Trying to catch up - too much stuff

Some cute video of Cooper talking and walking. He has fantastic conversations with himself! Please excuse the river of drool.

Click here for video #1 ...
Here for video #2.

The title of this blog sums up my life in the past week or so. It just never seems like I can catch up with anything - housework, work work, blogging. My goal this week is to get everything back on track, including my posting to this blog. I always think of interesting topics to blog about, but I'm always somewhere other than my computer when ideas hit me. So, when I sit here, now, nothing comes to mind. I'll just start where I think I left off, and go from there. I'll talk more about the too much "stuff" bit in a little bit.

Mexico: Luke and I had a blast in Cancun. It was SO beautiful, and unbelievably nice to get away from the real world for a while, Cooper too. I know that's little harsh, and it could make me sound like a bad mom, but I don't care. We ate a lot of great food, got some sun on the beach and just talked and sat around. It's been a long time since Luke and I hung out for an extended period (yeah, three nights isn't just oodles of away time, but oh well). Much needed. Once we touched down in DFW, I realized how much I missed Coop and couldn't wait to get back to grandma's. He had a fantastic time, and all was well! Well, except Luke's back and face. He was body surfing and hurt his back, while scraping his forehead and nose on the sand. He had a cool story and a funny wound. It's healing nicely.

I'm serious, this is an actual picture from our hotel room at the Hilton:



Here are my feet, in heaven:



Then, back to work. It was a crazy three days back, but the weekend was productive, and lots of fun! We went to the lake with Luke's family (and soon-to-be sister-in-law Alyssa) to of course, eat and swim. That's what we Hejls do best. Cooper took a nap in his stroller, and enjoyed the water.

Here he is, all smiles:



THE cutest. I always worry about when and where Cooper takes a nap when we go places for a long time without a bed, because for some reason, I always feel like THE WORLD WILL END if he's off schedule. Is that a mom thing, or should I just chill? If anyone knows me, it's hard for me to just chill. Our BlackBerries worked in Mexico. That is not chilling.

Back to the "stuff" comment: Does anyone feel like they have just way too much stuff? Especially baby stuff? I mean, to the point where you hate to get out of the car at home because you know you'll have to make three trips back to the car to get the bag, the Bumbo, other toys, his stroller, etc. It's almost exhausting the amount of things a baby "needs" day to day. Granted, Cooper is a LOT easier to take care of than he was six months ago, but I mean, goodness. I went to the grocery store last night to get CAUGHT UP on groceries, and a few hundred dollars and a tax-fee weekend later I got out to my car to put the groceries in. It was a lot of groceries. And, if you know me, you know I have a lot of SUV to put them in. 'What a relief,' I thought, thinking that I could just chunk all of the bags in the very back and go. But no. I open the hatch and there they were - a stroller, an exersaucer, fold out chair, some toys, and an air compressor. UGH. I had to use the BACKSEAT of my gigantic car for the bags. The horror. So, anyway, the stuff is wearing me out. I'm going to have to minimize what it takes to keep Cooper happy, and go from there. The other option is an aching back and lots of sweating because of the 300 million-degree heat wave.

And, as I think about this, I have to stop and think about how dumb and spoiled I sound, when there are parents out there who can't even afford to give their children backpacks and school supplies for school. Westover works with an apartment complex down the road from the building - puts on VBS, actually had our VBS over there, etc. - and we were all charged to donate a backpack or two with school supplies in it for these kids at the complex. They were worried about getting 200:



There were just that many on the other side of the pulpit. SO cool. So, don't take what you have for granted like I have lately. Count your blessings every day!

I'm going to an ACU Austin party tomorrow. Go Wildcats!