More Tornado Adventures

Jess was gone last week to Orlando.  He left Tuesday and came home Saturday night.  We were on tornado watch Wednesday through Friday, so that was a great time.  Couldn't even leave the house to entertain ourselves in any way.  Well, we could've if we wanted to be the people all stuck in traffic on a freeway during a tornado.  We didn't want that though, so we stayed home with our bags packed with flashlights, snacks, and toys.  The kids painted, watched some tv, wrote a few letters, built things with Legos, wrestled...

and each night we rented a movie.  Then they all slept with me.

Thursday morning I think it was, we woke up, but were still in bed, talking.  The baby started kicking a lot, which he doesn't usually do in the mornings, so I told them so they could feel.  Paige felt my belly and he kicked her hard right away.  She was excited.  Then Cason took a turn, and he got a REALLY hard one, and then even Neely felt one, but wasn't that impressed.

We did go out one night, about 10 seconds down the road to Sonic, for food and ice cream.  (I think this was our first Sonic ice cream since moving away Grama-the kids don't care as much if it's not a date with you)

 

Friday we were supposed to be on watch, but it looked less severe than the days before.  I took the kids shopping in the morning for some food, since Cassie and Alex were coming that night.  I got the city's call as we were finishing up, saying to be prepared for storms starting in a couple of hours.  We went home and made sure we were ready.  It didn't start raining, but got a little darker, and windier, and those crazy clouds started.  We had the news on, and turned up pretty loud, so I could clean in the kitchen but still pay attention to what was happening.  There were like seven tornados, and I think I heard later that 5 of them touched down somewhere in the area.  The kids sat on the couch, snacking on apple slices and staring seriously at the screen.  Even Neely looked like she knew just what they were talking about. 

Neely of course decided she should be completely naked most of the afternoon.  I kept trying to dress her so we'd be able to leave quickly if we needed to.  Soon I got another call from the city, saying the public shelter was now open.  I told the kids to get their shoes so we could run next door if we had to.  Neely got her stuffed puppies, a crocheted hat, and her tennis shoes.  Completely naked otherwise, she stood up, a puppy under each arm, and said "I'm ready to GO!"  Haha.

About a minute later, sirens went off.  Cason and Paige are experts now, so they each grabbed a bag and ran to the front door, while I threw Neely into a diaper and pajamas in about 5 seconds.  We all ran next door, and Cason charged in without knocking. 

We went into their shelter for a couple of hours.  It was so muggy in there, and they'd already had the dogs down for a while in case, and they'd peed on the floor.  So we were packed in like sardines, hot and sweaty, smelling dog pee.  It was torturous.  The kids each had a flashlight and had them all on at the same time. 

Kevin was all into it as usual, standing on the stairs and watching and yelling about it "Swirling right there above us!" and getting video.  (It never touched down too near us).  Eventually we got to get out and go inside. We stayed another hour, until the news said we were past the danger of a tornado, although we were still going to have crazy rain all night.  Then the power went out.  I'd had so many texts that my phone died just after the power went out, a bit inconveniently, so I couldn't text Cassie and Alex to find out where they were or anything.  We ran home, lit candles, and I read to the kids out on the couch until they fell asleep.  I moved them into our bed, and stayed up until about 1:30 because I couldn't sleep.  The power came back on a bit before that.  I slept until 3:48 or something, and couldn't sleep again until 9 am.  I slept another half hour and then just got up for the day.  I was a bit tired all Saturday.  Ha.  Cassie and Alex had arrived safely and were asleep in the living room when we came out. 

21 Weeks Already

Well, Paige is growing up.  She bought herself a 1 Direction poster.  She says the cutest is Liam.  Jess and I gave the poster a once-over and both agreed she's right, he's easily the best looking.  Ha.

Neely gets all dolled up to ride her scooter, with "pup" along for the ride.

Our boy tells awesome jokes like this one:

C:   "Knock knock!"

Us:  "Who's there?"

C:  "God..."

Us:  "God who?" 

