No sweeter words to any mama’s heart…  Just today, Josiah’s said, "Ah wab ewww…"  (Um, that’s "I love you" :))  Brian said goodbye to him this morning and said, "I love you."  And Josiah said it.  And just now, I was holding him for a moment, and I said, "Can you give me a hug?"  He wrapped his arms around me and said, "Hug".  I said, "I love you," and he said, "Ah wab ewww…" 

Just a second ago, Analise was calling him from the other end of the house (her bedroom).   He went running down the hallway saying, "I comig!  I comig!"  It’s so great to have them playing together a bit more peacefully lately! 

Analise had a rough night last night, requiring 2 different bed/pj changes.  We didn’t sleep well, and though she’s feeling better today, we’ve had a very snuggly day together on the couch.  I’ve needed an excuse to curl up with my little ones.  I read and napped while they watched movies. 

*sigh*  My mom’s heart is so full today! 

"As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right." This poignant essay was shared at my Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) meeting yesterday. It really struck a chord in my heart, and I’m excited to have found it’s from a book called The Invisible Woman: A Story for Mothers.  Here’s the YouTube version, which is very, very good (about 5 minutes).

The Invisible Woman
by Nicole Johnson

It started to happen gradually …

One
day I was walking my son Jake to school. I was holding his hand and we
were about to cross the street when the crossing guard said to him,
"Who is that with you, young fella?"

"Nobody," he shrugged.

Nobody? The crossing guard and I laughed. My son is only 5, but as we crossed the street I thought, "Oh my goodness, nobody?"

I
would walk into a room and no one would notice. I would say something
to my family – like "Turn the TV down, please" – and nothing would
happen. Nobody would get up, or even make a move for the remote. I
would stand there for a minute, and then I would say again, a little
louder, "Would someone turn the TV down?" Nothing.

Just
the other night my husband and I were out at a party. We’d been there
for about three hours and I was ready to leave. I noticed he was
talking to a friend from work. So I walked over, and when there was a
break in the conversation, I whispered, "I’m ready to go when you are."
He just kept right on talking.

That’s when I started to put all the pieces together. I don’t think he can see me. I don’t think anyone can see me.

I’m invisible.

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.

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 as I looked down
at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was
clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a banana clip and I was afraid
I could actually smell peanut butter in it. 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 was 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.

It turns out we did have a very close call with a tornado yesterday. When we were out and about today, we discovered that the damage to our neighborhood was a little more extensive than we had originally thought. When I got back today from taking Analise and Josiah to her friend Laurel’s birthday party while Kristine was at a baby shower for friends of ours from church, I looked up the weather and saw this weather update from the National Weather Service regarding yesterday’s storms:

The National Weather Service has surveyed damage in Jefferson
County in the city of Hoover. It has been concluded that the
damage on Friday, April 11 was caused by a tornado.

The tornado touched down at approximately 425 PM... in the colonial
grand apartment complex uprooting and snapping multiple trees. The
tornado traveled northeast causing damage in the Cedar Brook
apartment complex. Multiple trees were snapped and major roof damage
occurred when a brick fire wall used to separate units collapsed.
The path length of this brief tornado touchdown was approximately
2000 feet... one third of a mile... and was 25 yards wide at its
widest point. The tornado has been rated an EF-0 on the Enhanced
Fujita scale as damage was consistent with winds of 75 to 80 miles an
hour.

Here is a map showing the locations described in the NWS damage survey and the path of the tornado in relation to our house and my parent’s house. The red arrow shows approximate touchdown and liftoff (given a 2000 foot damage path). Note that it was heading straight for a major intersection of two interstates at the start of a Friday rush hour and then pretty much straight to our house! Imagine how bad this could have been if the tornado had been even a moderate sized one instead of a relatively small one. We sure were lucky.

First, here are pictures that I took yesterday an hour or two after the storm had blown over.

Our neighbors across the street had a tall pine tree snap in half.

Debris littered the street in front of our house.

These rocking chairs are HEAVY and yet this one got knocked over and slid slideways into one of porch support beams.

