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!!

The Happiest Place on Earth

We just got back from the BEST vacation! We drove through 10 states, visited family and friends in 4 cities, and played in Disney World for 3 days. We started off visiting Travis's sister Heather and her kids who now live near Atlanta and we were able to stay with them for 2 1/2 days, which was SO great. We hadn't seen them in a long time and we got to meet her new guy, Michael, and his 2 kids, Victoria and Ashley. Then we drove to Orlando where Travis had continuing education classes at the Hilton in Walt Disney World, while the girls and I shopped around Downtown Disney with my sister Susy, and her husband and daughter, and her friend from when she worked at Disney, Danielle. We had a blast and bought a lot. We ate at Rainforest cafe, and got up early the next morning to do Hollywood Studios with Susy, Todd, and Lily. We got to meet Micky, and Bolt, Mitten, and Rhino. We saw several shows, danced at the parade, and rode the big rides. The next day was Sunday, so we went to church in Orlando, then drove out to the Tampa area to visit Travis's aunt Bobby and uncle Don. We had a wonderful relaxing day and hated to go back, but Epcot was calling! We got up extra early the next day for a princess breakfast in the Norway pavillion and got to meet Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Aurora, and Snow White! The girls were practically speechless! And guess who got all teary-eyed when the first princess approached our table. That's right. Travis. The look on his daughters faces staring up at Princess Aurora was almost to much for our big softy. He sure loves his girls. :) After that we turtle talked with crush, rode some rides, and walked around the world. We got to eat in Norway, Japan, and France, all in one day. (and you know, that's what I really liked :)) We met Mulan, who was REALLY nice!! She talked with the girls for a long time. You gotta love that. But we still had one more day, so we went to bed and slept for a few hours so we could get to Magic Kingdom at the opening. Which I must say is the best idea. For some reason, about an hour after opening, the population of Main St. USA doubles! That first hour we were able to do more things then the whole rest of the day combined! And we did a lot! Rode Dumbo, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribean, Small World (which wasn't nearly as annoying as I'd imagined), and a bunch of others. We had a wonderful time, but were thoroughly exausted by the end. So we were glad that the next day we could just relax and drive to NC. We visited with our family there for a day, then drove to our old haunt of Greenville where Travis was teaching a class at ECU, so I met up with some friends from church while he was doing that. It was so great to see them! I forget sometimes how much I miss having friends!! :) After that we headed back to Wake Co and visited our fam some more, then headed back to Ohio after church on Sunday. It was a fabulous 2 weeks!

Our Second Annual Food Allergy Testing Day!

Yesterday was our second annual food allergy testing day! Holly and Lucy were both tested and the results were mostly good news. Lucy has NO food allergies!! Hooray!! Three of Holly's allergies are gone and she has two new ones. She use to be allergic to wheat, eggs, milk, soy, nuts, and fish. She's still allergic to wheat, eggs, and nuts, (and the nut, especially peanut, allergy is worse) and her new ones are dogs and mangos. I'll take those allergies to the ones she got rid of!! It's really hard to keep her away from milk, soy, and fish. Easier to steer clear of dogs and mangos! I'm so excited about this I could go dance naked in the street. But I won't. Cause it would probably scare the neighbors. Actually, our neighbors are all farm animals so they probably wouldn't care that much since they're always naked themselves. So, on third thought maybe I WILL dance naked in the street!! WOO-HOO!!!

The Cutest Room in the World!

Even though Travis and I moved into our house six months ago, much of it is still a work in progress. We made a list in December of the things we want to accomplish in our house and it's environs in 2009, and even divided it by which of us was responsible for it and what month it need to be done. Not surprisingly, only one of the ten things on our Jan/Feb list has been finished. But it turned out SO cute!! I love my little haven.

Family Ties

I love this picture! This is Holly's best buddy, her cousin Lily who got to stay (with her mom) for 2 weeks with us in early December. I imagine here she's trying to say, "Aunt Laura! It's been 2 months! Post something already!!"

Bob, Maria, and kids Ryan, Isabelle, and Bobby; Heather; Susy, Todd, and Lily; Travis, Me, Sophia, Holly, and Lucy!! This was taken the Sunday after Thanksgiving, after Lucy's blessing. It was GREAT to have so much family together for the holiday weekend. We had a BLAST!! Played games, hung out, roasted mallows over the fire pit outside, and ate a LOT. YUM!

I took a photo of our mailbox in the fall when the leaves were beginning to change, so I thought I'd take another in the snow yesterday. Since then it's snowed another 2 inches and is calling for more. I love it! Hot chocolate weather! :)

We drove down to Raleigh for a few days at Christmas. This was Christmas eve at Susy and Todds house opening gifts from Heather and Mark.

On Christmas day we went to Travis's parents house to open gifts. The girls LOVED their princess dress up clothes and baby and stroller. They played with those most of the day. And Sophia played a lot with her new camera till it broke about 10 minutes after we opened it. Yeah.

Happy Birthday to Holly! She turned 2 on Jan. 6th. I can't believe she's already 2! And Sophia's almost 4!! I can't believe it.

She obviously loves her wheat free, egg free, dairy free birthday cupcake!! Anyone else want some?! :)

This is pretty much what we've been up to since I blogged last. Thanksgiving was GREAT with everyone here that could come, then Susy and Lily stayed an extra week and a half. They left too soon! We drove down to NC on Christmas eve and spent time with the family there, and got to see my buddy Shelby and her son Griffin, too. So cute!! We also got to Skype my Mom and Dad in Australia on Christmas Eve. Mom had just gotten out of the hospital the day before so it was a wonderful Christmas present. New Years was pretty uneventful. Just hung out and watched movies. Lucy had her hearing test done, she passed. :) Then it was Holly's birthday. And pretty soon it'll be Sophia's birthday! Also in there Travis got a calling. He's the new Branch mission leader. I'm still the education couselor in Relief Society. Sophia still loves Dance and Tumbling classes and we're thinking about putting Holly in some next year. We're (hopefully) headed to Disney World at the end of March!!!!! I'm so excited! I think Sophia and Holly are at such cute ages for Disney. Next month we're driving to St. Louis for my cousin Marc's wedding. I'm so excited! He totally deserves it, he's a great guy. And I'll get to see so much of the extended family, too! Bonus!