One of the scariest nights of my life.

The pictures and stories from Joplin, MO are heart-wrenching and terrifying in the fact that those tornados could have occurred here in Texas just as easily. So last night when we had more bad weather predicted, I think we were all a little more on edge than usual.

I have lived here my entire life, and I guess I've learned enough about our crazy Texas weather to know that the weather outside early yesterday evening was menacing. It looked like a windy spring day. But when you walked outside there was just something weird about the way the wind was blowing and the color of the sky that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The boys and I had eaten dinner while listening to distant thunder, and I thought, "here we go again." But by the time we finished and headed outside, the sun was shining so I thought it had all missed us.

After we'd been outside about 15 minutes, it clouded over again, and that weird wind started up again. I looked up, and even though the sun was still shining all around us, I saw there was a wall cloud directly over us, just like the ones they talk when tracking tornados. The hair on the back of my neck stood up again, and I grabbed Joel and told Gabriel to get inside so we could check the radar. He did not pay any attention to me and ran away from me when I went to grab him. Sigh. I left him outside (we were in the backyard) and went to check the radar.

A tornado had just touched down east of Springtown, but it looked like the whole storm was north of us and was going to miss us. I texted my brother in Weatherford to make sure they were ok. He replied that all they got was a little rain. I relaxed a little and gave the boys their bath. Sometime during the bath I heard my phone ring with Jav's ring, but I had left it in the kitchen. I just assumed he was calling to say he was on his way home. All through the bath we would all of sudden hear the crazy wind pick up outside. Then the home phone started ringing. As soon as I got them dried off I saw my sister-in-law had called. I called her back and she said there were now three cells they were watching, the original one up north, one headed towards her in Mansfield, and one headed towards us. Her boyfriend lives in Euless and was in the closet with his two girls with sirens going off, because that big northern cell kept spinning and ending up more south than they were predicting. Slight panic returns.

Then Jav called and let me in on the news that he was still at work with golfball sized hail and sirens going off. My first reaction was thinking not very nice words. But then I came to my senses and was glad he was in a safe place instead of driving in all of this. I finished getting the boys ready for bed and checked the radar before getting Joel to bed, which takes about 20 minutes. Then I left Gabriel on our bed watching cartoons. While I was rocking Joel my phone started ringing. It's set on Pinball Machine for unknown numbers. And it kept ding ding ding dinging. Then again. The third call (from Jav at work) I answered and he said that rotational clouds had been spotted at an intersection about 5 minutes from us, according to one of the local newscasts. He assumed the sirens would be going off, but no, all you could hear was rain and that crazy wind.

I finished getting Joel down and went to check the weather. Right about the same time the satellite went out, the sirens started going off. Well, here we go again, super-sized. I was really trying not to totally lose it with panic for Gabriel's sake. I told him to get into the bathroom and stay there, and that some strange things were going to happen because there might be a tornado coming and we needed to stay safe. I grabbed Bones, stuffed him into a cat carrier and put him in the bathroom. I couldn't find Zoe, so didn't waste any more time looking for her. Right then the hail started. Big hail. I had just learned the day before that hail meant a tornado might follow. I never knew that before. This is about when my adrenaline kicked up so high I stop remembering things clearly. I went to get Gabriel's twin mattress and got it into the bathroom really quickly. I got Joel out of bed, dragged Molly into the bathroom (she did NOT want to go in there) and closed the door. Once we were sitting on the edge of the tub I tried to hear if the sirens were still going off over Gabriel's nonstop questions, Joel's whining and Bones's yeowling. They were. Crap! Crap! Crap!

I think I also stopped worrying about whether I was freaking Gabriel out or not, because I was freaking out. I called Jav and told him we were in the tub, sirens going off and big hail falling out of the sky. So now he's freaking out. I wondered if maybe the sirens were going off due to the hail or had a tornado been spotted? Jav said he would call his sister (I guess they had no satellite either), and call me back. I finally had a moment to focus on what Gabriel had been asking me. He had been asking over and over again if everything would be different outside if a tornado came? I wasn't sure what he meant and didn't really answer at first. He said, "Mommy, just like Dorothy, after her house goes through the tornado, when she opens the door and everything looks different? Would that happen to us?"