The parking brake on our double stroller was still locked. You have to push really hard to skid the stroller along the ground with the rubber wheels locked – and yet the winds blew the stroller across the porch into the other rocking chair where it collided with the other rocking chair and slide it too!

Here are some more pictures that I took today on my bike while riding around our neighborhood nearly 24 hours after the storm.

This tree narrowly missed a house down the street.

 
This fence was not so lucky.

Nor was this house.

Charter Cable was at the scene to fix this cable line today. Remarkably, we only lost power for a minute or two during the entire storm!

Our neighbor just up the street from us had to use a chainsaw to clear the road to get to his house. Also, in the left of this picture you can see the path through the woods that Analise and I take to walk her to her Mother’s Day Out program.

Another broken tree top.

Beautiful spring azalaes at our house. Ummm, note that some of them have fallen off onto the ground 🙂

Here is a video taken AFTER the winds had died down a bit and after I stopped looking out the window to make sure none of the trees in our backyward were going to fall on the house. You can see the hail bouncing on the ground.

Video of the rain, wind, and hail.

Here is an unrelated picture of a house that burned down in our neighborhood a couple weeks ago.

This was not weather-related. The owners were on vacation when it happened.

Finally, here are pictures and a video from last Friday’s storm (4/4/08). That’s two Fridays in a row with major storms. What will happen next Friday?

Squall line approaching our house on Friday, April 4, 2008. See the video below for commentary.

Video of the April 4 squall line approaching our house.

Crazy stormy weather blew through here this afternoon.

We
were watching the weather coverage on TV, as they were highlighting the
6 rotating storms throughout Alabama on radar while it got darker and very windy out the
back. (We were already in the basement since that’s where Brian and the kids had been working/playing.) The tornado sirens went off,
but the weather guy assured us it was for the northern part of the
county (we’re in the south). Then the downpour started, and then the hail.  The wind was wild and swirly, and we were sure a tree was going to
come down in the backyard as we watched out the windows.  It only lasted a few minutes, and then a couple minutes after it calmed down, the weather guy says, "We’re getting
reports of a funnel cloud on Rocky Ridge Road…"  No kidding – that’s where
we are!  Like 10 minutes too late! There are tons of people without
power – not us, luckily, and lots of damage reports in our area, though they haven’t actually confirmed any tornados.  But
our porch rockers were blown over, and the double stroller – with
brakes on! – was blown all the way across the porch!

These spring/summer storms in the South can be CRAZY! (And I’m not even
talking about the hurricanes!)  Meanwhile, both my sister are in Duluth, MN getting a
certified BLIZZARD and my mom lost power last night in the "thundersnow" and had school canceled today, all this on April 11th!

**I started this post yesterday on my birthday, but it’s been so busy around here, I’m just now posting it!!!** 32 years old!  And everyone woke up healthy – woohoo! That’s the first and best birthday present!  It was a fairly good night’s sleep for everyone, and Josiah was super sweet and snuggly with me in bed.  And Analise is on best birthday behavior for me, which makes me smile!

I had a couple e-cards waiting for me.  My dad sends us lots of e-cards, and the kids always want to watch them over and over and over.  So we spent the first part of the morning enjoying all the cards he’s ever sent us. 

I got lots of emails and notes on my Facebook page, and interestingly
enough, just one card in the actual mail!  What a techy society we are
becoming!  But of course, with the little birthday reminder on
Facebook, far more people remembered it was my birthday and dropped me
a note.  I got a beautiful bouquet of pink sweetheart roses and daisies
with a balloon from my parents.  Brian got me a handheld label printer
(yes, so very romantic… it was just what I wanted!!) and some
sunflowers.  And a mom friend surprised me by dropping by mid-morning
with some flowers, a bottle of wine, and some chocolate just because
she knew the kids had been sick, and she couldn’t imagine me cooped up
with sick kids on my birthday.  AW! Analise and I the Best Birthday Cupcakes,
and they were actually VERY good, possibly even the best. 

