Derecho

I had never heard of a "Derecho Storm" before...

On Friday night, Dustin and I were just hanging out watching a movie while the kids were sleeping.  All of the sudden, we heard some sort of a bang.  We have been doing some painting and other work around the house and I thought maybe something fell upstairs.  Then we looked out the back window and the trees were blowing all over the place!  Dustin grabbed his phone and tried to look at the radar, but it wasn't coming up fast enough so he said just to grab the kids and get in the basement.  You don't have to tell this momma that twice!  I ran upstairs and grabbed Rachel while Dustin got Gavin (and a flashlight).  We all ran down to the basement , with the dog at my heels the whole time!  The power kept flickering and the radar just showed a huge line of red coming at us.  Dustin ran upstairs a few times to check on things, but the kids and I stayed down with the dog.  And just as a side note, as crazy as Zoe can be and as much as she can drive us crazy, she's a GREAT dog!  All I had to do was say her name and she was right at my feet with both kids in my lap.  

As soon as things calmed down a little, we headed upstairs to check things out.  The kids stayed in the living room for a little since I was still a little nervous and the power was still flickering.  

Dustin may have found a few pieces of siding on the street and brought them in while the wind was still blowing (not nearly as hard) so we wouldn't lose them completely.  

The next morning we found out that we had hurricane force winds that night.  We were very "lucky" and really didn't have any damage.  We found all the siding and Dustin was able to put it back on pretty easily.  We did spend about 5 hours Saturday morning cleaning up the yard though.  We never really lost power, but cable is out.  

We ended up being without cable/internet until Tuesday.  But that is nothing to complain about... some people were without power for 10 days!  And of course we were in a major heat wave at the same time, so more pop-up storms were happening nearly every night.  Some people would regain power then lose it again that night, or never lost it in the first storm, but lost it 4 days later- it was crazy!  The power company was doing a great job under the circumstances though!

Gavin- 4 months!

4 months, and what a big boy!

Height- 25 in.- 47%

Weight- 14lb 10oz- 34%

Gavin is growing and doing so much now!  I am so happy that we are able to be home now for the summer to experience these milestones with him!  

He is now "eating" some foods!  Yes, most of it ends up all over his face and bib, but we're getting there.  He likes cereal, peas, peaches and pears so far!  We can't wait to introduce more foods to him.  Hopefully I will be able to make some food for him, too!

All that eating wears me out!

What a happy boy!

Can I help you with something?

7 years...

... and no itching going on here!

No seven year itch for us!  I think I'll keep him!  It's hard to believe that we've been married for seven years- what a wild, fun, crazy, exciting time it's been.  I'm so glad this man decided that I got to be the one to spend my life with him.  He's such a fun and hard-working guy.  I love his laugh, his smile, that dimple, his hugs and kisses, his company and so much more.  We have been through moves, job changes, new cars, 2 pregnancies (he deserves a medal for sticking with me through those!), and so many other life events I can't even keep up with them all.  I may be biased, but I think we're a pretty good couple!  I can't wait for all the adventures yet to come.  Love you Dustin!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!  We headed down to South Carolina to spend some time with the McCollums.  We spent the weekend with Dustin's parents then on Tuesday helped Benji and Katie move into their first home!  (We figured we owed him... he's helped us move and do manual labor more times than I can count!)  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that!

Papa found an old glove and ball in the garage that Rachel got to play with...

 I don't think she's going to be the most athletic of all children...

 Sibling bath time!

Fun in the sprinkler!

Story Time!

 Benji and Katie surprised Dad M. and came down Sunday night for a few hours!

Grandma went out at got a "watering pool" for Rachel.  (I have no idea why she calls it that, or where she got that name, oh well, it's cute!)

We stopped in North Carolina to see the great-grandparents on the way home

Rachel loves her stories! 

There was a movie being filmed in Madison while we were there, so we went down to try and see something, but this was about all we got.  

But while we were there, we saw Dustin's Aunt Jean and cousin Amy trying to see something too!  They were so excited to meet Gavin!

Memorial Day Weekend

Dustin's parents came up to visit for the long weekend for Memorial Day.  On Friday night, before they got here, a friend of mine came over with her daughter and watched the kids for us so we could go have some fun with other adults!  The music coordinator for the county had a bunch of band directors (past and present) over for a cookout.  It was relaxing and so nice to not have to worry too much about the time!
We went downtown for a festival on Saturday morning and just enjoyed the company with his parents.  We also may have used them as baby-sitters, which I don't think they minded too much!  That evening, a few small groups from church got together for a cookout at one of our friends' house.  It is such a great house, out in the country and on the top of a mountain.  We ate in their huge front yard, then went down into a little valley and had a huge bonfire.  They guys may have had to use an 8-foot stick as a skewer to roast marshmallows!  Again, it was so nice to enjoy our friends without chasing kids, or knowing that every minute we spent was costing us for a babysitter.

Flying Solo

There are so many great things about Dustin being a high school band director.  I love hearing the concerts, going to the football games and having a great supply of babysitters!  One of the challenges is the time I spend with it being just me and the kids.  This weekend was one of those long weekends where it was just that!  The band went to Universal Studios for their spring trip.  They left early Friday evening and got back Tuesday.  I'm not going to lie, I was a little overwhelmed at the thought of it being just me with two kids.  But there was a birthday party on Saturday to go to and I had some other things in mind that I wanted to do.  Of course things couldn't go as planned though... I ended up starting to feel sick on Wednesday and wouldn't you know, I felt awful by the time Friday rolled around.  I had hardly any voice and I was feeling pretty miserable.  I'm so happy that my kids are good sleepers because I may have gone to bed around 9:00 each night and was able to get some decent sleep.  I really just wanted to take nyquil, but was afraid that one of them would wake up and I wouldn't wake up with them.

Of course both my mom and Dustin's mom offered to come up and help, but me, being the stubborn one that I am, said I could handle it.  I did and we were all fine, but I'm pretty sure I should have just swallowed my pride and asked for help.

I digress... we ended up not going to the birthday party, but we did make it to the late service at church on Sunday. I took a sick day on Monday and didn't go to work, but I did take Rachel to the babysitters for a few hours so I could sleep and relax some.  I even managed staying awake for work on Tuesday even though I had to wake up at 4:30 in order to get all three of us ready and Rachel and Gavin to their different babysitters.  Oh yeah, we all ate and bathed too!

So although it isn't something I look forward to, flying solo isn't impossible.  I would just much rather have my man at my side!

Mother's Day 2012

I spent Mother's Day this year being a mom in every sense of the word.  We got the kids up early because Dustin had to be at church early because the church asked him to do a sort of photo booth for anyone to take pictures for Mother's Day.  I was going to help him with that, so we were all getting ready, looking nice because I wanted a picture done too, when Rachel said that her tongue was hurting.  I thought maybe she bit it or something, so I gave her some water and she seemed okay.  Then she started coughing and threw up on our closet floor- perfect.  I got her cleaned up and she said she was feeling better (I thought she just had some drainage going on) so we loaded up in the car and wouldn't you know, as soon as the back tires came off the driveway, she did it again.  Dustin stopped the car, put it back in drive and drove back up the driveway, got us unloaded and went on.

So I spent the morning cuddled up with my little girl watching princess movies.  Being the awesome husband that he is, Dustin came home with take-out so I still didn't cook!

We spent the rest of the day just being a family and relaxing together.  I loved it!  So glad I have these two sweet things that call me Mommy!