Thatsathought’s Weblog

2007 marked the arrival of two major milestones in the Davis household: potty training Nathaniel and shopping for brand new (not hand-me-down) furniture for our den. For the typical family, the two milestones would not be in anyway related. For the Davis family, however, they somehow managed to intersect.

For those of you who have not had the joy of potty training and/or do not remember your own potty training experience, here’s a known fact: children reach an age when they become embarrassed about pooping, so they hide to poop. When we were potty training Nathaniel, he would mysteriously disappear, only to suddenly reappear with a sheepish grin and a lumpy pair of underwear. We started to pick up on this, and following him one day I realized that he was consistently hiding behind our coffee table to go potty.

One Saturday we decided to go shopping for furniture. This was a major milestone for us, since we would be purchasing our first pieces of brand new furniture and passing on our hand-me-down furniture to someone else. It was an exciting time, but made a little complicated by the fact that Nathaniel was potty training–which meant we were on a short time leash. When Nathaniel said he had to “go”, that meant we had about 10 seconds to find some hole, bush, cup, or toilet for him to christen.

At the furniture store, Nate and I stopped to admire a couch. Nathaniel said he had to go potty, so Nate whisked him away to the nearest bathroom in Superman fashion. Sadly he was too late, so Nathaniel came out of the potty wearing one less pair of underpants. That’s right. Commando. So as Nate and I were reviewing our options (1. Call it a day and head home, 2. Make a run to Target, 3. Risk it and stay a while longer), we noticed Nathaniel was missing from our side. Looking around, I suddenly viewed our surroundings through the eyes of my 2 year old—-COFFEE TABLES GALORE. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

The frantic search began for my son…and sure enough, we found him squatting behind a local coffee table, red faced and sheepish. Nate whisked him away to the bathroom, but yet again our efforts were too late. Nathaniel insisted that he had already pottied. So Nate and I abandoned all Southern manners and gentile upbringing and hit the ground on all fours, searching for the missing poop. After searching under every conceivable coffee table, we came to the conclusion that the PMIA (Poop Missing In Action) had gone AWOL and must have gone underneath a couch.

At a loss as to what would be the good and moral thing to do, we dusted ourselves off, packed up our things and the guilty party, and called it a day.

The moral of the story is: if your child has a weakness for coffee tables DON’T take him furniture shopping!

Our family home in Summerville, where I spent 19 wonderful years of my life, has been sold. My parents got divorced last year, my three brothers are scattered between seminary, working, and college, and I have a family of my own. There was no need for Mom to continue to live in such a large house. God is doing new and exciting things in each of our lives right now, so this is a tremendous blessing. However, it will be very hard for the Jacobs Family to close the door and turn over the key to 510 Mayfield Street.

It was a big house, even for a family of six, but it was the perfect house for four kids to grow up in and make mischief. In fact, just this past weekend my brother Greg and I were reminiscing and I finally confirmed that he did in fact sneak a keg into his room without my parents ever finding out.  I also heard rumors that my three brothers used to take their bikes to the doorstep of the back porch and ride down the hill of our backyard—which is VERY long and steep and has cement stairs leading all the way down to the bottom, which ends in the Ashley River, which houses plenty of alligators and snakes!!! Now that I’m a Mom myself, this story makes my heart skip a few beats!

Another funny memory is the time when my youngest brother Jeffrey, who was about 4 years old, went mysteriously missing. Everyone assumed he was with someone else, but once we realized that he wasn’t with anyone, a full-on neighborhood search began. My Mom was probably approaching the point of panic when one of my other brothers found him…asleep behind the couch! Since we had just moved in, I suppose he didn’t know which room was his so he picked a space of his own. Apparently the space behind the couch was all he needed!

