"this is not safe!"

April 26, 2011 we had tornado warning after tornado warning. I remember quite a few watches, but very few warnings and not 6 or 7 in a single day. When one of the storms came directly toward us, we were in the basement theater room, watching the show from the door. Allen kept going to the window and even going out on our deck to video (too dark to really see). I stood at the room door watching, and the kids stayed behind me, peeking around to look now and then. During the ordeal, Jared was the most animated. He collected all pillows, blankets and even couch cushions into the room. When I went over to the window a few times and ventured onto the deck once he said, "mom, I expected that of dad, but not you!". When we called the kids to run over quick to the window to take a better look, he was the one that came with couch cushion in hand. When the storm was over and we were all out side checking out the hail, we heard this rushing water sound-it sounded like a river. We told the kids to come with us to check it out and started leaving our yard, Jared came, but giggled in a nervous way, "this is not safe!"

We had planted our first ever garden just a week before. We will see what survives.

One interesting thing was the steam that came off the hail and the strong smell of pine that night. It made more sense the next day when we saw all the foliage on the ground.

Our damage was minimal: garden, all the bushes and trees got a good trimming. Down spouts are dinged up. One front light glass is broken. All in all we feel pretty lucky. Our hearts go out to those that were not so lucky. The boys are headed to Chattanooga with our church this Saturday to help out with the clean up.

egg hunt #2

We were out of town part of Easter weekend, so our Langford egg hunt was done separate from the Messerly family this year. We missed them and hope they enjoyed their hunt. We ended up having the hunt at our house and we have discovered that it is a great place for an egg hunt.
Hiding places everywhere! In the end we had to give clues to help the kids. They loved it!

My beautiful daughter showing off her Easter dress. Both boys went on their tip toes when I said "three", first time I've seen that.

egg hunt #1

Grammy and Grandpa's annual egg hunt was moved to the Sexton's this year. Which made for a fun start.

This little girl is not my daughter, but this man is my dad...and I think they are both adorable.

soccer, again

After taking a year off soccer, Carter decided to try out for the 6th grade middle school team. And he made it! So, he is back at soccer. He has a soccer game or a practice 4-5 days a week. He is doing great and has scored a few times for his very good team, they are undefeated so far.

Carter and Allen got to go to the USA-Brazil game in Nashville with David and Allie. It made for a late but wonderful night.
The best part about soccer? The hoodie, of course. Especially when the whole team wears them on the same day. 6th graders are so cool.

They feel extra cool because their soccer hoodies have their names on the back. OK, even I thought that was cool.

What's not so cool? Seeing that every picture that your mom took, you have this face. Carter asked "what am I doing??" I had to post all three pictures to prove my point. He's working on it.

inspiration

At the beginning of the year we had the kids look up scripture passages they thought would be a good "family theme or inspiration" for the year. They came up with several and we all decided on this one found in Proverbs "the name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe" (it about killed Allen to have bad grammar, but we wanted to keep it true) Then through out the year we are adding quotes, sayings, and more scripture that we like. The first one the kids came up with was from Batman Begins, "Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up". We also have our family goals for 2011 posted here. We have this board on the wall you see as you come down the back stairs into the kitchen. My hope is that the kids look at it as they come down and are inspired.

dead fish

We were eating at Bonefish the other night and Claire was eating tilapia. She asked Allen how they made the tilapia and he told her it was fish. "I know it is fish, how do they make fish?" she asked. Allen looked at her funny and said, "they catch it in the ocean and cook it, because it's fish". Claire paused before questioning herself, "I like dead fish???" She then proceeded to finish her fish. Allen took a picture with his phone to remind us of this funny night.

tweener

Signs that your tweener is in fact just that and nothing more:

1. does not ever bring his phone with him when he leaves the house (except to school so we can be in contact with him about pick up, etc.)
2. does not keep his phone near him at all times when at home
3. rolls his eyes when a friend keeps texting him to see if he has asked a boy on his soccer team if he likes her
4. the person he text most with is his older cousin, Allie
5. this picture (trying on Claire's new dress-up hat)