Hurrican Irene

Irene swept out a week of my life.
A week ago, I was in a meeting for Children's Ministry when Ben told me I should go to the store and fill up my car with gas. My friends at the meeting agreed and from that moment on, my routine flew out the window. We endured a crazy Walmart run. If you didn't know, I'm a planner...and it was driving me nuts that I couldn't plan this. I walked through Walmart not sure what to buy. Would I be able to cook? Did we have enough batteries? Would we need more water? I couldn't even squeeze myself in the canned food isle. In the middle of Walmart, my friend Abby called and asked if they could come stay with us...sure! Now to plan for guests...
I spent the rest of the day baking, baking, baking so our pantry would be stocked. Then I rushed to arrange the house for guests and safety.

Friday, I did all the laundry and dishes I could. I cooked our last hot meal and we spent as much time as we could outside, while it wasn't raining. The stress of waiting for the storm was starting to hit me.


Thankfully the kids didn't notice the stress and had a fun day.





You know the perfect time to fly a kite?
Right before a hurricane!
And wearing a swimsuit only makes it more fun.















Eli took the outside time to learn how to go down the slide by himself. This kid needs a little more healthy fear in him...Alison has plenty she could spare him.










We anticipated the storm to hit Saturday evening. I planned to get up that morning, brew some coffee, take a hot shower, dry my hair and do one last load of laundry. The moment I got up the power went out...did I mention I really like plans?
Well, my plans were flying out the window as fast as the wind was blowing.


But then my hero stepped in and saved me.



Ben ordered a generator off Amazon Thursday and had it overnighted to our house. Knowing me well, he came home from work and said, "I ordered a generator...I'm not telling you how much it cost and we'll work on budgeting it out later...and we can always return it." Well, praise the LORD for that generator and my brilliant husband. We were able to run the refrigerator, one light and one fan. I was so thankful we were able to keep our food and the generator was well worth every penny. Ben kept the generator running 24 hours a day, evening getting up in the middle of the night to refill it with gas. My hero took care of us above and beyond well. He even got the mail in the middle of the storm.

The storm itself was not as bad as I anticipated. I envisioned us all huddled in the hallway during the worst of the storm. I feared trees crashing into our house and windows breaking. But it was just a strong storm that lasted a really long time.


It was really hot in the house. Abby and I tried our best to entertain the kids by the fan, but there's only so many activities you can do in a small space. As I was catching up on laundry I had to laugh...I found myself folding all of Ben's work out clothes, all my comfy clothes and a few pairs of Alison's underpants. For the last 4 days, Ben's been hard at work, I've been in survival mode and the kids have been naked.

Church was cancelled Sunday and we spent the day cleaning up our yard. Ben spent a good part of the day in search for a chain saw to cut up the large fallen branches. Sounds easy, but most stores didn't have power either. Our yard has by far the most trees in the neighborhood. So while everyone else had a small, quaint pile of sticks at the end of their driveway, we had several feet of large limbs lining our yard...our neighbors have named our house 'Fort Shear'.

Monday we still didn't have power and Abby left to a house that never lost it. We worked on the yard some more and Ben grilled hamburgers for dinner. Hot food never tasted so good. Some sweet friends just got their power back and invited us over so we could shower. It was nice to cool off, clean up and have a little distraction from the chaos of our house.

By Tuesday morning I couldn't take it any longer. I loaded up the kids and we headed to the Children's Museum. We needed to get out of the house!











Their favorite spot was the pet store. I was surprised, but since the trip we've set up our own pet store in the play room.

Our power finally returned Tuesday evening. I feel like my brain left with the power and is slowly returning. I was shocked how long it took me to think through how to do things without electricity.

I went to the Y Wednesday to teach my normal 'Power Cut' class. They still didn't have power, but for some reason were still open. There were only a few people there and the floor was soaking wet, causing a foul order. A few girls still wanted to lift weights in the dark, so I turned on a portable ipod player and we did what we could in the damp fitness center.

It was an experience I won't forget...and I'm glad it's all over.

