What do these things have in common? Well, they are all ridiculous parts of a ridiculous whole which was our drive home from Wisconsin this past weekend. It's quite the story.
First let me just say that we drove to Wisconsin for a baby shower for Lucy at James's parents house. It was a really great weekend. James's mom always throws really nice showers (I've been to three already! Two for us- wedding and baby- and one baby shower for his sister Cathy). She even made some vegan treats for me! It was really great to get to introduce Lucy to James's sisters and see his nieces Adriana and Zoe interact with her. A few of my college friends made the journey to Whitewater too, and it was wonderful to catch up with them and hear the news of their lives (pregnancies, new jobs, it was very eventful!).
So, after a very full and wonderful weekend, we started the long drive home. We were going to go to 10:30am Palm Sunday mass in Janesville and then get on the road. James's parents went to the an earlier mass though and we wanted to say goodbye to them before we left. Normally they would've made it back on time, but with Palm Sunday being slightly longer, we wouldn't have made it. So, James looked up some mass times in Rockford and off we went.
The second we took the exit off the highway, I had a feeling that this wasn't going to work out. Twenty minutes before the mass started, we parked in the lot. As we were walking to the church, I noticed that pretty much all the people were Latino, and that many were speaking Spanish. I asked James if it was a Spanish mass, and he said no. When we got to the church, there was literally a line to get in--20 minutes before the start time! We both kind of marveled at that. As we stood in line, I noticed now that we were in fact surrounded by people speaking Spanish. "Are you
sure this isn't a Spanish mass?" "It's not a Spanish mass." As the line moved up, a sign came into sight. As it turns out, this church has one English mass and we were definitely not at that one. We turned around and got back in the car.
Before we got on the highway, we needed gas. So while James took care of that, I fed Lucy and decided to change her diaper. For some reason, I had a really bad feeling about going inside the gas station. So, I decided what the heck? I'll just change her diaper in the car. Normally I probably would have laid her down on a seat to do it, but our car was packed to the brim with all the things we received at the baby shower, so I decided to change her in my lap. I had already felt her poop twice while I was feeding her, so I figured that she was probably done. Can you see where this is going? As I was wiping her, a little bit more poop came out. Easily contained in the diaper. So, I continued wiping. Then a little more. Then a LOT more. James was in the car at this point and we couldn't help but laugh hysterically as Lucy continued to poop, spilling out of her diaper, onto her clothes and into my lap! Remember that bus-type thing in Willy Wonka where foam starts shooting at them from tubas and they are just covered in it? That's what I kind of felt like. Only not foam-- poop. Anyway, being as stubborn as I am, I refused to go into the gas station even at this point. Luckily, I was prepared for such messes so I grabbed a plastic bag out of the diaper bag, put all of the poopy clothes in it (including my poopy pants), cleaned Lucy up and got her some new clothes, and put some new pants on myself. Yes, I changed my pants in the car. For the record, I was very speedy, no one was around, and I had a really bad feeling about this gas station. So, off we went again.
James had seen a mass at 5pm in Springfield when he was looking for masses, so we decided to see if we could make it there. In the meantime, poor Lucy was not a happy camper. After a long car ride, and being passed around at the baby shower, she seemed shocked and appalled that we would have the nerve to put her in the car seat again. In my bag of mom tricks, I packed a Baby Einstein CD of classical music that I've noticed she really likes. So whenever she started crying and we knew it was not that she was hungry, we'd pop that in. On the way to Wisconsin, it worked like a charm. On the way back, not so much. It took her much longer to calm down when listening to it, and sometimes it didn't work at all. But we kept trying. I've been singing classical music to myself all week.
We made it into Springfield and managed to find the Cathedral along the main street in the downtown area about 7 minutes before mass started. Just out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a sign that indicated that the 5pm mass would be held at a different church, and it gave the cross streets. James thought he had seen one of the streets a while back, so at least we had some kind of lead. We found that street, and then had to decide if the other one we were looking for would be to the right or to the left. After a couple minutes of "Right, no left... maybe left? No, definitely right," we chose left. We chose wrong. We finally found the church at about 5:10, walked in just in time to hear them announce the Gospel, and the church was packed. There were already at least 30 people standing in the back. With Lucy about to wake up angry and starving, this was not looking good. Thankfully, a very kind lady noticed our predicament and asked a couple of people to slide over. So, we made it to Palm Sunday mass. We had to search for some palms after it was over so that we could make it official, but we made it.
So, that was our adventurous trip from Wisconsin to St. Louis. I'm hoping that all long trips from now on will be less ridiculous, but knowing us, I doubt that will be the case!
In other news, Lucy is smiling like crazy lately. She is changing every day-- getting longer, gaining more control over her body, and staying alert for longer periods of time. It's been so fun, and so amazing to watch all of these changes take place.
So that's the news from Lake Woebegone, err, St. Louis? (We got to listen to Garrison Keillor on the drive too!) I hope that all of you have beautiful Triduums, and a blessed Easter too!
