STORMS AND SPRING BABIES

Here are 2 of the 3 kittens our outdoor cat had this week. We thought we would let her have 1 litter before we get her "fixed" The kids are already trying to convince us to let her have another litter before we fix her since as they put it, "3 is really not a very big litter." The kids are enjoying these little furballs... but boy can they be loud for being so little :)

We got some pretty good golf ball size hail with the storm we had last night during dinner. OH... MY.... GOODNESS! The part of the storm that came through at around 10:00 had this mama in the bathroom with the littles... Of course it suddenly got SO loud that I couldn't hear Greg telling us to go in there, I just went myself because IT WAS SCARY! About 10 minutes later we heard our little towns tornado warning sirens going off. By then things had totally already calmed down. It was a little late for the warning in my opinion:)

I have ALWAYS been fearful of tornadoes. I think it might stem from the fact that I remember parts of the roof of my grade school being blown off when I was in Kindergarten. We weren't in school that day, but it still freaked me out. And here comes some embarrassing info... I remember being probably in junior high or high school and during REALLY bad storms going into my parents room and sleeping on the floor. That just felt safer to me:)

Here is Hope with the kids collection of hail from the storm...

This did not occur yesterday, but in a wind storm we had about 2 weeks ago... This HUGE tree house Greg and the boys built literally blew right over. I think that thing was at least 1,000 pounds. The sort of humorous thing was that Greg and I had just taken a walk literally 2 days before and were discussing taking it down. Now that Greg put up the swing set which has a couple of houses on it, we thought maybe it was time to cut down on the yard toys our neighbors have to look at. Literally 2 days later Greg woke me up and said, "I think the decision was made for us, the tree fort blew over last night"

In the CRAZY winds of last nights storm... the smaller slide on our BIG play set was literally torn off. AYE YI YI! Our trampoline stayed put, but our neighbors got pretty mangled. I am not sure I like these Oklahoma storms much at all. Today I heard that 9 people were killed in OK and AR. during those storms... so sad. Greg and I went our for lunch today since my in laws are in town and we did discuss possibly putting in a storm shelter... Hmmm who knows... This Wisconsin girl misses her basement:(

While we were out, the two of us ordered my mother's day present. (Tonya, did you know that there is actually a VINTAGE PEARL store in our town?) OH MY!!! I could go crazy in there. I think I have my Christmas present already picked out. They have the cutest pea in a pod necklace that I was eyeing up. I will put up a picture when I get my gift next week... I can't wait! I love it! They have to be a Christian owned store; they had great Christian tunes playing the whole time we were in there. It made me happy that their business is so successful, it was packed in there the whole time we were there. Go check out their sweet gifts and items at http://www.vintagepearl.com/

Ok, I better run, I am going to try to get my hospital bags totally unpacked today... it has only been a whole month:) I really did have better things to do than unpack though, like snuggling on that sweet little guy of ours... as well as his older brothers and sisters.

Soooo Thankful:)

You may think that this is a pre Thanksgiving post... it could be, but that will have to come later.
Right now, I just wanted to quickly update you all that I passed that crazy kidney stone.


I literally had just gotten off the phone with the nurse at my OB's office and she was saying that I should go to urgent care if I needed anything stronger than Tylenol for the pain and to make sure that is what it really was, a kidney stone. I was thinking.... "Hmmmm, I am not a big medication kind of gal, especially pregnant, and I KNOW this is a kidney stone:)"

Probably 5 minutes later, I went to the bathroom and had one ZINGER of a pain... and thought I better check in the toilet... and there she was ( Sorry, I know, probably TMI)

I am just so thankful that I was able to pass it... Yes it was uncomfortable and hurt, but really, this is the 2nd one I have passed and praise God, it isn't THAT bad for me... I remember an friend of mine once saying that he was in the hospital on a morphine drip when he passed a kidney stone the size of a grain of salt. My guess is mine was about almost a 1/2 cm... Honestly, I think it is by the grace of God that they don't hit me nearly as hard as they do many other people.

Don't get me wrong, I don't look forward to doing that again anytime soon:)

Thanks so much for your prayers... the last one took me a month to pass, and this was just a few days... So very thankful for that today!

I will try to post some pics soon of the kids with cousins...:)

MY MAN HAS MANY TALENTS:)

WE GOT THIS AMAZINGLY FUN GIFT BASKET FOR SWEET BABY GIRL AND FAMILY A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO... IT WAS FROM THE AGENCY WE WILL BE ADOPTING HER THROUGH... WE JUST LOVE THEM ALL!


HERE IS PROOF OF THE PROCESS OF MY HUSBAND AND A NEIGHBOR REPLACING OUR FUEL PUMP. THEY HAD TO TAKE THE WHOLE BED OF THE TRUCK OFF. IT WAS A BIT SCARY TO WITNESS... BUT I DID TELL HIM TO GO FOR IT:)

I WAS REALLY PROUD OF THEM... THEY GOT IT RUNNING AND IN THE MEAN TIME SAVE US HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS. I WAS SO GLAD HE WAS WILLING TO TRY IT. I FIGURED WE WOULD HAVE TO HAVE IT TOWED AS IT WAS... WELL, IF HE TRIED FIXING IT, BUT COULDN'T GET IT... WELL THEN WE WOULD HAVE TO HAVE IT TOWED ANYWAY... BUT THANK GOD... IT TURNED OUT GREAT!

I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT TOMORROW WE WILL BE CELEBRATING 17 YEARS TOGETHER, THAT HANDY MAN AND I:)

THE SPLASH PAD

OUR FRIENDS WHO INVITED US TO THE SPLASH PAD...
MY SWEET JOJO

ANNA HAD AN ABSOLUTE BALL

MAN, THIS LITTLE PUMPKIN MELTS MY HEART:)

SISTERS... ENJOYING THE WATER AND EACH OTHER:)



WE HAVE HAD A SUPER BUSY WEEK WITH THE OLDER BOYS HAVING BASKETBALL CAMP UP AT CHURCH, SOME ACUPUNCTURE APPTS, NUMEROUS DR.S APPTS, AND THE FUN OF NORMAL LIFE.

WE ARE SUPER EXCITED FOR OUR DEAR FRIENDS THE STOCKTONS TO COME UP TO VISIT FOR THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND... THE KIDS HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT IT FOR WEEKS... AND GREG AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR SOME GOOD LAUGHS WITH OUR PRECIOUS FRIENDS.

AND TOMORROW WE HAVE OUR FIRST TEENAGER IN THE HOUSE... MY BIG LOU TURNS THIRTEEN... THE KING FOR THE DAY HAS CHOSEN DUSTY ROAD SUNDAES FOR BREAKFAST... IT SHOULD BE A GREAT DAY!