C:  "God hates paper towels!"
I was 21 weeks yesterday.  Feeling lots of kicks and squirming around now, and over the last week I can occasionally feel some of them from the outside.  So I have Jess come feel, and he has felt it a couple of times too!  Usually though, the little fella stops kicking as soon as Jess puts his hand on my belly.  How do they ALL have that habit?

Jess leaves us tomorrow, for a conference in Orlando.  He won't be back until Saturday night.  :(  I always hate when he's gone, but this time will be especially rough I think.  We usually go visit family lots while he's gone, and don't have that option this time.  Cassie and Alex are coming to visit though!  They just don't get here until Friday night, so we've got 4 days to entertain ourselves first.

Tornado

Last weekend we knew some storms were coming.  I get a little nervous about them here, obviously, but not as bad as I expected, especially since we have the best neighbors ever, who happen to have an underground shelter.  On Sunday it was very stormy and we got some crazy hail.  It wasn't too scary, but we watched the news to make sure we didn't get a tornado warning.  Neely loved it, she was watching the hail fall into the rain puddles from earlier, and told us "The fireballs are SWIMMING!"

I think other parts of town had golf ball sized hail, but this is the biggest one we found:

 After it stopped we went outside and the kids threw hail around, breaking them on the sidewalk.  They look pretty cool inside.  Our neighbor Kevin also owns a roofing company, so he's studied weather some, and explained to Jess what those rings inside them mean.  You'll have to ask him, I can't remember.  :)

 Neely threw the hail around, and then cheered that she "DID IT!" and did some cool poses, like so...

Yep, that's another dang hair tie on her arm.  I'd hidden them from her until she seemed to have forgotten them for a week or two there.  Then she found one on the floor, and rekindled her love for her "bracelets."  Now I start being vigilant again.  

The next morning was pretty stormy, and we were on a watch.  (Not as severe as a warning, but you need to be ready)  Jess came home for a later lunch break.  We had lunch like always, and then he started to say goodbye to go back.  I think they might have upgraded us to a tornado warning by then.  I had definitely gotten the recording the city sends to your phone, letting you know the public shelter is open for anyone who'd like to start heading over.  :(  They send those in advance, so we've gotten them several times before.  It didn't make me too nervous, I just figured I'd start packing stuff up to bring in the shelter with us if we needed to go.  But when Jess said goodbye to us, I suddenly realized I was really nervous and didn't want him to go back.  I may have cried a little.  Ha.  Then again, I am pregnant.  He of course made fun of me and went anyway.  

Since I had a bad feeling I asked Paige and Cason to get their shoes, and asked Paige to bring me an outfit for Neely(who loves to be in only a diaper lately) while I got my shoes on.  None of us had even finished those things when I heard someone pounding on our door.  I ran in to the living room, and realized from there I could hear the tornado sirens and Kevin was standing at the window waving at us frantically.  He's usually all excited about the weather so seeing him look scared freaked me out.  I just grabbed Neely and told the other two to run out front, before we could grab shoes or anything.  So we ran next door, in our barefeet, and climbed down into their shelter.  We met his parents for the first time down there, and they acted like it was totally normal that we had no shoes, and Neely was in only a diaper with her wild jungle girl hair.  Haha.  As soon as I sat down I realized I hadn't even grabbed my phone, and Gia was in our backyard.  I was scared about Jess and couldn't even call him to make sure he was safely at work.  :(  I thought about running back to move Gia inside and then decided since I had no idea if Jess was safe, I probably shouldn't risk my life too and leave our kids with no parents.  I wasn't going to say anything out loud about Gia, but one of the neighbor girls asked.  Paige's eyes got really big and she said "SHE'S OUTSIDE!"  I just cringed, and the neighbor girl calmly said "She's probably gonna die."  Ha.  Her mom shushed her of course.  I was trying to look all calm for the kids, so I was really thankful for a moment of comedy when we found a kick me sign Paige had put on Cason's back earlier.  Ha!

Kevin was still standing outside the shelter, yelling back and forth with the neighbor about how far it was from us.  Then I heard him yell "JESS!  Come on in, they're already in here!"  I was so relieved to see him, but also wanted to kill him for driving home when his work has an underground shelter.  :(  Of course he drove right across what ended up being the tornado's path when it first started out. 

