Is it just me?

Or should we sign this kid up for some art classes? (I'm talking about the drawing vs. the painting :])

I'm a little afraid I have that 'my kid is the greatest' virus that chronically infects most parents, so really do tell me if it's just me!

Playing Catch Up

I am going to be (hopefully) making some posts that should have been done this summer.  But you should be aware that I am going to shamelessly back date them so I can easily find them in the future!

These trees are in a yard just down the road from us. They are gorgeous every fall and this year I managed to get a picture of them before all the leaves were gone!

Fall in Birmingham, Take Six

Cookie Time

Having decided that:

Changing one bank account to joint (how was this not done before?), closing two other bank accounts, opening a new credit card, transferring old credit card, finishing work on photos for a large important photo client that has to be done TODAY, prepping for a large, imminent craft sale (including appliqueing 50 dish clothes among other things), trying to fix an $10 account issue with the applique website, trying to finish joining phone and internet accounts (for us the landlords who are out of the country and not able to) that have old, faulty and messed up records that an hour on the phone with customer service can't fix in order to get a monthly savings of $18 and making important decisions about it that effects the landlords while I can't be talking to everyone in real time, after starting all this: totaling my car, dealing with totaling the car, fixing insurance problems and getting police records to fax for the non-guilty party, looking for a new car, and trying to be a good mom and wife

all in one week was probably a good reason to feel a little stressed, I sat down and ate a cookie. (and complained about it in a blog)

Abigail's Hello Kitty Birthday Party

We had a lot of fun this year with Abigail's first 'all kids' party (which means most of the parents dropped their kids off).  I put the pictures in an album and did most of the explaining there.  So, click on the picture to go see them!

The Beach 2011

We got to go to Destin, Florida this year.  It was beautiful and relaxing!

^ click on this one to make it bigger ^

IT'S A.....

GIRL!

We had a great ultrasound appointment yesterday and everything with baby girl looks great! She was moving around quite a bit and it was so fun to see her kicking her legs and moving her arms around. She did decline to turn on her side and give us a profile shot of her face, which was a little disappointing, but here is her foot and face:

Abigail is very happy that she is getting a sister and almost just as happy that she was right it is a girl- being right and winning is a very important thing these days. So now, supposedly, we can start talking about names, but don't be surprised if we don't decide for a long time. I promise when we know, we'll let you know! Abigail is currently rooting for the names Candy or Elizabeth (her good friend at school is Elizabeth, as is my friend Rachael's 7 month old, who we hang out with a lot. We also have a lot of other Elizabeths near and dear to our hearts, but they are known to Abigail by their shortened names).

One reason I am happy it is a girl is that we get to use all our cute girl clothes again. :)

Hey, we also got to go to the beach this weekend!! It was such a great time and we were so thankful to have the chance to go. We stayed in a condo in Destin, Florida, which is directly south of here but doesn't have a major highway to get Alabamians there. For some reason, they built the highway going directly to the Alabama gulf coast! :) It was a beautiful weekend (much better than the previous weekend, during which the weather was controlled by tropical storm Lee- the same storm that left us without power for three days and three nights- ugh- but we were very happy for the rain!). One of Jake's clients graciously offered us their condo for the weekend, which made the trip 100% more fun! I'll put up some pictures from the trip in the next post.

Abigail Finds Out She'll be a Sister

Okay, so this happened in May I think, but here ya go:

Our Dinner Entertainment

That's a grape, in case you are wondering.

My pregnancy, the baby and Abigail

I just found this entry I had worked on a long time ago and never completed or posted. Unfortunately I opened it up again before I saw the date, but I think it was last summer- so that's where I'm going to post it.  Anyway, I thought I should add it to the blog because it brings back memories. Abigail *really* wanted to name the baby Candy for a while, but after Evie was a few months old, she totally forgot she even had that idea!

*********************
Ever since we told Abigail she was going to have a brother or sister, she has been so excited, understandably. That first night we heard her singing in bed, so Jake sneaked up to listen to her. You'll have to put these words to a little sing-songy voice in your imagination. "I need to tell Mommy tomorrow that I think we should name the baby Candyyyyyy! Or (I can't remember what it was)!  My little sisterrrrrr or brotherrrrrr." etc.

I have been nauseated most days for most of the day the past few months and therefore not so fun of a mommy, or wife, I should add. One day Abigail said to me, "Mommy, after my nap, will you tell me how many times you threw up?" I thought, "Yuck. Well, hopefully no times Abigail, but thanks for being interested!"

Other things she has said:
"I'm really happy but sad because you have to go to the hospital to have the baby but it's going to hurt you."
*********************
Later in the pregnancy, she told me "I like how big your tummy is!" What a great compliment!