Why, oh why did I have to use the word "tornado?" Why, oh why, did MGM have to make a movie that makes it seem like a tornado would be a fun thing to go through? I told him I would have to explain more to him tomorrow. I texted my brother to tell him what was happening. Jav called back and said that there was no worry about tornado in our area, just hail. He was going to try to make it home. I told him to please be careful, because people were still posting on Facebook that they were having a third round of sirens and hail. The scary thing about this storm is that it seemed like one minute everything would be quiet, and the next minute a big storm would drop out of the sky.

I let the (by then) totally PO'd cat out of the carrier, the totally confused dog out of the bathroom, tried to calm down the totally wired Gabriel, and went to put the totally tired little Joel back to bed. He, of course, started screaming. I tried to comfort him a little, and turned on his turtle. Then I tuned him out. I attempted to move Gabriel's mattress back down the hallway and for the life of me couldn't figure out how I had moved it so easily in there. It took me forever to get it back on his bed! I read him one book and sang him one song. He thought the whole night was a really fun adventure and conked out pretty quickly. I called my Mom to check on she and Dad. The weather outside was still windy and rainy. I remembered to text my brother to let him know that we were out of the tub and it looked like we'd had ping pong ball-sized hail. There's still a bunch of debris (mostly tufts of leaves from the trees) all over the yard. Jav finally made it home and I was SOOOOOOOO happy he made it safe and that he was home. More texts and phone calls to let everyone he was home. What in the world did we do before all of this technology? Nothing much until the next morning, I guess, except pray that all of our loved ones were safe.

So today, there were still a few leftover concerns. What to tell Gabriel about tornados without scaring him half to death. Which city official to complain to about our shabby alarm system on the Eastside. And of course, a big shout out and thank you to God (or Mother Nature?, or, insert higher power of your choice) for keeping us safe, and leaving me with this story to retell.

Big Love, part two

I meant to post this with the last post. I've always loved her voice, and this cover is just beautiful. One of the things I also read about the ending of the show was a quote from Bill Paxton saying the show was never really about Bill, but about his wives. And isn't is only appropriate that this song was reworked by a woman?

End of a good (but sometimes crazy) show

We were WAY behind on DVR watching this past month, and finally watched the Big Love series finale last Sunday night.

Wow. I'm still trying to decide if I liked the way it ended or not. I had become a little tired of the show last season, and found it getting ridiculous when Bill Henrickson ran for the State Senate and won. I really think the show got a bit too big for its britches that season, and would have preferred if they had stayed focused on the everyday issues that a polygamist family must face. But they pulled the story line together in the end and had me watching with enthusiasm this last season. I find myself pretty sad that the show is over.

The writing was good when it wasn't outlandish, and the acting was superb. And in one of the post-finale comments on the HBO page, a life long LDS member praised the unbelievable research the creators did on the Mormon church and its sometime sketchy history. I know I learned things every week about their beliefs, and found myself some weeks understanding why families follow that faith for generations. But other weeks they just seemed pretty wacky. Either way, it was a pretty out-there concept for a show, and they made it work. Anything with this caliber actors combined with thought-provoking writing is very rare on television these days.

Now we need to find a new drama to get hooked on since Mad Men doesn't return until 2012!

The Comic Trifecta

Love them!!!!!!!!!

I was never a big fan of comics as a younger adult. I found certain people funny, like Seinfeld, but I couldn't imagine paying for an entire show and feeling it was worth my time and money. That was before Jav introduced me to a DVD of Eddie Izzard. I laughed so often and so hard through the whole thing, then found myself thinking about how smart and funny and true it all was weeks later. I couldn't wait to see his older stuff, and I knew my attitude was changing because I dreamed of possibly seeing him live. I never thought he'd get big enough to want to come to conservative, Bible Belt wearing Texas. The day I found out he was coming to the Majestic Theater a few years back was a happy one indeed (selling out, no less!) And the show passed all expectations I had going in.

