Boys Night Out

This was the first year that Dave took the boys to fathers & sons. They had a blast! They slept in the van, because that was the easiest thing to do. Dekan woke up in the morning and was too cold to stay and eat, so they were home by 8am, but they still had a great time!!

Boys

People ask me constantly if my boys are twins! They are usually in a grocery cart, so it's hard to tell their height. This week I cut their hair, and decided they do look a lot alike! Heck, I think they are only 2-3lbs different.

Giving me a run for my sanity

So, we've been thinking about having another addition to our family, then something like today happens that makes me realize that I can't even keep track of what we have. I've heard, though, that if you can handle three, you can handle any amount. I'm still waiting to handle two kids - we'll see.

On to the story: We went to storytime at the library this morning, and the kids library is in the back of the library. As many of you know, you have to walk through to the front of the library, and down a little hallway, before a automatic door opens up to let you out to the parking lot. On the way to your car you pass the kids library and all its windows. It was time to go, and I told the boys that we were going to be leaving. I looked down to make sure I had the books and my purse, and to say "goodbye" to some moms sitting at a table. Honestly, maybe 10 seconds. I looked up and only saw Dekan. I asked Dekan and the ladies at the table if they had seen Chandler. I checked the children's book aisles, and couldn't find him anywhere! I looked outside just in time to see him running by the windows toward the parking lot. I set the books down and took off running as fast as possible through the library to get outside. Just before I got outside, I heard the library alarms going off. One of the moms went out the emergency exit to catch him before he ran out into the parking lot - Luckily! I kept telling him this was bad and to never do it again and how much he scared Mom and Dekan, and he just kept saying okay, i won't, okay, i won't. I thought he needed to show a little more remorse or at least understand the seriousness of the situation, so I made him call Daddy when he got home. He started telling him about how he had run away and started bawling. It was so sad, but I was glad he was at least sorry for what happened. He also had to sit in the naughty chair. So, am I going to have to be one of those parents that has their kids on a leash? I hope not.

More tornado photos

These are mostly just for me, but interesting anyway.

In the middle of the night . . .

I'm ready to get a good night's sleep! Those of you who live around here know what I'm talking about. But, this was our experience. Tuesday night the boys climbed in our bed, because of the terrible thunder that shook the house all night - not very restful. Last night our weather alarm was going off all night long with various warnings and watches all over the area. After a while, you tend to ignore it even though every time it goes off it wakes the neighbors. Well, around 3:30am, Dave hears it again and decides to turn on the tv. The massive amounts of red lines heading toward us should shake us a little, but we didn't rush to our interior room just yet, because this is nothing new to our wonderful weather patterns here. The storm was by the airport and was clocking 80 mph wind gusts, and it was producing over 300,000 bolts of lightening per hour, and it was still climbing. About 4am or just before Dave hears sirens. Our city's tornado sirens are going off, and the tv is showing rotation right near our area. We grab some blankets and pillows and head to the laundry room (our safe room). Dave grabs Dekan and hands him to me, and goes to get Chandler. Dekan wakes up a little and says, "What are we doing in here, mom?" So, I explained the situation and he got a little nervous, well, a lot nervous. Chandler was awake at this time, but couldn't have cared less - he probably thought it was fun to have a little laundry room party in the middle of the night. Just as Dave was going to grab our tv and put it in the laundry room, our power goes out, which for me is the worst, because you just want to know what is going on out there. I've got both boys and we just listen to the pounding against the house, and the howling wind. They say a tornado sounds like a freight train, and it seemed to me that there was a freight train in the distance, but nothing hit us. I didn't ever look outside, but every time the lightening (which was constant) hit, it lit up the whole house. This was probably the most serious threat we've had since we've been here. I drove around today to survey the damage and it was incredible. I wish I could have taken better pictures, but most of the stuff I saw was while I was traveling on a busy road, and I couldn't stop to take a picture. One picture is of a brick chimney blown into someone's roof, and the roof was starting to bow. I ran into a gal at the gym this morning who told me about a house nearby who had fence pickets through their house and roof. All these pictures were taken in our city. I know of a few tornadoes that touched down due to this storm, but I think most damage was caused by the straight line winds. Anyway, hope you all sleep well tonight!!

GRANDMA-MA-GRANDMA-MA

I have been out of town the last 5 days (without children) visiting my grandma with my mom and sister. I tell you I have a wonderful family, and am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to interview my grandma. She stayed up until midnight and played Rook with us and we ate chips and salsa (a tradition). It was so interesting to hear all of my grandma's childhood memories. If any of you still have the opportunity to do this, I encourage it - you never know when they will be gone from this life. I missed my boys, but Dave did a great job taking care of them while I was gone.