Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

Wow, where are the weeks going? It’s mid-July already!

The last few weeks have been pretty busy around here. We’ve had playdates almost every weekday for the last three weeks, had VBS in the evenings the last week of June, had a visit from my parents over July 4th weekend, been adjusting to Matt’s new job and schedule, and doing laundry, lots of laundry.

Nothing real exciting has occurred, but life is good. We’re enjoying Summer, trying to stay cool, and beginning to gear up for school-time activities.

Hope everyone is having a great Summer!

Okay, so I’ve neglected my little friend the blog for a few weeks now. The first week I just didn’t feel like writing. No other reason, just didn’t feel like typing. The second week we were out of town for several days visiting my brother and his family. I didn’t have time to write except late at night, and then I pretty much fell into bed asleep. Last week I spent every naptime and several evenings engrossed in a book.

Today I would like to compose a coherent and thought out post, but I can’t seem to string sentences together. What’s with that?? I would also like to post about our trip to my brother’s house, but I want to upload pictures and that’s not happening either (I can’t figure out how to get them from my phone to the computer).

Instead, I’m posting some random bits and pieces from our lives lately…

~Matt starts a new job on Monday. This is exciting and a bit disconcerting at the same time. We’ve drawn a paycheck from the same place for the last 9 years. Although I am thrilled for Matt’s new opportunity, there is a sense of stability lost at the same time. I have no reservations about him taking this new position, but there is a bit of “fear of the unknown” that I’m battling.

~One of our big changes with the new job involves budgeting. For 7 of our 9 years of marriage our primary income (the one we budget on) has been paid monthly. Matt’s new employer pays weekly. I have to change my mindset as I approach our budget for next month.

~One of the great things about Matt’s new job is his schedule. He will work 7 to 5 Monday through Thursday and 7 to 11 on Fridays. Because he is trading a 40-45 minute commute for a 15-20 minute commute his time at home won’t really change Monday through Thursday, but we’ll have an extra half day every weekend!

~Matt had to make this statement to Boo on Saturday: “Don’t ride your horse n@ked in the living room!” File that under things you never thought you’d have to say.

~Saturday I asked Little a question and she answered, “Indeed!” Sometimes she talks like she’s 30 years old.

~One of my bestest friends is having a baby in a few weeks. I’ve bought 4 gifts for her. I really need to stop (it’s not like I don’t have my own baby girl to buy for).

~Matt’s Father’s Day gift was more coffee preparation paraphernalia. We have a friend who refers to Matt as Mr. Coffee. There’s a reason for that.

~The baby is teething. She’s been a bear the last couple of days.

~She also turned 5 months old last week. I’m struggling with the fact that she’ll start solid foods in less than a month.

~Little wrote her first sentence yesterday (in Matt’s Father’s Day card). I love you. I had to spell it for her, but she wrote it all. I’ll have to post a picture.

~I just bought Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I’ll let you know how it goes. This experience could be a deciding factor in whether or not we homeschool next year.

~I bought a new cloth diaper last week (in amethyst). I know you’re surprised.

~I got the kids a small inflatable pool today. They were so excited you would have thought we bought a water park.

And I think that’s all I have for now. Hope you’re having a happy Monday!

On Friday, June 12, we had one of those storms. The kind where you look out the window and think, “Man, the sky sure does look weird,” just moments before the bottom falls out. The kind where the tornado sirens blare. The kind where warnings like, “take cover immediately, find cover in the center of your house, wear your shoes and have ID with you,” scroll across the television screen. The kind I had rarely experienced prior to moving to the flatlands of the Mississippi River.

It started about 4:45. Little was watching Caillou on the computer when I glanced out the front windows and noticed the sky had a very eerie orangish-green hue and the quality of light was very odd. I turned on the TV to check out the weather situation and almost immediately the lights began to flicker. About that time Matt walked through the back door and just a short time later – think seconds, not minutes – the rain started falling (thank God that Matt made it home before the bad weather hit!).

Looking out of front window the rain was falling so heavily and the wind was blowing so hard that it seriously looked like we were in a tropical storm. Rain was coming from every direction at once and we couldn’t see the crepe myrtle in our front yard (maybe 10 feet away) for all the water falling. It wasn’t long before the power went out for good, the tornado sirens revved up, and we were packing it up and heading to the hallway (our most interior location).

Little wasn’t sure what to make of it all. She didn’t cry or act scared, but you could tell she was a little nervous. She wanted to be right beside Matt or me or, preferably, in my lap until everything had passed by and she could see that it had cleared up.

Boo, on the other hand, was totally unfazed by the whole thing. He thought everyone being in the hallway together was big fun and the that flashlight was the greatest thing he’d ever seen.

