I Should Be Folding Laundry

I hate winter

Right now it's 44 degrees.  For those of you lucky enough to be in the southern states, 44 degrees in January is considered balmy in these parts.

By this time tomorrow, it's going to be 2 degrees.

I hate winter.

Holy Snow, Batman

I blogged over here today.  About snow.  Are you surprised?  just go read it, kay?

I do not approve

Ever since last Wednesday it has been cold.  Winter-like cold, temperatures in the twenties and thirties.  The morning of Thanksgiving we woke up to snow and although it was exciting for the children, I was not too thrilled and I've been chilled to the bone ever since.  It's disgraceful, really.

I do not approve.  I want my summer back.  I keep thinking that last year on December 3rd the wind chill was eleven degrees.   December 3rd is less than two weeks away.

It's going to be long, cold, dreary, winter.  Anyone in Florida have an extra room for my family to hibernate?  We're good folk and I make a mean margarita.  I'd appreciate it.

The Best Laid Plans

I had these grand visions of putting the kids down for bed, sitting down with my trusty little computer, blogging about the concert, eating nachos, all in front of the TV.  (which would be off because doing all of those things and watching TV would cause my head to explode.  Seriously.)

But Mother Nature had other ideas.  She picks the first night that Brian is gone to give us The World's Longest Thunderstorm.  We are going on 97 minutes of the same storm.  NINETY SEVEN minutes of non stop downpours, thunder and lightning.  Which to me equals:

-light every candle I own, which is about 3,412 candles
-set up tornado station downstairs, complete with blankets and bottled water
-grab as many flashlights as possible, with extra batteries
-replace batteries in NOAA Weather Radio...just in case
-be sure to have empty bladder
-have cell phone ready
-have flame thrower ready to light more candles
-find  more candles

Y'all think I'm kidding?  The problem is that barely two months I experienced a terrible storm, one they have just confirmed was in fact a tornado, one mile from my house.  I think I have post traumatic stress disorder. I'm sorta kidding, but I'm sorta not.  You should feel my stomach, it's in total knots.   It doesn't help that Brian isn't here.  Not that he necessarily calms me down, it's just that I feel like a total nut job gathering all of these items, lighting all of these candles and potentially wasting batteries that he purchased, (but maybe I'm not wasting them...who knows??!?!) I think I would have lit about half of the candles, if he were here.   Either way, I need this weather to end.  I appreciate the rain so much, but this is just too much.  We have a severe thunderstorm watch until 3 a.m.  Like I'm going to be able to sleep while there's a severe thunderstorm watch.  And what's worse is that I'm home alone with my kids tomorrow ALL.DAY.LONG and I'm watching my six year old niece and my eight year old nephew.  I need my sleep. or a drink.  I can't decide.  Maybe a drink would help me sleep.  Now I'm thinking!!

Oh my, I think we just went 2 minutes without any storm activity, could it be ending?

There are some benefits to this storm...I can watch Jim Cantore on the Weather Channel with a purpose and not just to gawk and my house smells delicious.

I think this storm may be over, I better get to work blowing out these candles.  Should only take me until morning.

Rainy

Everyday this week, at this very time, we have been either in the pool or a few feet away from it.  But not today, because it's storming and that SUUUUUCKS.  dawg.

The only nice thing about it is that both of my darling, energetic children are in bed right now, which is very relaxing for me, therefore, I blog.  And drink coffee and try not to eat oatmeal creme pies and ice cream and chips ahoy.  oh, the chips ahoy.

We head home tomorrow which does not make me happy, I'm we are very bummed, I really am enjoying this vacation life.  A little too much, it's not just the house, the sun, the pool, the food, the shopping.  It's the lack of schedules.  The lack of crap to do all of the time.  I realized I am so tired of always having an agenda, it seems I always have something to do, every single hour of the day, and I'm tired of it.  Vacation life suits me, therefore, I need to try to make my life a little bit more like vacation life, because you only live once, you know?

