a crafty project

While it has been entirely too long since I've gotten a chance to scrapbook, this past Friday my neighbor friend and I got together (childless!) for a 5 hour crafty day. She sewed, and I scrapped. So I've been working on this mini album of Sadie since October...pathetic, I know. It's not quite complete; there's many notebook-like journaling pages inside that I have to fill yet as well as a handful of pictures. Morgan, I'm using all those October Afternoon goodies : )

This past week...

Sadie is at the terrible "I can sit up perfectly, but that's not so cool anymore, so when you sit me on the floor, I will probably lean over and try to crawl but won't go anywhere yet" stage. Which then results in an angry baby on her belly. It won't be long till she's a crawling machine. She manages to get around just by wiggling, or when on her belly she'll use her arms and "crawl" in a circle. She gets on all 4's, but hasn't quite mastered the real moving yet. Legos are upstairs in preparation for this!! Next to be moved: polly pockets and littlest pet shop.

The weekend of the 4th was crazy, but being that it is probably my favorite holiday (seriously!) that's okay. We went to see the waterski show in Muskego (remember our friend who is on the team?). Then stayed for those fireworks with Mike's parents. We ran into SO many people from church, it was fun. Love this small town atmosphere where everywhere we go we run into people we know. On Sunday after church, we last minute decided to do a parade (I do love parades!) but unfortunately we were at the very end of the parade, so it was so long and drawn out at that point that it wasn't even fun. And no one was throwing candy, either. We left after an hour and a half; hot, candyless, and tired. We then went swimming at Oma's, followed by cookout and more fireworks. Note to self: Greendale fireworks were totally lame this year, must do Franklin or good ole Big Bend next year. Hope y'all had a great 4th!

Thanks for the feedback! I feel much better about it all. My kids, my rules. I think part of the problem also is that parents are so bent on doing what's hot right now, even if it's not age appropriate (like the 5 year olds going to see Justin Bieber/Sean Kingston....REALLY?!?!?!) That goes for fashion, too. (The 10 year olds dressed like 21 year olds. I know the 10 year olds aren't out buying their own clothes...so who is?) The 11 year old with the iphone (who does the 11 year old really need to text?!?!). Technology, fashion, etc...it all goes together. And it's all on the parents. Kids grow up fast enough, why push it along any faster?

Now I must delete pictures--I have no room on my computer to finish uploading any more from this past weekend! Time for a computer with more memory!

sound off on movies

I know I am protective, maybe even extreme, when it comes to my kids. I am especially a nut when it comes to movies. I NEVER ever ever have even seen a horror movie (and don't want to anyways). My parents were picky when it came to what we could or couldn't watch, and I am thankful for that. I don't think it's a bad thing to keep your kids from seeing unnecessary things. I know I could likely be in the minority on this, but I don't care. Mike thinks I'm crazy for being so extreme when it comes to movies, but I don't care. PG-13 are not allowed in my house. There are even a handful of PG I won't allow. One off the top of my head--"Monster House". A cartoon, yes. A movie for kids under the age of 12, no. Ratings are there for a reason in my opinion. And the way they rate things these days...ridiculous. When I was little, I guarantee alot of the now PG-13 would've been R then.

So this Twilight phenomenon...I am totally not into it, I don't get it at all. No offense to those who do, I am probably the only one who hasn't read or seen any of them : ) SO you love the movies, the books, BUT, would you take your eight year old to see the new Twilight movie? I think you know my answer.

can I get a break??

So this past week, we were on the go ALL day every day. Or so it seems. From not having power and running around all over, Vacation Bible School, to Summer School, to grocery store trips, Target trips, baseball games, and playdates. I am a professional taxi driver. And much to my dismay, Mike went to help a friend do work on friend's house last night. This had been planned for months, to put on a new garage door for his friend. Since his friend lives 45 minutes away, he spent the night to finish up the work today. I played Supermom.

