  (Thank you, thank you, thank you!)  We chat for a few minutes, she declines dinner with six kids (not sure why...☺ ), and I head back inside with those who had followed me out.

As I walk through the door, I hear water running in the bathroom and look to see water coursing over the edge of the full, plugged sink, down the front of the cabinet, all over the bathroom rug and spilling into the hall.  I set my bag of ice cream down and run to turn the water off, telling the kids not to walk through the water.  One big slippery puddle right between the living room and the kids' room.  Awesome!

Couldn't resist turning off the water first!

Brennan modeling water depth for me.

Focus, Wendy, focus!  Okay, water off, I put the ice cream in the freezer, turn the stove on and grab the mop.  It didn't take too long to get the dripping rug hauled outside to dry and the rest of the water mopped up.  Of course everyone still had to walk through it to show they were listening and could walk slow enough not to slip.  Whatever.  Even Timmy scooted through it.  And, of course, as soon as I had what water I could mop up off the floor, Brennan announced he needed to use the bathroom.  Perfect timing!

As I was finishing helping him, there was a knock at the door.  Blessedly it was Bridgette, who let herself in, also blessedly.  She came bearing the requested gifts and took a soggy-bottomed Timmy from me for a few minutes so I could help the girls get the dress-up clothes down and dump the next few ingredients into my stock-pot.  (The elders were coming at five and I needed a half hour of simmer time, plus another 10 minutes or so.)

When I was able to take Timmy back from her, I noticed a rather suspicious odor and took him for about his fourth messy diaper of the day.  Poor little guy had such a red bottom!  He wouldn't be put down after that.  Combined with not being able to go down for a nap, he was one sad little camper.  But a trooper.  He just snuggled into my shoulder and, as long as I was holding him, was content to be where he was.  But no way was he going down!

So, from 4:00 to 4:45, he rode in my arms and had his head on my shoulders as I boiled noodles, set the table and attempted to appease the princesses who were begging me to be the witch.  Not sure why I always have to be a mean witch, but let me assure you that it's no easy feat to carry a cute little someone around and get dinner for ten on the table while summoning up the non-existent acting skills requisite to capture princesses and lock them in the tower, only to have them escape (because you're making dinner and trying to get a non-napper to fall asleep so you can put him down) so that you have to chase them and turn them into mermaids, locking them in individual containers, come up with magic spells to transform them into crystals and make them into earrings.  (Yes, Maya has quite the imagination!)

On a happy note, Timmy did finally fall asleep around five, as did Callie.  (Which was especially nice, as we then had more room at the table.)  So I was able to put Timmy down in time to cut tomatoes for the salad and slice the bread before James arrived with the elders.

Glory hallelujah, nothing burned and there was plenty of everything.

Following dinner, Tawna picked up Brennan and Maya and James got the kids through the bath while I pacified Timmy.  After, it was finally time to relax and I was sitting here  watching Callie get really into the Signing Time theme song ...

(Cutest video!)

(This video is from last week.  Clearer sound, but Callie quit when she saw me recording. Landon came in for a little air time, though.)

...when my cell phone rang.  It was my friend, Carrie, one of the other preschool moms.  I couldn't guess what she could be calling about, until she asked, "Are you coming?"  I had completely spaced that tonight was our mom's meeting!

Two days in a row!  They have to be so impressed!