We head home tomorrow and we'll drive for two nights and get home on Monday.  We have been gone for one week today.  Ariel is terribly bummed that we are leaving, she loooooves the pool and the beach house.  She's basically a beach bum, who tans amazingly.  Unlike her Mother, who glows in the dark.  Racecar, on the other hand, pretty much wants to go home, cause you know, that's where his train table and the rest of his cars are and well, his heart is with those cars.

Alright, time to sign off as my laptop battery is about to die and I can hear Ariel stirring...will check back soon, from a hotel, perhaps.  You know, a hotel away from the ocean and the sound and the word island.  And pool. 

gah.

P.S.  Being the good mother, I tried to upload a picture of Ariel, as well.  However, Typepad is being a total b*tch and won't let me.  Too bad, it was a cute picture.

There is a tree god

And he is raised up in a white bucket.

Yes, they came.  Yes, they saw.  Yes, they kicked some MAJOR dead tree BUTT!  Oh, yes, they did.

I believe that the tree man you see way up there is a Saint.  He came on time, even earlier than we had anticipated.  His crew of five worked for five hours solid.  They went ABOVE AND BEYOND anything we could have expected, the clean-up alone with rakes and a leaf blower took NINETY MINUTES.  I could walk outside in my bare feet minutes after they left and they even ground up two of our stumps.  I am impressed and so happy and relieved.  I kept them very well hydrated because it was this hot outside.

It was the least I could do, I'm telling you, I wish I had better prepared for their "visit" but I didn't know they would be here until last night and I had no idea it would take five hours.  Believe me, I would have cooked them a steak dinner if I had thought of it, but...I didn't.   I'm lucky I had bottled water.

But, when I wrote out the check it certainly made me not feel so bad for not having steak readily available because after I wrote the check my hand looked at my and said "ARE YOU CRAZY?" and then slapped me across my face.

I don't care.  I'm happy.

And then when the tree service was here I received an e-mail from Shannon saying I had won a bag from Kimberlee Faith's, which are The Cutest Bags Ever, oh my goodness, they are cute.  I WON! A lucky day, I'd say.  (P.S. Kimberlee Faith is having a sale through tomorrow.  HURRY GO, CHECK OUT THESE INSANELY CUTE BAGS.)  wow, so many caps.

But now we are under a tornado watch until 5am.  Which is great because as if tornado watches don't make me anxious enough, have them in the middle of night and then I REALLY calm down.  I won't be sleeping tonight.

You know, I found out today that the storm that came through almost one month ago was indeed a tornado, and they say it was about 3/4 of a mile from my house, if that, and now I feel so vulnerable and scared.  And I just remember what we experienced on that Tuesday afternoon, and to have that happen in the middle of the night?  Well, I can't stand the thought.  I hate it.  So, I'm going to go now and get Tornado Ready, with flashlights and candles and bottled water and pillows and blankets and cell phones and computers (for movies for the kids!). 

Oh yeah.  No sleep for me.  Even with my NOAA Radio.

UPDATE:  It didn't even rain last night!

Exhaling

Finally.  All is calm. Well, things are calmer than they have been for a long, long time. These past two and a half weeks have been overly hectic and now things are calmer and I am enjoying the change in pace very much.  I could not wait for Wednesday night at 8:00pm, because I knew my overly scheduled schedule would be wiped clean, what a feeling!  I even celebrated with my favorite ice cream, I was so excited I didn't even wash my face before bed.  (stupid, yes.  Lazy, oh yes.)  The past few weeks held trips to LA for Brian, Mother's Day, multiple meetings, a new job, a day in Chicago, more meetings, fundraiser parties, conference calls, Mommy's Group (at my house, no less), a trip to Kansas City and a storm that created a massive mess that we are still cleaning up.

See what I did today?