We're all shook up!

We experienced our first earthquake yesterday!

Here's my account:
It was naptime...Eli was sleeping, Alison was in her room not sleeping. I was at my desk working on the computer when I heard a rumble and my chair started shaking. I had a candle lit on our kitchen table and it started swaying back and forth. I stood up to look outside to see if a large truck was coming down the street. Nope, no truck. The rumble grew louder and I thought maybe a tornado was coming. Nope, the sky was clear and sunny. The house looked and felt like it was swaying. I stood in Alison's doorway, with my hand over my heart. She looked at me perplexed and asked what was wrong. I asked her if she heard the noise or felt the house moving. She plainly said no. Then I thought I must be dying. Maybe I was having a brain aneurism and the house really wasn't it swaying. The door frame around our hall bath was shaking and a crack ran up to the ceiling. I stood there paralyzed thinking, "Is the house going to collapse? Shouldn't I be running my babies OUT of this house? Should I get Eli up? Is it safer in this non rattling door frame or outside in our wooded lot? Maybe it really is all in my head and I should call 911." About that time it stopped and Alison calmly climbed back in bed and fell asleep. My neighbor texted me and asked if my house was swaying too. Oh thankgoodness! I wasn't dying! I was so thankful I wasn't the only one who felt it! I went to text her back, but my phone wouldn't work. So I turned to my friend, facebook, where I found Ben Shear wrote "definitely just felt an earthquake", with a link to an article about it...seriously within 1 minute of it happening. Why couldn't I figure out what was going on? Why didn't I know what to do? A friend called later to see if I was okay and I told her that I stood in Alison's door frame. She asked why I did that...because that's what they did on an episode of Full House :) Isn't it crazy the things we remember from silly shows and isn't it more crazy that this is the only information I had about what to do in an earthquake?

This leads me to Ben's account (I'm narrating what he told me when he got home from work):
I was sitting at my desk, I heard the rumble and saw the Hope sign shake. So I posted on facebook, "definitely just felt an earthquake"...and I'm pretty sure I was the first person to put that on there!

How is it that Ben just calmly sits at his desk and thinks, "wow, I just sat through an earthquake" and I'm frantically running through the house thinking I'm dying. I guess it means we're a perfect match. He calms me down and helps me to PREPARE for crazy events in life.

Speaking of crazy events...we're supposed to be hit with a hurricane Sunday morning. Doesn't that sound like fun? I don't really know how to prepare for this either, but I'll have my calm husband with me this time.

After an eventful day, Ben decided it was time for some music.
Before you watch the video, let me just say 2 things:
1. yes, I know it's time to sign Alison up for dance lessons...I have no idea where she learns her moves.
2. yes, I know my children are never wearing clothes in my posts. I'm sorry. I really do put clothes on them!!!

My Cutie Patootie

I am completely in love with the way Eli waves bye bye. It absolutely melts my heart.

A Little Time

I thought I'd take a little time "off" the other day and get some things done. I turned on a fun show and set out some coloring stuff to entertain the kids and thought we'd enjoy a little quiet time. Eli was not entertained and our quiet time was just what he needed to figure out how to climb on top of tables. He started with the Elmo table...


and worked his way up to the kitchen table.
I seriously took him off, from sitting right smack dab in the middle of the table, at least 4 times.




Just when I thought he understood, "when I say no, I mean no!"...he found the music table.

He was eventually confined to the pack n' play. Alison asked to join him...she was pretending to be a kitty in a cage. It cracked me up-Alison WANTED to be confined...Eli was using his snack bowl as leverage to climb out.
My quiet day wasn't quiet and not much actually got done, but I did enjoy a day "off" of just playing with my kids.

Alison Sandwich

I wish you could hear the sweet sound of abundant giggles at this very moment.
Looking at this picture makes me pause and just be thankful.
How can you not, when you see these smiles?

Some cake with your sprinkles?