Since everyone looked like they were going to be sick, I had planned on staying in for a birthday dinner.  But Brian and I ended up getting our favorite (well, only) babysitter and enjoying dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  I tell ya, dinner out without kids is *heavenly*.  We really don’t go out much with the kids, except for Moe’s (fast fresh tex-mex), Roly-Poly (wraps), and Chik-Fil-A.  As unpredictable as the kids are, it’s not worth the money to go elsewhere because we never know how long we’re going to have to enjoy it, so it was a real treat to be on our own for a quiet, leisurely meal.  We had Chinese Potstickers (very very good, though still, not quite as good as Corrie’s!), Shrimp & Bacon Club (me, what I get nearly every time, it’s amazing) and Bang Bang Chicken (Brian, a peanutty-curry chicken & shrimp dish that he loves).  We shared a piece of Kahlua Coffee Cocoa Cheesecake, and of course, they wrote "Happy Birthday, Christine" on the plate and sang to me 🙂 

Honestly, I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately.  Mothering has worn me out over the last couple months…not from any particular thing, just the sum of the everyday events.  I feel like my needs have gotten lost in all the needs of my kids, Brian, the house, and other responsibilities.  That sure does sounds selfish, but I think most mothers would understand where I’m coming from. I love my kids, I love my husband, I love being MOM, but it can get wearying.  I’m not doing the greatest at taking care of myself and filling up my heart on a regular basis, so I’m sure that’s part of it. 

As I went to sleep on Sunday night after writing this post, I was just praying, "God, please don’t let anyone be sick on my birthday.  I really need a day that’s a little bit about me."  He’s such a good God…  He heard my aching heart, and poured out countless tangible blessings for my birthday.  So humbling.  He didn’t need to.  I’m sure there will be birthdays that will be overshadowed by needs, events, etc.  And yesterday could have been spent taking care of sick ones, or even being sick myself, and it wouldn’t have been the end of the world.  But in my very small corner of the world, the super sweet, flowery, sunshiney full-of-love day was so appreciated!  Thank you, Lord!! 

Well, since I last posted, we haven’t been back to the doctors.  J has bumped his lumpy discolored forehead a couple times and banged his front teeth, which I think may warrant a visit to the dentist this week.   And Thursday, Friday and Saturday were relatively uneventful.  We went to the Day Out with Thomas the Train event at the Heart of Dixie Railroad museum on Friday with our friends.  SUPER FUN!  I’ve just resized the pics, and I hope to upload them tomorrow.

But last night, J got sick with a stomach bug and he was up sick nearly all night.  Up til this point, Brian and I have been spared the all-night stomach bug experience with our kids.  But last night was ROUGH.  Piles of laundry, 3 changes of PJs for him, 2 for me, 2 sheet changes (hugely awkward on the heavy crib mattress) before I started laying down a beach towel.  And I used 3 beach towels, before he ended up sleeping on his mattress pad cover.  Poor little boy.  He was a bit better this morning, but ran a fever all day, and got sick again midafternoon. 

Analise, thankfully, got rescued from the sickhouse by Brian’s mom mid morning.  That left J and I to snuggle on the couch with a sippy cup and a movie, and then take long naps to make up for our restless night.  She came home bubbling with energy, but soon started complaining about her stomach.  I thought she was just trying to get the attention that J was getting, since she’s been like that lately.  But after J went to bed, she got sick, too.  Both of them are sleeping soundly, though, and I hope/pray/cross my fingers that tomorrow will be a better, healthier day and that this bug is short lived… and that it skips me and Brian!

But Brian says he’s not feeling so well.  He helped some last night, but he had to leave at 6am for a bike race.  He felt really good early in the race, but when he made a move to follow an attack at the front of the group, he caught one of his teammate’s wheels, taking them both down, along with 10-12 other people.  What a mess!  His teammate is scraped up pretty badly, and Brian’s got some road rash and a sore knee.  But his bike – a top of the line 2008 Trek Madone – took the brunt of the crash.  It looks like the frame may be cracked.  UG.  I’m just thankful he wasn’t hurt. 

We’ll check in tomorrow, but for now, here was a snuggly moment before bedtime, though it’s pretty much what J and I did all day 🙂

Ok, you are not going to believe poor Josiah’s luck.

