Huh.  This is so freaking ironic, I can’t believe I’m typing it. Still kind of in shock. So you know that class I took on driving the church van last Friday?  We had a skid car, where they take the traction off the tires as you’re driving just to have you spin, to teach you how to control the vehicle while in an uncontrollable situation.  It was more than anything just a blast to me, spinning and getting dizzy. As I got out, I said to Anita (Young), “Well, I hope I never have to do that in real life, I don’t plan on putting myself in a situation where I spin like that.”

Yeah, so I was hit today in an intersection by a lady who ran a stop sign in the rain and flipped me around backward in the road.  I did EXACTLY what I learned.  Weird.  I never learn anything the first time.  Didn’t save the car from being damaged, but it did save me from spinning more than once or flipping.  Oh, yeah–important detail.  It was Brooke’s car: 

Sorry, Brookey. When you get back from Kenya I will make it up to you.  Maybe we could go car shopping?   It was totally the other girl’s fault, so her insurance will cover it to be fixed or whatever.  But the rear passenger door is shut for good and the muffler’s dragging the ground. 

Thank God Gracie was at home with her Daddy. That’s it.  A post about Mommy and the drama.  The end.   

Once again, crazy week.  Graduates are graduated, no more ceremonies till next year! Yesss!

Brian, Brittany, Jordan, Jillian and their awesome youth pastor.  Congrats also to Samantha, Levi, and Kevin, who couldn’t come to the banquet. 

Aunt Brookey’s en route to Nairobi about now.  Grandmommy and Grandpa are going on vacation this week, and soon enough we’ll be heading to MEXICO!  Without the Gracie-girl, of course.  28 people going this year–it’s gonna be insane!  I’m excited, I haven’t been since I was (unknowingly) pregnant, so I have missed two years.  I can’t wait to see all the changes in Rio Bravo and to love on all the little kids.  

I took my van driver’s certification class yesterday and boy was that fun…all day…driving the church van…knocking over orange cones…hehe.  Gracie stayed with Daddy ’cause Mother’s Day Out was on break. Long day for Daddy…

Her new things:

She holds up her finger and says “hold on.”

She has begun a bad habit of calling me Kari and Chris, well, Chris.  Last night she called her Ma Janie.  I had to have a talk with her about real names and what we call people.  She understands her real name is Mary Grace and we call her Gracie, so this sufficed.  (Thanks, Lindsay Faw Faw, I know you had something to do with this.  You and Steve   )  

Every time we get in the car, “where we going?”  Our Response “Target, grocery shopping, church, Home Depot, graduation, Tokyo” it doesn’t matter…next question is always  “is there toys in it?”  Lesson learned: Just say yes and avoid a tantrum.

“I have boobies too, see?” as she holds up her shirt.  Yes, of couse in public. To anyone. 

At Starbucks, she tried to order coffee for herself. The lady gave her a cup of apple juice in a Starbucks cup. She drank it and said, “Um, this is not coffee, it’s apple juice!” 

She’d still rather ride in Daddy’s cool car with the super loud speakers and the top off than in Mommy’s boring Mom-Mobile. I LIKE my Mom Mobile, thank you very much.  It’s super safe and as fast as I need it to be.

Okay, Gracie, who do you want to ride with…Mommy?

Or DADDY?

Wow, what a crazy weekend!  It’s never dull around here.  Let’s see, where to begin?  Gracie got to spend the night with Ma and Da on Friday night so Mommy and Daddy could celebrate our FIFTH anniversary.  It’s crazy, I can’t believe it’s been five years! We didn’t go anywhere, we just stayed here in OKC this year, but we went to Nikz for dinner (awesome salads, lobster and veal and wine and creme brulee–it was wonderful!  Then we slept in on Saturday, which hasn’t happened in…how old is she?…two years!  Then Saturday night we had a Mom’s Bible Study picnic and Gracie got to play with 20 of her closest friends–all kids from First Church who came to play and eat and hang out with everyone.  Good times.  Gracie had her first official soda–she and Leah decided they were going to share.  I wasn’t planning on letting her have soda for another 3 years or so.  Oh well. I guess occasionally it won’t hurt. Those two are all about getting away with all kinds of things–trouble, I’m telling you!

Sunday was busy, as usual, with First Church Graduation Banquet (and me crying, like every year!) and commisioning Aunt Brookey to Kenya (she leaves next Saturday!) and Bible study at our house. After Bible Study, Gracie played with Allie, our sweet little 3-year-old neighbor and they laughed themselves silly.  Things were just a little nutso for a while.  Gracie asked for water tonight instead of milky-this is new.  So I gave her a drink of water and that was that. Now she’s sleeping soundly and I’m pretty tired.  Don’t think I’m going to make it awake for the 10 o’clock news. 

