Whoa..is all I have to say about this morning!

Whoa is right. I don't know if any of you have seen the greatness of Steel Magnolias or not (you should if you haven't...I mean grab a box of tissues, your mom, sister, grandma and best girlfriends, get a good cup of coffee and pull up for some chick flick greatness!) but if you haven't, they talk about laughing through tears being the greatest emotion. Today I would agree.

Toby is out on the recruiting trail and so I am "holding down the Trotter fort" this week as the lone commander. This morning I did not do so great at leading the troops. For starters I woke up late. Boooo. I hate that when it happens. I needed to get up early so I could have a little "me time" or better said "God time", get a shower and be ready to go when the little people woke up because we had year doctor checks today. Side note: it is actually a little more accurate to say year plus two months...I'm a little behind :)...Any who...

My thoughts are that I overslept my alarm because at 1:30am it started storming outside and I heard Cade's battery powered dump truck start rolling through the backyard because of the wind...and when you are the lone commander your senses are on high alert so I about jumped out of my skin when I hear a huge bolt of thunder and then think a dump truck is backing up into my backyard at 1:30 in the morning! Needless to say I was jolted from my "I will lay my head down in peace and rest" - slumber. Finally I think I drifted back off around 3am after I had checked the crazy Oklahoma weather and made sure we wouldn't blow away to Oz in a Tornado...Geez...

So back to my morning...well Cade man wondered in to my room to give me my wake up call and of course I jumped a mile high when I realized we had 45 minutes to do the flight of the bumble bees and shower me (and I was desperate for a shower...and a hair wash..hey, just being honest here...personal hygiene is low on the ole' to do list these days, but today it had to happen!) milk, breakfast, COFFEE (and yes it is in all caps), get me dressed, kids dressed, diaper bag/Euro pack of tricks packed, Insurance info in hand for new doctor (which is a huge part of this story), and out the door! And for sure on track to be only 5 minutes late...awesome. Another side note: I hate to be late!

Okay so we are clean, ready and I am trying to toss all the questions I want to ask the new doc to the front of my brain while I am driving, putting on mascara, giving a quick spiritual lesson for the day to Cade and trying to pass bites of breakfast bar to Ainsley. Multi-task much?!?! Welcome to life as a mom! :)

Okay...(remember I say okay at least 500 times a day..I wasn't kidding!). We pull into the doctor and I grab a quick call from the hubby before he hits his recruiting meetings for the day. Quick I love you and we bust through the doors of the doc!

The rest of the story I will fast forward and hope that you can hang with me and feel the laugh/cry that was coming on from the shot of the gun this morning. We enter the office and greet the nurse/receptionist at the window. I am given a huge stack of papers to fill out while keeping both my toddler children "in play". Again, okay...

They call us back before I have time to finish filling out the paper work and although I came armed with my new insurance info it never fails to take FOREVER to "get in the system". We finally get to the room, wait a bit and have the doc come in. Of course I forget every question I wanted to ask and just go with the doctor flow because I am just trying to make it a pleasant experience for all. Knowing all the while I am about to ruin Ainsley's day with the all exciting immunizations. The doctor, nurses, staff etc were great...no complaints. But somewhere in the middle of dishing out another breakfast bar, talking to the doctor about Cade potentially regressing the whole potty training thing when he is 6 (whoa, he is only 3?!?!), Ainsley pulling out old Popsicle sticks out of the trashcan and the mound of "we just need you to fill out these few papers to get you in the system" paper work I started to feel a laugh/cry coming on.

Well, we made it through the appointment all smiles. Ainsley made it through her immunizations and got her finger pricked. The kids are happy, healthy and ready for another year of fun! As I am walking out the door I am handed immunization precautions, what to do if your child is anemic, and the mound of paper work I didn't finish to take home. Whoa...to say my brain was on overload is an understatement.

I got everyone in the car. I got in the car and all at once I started laughing so hard and then just started crying. It was awesome. I just released it all. We are in a new place, I was championing the new doc and new insurance thing, and I was just trying to make the best decisions for my precious kiddos in the middle of it all.
I have tons of support, love coming from a million directions and a family that is just precious, but in that moment of "overwhelming new" I just needed a laugh cry.

Okay...

And you know what as soon as I let out a few tears and a couple of laughs God scooped me up. He loved on me in my weaknesses and didn't forsake me. He loved me and was tender to me today so that I could continue in joy and not accept the "overwhelming new" that was pressing against me.

"For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you declares the Lord." Jeremiah 29:11-14

In the middle of it all I said a little prayer for all you ladies doing the same thing and feeling a laugh/cry coming on today. God will not forsake us in our weaknesses, in fact it reminded me that His power is perfected in my weaknesses! (2 Corinthians 12:9)Thank goodness!!!!

To finish off this little post for today I wanted to share a link to some music that is AWESOME and a song that fits my heart perfect for today. Check it out if you get a chance. The link is www.karijobe.com and the song for the day is You Are For Me. Oh, and I will be watching Steel Magnolias tonight! :)

Much love to you today!
Cari