When it Rains

I'm sure you know the rest.

Did I mention the RAIN???!! I'm NOT talking about the wet stuff falling from the sky, though we do have some of that lately. I like that.

I'm being metaphorical.
Right?

Sweet Ally and I were rear-ended on the way to work today. It was a VERY scary thing! Not much damage to our car (actually MIL's car-I have her car while Jason has my car while Jason's truck is in the shop), but MAN, did that hit pack a punch!

I was slowing down ready to make a right turn on a very well known intersection around here (let's just I'm now a new fan of taking 183A down to 1431), and seeing 2 cars coming my way at 60 mph I decide to wait and turn after they had passed.
The car behind me apparently did not anticipate this decision. Or just wasn't paying attention at all.

SMACK! It sounded like a gun went off in the car. And at first I didn't even know what happened. When I did realize what happened, I screamed. Loud. Hit something within reach I'm sure, then went FLYING out the door around to check on Ally. I don't know what happened to the cars that were coming towards me. Thankfully they were either gone or slowed and veered, because I did not even pause to look for traffic. And I was 2 lanes out in the intersection now.
I flew around the car and flung Ally's door open.

And there she was, calm as could be. Not even phased, not upset, worried, crying.
Nothing.
Just calm. It was weird.
She kept asking what was wrong with me.

The other guy came up behind us and asked if we were ok then jumped in my car to move it to the side of the road. He was thinking a little bit clearer than me. I was still standing in the middle of the 60 mph road, clutching my sweet baby girl and crying.

We exchanged info (** a funny note-we found out we live on the same street. I told him to avoid problems in the future why don't we just carpool. Ha!) and I was off to work. I broke down again on the way there and was crying when I pulled in. I felt almost silly. By looking at the little bit of damage on MIL's car, you'd think we got nothing but a small nudge. But I was so shaken up-physically shaking for a loooong time afterwards and again every time I recounted the story.
Someone asked if this was my first wreck. Without pausing, I answered, "The first one since I've had kids." It really takes on a whole different category, you know?

Anyway, one lingering headache and one sore neck and back and we'll be ok. Sweet Ally still fine and still tells me she was not scared. She's my hero! :)

Tell me a Story

Just wanted to document Ally's latest craze. Well, by now she's moved on a bit. She's trying to draw more rather than write, but about a month ago if she had a free minute, you would find her at the table, markers in hand, writing "stories".
Sometimes they'd be stories, sometimes just lists of friend's names. She can spell many of them without asking now. And sometimes pictures for friends or family members.
She was so serious about it. Pure concentration, very intentional with shapes, colors and marks.
I joked to someone about this, but in all seriousness, she may have gone through an entire 500 pack of printer paper in about a month. lol!

Take A Hike

This is one of our favorite things to do. We make it out here about, I don't know-quarterly I guess.
We went over Spring Break and I never posted. This is from a (practically) dry creek bed just up the road, that has a neat set of dino tracks. I first found out about it when I was taking an earth science class at ACC. My prof gave extra credit to anyone who checked it out.
Anyway, I love this because it's close, quick, easy, and always gives something new.
If Jason is with us, he always catches crawdads or tadpoles.
It's a neat little trek for the girls. They can hike and climb and explore, and all we need is a couple of cold water bottles.

My nature lovin' beauties:

Sunshine and Rain

Sigh. Seems like Mother Nature is currently showing the story of my life. A quick tease of beautiful, shinyhappy kind of promises, quickly washed away by rain.
And not just rain, my friends, but storms.

High winds and hail.

Sigh.
Did I already say that? :(

I am always the ultimate, "chin up" "This too shall pass" kind of gal. But man, there's only so much, you know?

Today Jason's truck will be towed to the mechanic with promises of "very costly" repairs. Man. We'd suck it up and go to one vehicle for a couple of months, except for the fact that his truck is not just transportation. It gets him to the job, but it also hauls everything he needs to complete the job. A cab and a bed full of tools and supplies, usually backed with a trailer loaded with more.
It's his whole livelihood. And let me tell ya, lately it's not so lively in the hood.

