Red Shoes

Can you tell I love these red shoes? I've had them for at least 8 years. I bought them online at the Eddie Bauer Outlet. Yes, that means they are long gone. I should really throw these shoes away but they are my favorite shoes. I saw online that I can mod podge duct tape to them. Maybe I can just put a slab of red duct tape to the hole and pretend they aren't so white trash anymore.

Smoothie?

I did it, I got my Blendtec! It's been YEARS since I've wanted one. Every time that man stands up in Costco with his microphone headset and starts blending his creations, I start foaming at the mouth. Every time I tell myself "next time he's here, I'm getting one". The next time I'm in Costco and the man is making his magic, I don't have $400 drop on a blender. When the opportunity arose to get a huge discount on the blender, I got it. Yes, we need our car fixed, yes, there are bills to pay, and yes, this opportunity doesn't come often. I'm now the owner of this red baby.

I'm hooked

Downton Abbey has me sucked into the TV. I finally started watching it on Netflix this week and haven't stopped. There is something about the show that keeps me glued to the screen the entire time. Every scene must be studied. Detail after detail is important to note. Every actor is perfect for their role. The scenery is amazing. The charm of England is locked in my heart.

Just a minute

I had to run something into a friend's house a couple of weeks ago. I had Cathy's kids and the twins in car. Of course they all wanted to come with me and I, of course, said I'd just be a minute. I guess I was longer than a minute. You can see how they kept themselves busy.

Claire realizes she can take a self portrait with my phone (there were about 15 images on my phone)

Amelia is ready to take off

and she makes it!

Claire takes a photo of Kate

Lilly is at master at getting over


My favorite, "Give me my phone!!!!"

Favs

A couple of favorite apps I've stumbled across. One of those kind of things that make me happy I live in this day and age rather than being a pioneer.

Blogger

Obviously, I need to get better at formatting the picture. This app allows you to blog from your phone. Most of my pics come from my phone. It's 1000 times easier to download a pic from my phone on this app than to go through all the hoopla of getting it on my computer. Though you can publish your blog from the app, I like to go on my blog from my computer and arrange things.

Lose it!

I've had Lose it! on my phone for a couple of years. It's a calorie counter. I used it off and on (which goes along with my typical gains and losses). Recently, I downloaded the app on my new phone and I discovered the "scan barcode". Seriously? I just scan the barcode on my food and calories and nutritional info appears. Tah Dah! Love it!

Milestones!

One can not skip a blog post with a huge milestone such as this. These two girls are potty trained! I really wondered if this day would come. Though Claire has been potty trained for at least 6 months, I knew Kate would take a bit longer. It was a little longer but much easier. Kate had it down in no time . She's pretty dang cute. We'd ask her if she was a big girl or little girl and she say "lille"girl because she didn't want to go on the toilet. Now she proudly says "I'm a big girl!"
Claire, on the other hand, is all-that-and more. She seems to think she's bigger than all of us. One of my favorite things she said the other day, "when I become a boy, I'm going to get Legos." Let me know when that happens!

I love these girls!

Everyone Knows it's Windy!

Thursday morning we woke up to no power and a lot of wind. We looked outside and saw our humungo pine tree down. I never imagined that tree could be blown down. Here are some blogs that I follow that describe the disaster: Misty and Sue.

Here is a picture of Andy and the tree root.


Though this picture is really crappy, you can see the size of our tree. You can see Andy on the very left and the size of the tree compared to Andy's size. LOTS of work to be done.

Most of our community had their power back the same night. Ours didn't come on for two days. I'm not one to enjoy sleeping in a cold house. Fortunately Andy's sister, Kim, had power and she invited us to stay at her house. Kim took care of us as though we were staying in a 5 star hotel. My kids saw it as a big slumber party. I saw it as a big blessing.

We returned home on Saturday to a nice warm house. I think that's when it finally hit me that I faced the reality that our entire community experienced a natural disaster. I only believed those happened in Florida, Kansas, and Japan. Fortunately, this wasn't as tragic as others, but it was still a change.

We had to start getting that big tree out of our yard and I was dreading that huge task. I texted a few friends asking for chainsaws. My text brought at least 20 people to our house with chainsaws, arms and legs to carry the branches away. Tears kept creeping up as I thought of the service that friends were giving as they worked away on our tree. It was an overwhelming feeling of hope and love as I watched these friends move from house to house to help those in need.

I ran to the store to get some pizzas for our friends. The longest line I've seen at 1 PM. I spoke the the person behind me as we shared that we were both there to feed our friends who were working so hard. I paid the employee only to learn that my card declined. Crap!! I suddenly remembered that my card expired in November and I hadn't activated my new card. My life was on hold for two days and I forgot to take care of my debit card. I had no cash. I had no checks. I felt helpless. I started telling the cashier that I had to go home to get my money and the woman behind me said "I've got it. Just put her order with mine." I looked at her puzzled, "But? Where? What?" I didn't know what to say, what to do. Suddenly, a man in the back of the line said "How much do you owe? I'll pay the difference!" I was so overwhelmed. I held back my tears. The woman behind me paid for my pizzas. After I said thank you I walked out saying, "I will not cry in Little Cesar's Pizza", one of the customers in line said "I already am". I still get choked up as I think of my little heart inspiring story.

Despite all the discomforts of my home life, I still had to work every night this was all taking place. Last night I worked 11 hours on my feet. I came home exhausted. I looked in our fridge and my friend, Cecilee, had made a pan of enchiladas for us to eat the next day. Again, a little choked up.

I am amazed at the strength, stamina, love, compassion, and sacrifice my family, friends and neighbors have. I hope that we don't have another disaster like this in our lifetime but if we do, I have the hope that we will be okay. I feel blessed and grateful for the angels God has put in my life.