Alison and Kylie are both July babies. So Kim and I have been talking about cakes a lot lately. About how much we would love to whip out a fabulously delicious cake for each birthday and make it look effortless with a big ole' smile on our face. Instead of the usual frantic scramble around the kitchen, stressing about how terrible it looks and trying to smile through the stress dripping down your face. So we decided we were going to help eachother master cake decorating and let ourselves dream about possibly selling some one day to make a little extra cash.
Today we decorated our first cake. Hey, you have to start somewhere.

It's a yellow cake, with chocolate frosting and marshmallow fondant.
Really, it looks like 2 pieces of Tums.
But it gave us one really good laugh.

We let the kids decorate the cake scraps.

Even THEY wouldn't eat it.
They asked for a piece of our cake, which did taste mighty delicious.

Climbing Dr. Eli

Dr. Eli discovered how to climb up on all our furniture.
I turned around yesterday to find him STANDING on top of the table!

2nd Hope Adventure Day

We had our 2nd Hope Adventure Day for the summer. Because of the wildfire in the Great Dismal Swamp, we had a smoke filled morning. The much needed rain held off until the afternoon, but it was good that we were only out there for a few hours.

Ben's Greek class in Florida ended Friday at noon. He drove straight home (getting in about 12:30 am) just so he could help me in the morning. He showed me amazing love that morning. He made all the kids CD's to take home, lead the music and then ran around with the kids in the obstacle course, helping them memorize the theme verse. I have the best husband!

My babysitter for the morning fell through, so we took turns trying to keep an eye on Eli. Thankfully all the other adults there helped us wrangle him throughout the morning.

"He, He! I found someone's ipod!"

You can see the snack station at the back of this picture. The kids made "bug cupcakes" (chocolate cupcakes, dipped in cookie crumble, with gummy worms on top)

I was SO excited to see Alison participate in the songs. Thank you to her mentor, Megan, for taking her under her wing and showing her the ropes :)

At the craft station, we made bug catchers and friendship bracelets. Each of the colors on the bracelets corresponded with a part of the memory verse-hopefully this helps them remember it when they get home!

Melanie set up this amazing obstacle course, where they had to say part of the verse at each station to get through.
Here Alison's walking the plank across the shark infested waters...yikes!
Alison after she crawled through the cave.

and my kids at the finale-the mudpit! Eli's ready to dive in....Alison is afraid to put a toe in.

It was a great morning and I'm so thankful for everyone who helped. 23 kids came and there was only one injury (after falling off a log in the obstacle course). The sweetest moment of the morning was when a little boy said at the end, while running through the sprinklers, "This is the best day of my WHOLE summer!" It was definitely an encouragement to hear.

A Day at the Zoo

Alison will be quick to tell you that she does NOT like the zoo.
But yesterday we learned the lesson that it's not always about us, and we have to think of other's needs...like her poor little brother who has only experienced a fraction of what Alison did at this age.

She still had a blast and didn't shed one tear. When we got to the lions and giraffes (the ones that frighten her the most) she would just stand back and say, "okay, Mommy. Let's go see another animal". I was impressed and so thankful that she held it together so Eli could actually see some animals.

Clearly Eli had no fear of any animal. This is him, literally a foot away from a BIG monkey.

We took the wagon as our transportation, and I've found that it's absolutely perfect for the stage my kids are in. Alison can ride when she gets tired of walking, and it's easy to get Eli in and out without having to worry about unbuckling him. Add a snack, and you have a perfect combination.

At the end of our trip we had a picnic and then played in the fountains.
Eli was ready to jump in...

and I don't think Alison even got a drip of water on her.

Alison talked about the zoo for the rest of the day. I felt good about making an effort to expose them to something we don't see everyday. But it also made me feel guilty for the things I've lacked on. By 16 months, Alison could say all the animals sounds and point to body parts. All Eli can say is Mama. Sigh. It's been heaving on my heart. Have I been too focused on Alison and neglected Eli's needs? I suppose every mother goes through periods of feeling like this and I suppose it's a good thing I'm concerned about providing what he needs...but for now, we'll be reading lots and lots books in this house!