After a while they told us it had passed, so we all got out and hung out in their living room for a few hours.  Once the power came back on we turned on the news, and found out just how bad the tornado was.  :(  Neely napped peacefully on the neighbor while the other two played with their friends.  :)  So glad they were unaware.

Their biggest worry was if the tornado had hit Tiger Cho's.  We checked, and it wasn't hit.  

It's so sad, and so weird to actually live where one of these things happened, and see neighborhoods we drive through every week, destroyed on the news.  At first I thought our area had had a smaller tornado, but it was the same one, it just started in our area before getting bigger and stronger as it headed to Moore.  When we went for a drive it was crazy to see how much damage it did in the beginning, before it even became anywhere near what it had become in Moore.  It destroyed a family farm near us, and uprooted trees all over the place.

A minute or so away from us we pass an old bridge with train tracks next to the freeway.  A huge section was completely blown off the supports, and thrown up against the freeway, along with a bunch of trees.

 

We've been considering a job offer Jess got back in Kingman for a few weeks, and had pretty much decided, but Tuesday morning they finalized the offer, and we accepted.  Monday made me even happier about the decision.  Not that tornadoes like this one happen often, but it was pretty scary stuff.  We're moving home at the end of July.  :)

8 Years

Yesterday was our 8th anniversary.  That's pretty crazy.  It has gone by so fast.  We had our Oklahoma version of a date, since there are no babysitters here, and got a drive through Starbucks drink to share(decaf-don't you worry) while Paige and Cason were in Tae Kwon Do and Neely napped.  Ha.  When the other two were done, we all went to dinner to celebrate.  Our phones were dead, so I have no pictures.

Yesterday, I saw Veronica posted pictures of Aivree in their little inflatable pool, which inspired us to go get ours.  The kids have been talking about it for weeks, but the weather had still been pretty erratic.  I think we're finally close enough to summer that it will stay warm.  Of course, today was cloudy, so the water was pretty cold and I had to run out about 25 pots of water I had heated.  It was a lot of work.  Worth it though.

 

 After warming up their water, I put on Jack Johnson to listen to and pulled weeds.  LOTS of weeds.  I actually like doing it once I get started.  It's satisfying.  Our yard is out of control though.  I wish it were smaller.  A big yard is nice if you own it, which makes it worth it for you to invest time, money, and effort.  Since we're renting right now, I'd much rather have a small, low maintenance, landscaped one.  That's my weed pile in the background of the picture below, a while before I even finished the little side yard area I was working on.  Neely invented this little trick, and got the others to try. 

Then it started to rain pretty hard, so they watched in their towels, until the thunder scared them.

Mama's Day Weekend

We had another nice weekend.  Cason helped me make some cookies.  (That may have been Thursday night, can't remember).

We decided to do our Mothers Day brunch on Saturday, knowing it would be packed on Sunday, and because we planned to try a new church.  So we had Cracker Barrel.  Maybe could've tried something new and different, but I love me some Cracker Barrel.  

Then we went on a nice hike.  It was pretty, and I'd never seen so many butterflies in one place.

It was fun, even when the girls got lazy.  This one did, anyway.

I'm not sure if Neely was being lazy, or if she just wanted to stay in one place and enjoy herself.  Either way, she stopped and sat down and told me "No, but, I gotta stay here."

She wouldn't budge, even when Cason tried his foolproof method he uses at home a lot.  He faces her and walks/dances away backwards while beckoning her with his hands and singing Dora's "Come on VAMANOS!  Eeeverybody let's go!"  Finally Jess picked her up, and she was a little upset.

On Sunday, I woke up to the sound of Jess puking.  It didn't sound promising for Mother's Day.  Paige and Cason made me heart shaped waffles with butter and cinnamon for breakfast though, while he slept a few hours.

Then they brought out the balloons, cards, and flowers they'd been hiding.

A pot Paige made me:

Cason's card:
 
His drawing of our family.  I love the baby smiling in my belly.

