I miss him

Now that it is t-minus 6 hours and counting until my hubby's home, I thought I would share that he has been gone! :) I avoided putting that little tidbit on the web for anyone to see, but since he is coming home soon, I just HAD to share the (now) laughable four days we have had...

Chris left for a conference in Nashville on Wednesday. I promise you that it wasn't 30 minutes after he left and I was already driving to the emergency room! Anna took a face dive off the couch and gashed her forhead on the corner of the coffee table. I am actually chuckling now, but that's what a little perspective will do for you. Thankfully she didn't need stitches, but it was a pretty bad bleeder. We covered it with a bandaid and it is now scabbing over nicely.

Wednesday night we have our regulard AWANA and youth group stuff. I usually take a van load of jr high girls home, but since we only had one car and I had all four of my own peeps to take home, I was given a break this week. I got the kids off to bed and sadly, they were all still awake at 10. Ugh.

Thursday was a little zoo-y. Amy had preschool in the morning and that went ok. The buyers of our house had some contractors over to get bids for them, so we had the realtor and contractors in and out. Ash had ballet in the afternoon and so we all loaded up for that, dropped off and came home. Then we all loaded back up and went to get her. We got home with Ash and I gave the kids dinner. A dear friend called and I desperately needed to talk with her and pray with her while the kids ate. After the phone call, I was trying to gather the kids BACK up to take the bigs to AWANA games practice and completely lost it. Not my most shining moment as a mom. Drop off kids and come home with the littles. I put Anna to bed and let Amy stay up to snuggle a little longer (she caught most of my wrath before we took the bigs to practice). My friend, Pam, brought the bigs home after practice so I didn't have to get out again (THANK YOU!!!).

Friday. Well. I took the bigs to mime class and then took my littles to WalMart and McDonalds. (BTW - we ate a LOT of fast food while Chris was gone. I gave myself permission because I didn't wanna stress out. Oh, well!) I brought them home and put them down for nap. Again - Pam took my bigs to her house for an afternoon of play and guess what?!?!? I got to sit and do nothing while the girls napped! WOW! We went and picked them up after nap and then came home to eat supper, baths and bed. All four of my peeps were OUT by 9:30. I soon followed.

Today. Well, today didn't start out so great.

We had to be at church by 9 am for a meeting for the AWANA games and then caravan to the games. I packed a bag for the girls, got snacks, loaded a stroller (so I could contain Anna) and got the kids up. Anna had a blowout diaper when she got up, followed quickly by another. She has had a runny nose (I KNOW - big surprise) and has been drooling a LOT, so I am assuming it is teeth. Anyway, I load 'em all up in the van and start to back out of the garage. I notice that we are almost out of gas and that I will need to get some before the big drive. Ummmm... what's that beeping... TOO LATE! I backed into the neighbor's car! Crud! I don't want to disturb her so early in the morning, so I jot her a note and leave it on her car (might not be the best thing I could have done). I ran inside to get paper and I hear Ashleigh in the van telling the other three "BE GOOD! DON'T even TALK to Mommy...". It makes me smile. We get to the church and Anna has another bad diaper. I am about to lose it! I went over to my friend Bobbie and asked her to pray for me. She did and suggested I just take the girls home and let my bigs go compete without me. Ugh! I want to watch them. I so wish I would have gotten a sitter! Hmmmmm. Now there's an idea! Call a teenager at 9:15 in the morning and BEG her to babysit last minute. It worked! Thanks for Emily and Megan I was able to go watch my bigs compete in the AWANA games and I got to actually WATCH them! I am sure that if I had taken the littles I would have lost it right there at the games and they would have dragged me off to the funny farm.

Ash's team took 2nd and Austin's took 1st. I was so proud! Especially when Ash was doing the balloon game and she backed right into Lily and knocked her over...
:)

All that said...
I miss Chris. We have barely had a chance to talk at all while he's been gone. I can't do this without him. You know - I do this "four kids" thing every day - all day - and it really DOES help to know he's coming home after work. I think we did well, all things considered.

I was reminded this morning that it could be a lot more difficult.
A good friend of ours is in the hospital with their little boy, Luke, because of a pretty nasty infection.
Another good friend's nephew was killed in a farming accident last night. He was only 24 and leaves behind a newborn.

It makes an ER visit, a fender bender and a tired momma look like nothing, doesn't it?

Thank you, Lord. How could I ask for more???