Adventures in Babysitters

Last night Travis and I were able to go to the temple together in Columbus, so we got a 16 year old babysitter who is in the branch and had come highly recommended by several people. This was her first time babysitting for us, so I got her a little early so I could show her around and run through our bedtime routine (since we'd be gone from 6 pm-12 pm). I was very specific that our kids aren't great sleepers unless you follow the routine and I showed her exactly where everything is, what time to begin, and what order to go in. I had also just cooked up some taco meat and cut up/shredded the toppings and put them on the counter so they could eat right after we left, so I showed her all of that, too. She and the girls all seemed excited and we left confident that thing would go great. The temple was wonderful as usual, and when I came in I didn't hear any crying and noticed that the young lady was sitting on the couch texting, so I thought "hooray! everyone really did go to sleep!" However, I then noticed that ALL the food was still out on the counter. Taco meat, cheese, sour cream...all just sitting there for the last 6 hours. "hmmm..." I thought, "Not good. I had cooked up a bunch of extras because we love leftovers. Tacos for lunch, taco salads... So now I'm just going to have to pitch all that meat and cheese, thanks kid." So then I asked her how it went and she was just a little too slow when she said, "It went great!" So I probed further.
"Everyone went to sleep just fine...no crying?"
Again a little too slow to answer. "Well, the baby cried a little."
I wanted details. "How much 'a little'. When did she go to sleep?"
"Umm..." she said, "at 10:20"
Our kids go to bed at 8. "So she cried for 2 1/2 hours?!"
"Just on and off." she said.
Then I noticed as I'm writing her the check for her 'services' I notice that the bottle and premeasured formula that I had set in the middle of the counter and shown her and given instructions on how to use it, especially if she's having a hard time sleeping she likes an extra bottle, I had told her all of that before we left, was never used. I started to swell up. I had to just get her home. It was already past midnight, and she lives far enough away that it would be an hour before I'd be back home.
An hour later I find that Travis has pitched/put away the food and is not any happier with the situation then I am. So I check on all three kids because if she never even gave the baby a bottle, who knows what all happened while we were gone! The older 2 were sleeping soundly, had on pajamas and were in their beds with covers on, so I guess they were alright. When I check on Lucy I notice that she did at least change her diaper before she 'put her to bed'. But didn't give her any blanket, after I took pains to make sure she understood that Lucy still likes to be swaddled when going to bed. No wonder she didn't go to sleep and just cried and cried!! Did she even listen to a word I said!? I was under the impression that she was a frequent babysitter! We've asked her to babysit before and she's always been busy babysitting for others!
So the next morning when I started to change Lucy's diaper and was feeling grateful that at least she HAD changed it before putting her to bed, I find that she put the diaper on... backwards.
I will never call that girl again!!!

A Big Mess and the Miracle of the Brownies and Ties

Today at church our little branch celebrated both Fathers Day and the sending off of a missionary. So after the 3 hour block we all had a potluck lunch for JR Webber (who's headed to the Frankfurt, Germany mission) and I had prepared a big crockpot full of BBQ chicken breasts (along with other sundries). However, I realized during the opening exercises that I brought in everything except the crock pot full of BBQ chicken. So without letting my honey know where I was going I dash out into the parking lot to bring in the crock pot and plug it in. (afterall, how long could that take? 2 minutes tops, right?) As I'm trying to reenter the church by openning the outer door and holding onto the crockpot at the same time, the entire crock pot of BBQ slips from my hands and crashes first into the door (spilling sauce all over it) and finally onto the cement where it breaks the crockery into a bunch of pieces and spills the chicken onto the ground. And of course the sauce goes EVERYWHERE. Up the door, into the cracks of the cement, and splashes across my shoes (which thankfully where some cheapies that I don't really care about). After picking up the largest of the broken pieces and the chicken, I figure I need some paper towels to get the rest of the mess. So, I carefully go in and take the paper towel roll out of the womens bathroom and head back outside where the ants have already discovered the feast. In my first swipe with the paper towel my finger accidently comes in contact with an exceedingly sharp bit of broken lid or crock and slices it open pretty deep. So then I had to grab a new unBBQed section of paper towel to try and keep the blood from staining the church doorway, too! Now with my left hand clenched in a ball to stem the bleeding, my right hand continues (gingerly) to scoop up the mess. When I'm almost done, one of the sisters that I don't know opens the door and of course says "Oh My! Let me go get someone!" To which I reply "No!! Please don't! Really I'm almost done, I just need a bucket of water to wash all this off the sidewalk!" (But really I'm thinking "I am mortified! And I want to keep this a secret, PLEASE don't go get anyone else!! If I ask you to do something else, maybe you'll be too busy to tell anyone!") So I finish scooping and go inside to return the paper towels to the bathroom. When I walk back past the door headed for some water in the kitchen, I notice that the dear sister had gotten her husband and they had both already sloshed 2 big pots full of water down the door and across the entryway, and were wiping the door down with paper towels to dry it. They were so sweet! They said "oh, don't worry about it honey!" and then gave me some ideas about where to check online to see if I can just buy a new crock insert instead of having to buy a whole new pot. Coshocton definately has some great people. :)
Then, after sacrament meeting we experienced a miracle that I'm calling the Miracle of the Brownies and Ties. The RS pres, her other counselor, and myself were responsible for gifts for all the dads today. And here it's tradition to give the dads brownies. So we each made some brownies along with some cardstock 'ties' that we colored and put a little dad poem on the back and laminated for a bookmark. Then we tied it to a zip lock baggie full of brownies for each of the dads and prospective dads. Since it's a really tiny branch, we counted up and figured that 20 would be MORE then enough since the brethren count is usually more like 14, on a good day. Unfortunately, we didn't think to take into account all the extra people a missionary going away brings in. There were 25 brethern in sacrament meeting. So immediately after the closing prayer I trot my BBQ scented sandals back to the kitchen to ask the other counselor, who was giving the baggies to the youth to had out, what we should do. She said "Well, we'll just let the chips fall where they may."