Since then I have added two more comedians to my "I Will Pay To See You Live" list: Craig Ferguson and Ricky Gervais. My brother forwarded a You Tube video of Elmo interviewing Ricky Gervais to me, and I was a fan after that (although I found his hosting efforts of the last Golden Globes awards ceremony more mean-spirited than funny). Jav and I discovered Craig on his Late, Late Show a few years back and found him so funny that we decided to start watching him every night. We drifted away from him when Joel was born, but then about three weeks ago found ourselves looking at the Winstar (Shreveport casino) schedule to see if he had any shows scheduled over the summer. There were none, but then Jav, being the wonderful persistent husband that he is, found that he was going to be at Bass Hall the following Sunday night. He bought tickets and surprised me for our anniversary. Good, good husband!!!

He had an opening act, a guy we think is always on his show, who was vulgar and shocking and not very funny at all. There's something shocking and uncomfortable about hearing the F word over and over again in Bass Hall. And even though Craig cursed like a sailor here and there during the show, he was so incredibly smart and funny that I didn't really notice it. (Or maybe I just got used to hearing it in that place). I grinned, giggled and guffawed so much that my face hurt after the show was over.

The two men we've seen live are so different. Eddie Izzard thrives on making fun of history, organized religion, and other large topics of general human interest. Craig Ferguson's humor is more self-deprecating (and BOY does he have a store of material!) But both have that smart British sense of humor that I apparently love.

Now I have my eye on Ricky Gervais.

School's out for summer!

First day of school - still with his summer haircut!

And taken today with his wonderful teachers, Mrs. Jendel and Mrs. Draper.

He doesn't really look that different, but boy has this boy matured in the last school year. His teachers have really gotten a kick out of him honing his drum and singing skills for the last couple of weeks. They asked me one day when I picked him up if he listened to a band called the Foo Fighters? I thought they were a bit disapproving, but then the next week (after talking with Gabriel about what's appropriate to do and not do in class), Mrs. Jendel said she had told her son about Gabriel and her son thought it was SO cool that a four-year-old like the Foos. It turns out her son is 18 and in a band himself, and really wants to meet Gabriel!

I know he will miss his friends over the next three months, but will probably still have alot of them return with him for their Pre-K next year. In the meantime, I'm planning a bunch of fun stuff for us to do. I love summer break!!!!

Lost innocence

I love this picture of Cade reading to Gabriel.

Gabriel is growing up so fast. I'm not sure when it happened that he is almost not a toddler anymore. I needed to buy him some bigger undies and didn't realize that toddler sizes stop at 4T. I wandered over to the big boy clothes and found some, and had to stop myself from tearing up a little. I am so pathetic. I waited such a long time to have these boys, and wasn't sure at times if I would get to have any kids. So every day of them being small and being here with me has been a gift.

But having an almost non-toddler brings on some new challenges. Gabriel just recently started noticing what other kids are wearing and let me know that he wants a matching backpack and lunchbox set just like his classmate Joseph has. In a way, this is good because it's easy to understand what he really wants. But I'm sure it could lead to conversations that I'm sure I had with my mother, "But HE has one, so how come you won't let me get one?" Sigh. Payback is heck.

On a more serious note, we know we need to start the conversation about stranger danger and keeping private parts private and all of that. I have occasionally tried but it hasn't gone well. I HATE being the one who has to destroy Gabriel's total innocence and utmost faith in the good of mankind. Because he has that right now. He waves to people at the grocery store and tells the guy at the drive-thru window that he has a baby brother named Joel. He tried to tell our waiter at Campo Verde tonight that the fire trucks were out at the fire station when we drove by. He has no reason to believe that there are people in the world who might try to hurt him. I never saw this coming, never realized how tough it would be. I've been stalling on figuring out how to talk to him. But I know times being what they are we must find a way to have the discussion for his own safety.