Every stick you see in that pile I touched with my hands today, and they all sat in my backyard, buried by the growing grass.  Needless to say, I am very tired and terribly sore, spending the day bent over isn't very fun.  (get your mind out of the gutter.)  This pile is after Brian spent two days cleaning up the backyard.  so.many.sticks.  We planned on completing the storm clean up this weekend, but our forecast looks like this:

So, it was up to me.  Luckily the kids cooperated wonderfully and I was able to get this done, I even mowed so it's almost like we have a real backyard again!  What a wonderful feeling.  It's still not quite done, I mean, every step you take you still step on small sticks, you can hear then cracking, but at least it looks better.  We won't be going barefoot for a long time. Now if we could just get the branches of off the roof, the gutters cleaned out and the siding power washed, we would almost feel normal again.   Maybe I'm glad it's supposed to rain all weekend, I could actually catch up on blogs and even comment on one or two, now THAT sounds good to me.

By the way, I love Taco Bell.  Do you?  I know there are some people who don't like it, but I think it's the best dang fast food out there.  We treated ourselves to that tonight because I was way too tired to cook, and quite honestly, not finished with my PICK UP ONE MILLION STICKS PROJECT, and if I don't cook, well, everyone starves, so we went to Taco Bell.  And it was delicious and we all ate like kings for ten dollars.  And even though Racecar calls it Taco Belt, it still my favorite place.  And his, too.

Stormy Days

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have been affected quite a bit by a strong storm that hit Tuesday afternoon.  The clean up has been quite difficult, this morning my muscles begged me to stop lifted heavy tree branches.  Luckily, my dear friend Lynette had already planned to have Ariel and Racecar at her house for the day yesterday as it was supposed to be a working day for me, cause you know, I have a job.  Apparently.  But, instead of working on my new job, I picked up sticks.  And limbs.  And branches and leaves.  It worked out wonderfully that the kids were taken care of so Brian could turn into a lumberjack and I could spend my day bending over.  We live in a new subdivision, only the houses in the outskirts of the subdivision have trees in their backyards.  We live in the outskirts.  The trees were one of the reasons why I loved this property so much.  They are tall, beautiful oak trees.  During the summer they create amazing shade and beauty, but during the fall they lose more leaves than we Brian can keep up with. 

Just last Thursday I had two tree services come to our house to give estimates trimming back the trees severely and also removing one tree entirely.  And if you are wondering if this whole post is going to be about trees...I'm wondering that myself.  I was going to post about Racecar pooping, so this post could go anywhere.  Anyway, the tree services.  They came out and one guy gave me a great estimate, right at where I expected to pay, and would even lower the price if we paid with cash.  One of those guys.  The other guy, who was totally legitimate gave me an estimate of twice as much as the shady guy.  All I can say is, thank goodness for shady guys.

Unfortunately, none of the trees that were supposed to be removed by the tree service sometime next week, were taken down by the 70 mph winds, not even a single branch.  Just our neighbor's trees wound up in our yard.  And getting a tree service now??  Would be like getting Ariel to listen to me the first time I ask her to do something.  Because there are HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of trees uprooted and sitting on people's homes and car across the area.  Which, apparently, is more important than us losing some shade.

We are still miles away from being done with the clean up.  No way the kids could play outside because every step you take, you step on 10 sticks in 10 sizes and shapes.  It's a danger zone, I tell you.

I was home when the storm hit, I was actually watching the storm very closely, I knew there was severe weather to the south of us and that there was a strong storm coming in our direction. I don't think anyone (myself or The Weather Channel, we're friends, you know) knew how strong the storm was becoming that was approaching us.  Ariel and Racecar were napping, I was actually working on my new job, like a good girl.  (and maybe indulging in one too many of my fave chocolate snacks)  I heard the wind, and saw flying objects (leaves) everywhere outside my front window, I check out the back and saw the trees bending over in the most unnatural fashion and heard and saw sticks and things pounding on my back wall and windows.  And it was getting stronger.  The wind picked up again and we lost power.  I ran for a flashlight, grabbed Ariel out of bed, and then Racecar and we went downstairs.  During the time I was grabbing my children, I saw one tree snap in the backyard.

It was over quickly, but very scary.  For someone so prepared for strong storms, I was very unprepared.  We finally came upstairs and I saw the kid's playhouse in the street in front of our house, broken into pieces.  Ten minutes prior it was sitting peacefully in our backyard.