 After that nap Jess was okay, so we had a lazy Mothers Day.  We went for a drive through the older neighborhoods, which is always one of my favorite things to do.  The kids hate it, but were pretty patient this time since it was Mothers Day.  Paige started complaining though eventually, because she had a surprise planned for 5:00, and we were cutting it close.  We got home, and they surprised me with a "party".  It was cute.  They pretty much stuck a few flower stickers on the wall, put music on, and decorated with the flowers and balloons from that morning.  Then we danced, until I was tired, about 3 minutes later.  Then I watched them dance.  

I was 19 weeks on Mothers Day.  I'd been counting October 2nd as the due date, because at the ultrasound that's what the tech said.  At my last appointment though, they said we'll stick with October 6th.  So I went back a few days.  That's fine with me.  Since this might be my last pregnancy, I'm in no hurry.

Seester Salon and Lots of Legos

Neely's all into accessories again.  

It's cute, although I hate when it's the hair ties.  I can't keep them away from her.  I couldn't figure out how she finds them, until last week, when in the morning Cason came up to Neely with a few of them and said "Here Meewee, here's your bracelets."  So now I know.  I let her wear them for several days there, hoping it would be short lived and she'd forget again.  Now it's been over a week and I've had to take them from her.  She gets VERY upset at first.  We tried looking for bracelets at Target today, but the elastic ones in the girls' section looked too loose, and would probably slip right off her wrists.  Guess we'll stick with shower curtain rings for now.

 Paige wanted to try a bunk bed again, so after the Cassons left we set it back up.  She loves it, and they all love to climb up and down the ladder.  I have to hang out in there for a bit each day, supervising while Neely climbs and plays with the other two.

Have to keep the door closed the rest of the day so she can't sneak in there to climb.

Speaking of being old enough to sleep on the top bunk, this little lady is looking so much older.  Getting so tall and slender lately.

 On Thursday Jess ran in to a store for me, and we stayed in the car, mostly because we were basically in pajamas already.  The girls played salon in the front seat. 

 I was 18 weeks 3 days when we took this the other day.  

I've been feeling little flutters for a few weeks, but rarely.  I'll go a few days between feeling anything, and then get a few close together, and then nothing for days again.  He's a mellow little guy I think.  Seemed like it in the ultrasound too. 

Cason had his first injury at Tae Kwon Do last week.  For the last few minutes, Master Cho has them do silly things like arm wrestling, and on this occasion, sumo wrestling.  Paige and Cason were paired up, and I guess Cason grabbed her leg, she was trying to jerk free and headbutted him in the nose. 

He was super tough, and I guess some of the kids asked Paige why she did that to her own brother.  She started crying when she got in the car because everyone thought she did it on purpose and made her feel bad.  Cason knew though, and was really sweet to her, and reassured her.  He also added "I kinda like it anyway, it makes me look tough."

Speaking of him being sweet, this morning I was lying in bed, trying to wake up enough to start breakfast.  Cason had gotten dressed (He always calls it "getting dressed up") and came in and told me "One more thing before I go(to the living room)" and kissed me on the forehead.  :)

We had a good weekend.  Saturday we played family Legos, with the goal of building a tower to reach the ceiling.  They're vaulted in the living room, so the kids were really excited about it.  After an hour or two, the neighbor girls wanted to play, so they had a dance party in Paige's room, and they abandoned me, Jess, and Neely.  We kept on trucking, and probably played a solid 4 hours of Legos.  Ha.  We failed at several attempts and finally accepted our design was flawed.  We eventually got it though.

The kids went out front with the neighbors for a few minutes, and came back in in time to see our finished product.  They were pumped, but Neely was really protective, and would push them further away if they got too close.  "No, Paige, you can't touch it."

I was going to make some pot stickers for dinner, and we still needed a few things, so we took a trip to the Asian Market.  It was really fun, and a cool experience for the kids.  So many different things you don't see in other grocery stores.  Teeny little spotted eggs.

 

Lots of live seafood.

 

Some fruit we've never seen.

 

We came home, and Neely played lots more Legos with daddy.  She's a Lego girl.  She told me she's "a really great builder."