To Chris:  I love you more today than I ever have before.  I love growing with you and being a parent with you.  Every day Gracie’s sweet little face reminds me of our love and how precious you are to me.  We never knew our lives would be so wonderful, or so challenging! But we’ve made it five years together, five years in ministry at First Church, and I look forward to the rest of our lives just being in love. 

Gracie went to another college graduation tonight for one of my buddies, Nikole.  She and Nikole’s 3 year old son, Braden, ate yummy snacks, colored like 46 pages in her new coloring book, and tickled eachother.  Oh, and they kept asking me when it was over.   Good times.  Also, today Gracie got to eat lunch at Annie Oakie’s Airport cafe.  She loves watching the airplanes come and go.  She kept announcing that Daddy and Uncle Josh were on the planes. They were golfing, not flying.   

So I debated whether to tell this story or not, and it is gross, so avert your eyes if you must…Gracie really needs to be on some kind of Toddler Fear Factor. (and I need to be on some kind of medication…) Here goes–can’t wait for the comments on this one:

I hear her screaming during naptime, which usually is a pretty good indicator that she pooped her diaper, since that’s really the only thing that prevents her from napping. (And who can blame her, really?) I go into the hallway, just before her door and the smell is almost unbearable.  Definitely poop. Gross.  After opening her door, I discover she has not only a rancid diaper, but figured out a way to get her hand down the back of it. I know, fabulous, right?  She holds up her finger and says, “a little turd on mine finger, Mommy!”  Thank God she wasn’t finger painting with it.  Ewwww.  I think she really likes to do things like this because she likes to watch me freak out.  I really need to watch those facial expressions, I know she laughs at me. 

All this after serving us an imaginary bowl of soup out of her potty chair, eating her chicken nuggets with grape jelly on them, insisting every morning that her clothes be orange, coloring her entire (beautiful, white) crib purple with a crayon she snuck into bed at naptime, asking everyone we meet to kiss her imaginary friend, Little Baby, and announcing to her Grandparents, “Daddy’s car is a piece of crap!” She’s wonderful and terrible all at once.  She’s definitely two.  

What? You’ve never put poop on your hand?  Right.

Okay, it happened again.  2 more stuffed animals today from random people.  It’s kinda weirding me out, but in a good way.  But seriously, who just gets stuff like that?  We need to start hanging out at the car dealerships and fancy restaurants I guess.

And when I asked her who her pastor is, she said God.  Hehe.  Usually she says Pastor Stan. That kid…She’s been referring to him (when he’s not around) as Stanny.  Let’s not tell him about that one, shall we?  She must really love him, though, eggs are eggies because of her all out affection for them.  Milk is milky because she loves her milky more than anything when it’s time for a nap.  It only makes sense.  Stanny…haha!

She is so big, always wanting to do things herself.  She throws her own diapers away and picks out her own clothes.  She makes the coffee.  She’s doing laundry and dishes, this one you’d have to see to believe, I really need to videotape it. SHE reads her favorite picture books to ME now… She’s quite a low maintenece child for the most part, except for the occasional “I’m-two-years-old-and-I’m-the-boss-and-if-you-don’t-give-me-what-I-want-right-now-I’m going-to-scream-so-loud-everyone-in-Target-will-turn-to-look-and-see-you-denying-poor-little-me-something-I-desperately-need-like-this-new-playdoh-set” tantrum.  We’ve had a few of those, ugly, ugly, ugly.  Drama Queen Supreme, there is none like Gracie. She has the loudest screams I have ever heard.  

I’ve decided to make her hairbows.  I can’t afford this terrible bow-buying habit I have created, and it’s pretty cheap just to make them.  Now that I’m not working maybe I will find some time.  Hopefully they won’t suck.  If they do, well,. then it’s back to the $4 apiece Marilyn’s bows. Doesn’t sound bad, until you take into account that we already have about 10 of these precious little gems.  And we’ve lost around 6.  Hmph. 

She ate Kenyan food tonight.  She wasn’t crazy about the fried plantains–she spit them back out at me. She loved the fried bread, beef stew and the potato-thingies.  It’s world outreach week at First Church and Gracie’s participating in a big way.  She made friendship cards for the kids in Chile tonight as the speaker talked to us about Kenya.  Tomorrow’s Mexico and Thursday’s China.   WooHoo!

Well, that’s it for now.  I’ll be posting more pics in the gallery very soon.