At the same time I was gathering my children, a man traveling on a two line highway, one mile from my house, was killed when a tree felt on his car.  That story has haunted me, not just because it was so close to my home, but because it blows my mind that he was there at that very moment that a tree felt directly on the cab of his pickup truck.  Had he gone slower or faster or woke up 30 seconds later that morning, he could have escaped his death.  He was seventy years old.

We are still having glitches in our power.  In the middle of the night last night our power went out for about two hours.  Of course, Ariel woke up screaming because, you know, it was dark.  At two in the morning. Then Racecar heard her and started screaming because, you know, Ariel was screaming, but overall, it was a peaceful night. 

Which was just what we needed.

P.S.  Melinda Dolittle?  Seriously?

Hi Kids

Experienced terrible, scary storm yesterday.

Knocked down our trees.

Blew apart our kids toys outside.  (waah!)

Finally have power.

No internet, piggy backing someone's wireless.
(barely works)  (no phone or cable)

Going to clean my yard.  And eat donuts.

And fix our screens.

Be back later.

LYLAS,
Beth

P.S.  Will post pictures soon.  hugs.
P.P.S.  it's cold outside.

Pancake Warnings

Finally, after being sick for a week and missing Sunday school, dance class, one day of preschool and a her first bowling birthday party, Ariel was able to go to school yesterday for two and half hours.

It was divine. 

For both us.  Her preschool class made breakfast, pancakes and sausage.  What I should have warned her teacher beforehand is that Ariel is a PANCAKE EATING MACHINE and stops at nothing to eat every pancake in sight.  And I tried to give her the same amount of breakfast before class as usual, but she knew she was having breakfast at school and couldn't quite figure out why she was having breakfast before breakfast.  I wanted to say "well, I'm just concerned that the other fourteen students may not get a single pancake."  But I told her just in case she got hungry before breakfast, this was a little appetizer.  (which was actually little bit true.)

While she was at school, I got to work at home.  Drinking coffee and cleaning my bedroom while Racecar played with 1,362 race cars.  My bedroom is the Official Dumping Location For All Crap in the Folding Laundry household, it was so bad that the night before I had a dream that I was cleaning my bedroom.  Your bedroom, according to Oprah, is supposed to be your sanctuary, filled with clean sheets and lavender, a place for your soul to be put at ease and well....my bedroom was not my sanctuary and it was filled with dirty socks and so.much.dust.  So, I cleaned it.  Really cleaned it.  While I was cleaning, I noticed my NOAA weather radio was unplugged, I plugged it in.  (p.s.  do you have a weather radio?  I added one to my Christmas wish list two years ago and I'm very happy with it and feel much safer at night.  Consider buying one, okay?  It's like having a fire alarm.  End Info-mercial.)

By the time we needed to pick Ariel up from school, my bedroom was pristine and I felt so much better.  I actually put my laptop on the desk and did work, rather than my coffee table or my lap or the kitchen counter, it felt good and productive!  When I picked Ariel up, her teacher reported to me that "Ariel sure can pack away some pancakes!!!!!!!!!!" she exclaimed.  I replied with something about her taking after her mother, which is totally the truth.

It was while working on my desk that my NOAA weather radio went off with a TORNADO WARNING.  Do you hear this?  The day I turned it on, we had a tornado warning.  Well, not so much we, but the next county over, which I'm glad to know about because our parents live there.  So, I made the appropriate phone calls and while on the phone with my mother in law, the sirens outside my house started going off and the NOAA weather radio went off with a tornado warning for us, which wasn't a good thing...because the kids were sleeping peacefully.  And quietly.  And I've always been instructed to never wake a sleeping child.  Shouldn't that rule be followed in the midst of a tornado warning??  Because what if a tornado does not hit, then I'd just woken them up for no reason...but what if a tornado did hit.  I woke them up, put their sandals on to go downstairs and the sirens stopped.  So, there we were, all staring at each other, the kids looking at me like I'm a lunatic and me looking at the weather radio like it's a lunatic.  Either way, it was peaceful and fine and good.  and safe.

And I'm really glad a tornado did not hit.  I had just cleaned my room, you know.