All we are is dust in the wind, Dude

December 1st, 2011 - One of the craziest and scariest days of my life. We woke up to the wind howling outside. I knew it was going to be rough getting Beckett to school that morning because he is afraid of the wind. Also, Matt had school that morning so I was flying solo. I decided that it was going to be okay to be late to school that morning. We took our time getting dressed and mentally prepared to go out the door. The power went out before we woke up, so that meant I had to go outside and open the garage doors by my own power. I am so grateful for electric garage door openers. That thing was so heavy and hard to lift. At one point, I almost said, "Forget it! He will just miss school today." I eventually got it open - Anabelle and I had to get breakfast since the power was out anyways. We drove to Beckett's school, only to find a telephone pole leaning towards the street, hanging only by the wires attached to it. There was a cop car parked in the middle of the street to prevent anyone from driving under it. Well, I turned around and went the other direction to his school. As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed there were only a handful of cars in the parking lot, and they were all starting to pull out and leave. I put two and two together and realized that school was canceled that day. BK breakfast for everybody!

Driving in the wind was one of the most frightening things I have ever done. Billboards had lost their signs and tons of big debris flying all over. White knuckles the whole way. We went to a Burger King attached to a gas station (the one closer to us had no power either, which I found out after I got the kids out of the car and through the door of the place. grrrr). We had a nice, leisurely breakfast of french toast sticks, one of the best breakfast inventions ever. When we were finally done, I took a deep breath and braved the wind one more time to go home. Our house was pretty cold without power, especially because the power went off just before the heater was supposed to come on in the morning and heat the house back up to its day time temperature. Couldn't it have just waited a half hour to go out? I mean really? I tried to think of what we could do to waste some time and keep warm and came up with the idea to put up the tent in the living room. The kids would love it and hopefully it would consolidate heat inside the tent and keep us warmer a little longer. I called our friend Livia and invited her and Aspen to come over for our "camping trip". I wanted to make sure they had somewhere warm to be, but really, I just needed a sane adult to be with me to keep me calm. I had a very hard time handling the storm. I kept envisioning the huge trees in our back yard falling over or breaking the power lines that run through them. Part of our fence was already down, and some of our shingles had blown off. I was sure those trees were going to come down next and it really scared me. It also didn't help that we could hear the wind really well inside our house because our windows are a joke. They are so bad that the curtains were moving because the wind was coming through them. I was really frazzled. Livia and Aspen coming was such a blessing. (Sorry for being terrible company, Livia.)

On the plus side, the tent idea worked. It was noticeably warmer inside the tent and the kids had a ball. Also the wind started to die down not long after our guests arrived. We talked and kept the kids happy with cereal until it was time for Livia and Aspen to go. After they left, I realized that the house was just too cold to stay in any longer. Lucky for us, a friend invited us to her sister's house that had power. I braved driving again, which really wasn't bad but I was a basket case at this point. The kids played with all of the other kids there and had a great time. I just sat in a chair with my coat on the whole time and didn't talk much. I was totally checked out mentally, plus I felt like I was never going to get warm again. I tried to keep conversation going with my friend Sharice, but I just couldn't focus. After Sharice asked me if I was okay, I decided I needed to calm down and relax. I don't think I was able to really relax until I climbed into bed at my brother's house that night. I felt embarrassed about how much the storm affected me. Once I heard how bad the wind really was (hurricane levels), I didn't feel as embarrassed.

I figured there was no school the next day. I thought our power was still out and Davis county's schools were closed, so Ogden should be too. I was wrong. We had power and they had school that day. Funny how the day of the storm I did everything I could to get Beckett to school, and then end up missing the day that he did have it. Oh well. We enjoyed our free day just the same, and were very relieved to find no more damage had been done than the bit of fence that was down and some shingles that were on the ground instead of on our roof.

I was surprised how the kids weren't bothered by the storm, not even Beckett was upset after some pep talk. It has made me think about the scripture about becoming as a little child. Here they were in an unpleasant situation, even scary, but they were happy and not worried, because they were with Mom. They didn't whine about how unfair it was that this was happening to them. They didn't wish it away. They didn't even complain about it (I am sure playing in the tent had to do with that). They just knew that everything was fine. They had faith that I would protect them, that they would be safe no matter what. It sheds a new light on how I handled that day. I spent the day praying in my mind that those trees wouldn't come down and that our house would be protected, but never felt like it was enough. I just needed to keep praying about it, as if he couldn't hear me over all of the other people praying for the exact same thing that day. Shouldn't one sincere prayer be enough? Shouldn't I have prayed and then trusted or had faith in Heavenly Father that it was going to be okay? Even if we did loose our roof or one of those trees did come down, wouldn't Heavenly Father have taken care of us? And this goes for other problems that come up in life. I find myself having pity parties and "Woe is me" moments all the time. I guess I need to take this lesson from my kids and just trust that everything is fine. No matter what storms blow around me, I will be fine, as long as I am with my Heavenly Father.