I remember the day when I was enjoying lying on a raft in the pool with my brand new belly button ring—that my parents didn’t know about—when I was suddenly surprised by my Dad’s unexpected return from work. When he came out to tell me he was home I flipped right off that raft and into the water faster than you could say “Boo!” Needless to say, my Dad ended up taking out that belly button ring…

When I think of Mayfield, I think of happy family meals, my Mom always busy in the kitchen, neighborhood friends stopping by, big blow-out birthday parties that every kid wishes for, holidays where gifts seemed to flow out of every room in the house, getting ready for Prom in my parent’s bedroom, my brothers shooting snakes in the driveway with their BB guns (yes, we are a little white trash), sneaking out and sitting on the highest part of the roof at night, decorating for Christmas each year with millions of lights and luminaries, my brothers doing wild and crazy dives off the diving board that made your heart stop, sitting in the jacuzzi and then jumping in the pool, painting my first mural on my bedroom wall (my parents were NOT exactly supportive of my murals at that point), doing homework at our dining room table, having my Mom bring me special treats while I studied for exams in my room, and 19 years’ worth of many more happy memories.

I also remember the day I came home from Summer Beach Project my Senior year of college to find that my Dad had moved out. I knew the house was never going to be the same again. And it hasn’t been. It’s a shell of what it used to be. That’s why I’m thrilled for my Mom to be moving out and moving on. She no longer has to be the keeper of the museum of memories for our family. We can all close the door and embrace the new season God has set before us.

“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19

Poop. It happens.

With two toddlers, it happens ALOT. I don’t mind it so much anymore. In fact, I think once you’re anointed “Mom” you acquire some secret super-natural ability to stomach the mess. Boogers, though. Ugh. I gag just typing the word.

Since today was relatively calm, I thought I’d share one of my favorite Poop stories.

When we were potty training Nathaniel, it was quite a challenge to get him to poop in the potty. We had more accidents than successes in the beginning, which is typical. At the time, I was working full-time at Water Missions International (great place!), so Nathaniel was attending a Montessori school. Everyday I’d send about 8-10 pairs of underwear with him to school, and everyday I’d get about 8-10 dirty pairs back. Sometimes my son would even come home commando!

One day I dumped the entire grocery bag full of dirty underwear into the washer without sorting it first. I washed the load and then transferred it to the dryer. About fifteen minutes later I started to notice that my house smelled odd, which was funny since I was cleaning my kitchen at the moment. But rather than the smell of Comet wafting through my home, there was another “odor” that I couldn’t put my finger on. Thirty minutes later the dryer buzzed that my laundry was done. At this point the house smelled FUNKY. I was completely baffled. As I pulled clothes out of the dryer, I saw the strangest brown markings all over the inside of my dryer…and then I found it. A lump of brown spongey mass tucked inside some clothes. I realized at that moment that I may be the first person in the world to wash AND dry human poop! Thus the funkified smell permeating my home!!! If I could have lifted that washer and dryer, they would have been sitting on the curb waiting on the trashman that day. Instead, I sucked it up, donned the classic homemaker yellow rubber gloves and scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed. What can I say? Poop happens. Sometimes it even happens to make it into the dryer.

Because of the nature of the topic, I’ll only offer you one Poop Chronicle at a time. Stay tuned. And feel free to report your own Poop Chronicle.

Since coming to Charlotte, our social life has exploded! At first I thought it was because we were new and everyone was trying to make us feel welcome. Now I’m realizing that’s just how they roll here at Mosaic! There is always a fun event or planned activity happening. From boating, cooking out, enjoying some of Naeem’s Mom’s amazing Pakistani cooking, taking all the Pastor’s kids to The Discovery Place downtown, Playgroup, birthday parties, and pool parties…It’s been one big party! Phew! A girl’s gotta get a planner and some fun party clothes!

Some pictures from our current events:

A picture of some of the Pastor’s Kids and Nathaniel’s new BFF’s Asher Fazal, Elijah, and Abby Noy at a cookout at Pastor Naeem’s house. Cheers to these kids growing up together and loving each other!

All seven kids with their Mommies in tow at the Discovery Place! What an amazing place! We saw Dinosaur bones, a puppet show, a jungle, we learned about how pistons work, and had a great time playing together.

Enjoying another cookout with our new extended family! While the ‘rents mingled with the Mosaic Board of Trustees, the kids had a great time playing at Asher’s new house.