Yesterday the girls and I went to a family's house from our church. They have six daughters (5 are in school with our kids). Each daughter invited a friend from school, and Maddie and Kaycey were invited. While Cal was invited to come along, he was not interested in hanging out with 12+ girls, so he had a fun day with Auntie (my sister). Their house was quite a bit further away than I expected (not a big deal--just adds to my in the car time for the week!) After the swimming fun, we had to pick Cal up and race home, because he was having a friend stay over. They had a blast, as always. Apparently this is sleepover #28 for them (I really don't think they've had that many, but I'm not going to argue with them!) Baseball, baseball stats, nintendo, and giggles is all I heard till about 12:30am. Today they played baseball and decided to go swimming. Sadie and I sat outside by the pool and watched the fun. The fun came to an abrupt halt when Cal's friend slipped off the top step of the ladder, backwards to the ground. He hurt his hand, and I had a hunch that his arm was broken. His mom, who was at a tournament for his older brother, came to pick him up to take him for xrays. And yes, turns out he broke his arm. Not the break I was looking for : ( I feel so awful!! Please tell me I'm not the only one who has had someone get hurt in their care and it wasn't their own kid????

summer storms

And summer came in with a roar, literally.

Monday night, after Cal's baseball game, the skies were churning up a storm. Of course, being the weather freak that I am, I sat in front of the radar with my finger on the mouse to refresh any updates. I also get warning text alerts on my cell phone. The kids were playing, Mike was watching TV, and I was fixated on the computer screen. Mike decided to unplug the televisions since the lightning was just wild. There were tornado warnings just west of us, and just as I mentioned that, my cell phone buzzed with a tornado warning for our town. By the size of the storm on the radar, I knew this was something big. As we rounded up the kids, I quickly stepped outside to see if the sirens were going off. They were, but it was almost impossible to hear them because of the wind. Immediately the kids started downstairs, Mike grabbed some blankets and miscellaneous things to bring down, and I grabbed my laptop, and down we went. There are few times I've ever been afraid of weather. But this is one of those times that I was. The electricity flickered on and off at least a dozen times. There was a loud whirring sound, which Mike thought was the air conditioning kicking in. But I had turned every thermostat to off earlier. I kept a close eye on the radar, until the power went out. Then we covered our heads with blankets and hoped and prayed it would be over without our house blowing away! The kids, of course, were so scared, too. I heard a loud crash and was just waiting to hear the windows explode. Luckily I kept getting text alerts, and had people texting me to let me know the weather situation since we didn't have TV or computer, with no power. Around 10:15pm, our tornado warning expired, and there was just a watch. We went upstairs and the house was fine (what we could tell in the dark!) We stepped outside to find our rocking chairs (heavy chairs by the way!) thrown up against the side of the porch. We couldn't see much else outside, other than neighbors and their flashlights trying to check out damage as well. Unfortunately for our neighbors, when they are without power, their sump pumps don't run. When their pumps don't run, their basements flood. On one side of us they were bailing water with buckets, on the other side they were trying to get a generator running. (We have a sophisticated network of pipes and such under the house that allows most if not all water to drain to the ditch, being that our neighbors houses are lower than ours, and also theirs are 30 years old, they have water problems in heavy rain).

After attempting to survey any damage in the dark, we made the decision that without power, it'd be best to stay elsewhere since we can. So the kids and I went to my grandparents house. I was also in need of the TV to see what happened! I stayed up till 1am watching the breaking news of the apparent tornadoes that swept through the area. Several houses were leveled, many severely damaged about 20 minutes from us where they had an F2 tornado. Turns out the second tornado (an F1) touched down right nearby our house!!! The tornado that buzzed by us, caused damage to a nearby post office, littering the area with postal trucks, and ripping some of the roof off the post office. I drove around the next day to try and get some pictures of places near our neighborhood. These are enormous trees, just snapped and twisted like twigs!! I hope to get to the other town sometime this week for photos. I have a friend who lives there; her house was damaged but not leveled.

This first photo is from Cal's best friend's yard