Just Us

(After months and months of problems with my blog, it seems that everything is working and back to normal.  I've missed blogging and I like this method for journaling, so I'm pretty excited that we're back in business.)

I love these crazies.

These pictures were taken at Christmas time (2014) and if I remember right, on Layne's 46th birthday.  

No snow for Christmas - BUT - since then we have rarely gotten out of the single digits for our daytime highs (even though it is now March), snow up to our ears, and the kids have missed nearly a month of school.

(No, I'm not kidding.)

If you think you can hear my weariness of winter, you heard it right. 

I'm. So. Done.

I do love having the kids home, but when they can't go outside to burn off some energy it makes for a really long winter.  Cabin Fever has been a real thing for us this year.

But, before the weather got yucky, and it was still 2014, we had some good times.  Josie came home from Idaho for Christmas!  Yea.  We love it when Josie comes home.

This was our last Christmas that we will all be together as just our family.  Why?  Well.....

1.  Todd is graduating from high school in May.   Honestly, there really wasn't enough time for me to recover between Josie & Todd's graduations.  My heart hurts just thinking about it.  He has been accepted to both BYU (Provo) and BYU-Idaho.  And just this week he decided to accept the BYU-I offer.  But before that happens......

2.  Todd will be leaving on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the next three or four months.  He'll find out where in the next few weeks.

3.  Josie has fallen in love with ~Travis Henderson~ and plans on being married on August 8, 2015!  I'm not sure that I ever really thought Layne and I would get to this point in our lives.  To have a son-in-law.  CRAZY

So, that is what I mean about just our family being together.  By summer time Todd will have graduated from high school and off serving the Lord somewhere away from us, and we'll have a new member added to our family. Pretty exciting and fun stuff, and you can see why my heart feels like it could burst.  

Mother Nature Said SLOW Down

This is how our town, and many others, have looked since last Friday

June 29, 2012 around 4:00 p.m.

 Normally I kind of enjoy sitting by the window and watching our big storms, but this storm was different.  In other words, this storm kind of scared me.  When we could no longer see out the window because of dust and debris and it started to sound like a freight train, Layne ushered all of us to the basement.

After it was over I went to check on some neighbors and take a peek in town.  I couldn't get very far into town because the roads were all closed because of fallen trees.  It is so sad to see great big, old trees snapped off and splintered.  Power poles were ripped out of the ground or broken in two.

Josie was in Lima and there was no cell service for a long while and so we were anxious to hear from her.  She held out inside a Texas Roadhouse. 

Remember how I said June went too quickly?  I guess Mother Nature decided to help take things down a notch (or two).  Our town has 95% of the electricity back on as of last night. (four days later) Most of the stores were closed for days because of no power and/or cash only.  Bigger cities still have a lot of people in the dark.  Can I just say that I L.O.V.E. our generator that Layne was able to just plug into an outlet and I could happily take a warm shower and not worry about the food in my fridge or freezer.  It isn't fun to go through a yucky situation like this, but it is good to see in what areas we are lacking (or doing well) in our emergency preparation.

The poor courthouse didn't fair as well.  The clock tower is damaged and it will take at least three months to get it down to fix.  They've had to move all of the courthouse comings and goings to other buildings in town.  What a pain.  The most often worry/complaint I've heard has been from people that do genealogy work and there are lots of documents and stuff like that in that building.  They are worried about getting access for the next few months.  Glad to know that work goes on strong in Logan County. 

But these guys are all safe and even the dumb dog made it though.  Our trees are still small so they fared well and the house stood strong and kept us safe.  That is all that matters.

Is it just me

or was June the fastest month ever?

It was filled with baseball and swimming lessons.  The one extra great thing in June was when I met up with Jason & Geri in North Carolina. 

http://www.meandhimblog.com/

I hadn't seen them for one whole year, so I was extra excited to spend a week together.

I hadn't been to North Carolina before (love it) and I really, really had never driven to North Carolina before.  I would have remembered.  After getting over the Appalachian Pass (pronounced   a-puh-"LATCH"-uhn  ~ we had a sister missionary here once that was from North Carolina that made sure us dumb Northerners knew our verbal mistake), I must admit I was pretty car sick, but I bounced back after a coke and a sandwich.  I made it to the Raleigh-Durham airport with 30 minutes to wait for my companions to arrive.


It wasn't the sightseeing type of vacation, unless you think beautiful old buildings at an old university, namely Duke University, is beautiful.  Let me tell you, it really is.  I wasn't very smart and I forgot my camera so you'll just have to believe me when I say that Duke is lovely as are the people that work at the hospital & clinic.  Geri has more details if you'd like to know more about that adventure.