Catch my drift??

I found myself searching the TEA website today to find out what all I need to do to update my certificate.

I go back and forth every single day on how much-is-too-much? kind of worries. Have I gone too far? Put the family in jeopardy just because I want to stay home with my girls? And then, "you can't buy this time! You cannot put a price on these precious years! My days are numbered, and I'm going to stick this out!"

I HATE to be so personal on here and I HATE to divulge so much.

But I need help. I NEED some prayers, some positive juju, SOMEthing to help me muster it up and get through this.

I love you guys! I know you're sending some well wishes my way. :)

Make A Wish

I had just dropped my kids (my class-kids) off in music and walked into the workroom today when I heard Ally's teacher hollering (I know, it's hick-ish, but it's the best word!) at me from down the hall.

"Jennifer! Jennifer! Are you in here? Come here-you have to see this!"

I can't decide if it's an excited or a panicked holler, so I move pretty quickly to get to her room.

Then I see the beaming smile on her face. Whew!

She had helped the kids make a dandelion painting (is that the flower that you blow the little white whispies off and make a wish?) and was asking them all what their wish would be if they had a real dandelion.

I looked on the board and found Ally's name with her wish written out.
"I wish to be a princess."
Not bad, I think. Not original, but not bad. :)

Then I look directly below it and see her classmates wish.

**Now I have to give a little back story here.
One day, out of the blue, Ally and her classmate "J" became, well....attached. I don't even know how to describe this. I have to keep reminding myself that we're talking about 4 yr. olds here.
I know I've talked about the little guy before to some of you. He's the boy that is usually holding hands with Ally in line. Once I saw him walking beside her with his hand just barely on her back, like he was making sure she stayed close.
He's the boy (4 yr. old boy) that when Ally was attempting her first go at the "big slide", ran to the bottom and yelled, "I'll catch you, honey!"
I have heard (through Ally) that he wants her to come watch him play soccer. How sweet!
And he's the one that, every day, walks past the other 5 or 6 classmates, stepping over other's toes and wiggly legs, to go alllll the way down to the very last seat in the row for morning assembly, to the spot right next to Ally, where she is always waiting, with such a sweet little grin. And he smiles back and sits right down, usually not even saying anything at all.

I know! I know it sounds ridiculous-but it is the strangest thing! It is the sweetest relationship I have ever seen between two children. And they only see each other twice a week!

Anyway, back to my reason for posting. Quick recap. Ally wishes to be a princess...yadda yadda....
And little "J" wishes...








"to be Ally's prince."

I could cry!

Feed Me

(is it obvious I'm trying to hammer out some catch-up posts??) :-)

The girls and I were EXTREMELY excited to start our garden. After missing our scheduled weekend for the bed assembly because Daddy had to work, we mustered up our collective girl power and decided to do it ourselves!
I had two very eager assistants.

This is how Ally helped,

and then she off to play with Missy.

This is how Emma helped,


and I couldn't have done it without her!

Before we knew it, we had one ready to fill raised garden box!

this is mostly true...after seeing the (small!) size of our finished product, we decided to rethink our original plan. we decided to forgo the 12 inch height and get double the space. so-we needed daddy to dig up the grass in the area we were going to use, so we were sort of stuck until he could help.

BUT everything's been in the ground now for several weeks and so far we have several tomato plants, a few squash and zuccini, some green beans and maybe sugar snap peas?, and yellow and red bell peppers. I have spinach seeds and.....something else that we're waiting for fall.
We're just watering and watching right now! Can't wait to harvest something!

What the Hail?