I took both kids to
the dentist this morning (amazingly easy, except for the whiney Miss Analise,
of course. Josiah was so laid-back about the whole thing.), and then we went to the playground as a reward. Not 5 minutes into
playing, J is running and trips, falling headfirst into the bottom step

I was across the playground, and another mom picked him up. It was not
even 10 seconds until I was over there, and he already had a MASSIVE egg
sized purple lump on his forehead.
I pulled them both to the car to run him to the pediatrician’s just to check it
out. (I thought maybe it wasn’t such a big deal, but every mom there looked aghast and several said they’d go, if it was them. It was so ugly). Analise was crying harder than Josiah because she couldn’t
play. I was like, "Sweetie, LOOK at his head! We need to go…"
Thankfully, I was able to drop her at a friend’s house to play on our way to the doctor’s.

He was fine – not even crying – all the way there. But then he was mad as a hornet when they gave me ice to put on it. With 4 doctor’s visits for him in 10
days, $100 in copays from an already over-stretched budget, and too many
heartbreaking, "Maaamaaaaaaaaa…." cries…I had a mommy meltdown in
the exam room. Luckily for me, we had to wait half an hour, so I wasn’t
too much of a mess. We saw the sweetest doctor in the practice (and in 4
visits, we’ve yet to see our ped!), and of course, all’s well. I KNEW
it was going to be another $25 for my priceless peace of mind. He said it was definitely smart to get it checked out, and he agreed it looked way worse than it was. We do
have an order for a skull x-ray, if he’s fussy tomorrow to rule out a fracture, but I’m sure
it’s fine. It’s so ugly, though, and his eyes will probably be black
& blue tomorrow. (Here’s what he looks like now. I think the swelling has gone down some, because it was sticking nearly an inch off his forehead within 30 seconds of it happening. Honestly. I think I’m a pretty level-headed mom -bc I almost didn’t go in – but it was so scary looking! I’d better get used to the rough and tumble-ness of boys!)

Well, you haven’t heard from me in a couple days… it’s been busy around here!  Here’s some random numbers that will explain Sunday through today (though there might be a little more info than you want to know)…

Sunday:
Time we left for Brian’s bike race (with just Josiah): 6:30
Miles in Brian’s bike race: 68.9
Number of times we saw him during the race: 9
Number of movies Josiah watched during the 3+ hour race: 4 (?)
Brian’s finish place:  Looked like 3rd, he thought 2nd bc the first guy had supposedly been DQ’d, but final result was 3rd.  Still, not bad!
J’s fever when we got home (he’d been running one off and on since Friday): 102.1
Hours spent at the Urgent Care clinic: 4
Time waiting for a urine sample using a bag: 2.5 hours
Number of tries to get a catheter in for a urine sample: 3 (!!!!!  my poor, poor boy!!!)
Result of evening:  No infection, thankfully
$$ paid in co-pays for doctor’s visits this week: $50

Monday:
Fever: None, thankfully
Bouts of crying and holding his diaper area: 10? 
Time of his nap due to crying and pain: 30 minutes
Time & $ spent at doctor’s: 1 hour and $25 (result: everything’s ok, treat the pain, followup in 3 days if still having problems)
Time spent screaming at 11:15pm: 40 minutes, inconsolable.  Finally collapsing asleep on me while we debated going to the ER.  Decided not to, given that they might likely do another catheter…
Number of times he was awake crying last night: 4
Hours spent sleeping on the couch with him crying/sleeping on me: 4

Tuesday:
Ok, enough of this.  He’s somewhat better today.  The doctor (again) said treat the pain (alternating motrin & tylenol every 3 hours), and as long as he is urinating, give it another day or 2 to heal before we follow-up with the ped. urologist.  He fussed going down for a nap (though he slept 3 hours) and bed, but I’m crossing my fingers and praying he’ll sleep ok tonight. 

By the way, J’s got urinary reflux (too tired to find my links), so we have to get EVERY fever over 101 checked out to make sure it’s not a urinary tract infection.  He’s never had one, thankfully, but if he were to get one, the urine backs up to his kidneys, and it can cause permanent kidney damage, so we have to be really vigilant.   We did just see the pediatric urologist in February, and it’s looking from his kidney ultrasounds that he may be outgrowing the condition, which is just what we’re hoping.  Now, if we can just stay infection-free until then!