We got really good at sitting and waiting.  And once again here we are waiting .....  Jason needs some lungs, like now.  And Duke really wants him, but there are some technical difficulties at the moment so they are doing some more waiting to get things figured out. 

Go Team Jason

One funny moment was at the end of the first night (the nicest family let us use their home while they were away on vacation) Geri & I kicked off our shoes and propped our feet up on the ottoman, next to each other, and we had to same color toe nails.  Ha!  A beautiful aqua blue color.  We picked the same summer toe nail color. 
We are such sisters.

Fast as a Speeding Bullet

Moms always know best.  She knew I'd love this little box.

We were so happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Simmons come and visit us!

It was a super duper fast visit, but it was super duper fun to get to see them.  They are our first family visitors in our new home.  So it was fun to show them our new location.  Maybe next time they come we'll have more lawn than mud and more flower than weeds. 

They looked great and spoiled the kids, like always.  Two jugs of chocolate milk in four days?!  (I wasn't in charge of all the grocery shopping.) 

They got here at night on Thursday and left in the early afternoon on Monday.  Why do I need to tell you this?  Well, it still amazes me on how much weather they experienced in that short of time.

Thursday night:  It had been a nice day so most of the snow had melted.  Just as we got home the ice rain had begun.

Friday morning:  Woke up to a full-on blizzard.  School was closed.

Saturday:  Beautiful, sunny day but a little windy.  The snow started to melt.

Sunday:  Thunderstorms.  Most of the snow got rained away. 
Monday morning (early a.m.):  Sever winds, a tornado warning, and several inches of rain.  School closed due to lots of flooding. (And it hasn't really stopped raining yet or flooding.)

So, other than hail, I think they pretty much covered all the options for weather that we inlanders can experience.  Somehow they slept through the tornado part.  Layne and I could hear the tornado sirens going off (telling us to get to safe place), but we decided to just keep an eye on the news and windows and wake everyone up as needed.

Dad showed me all of his 'war wounds' from his crisis this past fall and gave me the play by play of that crazy day/night........month.  I still get emotional about it all. 


On the way to the airport we stopped at McDonald's to grab some lunch.  We pulled up to the board to order and Judd said he wanted a 'Happy Kid Meal'.  Dad said he wanted a 'Sad Grandpa Meal'.  Judd asked him why he was sad and he said because he had to go home.  We were sad too.

His sadness didn't stop there because it took the airport three days to get them their suitcase!  I don't think Dads life was too interrupted but my poor mom.  She sure did miss her make-up and hair stuff and I'm sure lots of other items that would have been nice to have.  But thankfully the suitcase surfaced and all their stuff was still in it.   

Can you believe we didn't get ONE picture taken when they were here?  That's not cool.

Weekend Whereabouts

Well, since I posted last, Layne has been home again, gone again, and home again. We decided to make this past weekend nothing but family time.

Here are some highlights.

Todd's game.....

Todd's baseball team is doing great. They've only lost one game, by one. He plays second & short mostly, but now and then he'll get put in as pitcher. He might not be the fastest pitch on the team, but his accuracy is almost always on target.

He had to try out for the team this year. He was nervous, but he made it. I like that he is one of the younger players on this team. It makes him practice hard and learn new things. (#4)

Mitch's game.....

Mitch has had a good year in baseball too. He is at a level (coach pitch) that is more fun than competitive. He has out grown some of the tendencies that he had in T-ball. Like sliding into EVERY base, EVERY time because he liked to see the dirt fly and hear his mom yell at him. He is a good first baseman and is making some good tags and catches.

Sorry Judd, no game.....

Then there is Judd. He is only three and can't be on a team yet. He is a die hard fan though. As a matter of fact, his first words were, "Hey, batter, batter, batter". No kidding. He is as good hitting off the tee as he is off of any of us that will take the time to throw to him. Maybe we'll be able to sneak him on a team next year.

That brings us to Saturday. It is the only day on our calendar for the month of May that didn't have anything written on it! It felt like heaven. Layne got home Friday night so Saturday afternoon we loaded up the bikes and headed for the bike trails. We have access to some awesome biking trails here. We went 9 miles and decided that we needed to get home for dinner. Okay, Layne and I decided that we were ready to go home for dinner. The kids could go clear down to KY if we would let them.

So there you have it. Last month was hard to blog. Too many things going on for a 'part-time single mom'. But the craziest month of the year is over (Yahoo!), Layne is home for a while (Yahoo!), and now Judd has what he calls "his friends" home from school for the next couple months (Yahoo!).

I took this picture eariler this spring, but I always get a laugh when I look at it. Looks like one of those Cingualr commercials, doesn't it? Even though it looks like I have a 'full signal' I usually have to say things over and over before even one of them hears me. (a guy thing?)