Flat tire and a storm (at the same time)

Last Friday I took Makayla to cheer practice and dropped her off. They were having a 2 hour practice instead of a 1 hour like usual. I left the boy and Macie at home with hubs. I didn't get 5 minutes down the road from practice when I realized I had a completely flat tire. Great.

So I called hubs and told him what happened. And then I waited. And waited. He went to the wrong place! He drove to the complete opposite side of town because he didn't realize what parking lot I was talking about. To make matters worse a huge storm was blowing in and Makayla had to be picked up still. He hurries to me and takes the tire off and we make it to the tire place as they are closing. We had to throw them an extra $10 as a tip and when we made it back to the van it was starting to rain. So there hubs was in the rain fixing my tire. He was NOT happy. Moods and attitudes were flying from everyone. But we got the van fixed in time to get Makayla.

 I took a few pics of the kids in dads backseat and a few of the storm.

Splash day 2013

Today was the boys' kindergarten splash day. It's all I've heard about for weeks. The school fills up lots of kiddy pools, sprinklers, hoses, water balloons and even sometimes a huge inflatable water slide. 

Every kindergartner was beyond excited. But last night the clouds rolled in. And the rain. I sent the boy to school with his swim shorts, towel, picnic lunch and flip flops anyway and hoped for the best. Thankfully they did get some time in but the 3 hours they normally get for splash day was cut short because a severe storm rolled in. I was out running errands when it came. My mom even got hail. 

I'm happy that he still had fun during the time that he got. 

Clouds

Last night while the boy was in his karate class the girls and I were in the car waiting. (Macie's class is directly after his.)

The clouds were getting darker and we were watching them move. This set of clouds was so pretty I just had to take a picture.

This busy busy life

I feel so overwhelmed right now. It's not any particular thing it's just all of the recent happenings wearing me thin. You wouldn't think that extra curricular classes twice a week would be that big of a deal but oh my gosh I feel like they have pushed me over the edge. The kids love them and we are going to stick with them for a very long time but wow we just don't seem to slow down for a second.

When the kids were toddlers I was always reading blogs that talked about how busy they were and I remember thinking... Really? How can you be that busy? I'm not busy and I have 3 kids under 4. Now I get it. I thought it would get easier when they were older but I feel strained way more now than when I had 3 kids in diapers.

Every single day leaves me crawling into
bed and crashing. I always say my prayers in bed each night and the last few nights I have actually fallen asleep in the middle of saying them. That's so not good.

I keep thinking things will mellow out a bit but the truth is that they are about to get even crazier. I'm going to be working soon and time will really be short. I could use some 36 hour days.

Today I was at hubs job waiting for him to take lunch and I laid my seat back to rest while I waited. It started pouring down rain and it felt so peaceful and relaxed. For a few minutes I almost forgot I had to run an errand quickly with hubs during his lunch break, zoom home to pick up the kids on time, zoom back home, make dinner, give baths and get 2 out of 3 children to karate on time.

Maybe when they go to college life will slow down a bit.

It's windows open...

and jackets in the morning weather. LOVE it!!

Magnificent sky

We spent today at the beach and I have a bunch of pics to share. However tonight I am way too tired. I do want to share a few that we took as the sun was going down. The sky looked amazing! Like it had been painted. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Rain, Rain and Rain

For the past week it has been raining. I am loving it. It makes it easier to tell the kids they can't go swimming. The girls sun rash is almost cleared up but I am thankful for the extra few days to give them to heal. It is supposed to continue raining for the next week.

This morning the boy woke up around 4:00a.m and came into the bedroom telling me he had a nightmare and he wanted to lay with me. There was a pretty intense thunderstorm happening outside so I knew that was making him nervous. He crawled into bed with me and we fell back asleep together under our cozy blankets.

There has been a lot of cleaning and organizing around here as well as quite a bit of playing. This week the photos are pretty random.

Didn't see THAT coming

After we got home from the movie yesterday we just hung out lounging around. A thunderstorm started and the kids were scared. I told them it was just a small storm but I wasn't exactly right. Our kitchen windows need caulking around them again and the rain storm flooded our kitchen. I have never had any problems with rain getting in but since it was coming in sideways and very hard we didn't stand a chance. Counters, drawers and floor were all soaking wet. So I did the best I could with towels. Then the power went, the ditches and yards flooded and I lost all cell service. I couldn't even text.

I found out after it had died down that there was a tornado nearby. We even have a tree in the backyard that is down. It made for a very interesting evening. I got a few pics of the kids drawing by flashlight.

What a weekend!