We emerged from our hallway-hiding-place on two occasions only to hear the tornado sirens start up again so back we went. When the storm finally rolled on we were able to get out and survey the damage a bit. Fortunately, most of our immediate area suffered little or no damage – there were a couple of houses that lost large limbs from trees (none fell on houses, thankfully), a couple of houses lost a few shingles, and, of course, there were all kinds of small branches and debris from the trees. We found out later that an F1 tornado had cut a swath about a mile and a half south of our house and done more considerable damage, so we were indeed fortunate.

We had no damage beyond the power outage, but a power outage in June in the South is enough to drive anyone toward the edge (especially a pregnant lady!). We went on with our Friday evening as usual expecting the power to be restored any time. When we woke Saturday morning and were still without power we decided to get out of the house for a while and hoped the power would be restored while we were gone. By Saturday afternoon we’d pretty much given up hope of it coming back up anytime soon.

Saturday evening, a dear sweet friend took pity on us and our hot selves and invited us to her house to spend the night. There are not words to express how thankful we were for her friendship, her hospitality, and her willingness to help us out. And the four kids (ages 4, almost 3, 20 months, and 14 months) thought a sleepover was such great fun that the older two have asked more than once if we can do it again!

We found out on Saturday that more than 75,000 residences were left without power and that the electric company was saying that it could take all week to get everyone restored. We came home Sunday afternoon to ponder our possibilities – should we pack up and head to Nashville for a few days, should we try to stick it out in our hot house, should we head back to S’s house, should we try to find a hotel room in town – and to our great surprise and delight our power was restored at about 1:30 that afternoon.

We are so grateful to God for keeping us safe, taking care of us, and providing for us during the storm and the crazy weekend that followed.

We had a really nice and enjoyable long weekend.  It is always great to have Matt home for an extra day, and we had a couple of opportunities to hang out with friends which was nice.

Tuesday afternoon my friend L called and said her church group had a couple of extra tickets to see our local Minor League baseball team in action on Thursday night if we were interested in going with them.  Little enjoys watching “throw-ball,” as she calls it, so we jumped at the chance.  After Matt got home from work Thursday we loaded up the kids and headed downtown to the ballpark.  We really enjoyed the game, there just isn’t anything like the atmosphere of a professional sporting event.  The kids did well, and we enjoyed spending time with friends.  We even left saying that we would like to go again sometime; although, it would be nice to go when it is cooler than 95 degrees.

Friday we just hung out around the house and enjoyed being together.  We made a couple of trips to Target and Best Buy to get accessories for Matt’s new toy – an XBox 360 – but otherwise it was a pretty low-key holiday.

Saturday evening a couple of families from church came over to cookout.  The kids loved playing Wii, and the adults enjoyed some time to chat and catch up.  It was pretty crazy around here, with seven kids 10 years old and under, and quite noisy, but I think everyone had fun.

It was a pretty busy weekend (by our standards), but a good one.  And best of all?  Boo has given up his second nighttime feeding – one down, one to go!

Enjoy the day with family and friends.  Enjoy the cookouts and swimming and fireworks.  Enjoy celebrating our country and our freedom.

Have a great weekend!

For the last 20 or so years, Matt’s grandparents have lived on about 50 acres of land outside of Nashville.  Several months ago, they decided that the house and land were too much for them to handle any longer and put the place up for sale.  This is bittersweet for all of us.  We understand that this is the right thing for them to do, but we will miss the place; it holds lots of memories for everyone.

Fast forward to last weekend.  Matt and I wanted to take the kids and visit his grandparent’s again before they move.  Matt’s brother and sister-in-law wanted to visit too, so we decided to try to be there at the same time.  As it ended up, Lu and her family were able to come to town as well, so we had a bit of a family reunion.

We spent the weekend relaxing, chatting, and laughing. Sitting on the screened porch (in the comfy swing, of course) was bliss.  Catching up with family that we don’t get to see nearly as often as we would like was wonderful.  Having the opportunity to meet our newest nephew before he’s a year old was great.  And, of course, it was nice to make a few more memories (and pictures) at the “old homestead”.

Yesterday Little and I got new ‘dos.

This was Little’s very first haircut.  She was born with a headful of hair and never lost any of it.  Because of that we had two issues: first, her hair was uneven – her “original” hair is very straight and her new hair has some curl; second, the longest parts of her hair came almost to her waist.  In order to even it up and get rid of her scraggly look, we got it cut in a blunt cut that falls just above her shoulders.  It is absolutely adorable, but she does look more like a little girl now.

She was a very good girl while her hair was being cut.  Our hairstylist is also a good friend, so Little is comfortable with L and I think that made a huge difference in her willingness to cooperate.  She sat in the chair like a big girl and was remarkably still; she even said “thank you” when L was finished cutting.  I was very proud of her, and I just love her new ‘do.