Check out the kiddie pool in our possibly soon-to-be-neighborhood! Cha-ching! But more on this to come in future blogs…

Tonight I inadvertently proved two of the most common Laws of Physics in less than an hour: the Law of Gravity and the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

The Law of Gravity is one of the most fundamental forces of physics. It states that all objects with mass attract each other, and is responsible for keeping the Earth and the other planets in their orbits around the Sun. Keeping that in mind, this law was proven tonight by my 2-year old daughter.

Ella is in a perpetual state of Mess. In fact, Mess orbits Ella like the Earth orbits the Sun. Kind of like the Peanuts cartoon character Pig Pen. That’s my sweet Princess. Mess gravitates toward Ella. It is a force of nature. As an example, I’ll use tonight’s incidence. We went outside to play. She was running down a hill that I had already checked for ants, sticks, and holes. Somehow, or rather, by the force of Gravity, Ella took a tumble down this steep hill and landed hands first into a warm gooey pile of dog poop. In the words of the great theologian John Mayer,

“Gravity is working against me
And gravity
Wants to bring me down”

The second Law of Physics proven tonight by the Davis household is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states (in the most basic terminology) that all matter left unattended will always move from a state of order to a state of chaos. As an example, we will refer to tonight’s bathtime. After Ella’s gravitational pull took her spiraling down the hill into dog poop, we headed home for a bath. With both kids in the tub to soak, I figured it’d be okay to answer my ringing phone. I enjoyed talking to my sister-in-law Abbi for a few minutes while the kids played. I stepped into the bedroom so I could escape the echoes of noisy bathroom. When I walked back into the bathroom after I got off the phone, the Second Law of Thermodynamics had reared it’s beastly head: the kids had taken two cups I keep by the tub to use for washing their hair, had filled them up repeatedly, and dumped them over the side of the tub. I suddenly realized that, like Peter, I was walking on water! ALOT of water!

Five towels later I managed to mop up the mess. Needless to say, the bell has rung and class is dismissed…for today.

When is enough really enough? I mean, specifically, when can you officially say to yourself, “I have enough stuff”? How about when you are watching your husband do everything he can to convince the door to close on a 26 foot U-Haul. (Which is, I might add, THE largest moving truck they make!)

I find it humorous and slightly disturbing that at 29 years old I feel overwhelmed by how much random stuff I have! So, in an ironic twist that is typical of God alone, we have forsaken all of our accumulated stuff…for a season. That’s right! To storage our goodies and treasures have gone, and we are on yet another adventure! Because we couldn’t find a home to rent in the area or price range we wanted, and because we don’t know whether we want to buy or build yet, we decided to lease an apartment for two months.

Here’s a view of our digs:

Notice anything missing? How about furniture? That’s right. For the next 60 days, we are living on plastic cutlery and sleeping bags (Nate and I were upgraded to an air mattress, courtesy of our beloved buds Jessica and Jose).

And you know what? I LOVE it! Our “home” feels so clean. I don’t find toys or shoes or articles of random clothing on the floor every time I turn around. I don’t have a million dishes to do each night. Not much laundry to fold. No beds to make. My house, for the first time since before I had kids, feels CLEAN! ALL THE TIME! The kids love it because there’s plenty of room to run around and no worries of breaking anything (body part or home furnishing).

The runner-up winning factor about our place right now is the balcony that overlooks a beautiful pool, tons of tall lush trees and beautiful landscaping. It has served as the perfect spot for my Quiet Times and coffee! I feel like I’m at a resort on vacation…maybe in Asia where they also eat on the floor, as we are currently doing.

So, if you want a place to crash, you are always welcome. We have plenty of (empty) space!

I told Nate the other night that from the first day God brought him into my life, He has been squeezing me…and His grip continues to get tighter, and tighter, and tighter until I have my moments where I cry out, “MERCY!” Therefore, I hold Nate partially responsible for this challenging season, only because God must have such big plans for Nate’s life that we are going through this extremely dramatic “Makeover” to prepare us for whatever lies ahead.

With that said, we are here. We are “home”. We are in Charlotte. We spent the weekend loading a monstrously large truck and headed for The Promised Land. Then we took everything we own and love out of the monster truck…and put it back into storage. We calculated today that our precious belongings have spent more time in storage than they have with us in a home!