I know this is old news, but wanted to document the ridiculous hail storm that came through last month. The girls were not scared one bit. They loved it and had to be pulled from the doors and windows, eagerly waiting to play in the ice covered yard! This thing came out of nowhere and dropped a huge amount of hail and rain.
We had several little plantlings on the porch waiting to be put in the garden, and Emma sent Jason out to save them. She was crying, "Hurry, Daddy! Hurry! Get in!" Jason's mom was here and thought it was so sweet that Emma was worried about her Daddy.
Emma told me after hearing that, that she was "a little bit worried about Daddy, I guess, but mostly worried about the plants." lol!
Jason says he'll never forget-we were all anxiously watching the weather updates, and his mom said, "Son, I am so glad I'm over here". And not 2 minutes later, the sky fell! Her poor car was pretty beat up. She drove home later to RR, and found out that not one piece of hail fell at her place! So much for being better off over here! oops!




**I found two little cups of hail in the freezer a week later. ha!

Bluebonnets

I better throw these on in case they're all I get this year. Definitely not ideal conditions for BB pics...a very small circle to sit in, and the whole area was littered with fire ant hills. The girls were afraid to move, as you can tell by the stiff postures!
We made another stop after this one that was much better, but it was too dark by then and my shots didn't turn out. Oh well. I planned on getting back out, but I think I've waited too long now. Seems like we're always chasing something!

Call Me

A quick note-

Emma interupted me while working on the last post to ask-

"Mama, do you know who sings the song, "I Don't Even Know His Last Name"?

I'm wondering why, of course, and how in the world she knows this song, but I say yes, and tell her, "Carrie Underwood".

"Oh, good! I want that to be my ring tone when I grow up!"

First of all, ring tone??? Secondly, I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing! Um, NO....WAY!! Ha!

Marry Me

Emma had her second gig as flower girl last weekend at cousin Mandy's wedding. Man, did she get the royal treatment! Starting off with a girl's day at the spa...Emma was pampered and got her first french pedicure! (I have pics of this on Mandy's camera. If I get them I'll add later) She and I went for pedi's one time before Kinder started, but this was the FULL treatment-a bubbly soak, foot and leg massage, and her adorable french tips! So cute! And I, holding the important position of "mother of flower girl", was also pampered with a pedi AND a full body massage! Ahhhh..... :)

The next day started off with hair appointments.

And 34 bobby pins later....


It was a BEAUTIFUL outdoor wedding. A gorgeous spring day. A bit breezy and threatening to rain, but we made it all the way to the reception before we got wet. And we did get wet, because by that time I was so exhausted I was just glad to be sitting down and eating that I really didn't even bother to move. The food was good and the company great-and what has a little rain ever hurt anyway? :)

It was EXTREMELY stressful trying to keep the kids off the rocky hills, the grassy knolls..., the wooded area, scolding them from running around and through the chairs so carefully set in perfect rows, from playing hide-and-seek in the bridal suite.
At one point I luckily overheard someone mention musical chairs.

"No WAY!" I said, just picturing the kids running and jumping for the chairs, spilling over, tearing their gorgeous dresses and mussing their hair!
So, one of them had the idea to 'pretend play' musical chairs.
I then witnessed the most hilarious thing of the day. 4 or 5 children, following each other in a tight circle, humming some sort of tune. Someone yelled "Stop!", and they all "sat" in the air, freezing on the spot.

They were playing musical chairs. With no music. And no chairs.
Classic. :)

It couldn't have been a better wedding. The bride beautiful, the groom very nervous!

Mandy was her usual, goofy, gorgeous self. We were so glad to be a part of her special day!

A few pics.

Great Grandparents.


Cousin Mandy.


Sweet cousins.


Oh-no pics of Ally, but she was also spoiled. Nana and Pops took her while Emma and I were away. She got a trip to the outlets, picked out some treasures, helped harvest tiny oak saplings from the front yard, went bunny hunting with carrots and peas (and found a bunny!), and had more priceless fun-it's not often she gets one-on-one time with her N&P. Thanks Mom and Dad!

W-A-T-E-R-M-E-L-O-N