Jules - Your Person Has Something to Say

Remember that one time, that Julie added me (Nichelle, Sister-Friend, Aunt Shell, Wallspogolian, etc.) as "an author" on her blog...and then forgot about it until I hijacked it years later?!  Ahhhh...good times!  :)  

So, anyway...I just wanted to drop in to share a little.  First and foremost, please be warned that my writing 'skills' are nowhere near as sophisticated as Julie's.  I overuse exclamation points, I have gotten really good at creating run-on sentences over the years, and you know those three little periods that people put together to try to show a slightly awkward pause?  The ones that I've already used three times now?  Yeah...I'm kind of obsessed with using them...sorry, not sorry. Okay, I'm gonna try to focus now because I really am not on here JUST to be annoying, I have a point!!!!

About two weeks ago I had the opportunity to be Julie for almost four days!  Well, I got to be about 50% of Julie.  The 25% of Julie that is a business woman was taken over by Taunya (thankfully...I hear it was crazy...sorry, sis!).  And the 25% of her that is Coria's wife, well, she was still that.  But the 50% of her that is a Mom and home maker, I was that 50% for four days...and it almost did me in.  How on Earth she manages to be so incredibly amazing at what she does is absolutely beyond me.

It only took 473.5 tries to get one without him moving.

Cole will be 2 in March.  Pause a moment to take in that crazy fact.  He is likely going to be the youngest cross country runner in Olympic history.  I'm pretty convinced he'll be ready to compete in the next summer games.  He is, too.  He is so fast.  And always going.  Running.  As Julie says, his two speeds are 'asleep' or '100mph' (or something to that affect).  This little man has to have a hidden battery pack somewhere.  There is a secret though to getting him to hold still for all of 3.5 seconds...you show him or give him a truck!  To say that he is obsessed with trucks is like saying that Brandon is kind of tall.  The kid lives for trucks!!!

This is a pretty accurate picture of what every moment of all four days looked like.

I had my dog, Buddy with me.  He wasn't very good at staying off of the couch like he was supposed to, but he was very patient when Cole would ride him or 'Sleeping Beauty' (Livi's doll) would nap with him.  And he was a HUGE help with the post-meal clean-up process.  Particularly because Cole is learning to feed himself and is in this super awesome throwing food phase.  The only problem with that...is that his little digestive tract isn't used to eating that much people food so by the morning of day two we all woke up to a bit of a puppy mess on the floor of the kitchen.  It gets better.  That morning, as soon as I woke up, I went straight from Julie's bed to the kids' room and got Cole out of bed.  I changed his diaper and, the second I got that last tab on his clean diaper fastened, that little runner was off!!  It took me all of thirty seconds to fold up his dirty diaper, stand up, and walk into the living room but in those thirty seconds, he had tracked Buddy's 'puppy mess' throughout three different rooms in the house.  Awesome.  

After I tossed little man in the bath, sanitized the house, and cooked and fed everyone breakfast, I went to go grab Cole from the middle of his sea of trucks in the living room only to realize that he had made his own 'toddler mess' through his diaper on the floor of the living room.  Awesome.

New pink glasses and just a few missing teeth.  The cutest.

That evening I had put Liv and Cole both to bed and was getting Netflix started on the living room tv for myself, and my friends Rachel and Brian.  It hadn't been 20 minutes since I'd put Liv down when she came out.  She walked right up to me on the couch and said "Aunt Shell, I swallowed a penny."  Umm...you WHAT!?  Wait, did I hear that right!?  I was on the phone with Julie so I shared with her what Liv had just told me and she said the one word I was thinking but couldn't say with Liv standing right in front of me.  So, the four of us adults did what adults would naturally do in this situation, we Googled it.  Basically we learned that if she wasn't choking on it and it wasn't blocking her airway, it wasn't an ER situation and we could call her doctor the next day and likely be advised to just let it run it's course.  Knowing her breathing issues I snuggled with her on the couch for twenty or so minutes while she "read me a story" so I could make sure that everything sounded normal.

The kiddos and I on our way to pick Mema up from the airport.

The next day we picked up Mema from the airport.  All three of us were SO excited to see her!!  And I think she was pretty excited to be with the kiddos!  She had the kids for the next week and then was able to stay and help Jules for another few days after she got home, too.  I thought it was difficult just keeping everyone alive for four days, but Mema did it for a week PLUS she got multiple projects around the house done, too!  And towards the end, her and I both sat and discussed how in awe we are of Julie.  Who has a business, is a wonderful & supportive wife, a loyal friend, a terrific sister and daughter, keeps a beautiful home, and isn't just a keep-your-kids-alive Mom (like me) but an I'll-do-anything-it-takes-to-make-sure-my-kids-have-and-become-the-best Mom.  

Jules, please know that you are MORE than enough.  You ARE a good Mom.  You are an absolutely incredible Mom.  You are beautiful.  You are an inspirational woman.  You are my person. Love you, my sweet friend.