My Girl

A few recent pictures of Abigail

Response to the fireworks this year. I wish I had video taped her- she was ridiculously excited!

Jake convinces Abigail that she will have to sleep vertically in this bed they put in our hotel room (the rollaway). "Head up or down?" He asked.

Little bug lover and her (almost dead) leopard moth she found on the ground. I can't quite remember what she said about it, but I'm pretty sure it involved the words "precious" and maybe "little cutie?"

Ready to "jump" off the diving board at swim lessons 

Daddy brought home from work one day FOUR little bitty frogs that he found and they hung out at our house for a while. They were sooooooo cute. 

The missing tooth grin :)

My Guy

I love this guy:

(don't worry, I didn't just invite kids to his birthday party)

And I am thankful the Lord hooked us up officially 8 years ago today!

New Family Portrait

I know you've been waiting for this, so, without further ado, the family sketch, as done by Chuck E. Cheese:

Great, isn't it? One detail you may not have caught by looking at the picture is that there are FOUR people in this picture. Well, sort of "in" the picture.

That's right, I'm pregnant! We are praising and thanking the Lord for this little one, who should be joining us around February 4th, 2012 (Great birthday present for me, don't you think? The 5th is my birthday. This means I'm 14 weeks, for those of you who are counting). Abigail is very excited and is very hopeful for a little sister. She will be 5 years old and an awesome big sister! We should find out boy or girl on September 12th. So far this pregnancy has been very different (mainly, I've been much more sick this time!), but as my friends have experienced, that doesn't mean anything as far as figuring out the sex of the baby. Ah well, we'll just have to wait.

*so excited*

Special Talents Caught on Tape

These are all of Abigail... sorry if you were hoping for Jake or me on video!

1. Slinky Skills

2. Tooth Teetering (warning, tooth fairy spoiler)

(this tooth officially fell out in June)

3. Swimming Success

P.S. It officially took me 3.5 hours to get these three videos off the camera, condensed and edited, and put on the blog. Now you know why I don't do it often! I'm hoping I will get the hang of it though and it will go faster.

Funny things said

"Sometimes really special times I can have soda. I had soda a long time ago. About 8 inches. Not short 8, I mean long 8."

"I do want to draw a picture. It will take a long time. It will take longer than you think Mommy."

Abigail, we only change our undies in the morning. "This is the morning!" No it isn't, it's the afternoon. "Oh Mommy, you don't know what you are talking about."

"Is this chicken? I mean chicken you eat, not real chicken."

"Daddy you should call and say you can't work because it's your birthday."

Just a few pics from June

 Sweet girl is growing up

 From a VBS that Abigail went to at Dawson Memorial Baptist Church. God built you to BEE like Jesus!

Her teachers for the week and a friend from our church 

At the Barons game... can't remember what they were discussing 

My handsome hubby won a pizza by yelling the loudest, goaded on heartily by his wife (you see all the people he had to beat in the background) 

Guess who did this? The little person that organizes every where we go 

Jake and Abigail building a book binder. The hardhat is from VBS :)

Success!

A good movie watching position

We're feeling just orangey

We're feeling just peachy orangey

 

I'm tempted here to rant about the rating given to the movie Rango (see previous post), but I will just give this word of warning. What the previews do not show at all, but what consumes the movie is: cursing, lots of violence, kidnapping, racial and religious slurs, attempted suicide, large over protruding bosoms (on animals), shooting, children playing with guns, hangings, drownings (near and complete), drinking, lots of smoking, glorifying of murder, disturbingly treatment of a kidnapped female character- snake licking cheek with sexual overtones (if there were more actions like this I don't know, because I had to take Abigail out of the theater), and just a dark tone of death. It is rated PG, and we looked at trailers before going, but shame on us for not reading reviews first and trusting the rating system to be more trustworthy. Like I said, I had to take Abigail out at one point because it was so scary and disturbing, even to me! The animation is simply outstanding. But that only makes all the terrible stuff more realistic!