As for me, I went a little shorter in the back than the cut I’ve been sporting since January (which was pretty short already); the front is the same length it has been, but it is styled a bit differently.  I also got some copper highlights that I’m loving (settled on copper because Matt was very against the red-red that I wanted to do).  Just something fun and a little sassy for the summer.

It was fun to see Little’s first haircut, and I enjoyed getting a little pampering.  We had a nice “girls night” with L.

I would love to share pictures, but I’m having trouble with iPhoto; maybe I can get some posted after my tech guy is home to help.

Last Wednesday was the fifth birthday of my friend’s son.  To do something special on his actual birthday, we decided to take the four kids – ages 5, 26 months, 22 months, and 6 weeks – to Chuck E. Cheese for the morning.  This was Little’s first trip to the land of flashing lights, competing noises, and slots for tokens.

We got there early hoping to beat the crowds, and we were not disappointed.  This is the best CEC gets – about 15 minutes after opening – only one other mother and child in the entire place.  Also good was the fact that a game-tester was there checking that all the games functioned properly; he would play, win, and leave the tickets for us to gather.  

We camped out at a table in the little kids area thinking that the younger ones (minus Boo) would enjoy the slide and car ride kind of things.  Tokens were divvied up three ways and off everyone went.  Little and I started off at skee-ball (my fave) where she enjoyed throwing the ball up the ramp, even though none of them made it all the way.  

I really thought she would be pretty uninterested in the games, and I was both right and wrong.  She didn’t really “get” most of the games but did enjoy the ones where you have a single button to press and then it spits out the tickets.  However, the most exciting part for her was putting the tokens into the slots.  

It took quite some work to keep her from randomly putting tokens into games and to confine her token feeding to the games that I wanted/could play.  And even when the tokens went into the games that I wanted them to, she would stand beside me and continue to put more tokens in while I played.  I think there were a couple of games that I ended up playing about five times in a row.

All-in-all it was a fun morning, and I think the birthday boy really enjoyed it.  As for Little, she would have been perfectly happy to sit in one place and feed tokens into a slot all day long.  Better not let her near slot machines!   

Earlier this week Little and I were invited to visit the zoo with my friend Lindsey and her son. We had never been to our local zoo and were excited about the opportunity to go.

At first, Little wasn’t sure what the whole point was. We pulled the strollers up to the first exhibit of monkeys (gibbons, actually) and the waterfall at the front of the enclosure caught Little’s attention right away. It took her a few minutes to figure out that we were pointing to the gibbons, but once she did she pointed and grinned as they swung around and played.

There is currently a butterfly house set up in one area of the zoo. Little really enjoyed seeing the flowers and watching the butterflies flutter around and fly right past her face. I thought it was neat to see all of the different types of butterflies and the beautiful colors and wing patterns. It is amazing the variation God created on something as small as the butterfly.

Most of the time Little seemed a bit ambivalent toward the animals; she would point to them, but she doesn’t really identify them yet. She did get excited when she spotted the animals in their habitats and would point and smile.

One of our favorite exhibits was the polar bears and sea lions. The habitat is set up where you can see the bears from outside (like a standard exhibit) but there is also a building you can enter and view them through floor to ceiling windows. The windows look into the pools of the habitats of both the polar bears and sea lions; you can see the animals up close swimming and diving and playing.  It was very neat to see them so close. Little really enjoyed watching the sea lions play because she could see them well as they swam back and forth across the viewing area.

We saw all manner of animals from flamingos to butterflies to tigers to bears to elephants. It was fun for me to see the animals but more so to watch Little’s face light up as she discovered new things.

For my loyal readers: Thanks for continuing to stop by the last few weeks while posting has been so light. I’m hopeful that I’ll be posting more regularly again before long, but I think it might take a few days to get back into the habit.

So really, I can only blame the pregnancy “ickies” for a portion of my lack of blogging; the other part would have to do with a lack of blogging material around here of late (or maybe it is just that my mind is unable to process events into even mediocre bits of writing).

The most exciting event of the last week would have to be that Little has discovered the joy of standing with her head on the floor looking between her legs. Her new pose never fails to make her laugh. Quite honestly it is pretty funny to see her flipped over like that; add to that the fact that I get to hear that sweet little laugh and it is a pretty fun turn of events.

In other news, we actually had RAIN this weekend! For good portions of both Saturday and Sunday we had water falling from the sky in a nice soaking rain. Although we’ve received some rain in the last few weeks it has always been a hard rain lasting only a few minutes so a lot of the water has run off; this weekend the ground actually had time to absorb the watery goodness. I think the grass and flowers (what is left of them) are grateful for a good drink of water. We are grateful that the drought has officially ended, but we are still woefully behind on precipitation for the year.

Last but not least, Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess is hosting a giveaway for a Tummy 2 Tummy instructional babywearing DVD. If you are interested, click here.

And there you have another action-packed and entertaining post. I’m hopeful that I will have something a bit more post-worthy to write about soon.