For some people.....

For some people, Mother's Day is a calm relaxing day, where they sit back and are waited on. They get flowers, candy, homemade cards, and maybe even a mug.


For some people, Mother's Day is not so happy or relaxing. I remember distinctly a few years back, before I was blessed with my children, we went out to eat with my mother and our family. The restaurant was serving free cheesecake to all the mothers for dessert. I thought, how fair is that? I have to suffer without children, and I have to pay for my cheesecake.


For some people, like me, Mother's Day is neither relaxing nor depressing. This Mother's Day turned out a little bit like my last Mother's Day. If you don't remember, or don't know about that one, click here. Last year, I guess, was when the jinx began. Every Mother's Day, from now on, I will be waiting for the chaos that is my life.

Here is where I introduce you to my little van Gogh. For those of you that need a brush up on history, Vincent van Gogh cut off the lobe of his ear which he put into an envelope and gave to a brothel wench named Rachel with these words: "Guard this object carefully." This all happened after he tried to drink a quart of turpentine in his studio. OK, so his story is nothing like ours but his self portrait does look a little familiar.

This day started out pretty great. Ashlyn was supposed to get up in front of the congregation at church with all the other Sunday School kids and say what she loved best about her mother. I decided to take Gaby along because Lance was unable to help me take all the kids (he was finishing our deck) and I wanted to sit and enjoy this day without all the chaos that is my usual life. She is usually pretty quiet in public and I figured I could take each baby on a different Sunday, starting with her. She was very good and I thought maybe this Mother's Day would be different than the last. What was I thinking? Before church even started, Gaby fell off of the pew and hit her head on the back of the pew in front of us. I had just bent down to put the diaper bag on the floor and she toppled over. She only cried a little and I thought, good she is ok, we can now sit uninterrupted for the next hour. Then I looked at my hands and realized they were covered in blood. I started frantically searching for the source of the blood. It wasn't coming from her mouth, or the back of her head, oh there it is, she had sliced the upper half of her ear. Blood was dripping onto her new pink sundress. So off to the ER we went. I had to miss Ashlyn's little performance. They did tape it though so I'm going to get a copy.

She ended up with 5 stitches, at least I think that's how many, I wasn't really counting. I couldn't have asked for a better experience in the ER. She did much better than I expected. She cried pretty loudly at times but that was mainly when we were strapping her down and injecting the Lidocaine. I owe a lot thanks to the Dr. on call, Dr. Nanci. She was awesome. She was even singing "5 little Monkeys" to her to try and comfort her.

We made it back to the church to hear the last 5 minutes of the sermon and sing the final hymn. Then Gaby fell asleep on the way home, poor baby.

I always thought Brooke would be the first one with stitches. I was the least worried about Gaby. She is usually so content to just sit and observe.

Next year, I think I will just stay home.

If your wondering what Ashlyn said that she loves best about her mother, she said "she takes me to the park".