Shelter in the Storm

Charlie has gotten into the habit of staying awake at 11:30 every night, which is starting to get a little old. So yesterday I finally got him down for an early nap so he was able to fall asleep at 9:00. Yay! Seth and I were looking forward to 2-3 whole hours before bed to just relax (and fold laundry).

But of course, of course, a storm had to hit shortly after he fell asleep, waking him up. I got him back down before 10:00, but then we were behind in getting Sam and Elena to sleep. After we got Sam to sleep and just as we were about to tuck Elena in, a tornado warning hit and we had to grab all the kids and run down to the basement until 11:00.

It was looking like we were going to be in a tornado watch almost the whole night so we decided to set up beds and sleep the night in our (cement & furnitureless) basement rather than have to wake the kids up at 3:00am and run them all down.

I wasn't able to help at all as I was stuck holding Charlie, who was still asleep, in order to keep him from waking up and deciding he wanted to party for a few hours. Fortunately Elena stepped in to help. While Seth set up the mattresses, she must have gone up and down the stairs 20 times.  When she was done bringing down the blankets and pillows we needed, she just kept going with anything she thought we might want throughout the night.

I've heard that when facing a task, men generally focus on the destination, while women tend to think of all the details of the journey. That's why when families are getting ready for a big trip, the man is often in the car saying, "Let's go!" and the woman is packing up all sorts of last minute items.  And then when someone gets a cut on the trip, she's ready with disinfectant and a band-aid. I know that's not true for all couples, but it's certainly true for us.  Elena appears to be following in my footsteps. Every few minutes she came back upstairs saying things like:

"I'll bring down some board games, just in case we want to play something."

"I'll fill up a few bottles of water to bring down in case anyone gets thirsty."

"I'd better bring down the Bible in case we want to read it...and a few rosaries."

"I'll get some extra diapers for Charlie and his wipes."

"I think we'd better bring some extra blankets down just in case we get cold."

"I have an extra candle and an extra pillow!"

"I brought down an extra pair of underwear in case I pee my pants." (She has never been a bed-wetter so we were venturing into some pretty big "just in case"s here)

"I've got a couple of nose-warmers to keep our noses warm!"

So just before midnight, we blew out the candles and settled in for a night of "camping in the basement" as the kids called it.  It actually turned out to be a pretty fun night and one I'm sure we will remember for a long time to come.

Here is the little sanctuary Seth and Elena set up for us - I was pretty impressed:

You know it's bad when....

Sam has about 9 pairs of shoes. Not counting flip-flops. Most of them have been given to us either as hand-me-downs or from my mom who found a good deal.  8 of these pairs are in excellent condition.  1 pair looks like this:

Yes, tops are completely detached from the bottoms in the front. Of course this is the pair he wants to wear all the time. (I figured out last week how he managed to destroy them so quickly when I saw him stopping himself on his bike by dragging his toes along the ground).

This weekend we went camping, and our trip ended up landing on a very wet and cold weekend. It had been hot when we were packing so we had limited warm clothing. Elena accidentally packed capri jeans instead of full length so she had to wear a pair of my socks up to her knees all weekend to keep her calves warm. Did I mention they were bright blue socks with polka dots? Sam didn’t care so much and continued to run around in shorts.

So when it came time to go to Mass Saturday evening, our warm clothes were looking pretty grubby and most of our church clothes were not going to keep us warm enough.  So we sat in the back and tried to remain inconspicuous. I did manage to get Sam dressed in a nice outfit, but I failed to tell Sam to put on his nice shoes for church and did not notice that he wore his hobo shoes.

At the end of Mass, an older lady approached Seth and shook his hand. When he looked down, she had put some money in his palm and said, “I hope you won’t be offended if I give you money so you can buy your son some new shoes.” 

Seth started laughing and said, “No, I wouldn’t be offended, but we really don’t need it. We’re camping this weekend – that’s why we look like this.”  He talked her into taking the money back, but talking Sam into wearing another pair of shoes has been another story.

I told my mom the story the next time I saw her, and she started laughing. Apparently, that’s the exact same reason she has been giving us so many shoes for Sam. I’m starting to think it might be easier to make him a shirt that says, “Thank you, but I don’t need more shoes” than it would be to get him to stop wearing them.

What the heck?

It's 2014. We were married in 2004. Meaning today is our 10th anniversary.
That number looks even bigger now that I've typed it.

I remember Seth introducing me to his brother and sister-in-law, Jason and Tina, when we first started dating. He told me they had been married for 5 years, and I recall thinking something to the effect of, "5 years? Wow, they've been married a long time." (Keep in mind I was 18 at the time and still kind of an idiot.)

So how is it that we've been married 10 years - appearing I'm sure, like an ancient couple to all those youngins out there - and I still feel like we're newlyweds?

Thanks for the best 10 years of my life, Seth!

I would put up a picture of us at our wedding, but any pictures from before mid-2011 are all on my old computer and I'm too lazy......busy, I mean! We'll go with busy...to boot it up and transfer them. So here are some pictures of us at other people's weddings along with some various ones from over the years that I was able to pull off of Facebook.

At my cousin's wedding

At a friend's wedding party (we missed the actual wedding, which was in Ireland. I thought I would clarify that in case any of you were tempted to lecture Seth on appropriate wedding attire the next time you see him)

After  1 year of marriage

After 3 years of marriage

After 6 years of marriage

At Seth's cousin's wedding

At a friend's wedding

Happy Halloween of 2010!

I was going through my drafts and realized I never put up this post. I think I was having trouble uploading the video on the bottom and never got around to finishing it.
 Apparently, I thought I was falling behind when I wrote this because it was already a month past Halloween. Little did I realize how late this post would actually be. So here our Halloween. 3 1/2 years late.

Now that Thanksgiving is almost here, I'm finally getting some Halloween pictures up. The kids had a great time trick-or-treating with our neighbor, Julia. Sam absolutely hated his dinosaur costume. Fortunatley, I suspected that might happen since he didn't care for his Kiddie Parade costumet this summer, and I picked up a spare costume on hand (one that didn't go over his head).

Elena insisted on being a cow because she knows her cousin, Riley, was a cow when he was 1. Riley's little brother, RJ, wore Riley's old costume so we had 2 cows in the family this Halloween!

Not only did Sam let us put on his tiger costume, he LOVED having the whiskers and nose drawn on. He spent a lot of time admiring himself in the mirror that evening. We learned quickly to keep black markers away from him for the few weeks after Halloween because every time he got one he would draw all over his face.