That reminds me of something that happened to me the other day. I was innocently driving a down a residential road that has frequent stop signs. I was behind a person who makes two stops at every sign, that's right, I said TWO. They stop at the line, roll a bit and stop again. So I was driving behind them, doing a really good job about not getting impatient- in fact my thoughts were more absorbed with trying to figure out the thinking behind this bizarre behavior. At the last stop I kind of grinned to myself thinking, well that's a two stopper, probably won't ever see that again! When it was my turn I started through the intersection, only to have the person across from me start turning left, straight toward my car, and honking at me (I feel like adding 'rather loudly' here, as if there were any other way to honk). *At this point, I stopped the car, rolled down my window and nicely informed the male driver that his turn signal wasn't working, even though I figured he just hadn't turned it on. He was thankful and we both went on our merry ways.* Okay, alright, that's what I should have done. Replace the sentence between the stars with this, the actual response: *At this point, I freaked out, stopping in the middle of the (small) intersection and quickly grew very angry, making large mouthings and throwing my arms wildly around in the universally unrecognized sign for, "TURN ON YOUR TURN SIGNAL YOU DUMMY!" And made my feelings more known by honking (rather loudly) back at the rude man. Several times, if I remember correctly. I stepped on the gas and we both went on in our hot-headed, mean-thinking ways.*

So this kind of thing always gets me thinking about Abigail and what kind of example I am to her. Obviously, I was not a very good one then. She was very curious about the matter, as you can imagine, and I was able to quickly admit my wrong in the situation.  It is very humbling that my daughter thinks that everyone who does me wrong (especially while driving) is probably not a good person (wrong), and therefore, not a Christian (wrong). We have had discussions about this time and again, but mostly unfortunately, she still thinks that mostly I can do no wrong (though she has head knowledge that I do sin) and that I know everything. I know, this will change rather drastically all too soon but it doesn't change the fact that it gives great importance to my example for her now. Not only in character, but in how to drive too! I inherited a mixed bag of how to drive from my parents. My mom is a very cautious driver, sometimes too cautious, but she can definitely get out there when needed. My dad is crazy aggressive, and I believe he really does think that driving is a race, but he is definitely thinking through all the possibilities and situations: Who might suddenly change lanes, where to be that you always have an out if something unexpected happens, which route is faster, etc. So I got my mom's cautiousness (like checking over my shoulder every time, even when I know no one is there) and my dad's aggressiveness (Abigail often says driving is like a race 'though you can't race when driving' and that certain cars are slow-poke drivers).  Now I just need to always remember that Abigail is learning how to drive RIGHT NOW.

But seriously, we are just peachy.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Good

Bad

Ugly

Joplin, MO (AP Photo/Mike Schiefelbein)

5ish observations about the tornadoes

Tuscaloosa, AL REUTERS/Marvin Gentry

 Click here to see a few of my pics of Pleasant Grove, northwest of Birmingham

#1A. As gmail and firefox have continually reminded me and thankfully finally taught me, tornadoes is spelled with an 'e' in it.  #1B. Apparently, tornadoes can cause bouts of unbloggyness, as confirmed by me.

#2. When tragedies happen, whether they are snow storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes or tornadoes, normal things still happen. People still have babies and get kidney stones, even if the power is out and the hospital is running on generators. For some reason, this is hard to believe in the moment.

#3. God is amazing and works through His people. I have personally met 3 people from New York that have come to volunteer their time to help, but hear about others coming from all around the country. God had laid it on the heart of these particular people to come, help, and tell others about Him. I have read several stories on the Samaritan's Purses website of victims coming to know Jesus through this, which has been our prayer. Many that were in the path of the storm are telling their amazing stories and of their confidence in God's mercy through it. Jake wrote an interesting blog about this and his experience the first weekend helping tarp roofs and cut up trees, go read it here

#4. Bad things are very easy to forget about when they happen to other people. Today Abigail and I went to the toy store we usually visit to get presents for birthday parties. It is in Cahaba Heights, which had an EF2 tornado go through it Wednesday morning, April 27th. This store and the ones next to it were closed for a while as the awnings were blown off, I don't think anything more serious happened, but the neighborhood around it had a fair amount of damage. We walked out of the store and our view was of dead and dying trees, tarps on roofs, sawdust all over the streets, and debris all around. For some reason, it took me by surprise. Yes, we did just drive past it and we did just go to some of the hardest hit areas to deliver boxes of toys for children who lost their homes. But when you have a relatively normal shopping experience and you are surrounded by stuff and all things of this world (including a clothing boutique selling toddler's swimsuits at $50 plus dollars- oh, they were on a sidewalk sale for 55% off though which makes them closer to $25. I'm sure my eyebrows looked like they were on top of my head) and then you are faced with the reality of hurt in this world, it just shocks you. Well, it shocked me anyway.

Also, we have found that some people don't really want to hear about what happened. Well, they want to hear at first, but they don't want us saying a lot more about it.  Either that, or they have a better story to tell us in the attitude of "that's nothing, listen to this." We can identify with this through experience, it is kind of a downer, isn't it? And of course, tragedy is not the only thing happening in the world, other people have lives of equally important goings on. We hope that this experience will teach us how to properly be on both ends of these conversations to be a witness to Christ and an encouragement to His people.