In the meantime, we have ourselves a little drummer boy. He has been practicing his drums at least four times a day, playing for 15 - 20 minutes each time. His stamina is improving with each day. So, sometimes we think we should find someone to give him lessons, as long as they are used to teaching kids that young and won't teach the fun out of it. And sometimes we think he's still too young for that much direction and seems to be having so much fun that we really shouldn't interfere. We're leaning towards trying it and if he likes it, we'll keep it up at least through the summer. If he doesn't, we'll quit and maybe try again in a year or so.

Easter

We had an egg hunt and lunch the day before Easter. This was the first outside egg hunt we had in the last 3 or 4 years. Thank you Easter Bunny, it's so much funner outside!

Joel didn't really understand what was going on and just wanted to play.

Counting the loot. (Gabriel caught eating the loot on camera)

This boy is growing up way too fast.

Bubbles!

Sunday we went to Mass then changed for Randol Mill Park. Another egg hunt (another disinterested Joel), and a picnic.

Thank you Tita for the homemade cupcake!

My sweeties.

Weird weather

I didn't take this picture, but I wish I had. It's beautiful!

We should be used to having spring thunderstorms around here. But this year they seem a little wackier.

The first thing that's strange is that in most previous years (that I can remember, at least), the thunderstorms seemed to hit around 4 - 7 pm, right around rush hour traffic. This year they keep hitting in the middle of the night. The second thing that's strange is the temperatures keep fluctuating much more than I can remember in previous years. Here it was the beginning of May this past weekend, and the highs were in the fifties. It got down to 39 last night at our house. I seem to recall a few Mayfests that were chilly, but not this cold. And the thunder itself seems different to me. Instead of a mixture of some loud BOOMS and some rolling, the sound seems to mostly be long, long rolls that start really far off, then finally make their way here with a slight BOOM then roll on by somewhere farther away again.

Sunday night we got three different sets of this thunder, along with tons of lightning and finally a downpour each time. And don't forget that cold, whipping wind. It seemed to me like Mother Nature was being very moody and couldn't make up her mind which season it was.

Just. Plain. Weird.

New shoes

We went to do some formal shoe shopping for the boys last night. All I have done up until now is use hand-me-downs, birthday and Christmas gifts, and an occasional purchase from a random shoe store for the boys' shoes. I knew that Joel has needed some that fit him better for about two months. But just didn't want to take the time to get to Stride Rite, the holy grail of shoe stores for kids, because it was kind of a long drive to The Parks mall in Arlington. And also because I knew it was gonna be expensive. Then about two weeks ago we noticed Joel had these weird blister looking things on almost all of his toes - yuck. It turns out he can't wear Crocs right now because he still turns his little toes in so much while walking, and all that rubbing causes the skin to flake. Double yuck. And since he only had those and his tiny tennis shoes, he was kind of up a creek.

So we finally loaded them up and made a fun afternoon out of it. We decided to check Gabriel's size too, because I thought his tennis shoes were looking kind of small. (Not very scientific, but at least it entered my brain). It turns out both boys need wide widths. Gabriel was only one size too small. Joel was two. Ouch. Hopefully I haven't ruined his feet for the rest of his life. We walked out with new tennies and water shoes for both boys, but since they were having a good sale it didn't his us that hard in the pocketbook. Joel wouldn't stop looking at his feet walking around the mall afterwards. He probably couldn't figure out why his little toes weren't all smushed together, and marveled that he could actually move them around.

Up until now I think I must admit one big parenting FAIL when it comes to shoes, but I have seen the light! I will now be making the pilgrimage to Stride Rite once a year to check their sizes and make a yearly purchase. I believe in the power of freer, wiggly toes!