We continue the “adventure” of finding a place to live. Because they have very big hearts, and a nice size home as well, our precious friends Jessica and Jose Noy invited our chaos into their lives until we find somewhere to land. So here we are at Hotel Noy, an all-inclusive resort with five kids under five, a brand new puppy (named Ellie, but not to be confused with Ella!), two hermit crabs (theirs, not ours), a large tank of fish featuring the entire cast of “Finding Nemo”, and four adults who are committed to raising Godly children in a house that is running amuck with the pitter-patter of little feet. The house aboundeth with Davis people, Noys, and NOISE! So far it’s been a party!

Actually, I say that all tongue-and-cheek because it has been a wonderful blessing. We were so ready to be in Charlotte and had grown weary of commuting back and forth for the past few months, so that finally being here has been such a relief. But I am desperate to come into our own home so I can finally feel like we are really in this new season.

Love to everyone,

Carrie

(Pray for the Noys!)

Nate left today for his now bi-weekly trek to Charlotte, leaving me with two bored toddlers. So we headed outside in the 100 degree heat and played in the sprinkler. I needed to start dinner, so I was going back and forth from the kitchen to the front porch to check on them. When I opened the door to come back inside the house, a huge cloud of smoke rolled past me! The house was filled with smoke! Apparently, when you are microwaving only one sweet potato it doesn’t take 15 minutes to do so…oops! I immediately took the hot potato outside and doused it with water. Here’s a shot of the ashes…and the microwave. (May it rest in peace…)

So I have every fan on in the house at high speed, all windows open, and the A.C. off. Nathaniel’s in his undies, Ella’s in a diaper, and I’m in my swimsuit! What an unfortunate time for Nate to be out of town!

I’m having deja-vu.

It’s June 4th and I’m sitting at my desk…in CHARLESTON. Not Nashville (as originally planned), not Atlanta (as considered), and not Charlotte (as determined). CHARLESTON. I sit, encircled by boxes. Our living room offers one comfy place to sit and multiple uncomfortable places to sit in the varying shapes of boxes.

Our precious blue house in the Promised Land fell through. Sniff. The tenant was originally leaving May 15th…perfect. Then, it was June 1st…no problem. Then June 15th…hmmm. Then June 16th…what? Now it’s July 1st…forget it.

We’ve gone from considering short-term housing while we build a home, to house sitting, to subletting, to renting for a year. Today we called on apartments with short term leasing options. After over an hour, Nate finally found a place that offered a 3 bedroom apartment. We said we could be there in the morning to see the place and submit our application. ONE HOUR LATER we got an email informing us that the place had been rented. Oh, but there is ONE 3 bedroom still available…ON THE THIRD FLOOR. Can you see me dragging my two toddlers up three flights of stairs multiple times a day?! What about kids and groceries? Kids and bikes? Hah!

We’ve been to Charlotte three times in search of a place to lay our weary heads, but each time we come home with nothing. We’ve gone from Plan A with our realtor to Plan Z! We have the strangest feeling that we are fighting something bigger than the poor real estate market and droopy economy…why, oh why can we not LEAVE?! (Don’t get me wrong. We love Charleston. We love our friends and family. But we are ready to move into our new season of life! Especially since we have to explain ourselves every time we run into someone…)

So here we sit. Our things are packed. Our goodbyes have been said. All that’s left to do…is move.

Yesterday was my Mom’s 58th birthday. (Happy Birthday Mom!) We spent the day at the Isle of Palms…and no matter how much sunscreen we put on, we all came home a little crispy. Of course, when you have children, their sunscreen ends up all over you somehow. So we all came home splotchy AND crispy! Little white hand prints are on my leg, my back, my tummy, and my chest.

After a wonderful time at the beach, we took quick showers and headed out to Myrtle Beach for a fun night of some Calabash! Nate insisted on eating about 20 lbs of crab legs himself. After tons of good food and fun company, we drove the 1 hr. and a half back home to tuck in two sleepy kids and an exhausted, but full, Mommy and Daddy.