Daddy's in Florida...

and we miss him!

We thought we'd pass the time, while we wait for his return, by making some pink pudding and jello (Alison keeps calling it orajel) and decorating it with lots of sprinkles.

Dinners are hard while Daddy's gone. It's the time of day we usually get to see him the most...and I don't want to cook a whole meal for just myself and 2 little nibblers.
So we try and keep things light and fun while he's gone.
We had french toast sticks (dipped in agava nectar) and watched 'Lady and the Tramp' last night.
Eli found this meal most relaxing.

Crazy Thankful

for my beautiful babes.
What a blessing they are to me.

Thank You Nana!

Elizabeth made the kids these awesome outfits.
They fit perfectly and were just what they needed.

I have the hardest time getting Alison to smile for a picture...
so we spent some time practicing together.

Animal Day

I made a list of activities I wanted to do with the kids this summer...none of them have been crossed off the list. Since I only have a few short weeks left, it's time to start checking them off the list.

So, we headed to Blue Bird Gap Farm on Friday.
We walked around and looked at the animals. My goal for the summer was to expose Alison as much as possible to animals in hopes of overcoming her fear of them. I failed my goal, but by a miracle she was the most calm she's ever been this trip. Eli on the other hand wanted to jump in the gate with them.

When our animal tour was done, we played on the swing set. Eli thought it was hilarious.
Alison looks terrified, but she was having fun, I promise.

Bass Pro Shop is right by the farm, so we stopped in to look at the fish. Last time we were there Alison cried because she was scared of the fish. This time she jumped up and was excited to see them. It's funny the stages of life kids grow through.
We finished our Animal Day date off with a yummy pretzel and cheese. It didn't have anything to do with animals, but it made me smile that a $2 pretzel can make all 3 of us happy campers.

Beaver Lake 2011

We were excited to be able to go back to Beaver Lake this summer. My family goes every year, but last year we felt Eli was too teeny tiny to fly with, so we stayed home.

Here's our family last time we were at Beaver:
A lot has changed since then...

This time Alison is now old enough to get excited about packing. So I gave her her own suitcase and told her to pack what she thought would be important to have at the lake. She filled it up with cars and animal crackers. She laid the water towel on the floor to practice swimming and jumping in the lake.
Seriously. Why do my children never have clothes on?

I have to say, our kids are fabulous travelers. I was nervous about sleeping in a house full of so many people, but they did great! I, on the other hand, didn't sleep very much because I was so worried about my every move/breath waking them up.

It was great to have some quality time as a family.
Isn't it weird how we need time that forces us to spend time with eachother? There were no computers or phones to take away our attention. I didn't have to worry about cooking or cleaning or teaching or planning. The only thing we had to do for the day was spend time with eachother, and it was fabulous.

Personally, being right here is one of the most refreshing things for me. It was exactly what I needed.

Ben taught Alison how to swim in the lake and she was even able to overcome some fear and swim without a noodle.

Alison and Katherine had a blast playing together in the water. Katherine was slightly more adventurous than Alison and would help her come out of her shell a little.

We got to meet Jonathan Owen, the newest member of our rapidly growing family. Eli loved patting his head and Alison just said over and over, "he's SO cute!". He is a very sweet baby and I loved getting some snuggle time with him.

There were 7 kids all together, and Alison was the oldest!

Katherine, Jonathan, Eli, Alison, Maggie
Anna (2) and Sally (4 mo.) were there too. It was fun to see all the kids play together.

Eli had lots of practice making his "cheese" face.

Highlight of the trip for me:
Ben's driving the boat.
My dad's holding the kids at the back of the boat.
I'm skiing on the best water of the year.
My babies are waving to me with BIG smiles on their faces.
Best moment ever.

Coming home from the trip left me longing for more time with my family. Jumping back into "real" life is always hard, and my kids were good at reminding me how nice it was to have lots of cousins around to play with. Where are those cousins when you need them?

5 grandkids in less than 4 years...we like to keep these grandparents on their toes.
Makes me wonder what this picture will look like next year.