#5.  It is interesting to see children react to tragedy and unusual circumstances. I believe with people helping children work through their thoughts and emotions, these experiences will often lead to growth. Most of the children I know are still too little to comprehend everything. As we have had the opportunity to go to several of the areas that were hit, I have enjoyed hearing what Abigail has had to say. At first, and I believe still, she didn't understand why we were looking, why this is such a big deal. Why are we taking video and pictures, why are we helping? Our challenge has been to try and answer these questions for someone who doesn't have the life experience we do!

The day of the storms, when we got our 'safe place' ready (as these terrible storms were predicted since the week before) her main priority was to get as many of her precious items in the little closet downstairs as she could talk me into. I managed to head most of them off, but this was definitely another fun adventure for her. Usually, we are the people who are upset that the weather reports are taking over our TV shows. We make fun of the weather guys and wish they would tell us the weather report faster and be done with it. But on wednesday we walked around all afternoon and evening with our battery radio, ears bent to hear of the news from around the state, shushing Abigail often so we could hear.

We lost power for two days, others near us for 5, and our friends in another part of the state for over a week. So Abigail and her friends know all about 'tricity' and how it is not always a given. Abigail's friend Jonathan still walks into stores and says with surprise, "They have power!" When I went to Tuscaloosa last week, we drove by some of the areas hit with the EF4 tornado that went through there and all the way up through Birmingham. Abigail had only seen the parts of town hit by smaller tornadoes and when we drove past these areas and she saw through the rain what had happened there, she said these things, among others, "Look at that damage. It's at my FAVORITE place! Awwwww! [burger king? what?]", "Wow that's a hundred trees damaged! AND houses! And people.", "Some houses are getting really old when they crashed down.", "Why did the bad tornado rip up people's homes?", "I've never seen this before! I only saw trees falling down the other times we saw damage." and "I'm really hungry, when are we going to eat?"

Often now when we drive by construction, old trees or old houses, Abigail thinks it was caused by the tornado. She's not alone, I found myself looking for days at the debris along the road, thinking, "I wonder if that is from the tornado or if it just fell of someone's truck." We hear lots of debris stories too, of clothing from the Old Navy in Tuscaloosa found in a yard in Birmingham (confirmed by the tags) and family photos and checks found in the next state. Jake found a piece of for sure debris while doing yardwork - a VHS called "14 Wealth Building Strategies You Can Use Today." Here is some interesting debris info from al.com:

"Government workers, private contractors and volunteers have cleared about 10 percent of the wreckage left by storms that pounded Alabama last month, officials said Thursday.

They now estimate the storms littered the state with 10 million cubic yards of debris -- a massive amount that would create a stack as big as a football field and standing a mile high, said Art Faulkner, the director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency."

#6. With around 312 tornadoes in the states in the April 26-28th outbreak and 339 deaths, this storm has set several new records.  We have learned a bit about the EF scale for rating tornadoes. It is based mostly on estimated wind speed, which is determined by the destruction it leaves behind. Alabama had every level of tornado in the state that day. To help you understand, here is the EF scale in pictures. This guide is on Our Amazing Planet and features pictures from all over the states. Note that as little as an EF1 tornado can flip a mobile home. People staying in their mobile homes has been attributed for many of the deaths in the northeast part of Alabama. Here is a ranking of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in the US from the National Weather Service. Note the years, the top 6 (besides this year) were before the modern tornado warning systems were developed. Please continue to pray for Alabamians and everyone else effected by these storms and flooding!

DEADLIEST US TORNADO OUTBREAKS:

RANK    DATE(S)          OUTBREAK NAME                                                 FATALITIES

1              3/18/1925       TRI-STATE TORNADO OUTBREAK                                 747+
2              4/4-5/1936      TUPELO-GAINESVILLE TORNADO OUTBREAK*         454
3              3/28/1920        PALM SUNDAY 1920 OUTBREAK*                                 380+
4             4/25-28/2011    SOUTHERN STATES OUTBREAK SEQUENCE*            339
5             3/21-22/1932    DEEP SOUTH OUTBREAK*                                              330+
6             4/23-25/1908    DIXIE OUTBREAK*                                                           324
7             4/1-4/1974        SUPER OUTBREAK SEQUENCE*                                    319
8             5/27-28/1896    ST LOUIS/EAST ST LOUIS OUTBREAK                          305
9             4/11-12/1965    PALM SUNDAY OUTBREAK 1965                                  256
10           6/7-9/1952        FLINT-WORCESTER OUTBREAK SEQUENCE              247

*INDICATES OUTBREAK AFFECTED ALABAMA.
NOTE: TORNADO FATALITY NUMBERS FOR 2011 ARE STILL PRELIMINARY.


taken from: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/?n=climo_2011torstats