Get ready for a novel of this weekend's events!

Well where do I begin? This weekend was full of excitement (good and bad) and fun! I will start in Des Moines on Friday when the story begins. I was running late to get out of town. I was finally loaded up and on the road. I stopped to get gas and then headed to the mall to pick up my new phone to replace the one that was stolen on Wednesday. I was happy. When I went to pick up my new phone, I was a little surprised to find that I was JUST getting the phone...not even a phone in a box or a charger or anything. Now this makes complete sense...after all, JUST my phone got stolen. The problem was that I had not brought my wall charger with me for my weekend trip to Muscatine and I just plain was not going back home to pick one up. After calling Sean to see if he would mind if I bought a new charger (he was so annoyed with me!) and stewing and fretting about it in front of the US Cellular guy, the annoyed sales person decided to just give me a free charger probably because he was just as irritated with me as my hubby was! :) I was very surprised and appreciative and quickly headed out the door to head to Muscatine. I ran through a drive through to get some supper and then got on the road to Muscatine. The trip was fine (besides my screaming child the last hour) and when we got to Muscatine, Tate was ready to be out of the car and run around. The problem was that it was already past his bedtime. Tate as having so much fun that I let him stay up...WAY too late! I finally put him down at 10:30 pm...I know, I am Mother of the Year...and he managed to talk in bed for another 20 minutes before FINALLY going to sleep! So now everyone is in bed and my cell phone is starting to beep, indicating my battery is dying...the only problem is that I cannot find the cell phone charger that the nice US Cellular man gave me. I decide to go dig around my car and look for it. While I am out there, I realize that I left my wallet in my car. I place it ever so intentionally on the passenger seat with my debit card and receipt from supper on top of it so that I wouldn't forget to bring it inside. I am digging and digging and digging for that stupid charger and cannot find it anywhere! Finally, I decided to look and see if I left it in the stroller and YUP that's where it was. I am so relieved that I found it and I rush inside to plug in my phone. Fast forward to Saturday morning when I go out to my car to find my driver's side door open...not latched, just sitting open and then suddenly I replay the night before's events and can't remember if I grabbed my wallet off of my seat or not. Well, it wasn't there so I assumed I had unconsciously grabbed it and brought it inside. I was wrong, it was no where to be found and had been stolen out of my car! In a matter of 4 days my cell phone AND wallet had been stolen! I am of course SICK about this and have to do Lani's hair and make up for her recital ASAP so she's not late. I make a quick call to the bank to find out no one has used my debit care...WHEW! I try to push this stress out of my mind and focus on Lani. I did her hair and make up and she got dressed and headed to her recital. We followed shortly thereafter and on my way out to my car, in the neighbors driveway I spotted my debit card...just laying there!!!!! I could not believe it!!!! I went to the recital quite happy and relieved! Lani is truly a princess...and the sweetest one at that! She is so beautiful! She did an amazing job and it was so much fun to watch her. When we got home, Mom and I decided to look around...since we found the debit card, maybe we'd find my wallet. We did not, BUT I did find my receipt that had been sitting on top of my wallet. It was all wadded up in a bush by Mom and Dad's house. SO WEIRD! I started to feel like the wallet may turn up after all. Paul (AKA...CSI) decided to do some detective work and search for my wallet. Shortly after the search began, he walks in with my health insurance card...said he found it just laying in the grass. WEIRD AGAIN!!!! Then, after more searching I felt like my wallet would not be found. We just hung out and the kids rode bikes and we all enjoyed the weather. I finally went down stairs to get Tate up from his nap around 5ish and when I came back upstairs, Lani is standing there with her hand behind her back, walks up to me and says, "hey Jennie, look what we found!" and pulls out my wallet from behind her back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so startled and happy. Apparently, Paul gets his CSI genes from Donna (his mom) because she found it in the bushes in the main entry to Mom and Dad's housing area!!! Everything was still in it...unbelievable!

The rest of the weekend was relaxing and stress free for the most part. We ate supper at the Lighthouse and Tate slept in today until 10:00 a.m. when I finally woke him up! We went to brunch and then Tate and I went out to visit his Grandma and Grandpa Shingledecker. He was asleep in the car after leaving there before we even pulled out of their housing area! We headed back to Des Moines at 4:00. When we got home, I gave Tate a bath in TONS of baking soda and then bathed his bum in Desitin...I mean A LOT of Desitin. He has the most awful diaper rash I have ever seen! Tonight when I took his diaper off, there was little spots of blood even, he had open, almost blistery looking things all over and just screams bloody murder every time I change his diaper...poor thing! If anyone has any miracle cures for a diaper rash, let me know because this one is TERRIBLE!

After Lani's recital...

Cassie and Tate pointing a birds...

Tate is trying SO hard not to smile...

...but he can't help it, he gives in!

At the Lighthouse Tate had a blast "driving" the racecar...

This morning, just being cute...