We ended up with 5 EXTRA Brownie bags and ties.

And I checked. No one had left, and everyone had gotten one.
Hallelujia. Just like the loaves and the fishes. :) The Lord loves our hard working dads!! And so do I. Happy Fathers Day!!

Everybody digs a swingin cat

Sophia had her first ever dance recital on Saturday. It was so stinkin cute!! We laughed, we cried, it was the best! Mostly we laughed as little girls got bored with the choreography and just sat down, or walked off the stage. Or sometimes they were so overzealous that the class helpers (who are teenage girls that assist in class and stand at the sides and do the routine so the little girls can follow along) have to intervene lest the preschooler twirl herself off the edge of the stage. It was funny and adorable stuff! And we both cried a bit during the 'daddy daughter dance'. Oh, man. A bunch of 20-30 something dads up there dancing with their little girls in tutu's to some country song about how fast they grow up. I'm seriously tearing up just thinking about it. So here are a few photos of her in her two routines. The first is a ballet routine to the song "Everybody wants to be a cat" from The Arisocats movie. The second routine is with her beginning tumbling class to "My boyfriends back". Eventually we'll find the cd that came with our video camera so I can put the video on here. Since we got a new computer we have to install the software on here. But until we find it, here are the stills.
Also, Aunt Heather and Uncle Mark came out for a visit for almost a week over memorial day weekend and it was a blast!! It went by way too fast! If you don't already read my sister Heather's blog, you really should. It's Hi-freakin-larious!! She has a true talent and she wrote up the experience. You can find the link to the right here, Ballad of the McKeons.

My invisible 4th child

Many things have changed since having a third child. One of them is that I now have an invisible 4th child. And it's not the kind you'd think. It's not the one that ate all the marshmallows after she was told to stay out of them, or hits her sister with a barbie doll, or shoved 4 DVD's into the DVD player all at once. (I think my kids are still too young to blame it on someone invisible. They just say, 'not me!') This one is a phantom anxiety that bursts forth from the back of my mind occasionally. I feel like one of my kids is 'too' quite and must be up to something, so I start to look around only to notice that all 3 of my kids are in the room with me and are simply playing quitely. I also hear her (I know it's a girl, cause that's what I have) crying somewhere in the house and when I stop and focus, I realize that....nope. Everyone's in the room with me and they're fine. Sometimes I even try to heard my I4C into the minivan after visits to the library, etc... only to look around and remember, 'oh, yeah, it's just the 3'. Very weird. Or I'm just going crazy.
ps-our computer broke about 6 weeks ago and Travis forbade me to go buy one without him because he wanted to pick it out. So I waited patiently for what seemed like an eternity!!! (because all of you who know my husband, know that he plans more for himself to do everyday then anyone could ever possibly accomplish, so he would never have time to go to the store with me and pick out a computer!!) He was off work all of last week and it was still the last day of his vacation before I could get him to go with me on threat of 'if you don't go with me today, I'll go by myself tomorrow and pick it out without you!!' that he finally did it. So we're back online! Hoo-ray!!