Josiah has become quite the talker! It’s so cute. I just love hearing his little phrases. All this is since December, when we saw my family at Christmas and he only had a small handful of words.  Here are a few notable ones:

"Wha choo doin’?"

"Whassat?" (He asks this about EVERYTHING.)

"Wha matter?" (I came into the living room to find Analise engaged in
an intricate play set up with all her people and a little drama going
on. Right next to her, Josiah had 2 little Care Bears, playing on his
own, making one say this to another. So sweet! These parallel play
moments between the two of them have been rare, but they are becoming a
little more frequent.) Just tonight, Analise is spending the night at her grandparents, and I overheard Josiah playing with the little bears and people all lined up on the bookshelf. He said, "Wha matter, Do-a? Wha matter?" And then later, "Where’s Do-a?" When I brought Dora up to the party, he said, "There you are!" Which is so comical, because he says, "There you are!" to any where question. For example, Where’s Josiah? "There you are!" Maybe because we say, "There you are!" Or Where’s my belly button? "There you are!"

When a movie ends, like tonight in the car as we were picking up Brian, he’ll say, "Staht it!" I’m working on adding "please" to this phrase.

Tonight he came up to me with a stem from the grapes that had been on the counter. "Eh-ty!" (Empty! Who’d have thought to call it empty?0

"Yeaaah!" and "Oooooo yeaaahhh!" He’s so responsive with these, too.
Like, "Josiah, do you want some cheese!" "Yeah!" and he gets all
excited, and when he gets the cheese, he’ll say, "Oooooo yeahhhh".

"Oh, maaan" So funny.

And "Where going?"

Analise is doing a lot of letter recognition, so we’re often spelling things, talking about letters, pointing letters out. Josiah loves to spout out his letters, "S-T-M-A-A-A" (We hear a lot of A’s because that’s Analise’s favorite letter, of course because it’s the most important in her name.) He can very nearly spell her name, too, which goes something like this: "A-S-E-L-A!"

He’s also picking up counting very quickly. He prefers the even numbers, though. When I start counting something for Analise, like bites of food she’s to take until she’s done, I’ll say, "One…" and he’ll chime in, "Toooo". When we say 3, he’ll say, "Fo. Five, "Si", Seven, "Eh", Nine, "Te!"

I know there are more, but I’ve had this blog open all day, so I’d better post it before it gets saved and forgotten 🙂 I’ll have to come back with some more.

Analise is such a chatterbox.  She’s always got something to say, and sometimes I just wonder where it all comes from! 

This morning, she hurt her finger playing and came crying to me.  I washed it off and suggested a band-aid.  The last time she had a band-aid was after 3-days of antibiotic shots for an ear infection last January.  It was traumatizing.  I think band-aids remind her of that, and to top it off, taking the band-aids off was painful enough that she doesn’t associate band-aids with any kind of feeling better.  So of course, when I suggested that a band-aid would keep her cut clean and make it feel better, she didn’t believe me and cried even harder.  She just preferred to hold her wound, keeping it covered with her hand.

As I put her in the car to take her to school, she told me she didn’t think she could play because she needed to hold her boo-boo.  I told her, "Miss Brenda is going to ask why your Mommy didn’t put a band-aid on it.  What are you going to tell her?"

"I’ll tell her the boo-boo didn’t want a band-aid." 

"But wait… I just heard the boo-boo say it needed a band-aid to keep it covered."

Analise in a high squeaky voice, making her hand talk, "No, no!  I don’t want a band-aid!  I’m fine!" 

Then when we got to school, the school "principal", Miss June, opened the door to get Analise out and said, "Good morning!"  Analise didn’t say anything.  Miss June said, "You’re not going to talk to me this morning?"  Analise said, "Shhh… my boo-boo is sleeping!" 

Miss June got her out of the car and said, "I hope your boo-boo feels better."  And as Analise sauntered in to school, I heard her say, "It’ll feel better when I grow up."