Back to the grind.

This holiday season has been especially relaxing for us. We've been at home a lot and have spent lots of fun, quality time together as a family (much of it in our pajamas!). Remember, we took on the major task of potty training Turner late last week so that has kept us a little more at home than normal. And you know what? I have actually become quite happy with just being home. Therefore, I fear that the return to "the grind" tomorrow morning might be less fun than ever before.

I am really, really, not looking forward to having to get up before 9am. (Turner loves to sleep like her mom and dad and she changes her routine so quickly when we are out of school - she would wake us about 9am daily - so awesome.) I am also really not looking forward to having to put on something other than pajamas before noon. Makeup and hair rollers? I have used those one time since last Wednesday (for Sunday morning church). I figured out tonight, after Mark suggested a trip to the mall to get us out of the house for a little while, that I have only left the house for a total of 6 hours and 45 min since last Wednesday. For those of you who know me well - you know that is REALLY unusual. So, tomorrow morning I get to remember what it feels like to get up, find appropriate clothing, fix my hair and face, and get out the door in a timely manner! Yes, I am thankful for my job. But, that doesn't make this late sleeper like getting up and at em' any easier.

Two random stories for the night:

Sunday Morning Saga
Background information part 1: Saturday night we went grocery shopping and Turner was such a champ with letting us know she had to use the bathroom, etc. Until we were about 5 min from our house, when she decided to tee tee in the carseat. That meant we had to remove the entire seat and cover so it could be washed. When we cleaned out cars last week we removed Mark's carseat also - so Saturday night there were officially no carseats installed in either car.

Background information part 2: Sunday morning was shaping up to be a little stressful for me - it was the day I signed up to take breakfast for our Sunday School class, not realizing that I would be the only pianist at church that morning. That always adds a good amount of pressure and practice time, and this week's song lineup was particularly difficult. And it was Turner's first long outing since potty training - one during which she'd be without our presence for a long while - I wasn't sure how she'd handle things and was focused on gathering and sending alternate outfits in case of an accident, etc.

5:00am - Mark wakes me up and tells me the power is out. It's COLD in the house. We report the outage to Alabama Power (don't even get this rural electric cooperative essay winner started on the pathetic service of Alabama Power) and they say the power will be back on by about 9:00am. That throws our entire breakfast plan for a loop - seeing as how we were cooking biscuits, eggs, grits, and bacon. Not exactly going to work with no power. We set some phone alarms, and make an alternate plan to cook breakfast in our kitchen in the church basement. [At this point - we should have immediately decided to pick up donuts at the store...but we didn't.]

So, we attempt to get ready with limited light and obviously no power (which means I actually didn't put hair rollers in my hair at all since last Wednesday) and the whole time Turner is trying to figure out why we are flipping the light switches and they are not working. She keeps saying, "They not working? They need batteries!" And even at one point, after watching us look through our closets with a flashlight, she showed up in the bathroom with some batteries she found. She wanted us to be able to "fix it". We start loading up all the food, pans, utensils, etc. and Mark goes out to warm up the cars (through the front door as the garage doors are operated by electricity). I had to remind him that we currently had no car seat in either car - so that tedious process began of hauling his carseat (the easiest to install) outside and trying to work in the FREEZING cold to get it set up properly. We finally make it out the door about 8:50am. It's a 15 min drive to church and Sunday School starts at 9:45. We think we can make it.

Somehow, in typical Mark and Sarah fashion, we actually pulled it off. Everything was cooked in the kitchen of the church and delivered to class fresh and hot! The music went wonderfully, and we even took some friends up on the invitation to eat out for lunch (something we almost never do on Sunday afternoons). We got home around 2:00pm and not surprisingly to me, the power that was supposed to be turned on by 9:00am? Yes, it had been on for a total of 15 minutes when we got home at 2:00pm. So, just a little stress on a Sunday morning!!!

Fast foward to today. We run for the bathroom and I accidentally hit both the light and the fan switch at the same time. Turner's eyes LIGHT UP and she shouts, "He fixed it!!" I questioned her as to what she meant and she said, "Daddy fixed it! He got the batteries and it work now." I about died laughing...never mind that we've had lights and power since Sunday afternoon....today she realized it was fixed!! And of course, her Daddy did it. :)

The Christian Flag?
Tonight we were in Dillards and Mark had Turner with him in the men's section. They pass a Ralph Lauren display with an American flag in an enclosed case. Mark asked Turner what flag it was and she said, "The Christian flag." He wasn't sure he heard her correctly, so he asked again and got the same response. As he's picking his jaw up off the floor, he asks, "Who taught you that was the Christian flag?" Turner says, "Tootsie taught me at church." All we can determine is that during the Christmas Eve service while Tootsie had Turner in the foyer, there must have been a Christian flag out there and thus the learning opportunity. But Mark and I were both completely astonished that she even knew that a Christian flag existed, much less could associate it with the actual American flag and red/white/blue colors. Thanks Tootsie for helping instill the values of our faith in sweet Turner's heart!