We packed a lot into our Sunday. I went with our neighbor to a place she recommended to reserve a moon bounce for the girls party at the end of this month. The owner was SO nice and even threw in some free extras just because he was so great. We grilled with our neighbors again and this time they bought all the food since we are usually the ones who fund it.

Then tonight our other neighbor calls and asks if I want approx. 30 tomato, jalapeno, cucumber,etc. plants. His mom is moving and doesn't want to take them. They brought them over tonight and you would not believe how many there really are. An entire garden has just been given to me. Tomorrow I am going to be outside working on replanting everything.

One of the best things about this weekend though was that we finally got some rain!!
I love storms. So soothing to the soul. Good stuff all weekend long. :)

Today

It's cold today. And wet. The boy and I took a short nap earlier and I woke up when hubs called from work and said that it was already below freezing and to let the water run so our pipes don't freeze (again). So right now we are inside where it is warm. I am drinking hot chocolate and the boy is eating strawberry oatmeal. He eats it all day everyday. That boy of mine LOVES his oatmeal.

It is nearing time to pick up the girls but that doesn't sound too exciting to me considering how I have to freeze and go outside to pick them up. Oh well....a mom has to do what a mom has to do. Have I mentioned it is cold?

Family road trip

We had a good time this past weekend. Sunday morning we decided to go somewhere with the kids but we weren't sure where. We spent a few hours figuring it out and then decided to just get in the van and go. Our neighbor came with us since his fiance had plans with her grandma that day. We tried to get her to come too but she couldn't change her day around so it was the 6 of us. Me, hubs, the kids and our neighbor.

We decided to go to a restaurant that is a few hours away. They have an old colonial style village to tour right with the restaurant so we figured we would make a whole day of it. We got to the restaurant around 3:00.

Leaving the house

The restaurant is completely old fashioned good country food. There are no menus. It is all you can eat and as soon as you sit down they bring you plates and plates of food. Made from scratch cornbread and biscuits, fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes and gravy and more. You just eat till you explode then they bring out more. There was peach cobbler for dessert. AMAZING!! The restaurant is very old fashioned with tea or lemonade to drink. No sodas. It is decorated with vintage circus posters dating back to early 1900's. Such a neat experience.

The look on the boy's face is hilarious. When he tasted the biscuits his eyes shot open and he couldn't believe how good it tasted.

Once we were done eating we went to the gift shop/tour area only to find that they had closed the tour down less than ten minutes before we walked in. Such a bummer because we were really excited about seeing the town. We shopped for a while anyway. The boy found a wooden replica 1800's rifle and begged us for it. I mean begged. He was jumping up and down saying " Pwease Mommy!! Pwetty pwease!!" Do I even need to say that we caved?

When we were done with the gift shop we decided to go visit hubs grandma and grandpa since they live only about 30 miles from the restaurant and we hardly get to see them. We had a great visit and right after it got dark decided to head home. Now here is where it gets interesting.

It had been a gorgeous day. The sun was out and it was just perfect. For about 50 miles after hubs grandparents house it is nothing but deep dark woods on both sides of the hilly roads. The only light comes from your headlights and the reflectors on the road. Well I was driving back, hubs was sleeping in the front seat and my neighbor was in the middle of the van with the boy. The sky starts lighting up from lightning. We drive for a while more and then the storm hits. Insane rain in the middle of nowhere and I can't see. Wipers are on full power and I still can't see the road. AT ALL!! At this point the kids were scared and then it didn't help to hear mama screaming to her neighbor that she couldn't see anything. Thankfully I was able to pull over right in front of the pitch black woods and get off the road. Hubs woke up and drove the rest of the way home. It was pretty scary. I was literally driving blind even with my brights on. So thankful that we made it home safely. We didn't see that storm coming at all.

It was a fun little spur of the moment trip. Wish we could have gone on the tour though.

Ice and Denny's

We were supposed to get snow last night but it didn't happen. Instead we woke up to lots of this.....
The kids thought the icicles were great. Hubs kept breaking them off and bringing them inside for the kids to hold. After the roads reached a safe point in the morning ( meaning no ice on them) we had to go run a few errands. We bundled the kids up since we are all still sick and miserable and were on our way. Unfortunately the main errand we went out for is going to have to be done again tomorrow since the place was closed due to weather. On our way home we stopped by Denny's and had lunch/breakfast.

The boy was mad at Macie and they were fighting when I took this shot. Macie was purposefully trying to make him mad which is why she is happy and smiling. He just happened to have his eyes closed when I snapped this. Typical day for us.

When we got home the five of us all took a nap. Even the dogs joined us. We slept for quite a while since a simple errand made us feel sick again. I think we exerted ourselves a little too much the first day we felt better.