Quite the frustrating, blessed day...

(Random picture taken in September: Cooper waiting and watching for the little blue truck to come through the tunnel)

 

 

Yesterday was such a fun day...and a frustrating day. It all started with church in the morning. Twelve precious ready-to-play 15-22 month olds in the nursery. What a blessing it is to teach these kids each week; I truly look forward to waking up on Sunday mornings to see their precious smiling faces that are eager to get into the Fisherprice kitchen set and to awkwardly move and raise their arms to "Oh What a Miracle." The tears and runny noses from parents dropping off, the 8 poopy diapers in the last 11 minutes before child-pick up, the tracing of each little hand on a piece of constuction paper and slapping on the "God Made Me" sticker as the distracted toddler was ready to move on to his or her next project, and the observance of several of the more creative kids try to get into and dance to the songs as the music teacher led our singing time made me thank God for such an amazing start to this blessed day.

 

 

And then it seemed to go downhill...Well, not really; but, it felt like it. Clay had actually just arrived back from a trip that morning (so, he had been up since like 4:00am.) After church, we quickly fed the kids and got them down for naptime...sort of. Parker was not really needing a nap that afternoon; he did not think he did anyway. ;) After getting up 3 times, I told him it was fine if he was not sleepy and that he could just have rest time in the bed for a bit. (Usually, when I do this, it does the trick and within minutes he is fast asleep in his bed. Yesterday, that was not the case though. He had taken a good nap on Friday and Saturday and I just think he really did not need one quite too badly.) That was fine, but there was just not much break for mommy and daddy. Clay was tired. I was tired. Parker was not. :) Oh, and prior to eating lunch I tried to snap a few pictures of Cooper in his tractor outfit and this was what he thought of that:

 

 Then, our plans to go to the Arboretum that evening to explore and to take a few pictures of the boys were abandoned upon my realization that we truly do not have as many clothes for Cooper for Fall as I originally  thought hoped. I was not prepared to outfit the boys for pictures; thankfully, this was discovered on this random afternoon as opposed to a formal picture day! However, in addition to realizing that I needed to get Cooper a cute outfit or two for this season, I remembered that I did not own a pair of jeans that fit properly. I have several pair: one that fits when I am post-baby-still-needing-to-lose-that-extra-10-pounds (and thankfully, though I still feel as if I could stand to lose a few pounds, I am fitting much looser in these particular jeans!), one pair of skinny jeans post-baby, one that fits great but has been worn so much that I have worn a huge hole in it, and one that is a size 6 that I am sooo not getting in these days but refuse to give up on for future skinnier days. :) (If they weren't so new and looking too darn cute, I would toss them with all the others!). Anyway, it was during the wardrobe crises that we discovered a practically new tube of Cars toothpaste had gone missing earlier in the day. Cooper would not show us where he put it and Parker claimed to not know anything about it other than "Cooper did it, not me." (although we discovered a rather large smear of something that resembled dried blue toothpaste on P-man's left upper thigh during one of our wardrobe changes.) Have I mentioned that all of sudden my house is a mess and I, of course, realize that during the wake of all the commotion? Some little someone had decided to also take a chunk out of my chapstick that was sitting out on my bedside table...not sure what happened with that.

 

I do not know if dear hubby could sense a flood of tears brimming my eyes ready to start pouring at any moment, or if he was scared that his wife was about to totally lose it, but he totally pulled off a super-dad moment by grabbing each of the happily, gabby boys and running downstairs to put shoes on and get them each strapped into the car seats. It gave me just the time I needed. My fingers were already dialing my mama's number. I prayed she would answer; otherwise, someone else was about to get an earful that I am sure would assure them of my craziness. Mama answered. I spilled my woes out to her in about 5 minutes flat, thanked her for listening, and then ran back downstairs to jump in the car with my boys. Clay already had the car cranked and was backed out into the driveway. I was just fastening my seatbelt when he looked over at me and said, "Red Lobster and a drive?" I am not sure if I yelled out a definate yes or just bobbed my head up and down repeatedly as I thanked God that I was not going to have to cook supper on this night.

 

...so we took a drive. It would have been completely relaxing and enjoyable had my youngest son not been hollering and singing out "E-I-E-I-O" every time we passed a field, tractor, animal, or barn (which was only every several yards). Even with Parker complaining every two seconds of his head hurting (due to the loud pitched fussing and/or singing that Cooper was letting out) and Cooper's extra loud background noises, it was a nice ride. We enjoyed the scenery and made a few educational pit stops.

 

If Cooper was not singing or hollering, he had his tongue sticking out trying to catch the wind. ;)

We felt lucky in that we caught a glimpse of a combine working out in one of the fields. Clay jumped at the chance for the boys to see this, so he turned down the dirt road and parked us right next to the field. The boys got a front row seat...and Cooper sang E-I-E-I-O.

Shortly after leaving the soybean cutting show, Clay decided to pull over one more time to give the boys a lesson on corn.

 

Then the boys went back behind the first row of corn to snap a picture. I kinda freaked when Parker pulled one of the corn cobs off of a stalk. Clay calmly explained to the boys that they were not supposed to take the corn off of the stalks; that in doing this, it would hurt the farmer's produce and livelihood for the year. So, only one stalk was tampered with during this little lesson on the dirt road.

 

 

We had quite the dry summer (or so they say), so the stalks were drier than most years. Beautiful still...

We passed a number of gorgeous fields and lakes before heading off to Red Lobster to use one of our fabulous gift cards to treat us to a delicious shrimp meal. Both boys were hungry upon arrival; thankfully, Waiter #2 has two kids of his own and totally got it. Our cheddar biscuit basket was never empty. We are still trying to decide if that was a good thing or not. ;)

 When we got home right at bedtime, both boys passed out blissfully in their beds. The day that started out so sweetly and then turned monsterous, ended up being quite the blessed day after all. After all, what's with a little lost toothpaste and missing chapstick chunk? (We never did find out what happened with the chapstick, but today we located the toothpaste underneath the bunk beds...where Cooper had cleverly hidden it for his next adventure.)