Meh.. it happens

I'm having a great hair day (thanks to my most amazing stylist, Lindsey) and of course I have no place to be ;)  Luckily, I've learned to say... meh, it happens :)

In recent years, I've come to terms with the idea that: WEIRD THINGS HAPPEN TO ME!

Okay, so maybe the things that happen aren't always "weird", but the odd ball things that happen in life, seem to be common in mine.

Have you ever went out to supper with a group of friends and, oh shoot, one of the people in the party didn't get their order?  Yep, I'm usually that person.  I can't count on my hands or toes how many times my order has been the one that somehow gets either mixed up or just flat out forgotten.  Weird, right?? Meh, it happens :)

Friends cancel plans? Meh, it happens!

Yesterday, Matt and I showed up to our audiology appointment with three kids in tow.  As per usual, I stepped forward to talk to a lovely receptionist who always lovingly marvels at the growth of my little munchkins while she checks us in.  Mysteriously, she starts scanning for Steffen... Steffen.. Steffen.  "I'm not seeing you in here, hun" she states.  Dun.. dunn.. dunnnn... Somehow, our appointment did not make it into the computer.  Odd, right??  Meh, it happens!  Thankfully, were so well taken care of at Mayo Mankato, there is no way they were going to send us home without doing their best to accommodate us.

Aubree did such an amazing job yesterday.  She communicated very well, followed many directions and helped me dismiss my feelings of being a failure as a momma.  Am I hard on myself??? psssshhhhhttt nnnoooYES!  Why, yes I am.  Why do I do that to myself?  I know better, but.. meh.. it happens.

We were invited to a water park with friends the other day, an invitation we graciously accepted.  Of course, with my guards up high I thought... No way, in no capacity, am I equipped to take two 2 year olds, 3 deaf kids, 1 hard of hearing and one overly excited full hearing dare devil to a water facility.  Ain't happenin'.  With great compromise, I decided that if the two year olds stayed back with grandma, this could be a really fun experience!  I even decided that the big kids could wear their water accessories so they could hear while playing in the water.  It was great! Loads of fun, lots of sun and even some relaxation for this mom, right here!!  Of course, I watched like a hawk with an anticipation that something weird would happen.  I wasn't sure if I would have to jump in and save someone, give some older kids an evil eye for being mean to one of my kids, save my kid from the whistle blowing lifeguards (which they may or may not hear).  I just really wasn't sure, so I was on a mid-high alert.  My radar is a little broken these days, I think its something to do with having twins and being fried out from over stimulation.  Lately my radar has just been stuck on high alert, you know, where your ready at any moment to catch your falling toddler from the roof on which they have climbed (that hasn't happened, by the way (yet)).  Anyways, sure enough, over comes Noah.  He puts his arms around my neck and says "Ahhh,, mom.  KK just lost her ear when she went down the slide.  I don't think she was even holding onto it"  And there it was.  Crisis had arrived.

I calmly got out of my lawn chair and proceeded to walk towards the slide area, where Kendra stood waiting with her head tucked a little low.  Thankfully, one of the girls that was playing with Kendra helped to communicate to the lifeguard that Kendra had lost a hearing device while going down the slide.  My head was thinking "drains.. drains.. this pool has a drain.  How big is the drain?  Where does the drain go?"  But I just smiled and tried to stay calm.  The pool was about to go on a five minute break, so the lifeguards cut the water to the slides and found some goggles so they could go diving for a cochlear implant.  I'm counting my lucky stars, because in just a few minutes, the cochlear implant was found.  Wheww... dodged that bullet.  Meh, it happens :/

I was talking to our audiologist about the situation, and about how I was internally really freaking out, to which she replied confidently "Which you should have, I mean honestly, $12,000 just flew off your kids head" and then we laughed.  Ohh.. good times, funny... yet not funny. at. all...

If there is any type of message that I've really just honed in on lately and really tried to internalize, its that weird stuff just happens.  I used to be the type of person (and if I'm being real honest, sometimes I still get stuck in this trap) that always wondered, why does weird stuff happen to me?  Life is all about experiences and choices.  We get to choose how we let experiences mold and shape us.  We get to choose how we react to chaos, how we react to disappointment and how we react to life when things just don't go the way we had planned.

Soo... who cares if weird things happen to me?  There is a reason that I double and then triple check to make sure I'm walking into the ladies restroom, slowly and carefully walk into a stall (as to not "disrupt" someone, and I also make sure I understand the door locking mechanism in bathrooms.  Obsessive, maybe.  But I have not yet been sorry, which is amazing, because WEIRD THINGS HAPPEN.  Sometimes I do the old double/triple take before leaving the gas station (I would hate to drive off with a pump).  I would have a much harder time saying "meh, it happens" to one of those situations :)

At the end of the day, the big white elephant in this weeks chaos was my feelings about my kids and their hearing.  Accommodating deaf children at a water park and mapping and programming their cochlear implants and hearing aids.  Malfunctioning rechargeable batteries, contacting the cochlear americas company to replace faulty cable coils, missing ear hooks and 13 pieces of equipment, used by 4 kids to keep in good repair kind of had me down for a minute.  I thought I needed someone to pep talk me, but I really just needed to reflect on what really matters.

5 healthy and happy kids, a very happily married couple, a pretty stinkin' good support system made up of friends and family and above all else, a God that loves me.  When life doesn't look perfect, well, meh.. it happens :)