July Update

Hello one and all. I am going to try something different with this update (logical is probably the better word). I am going to go in chronological order, instead of updating each individual of our family. I will begin with the 4th of July. We spent it with my family up at my parent's cabin.



We had a lovely time. The first night we had a birthday party for all of the June and July birthdays. We had brownies with marshmallow cream and fudge frosting on top. So yummy! Matt got in a lot of fishing. He caught quite a few fish, but we only ate 2 of them. It is very nice to be able to fish without needing to buy a fishing license. On Friday night, we all went outside and had a fireworks show in the gravel driveway. It was beautiful but the kids didn't like the sound very much. Matt had to take Beckett inside (I am sure not taking a nap that day had something to do with it as well).



The next day, Independence Day, we had a flag ceremony and talked about our great nation and how lucky we are to live here and ways that we can help to keep it great. It was special and thought provoking and made me misty-eyed. He is our handsome Color Guard.



Here is Belle saying she is ready for a trip around the lake in the raft.



It was a wonderful trip and we had lots of good food and played lots of fun games. I love getting together with family.

As the summer got hotter, I decided to ask Matt to bring Beckett's train table downstairs. I felt bad whenever he went up there to play with his trains because it is so hot and stuffy up there. Beckett is so happy to have his trains back. I think he plays with them every morning while I fix breakfast. We have put it in what used to be our dining room (I will blog more about this in my next post). I moved our table into our kitchen so the train table could fit in the dining room. I also moved the table into the kitchen so we would actually eat at it. Our dining room was anything but a dining room. It was more our "where can we put this? People are coming over" storage room. So our table was always covered with stuff. Now it is the room where we eat and we can actually eat at it. I like it better this way. I don't know if I will put it back after it cools down.

Belle loves to climb. After we moved the train table downstairs, and the kitchen table into the kitchen, she decided she wanted to perfect her climbing skills. As you can see in the background of this cute photo of Beckett, she loves to climb up onto the train table. She pulls out the little drawer on the side of the table and then climbs into that and then up onto the table (she is a thinker).


Since she discovered her new-found climbing area, she has officially earned her name, "Babyzilla". She loves to destroy Beckett's train tracks and steal his trains. It is funny but it also gets old really fast when you hear Beckett constantly whining about his trains. That is our little Babyzilla.


Something scary that happened in July that has to do with Belle climbing was she fell off the kitchen table onto her head. She had climbed up and was sitting close to the edge when she lost her balance and fell off, landing head first. I was so scared. I called her doctor and he told me what to look out for in case she had a concussion. One thing they asked me to check was to see if her head was mushy where she hit. That freaked me out right there. But her head wasn't, it was hard and getting a large goose egg. I was very relieved. I watched her really close and she never showed signs of a concussion, so it turned out okay. Since the accident, I have been much more diligent at watching out for her climbing up onto the table and getting her off the table as soon as she climbs on.

For the 24th of July, Pioneer Day, we went up to the Cabin again with my mom and sisters. It was actually the night of the 24th and then all day Saturday (Matt doesn't get state holidays off, I'm not complaining though, I am just happy he gets paid holidays, whenever they are). We had a lovely time yet again. In fact, we saw the most animal life we have seen all year. We saw two moose (which is a rarity in and of itself), and a big hawk-ish bird (picture not included).



We ate pizza, which Beckett thoroughly enjoyed (really he did, it's his favorite).





I had kind of a Girlie day on Saturday while Matt watched the kids. We watched musicals like "Flower Drum Song" (I love that one) and "Anne Get Your Gun." Sara wanted to do my hair and take fancy pictures of us. I told her she needs to start a business called "Glamor shots by Sara." Here are the results. I think this particular backdrop helps beautify more than most.



For a while I have been wanting to finger paint with the kids. I wanted to use pudding so it didn't stain and so I wouldn't feel bad when they try to eat it. In fact I totally encouraged them to eat it. We used chocolate and vanilla. It wasn't much of a color lesson, but we had a lot of fun. Maybe I'll use pastachio pudding next time so we have green to liven things up.















The kids have found their new favorite thing. Climbing into the cupboard under the TV. They climb in, close the door and just giggle at each other, like they have found some new secret hiding place that Mom will never find. It is so cute.



One of Matt's favorite things that happened last month was taking down the tree in our front yard. The tree was only mostly dead last year when we moved in. This year it was all dead. So we cut it down, with the help of our wonderful home teachers. They had a great time. Matt climbed up in the tree to cut down the branches up at the top (I am sure that is one reason why he loved it right there). Then they cut down the trunk. When they got to the big main part, they cut into it part way and then tried to break the rest of the trunk off by tying it to the back of our home teacher's truck. Well, instead of breaking the tree in half, they just pulled the whole tree out instead.








That about raps up the our busy month of July. Stay tuned for more updates...


P.S. I just want to let certain family members that don't have blogs of their own know that they can leave comments on here. I made it so you can. I don't know that I even mentioned that when I told you all about my blog. I love getting comments. Not that I am conceited, really. I just love knowing who reads my blog. So everyone feel free to leave a comment.