We're not in Kansas anymore...

Wow! The kids and I had a rollercoaster of a night last night. We actually got to experience a real tornado touching down close to our little neighborhood! It was terrifying, exciting and nerve-wrecking all at the same time. 

Not the tornado from last night... Just a crazy picture of severe OK weather!

Now, we are not all that opposed or unprepared for severe weather. We lived through a hurricane in Florida, losing power for almost a week in an old creeky house. Lily is always interested in seeing weather maps and the movement of weather systems. She's good because she's interested in the workings of it. But at the same time, she understands it and it scares her a bit to know that this is something that cannot be changed or stopped and can do real damage. 

I was startled awake at 1:30 in the morning by a bright flash of light followed by a loud crack of thunder. Then the wind gusts and the hail. I turned on the TV and there it was: a radar map of the severe weather approaching our neighborhood. I hear the tornado sirens and a call from my neighbor making sure that I was getting ready to take the kids to the storm shelter. I hate this part. The reality of impending doom.

I grabbed an extra flashlight and the radio, some blankets and shoes and throw them in the laundry room and book it for the kids. I felt so bad waking them up from perfectly good sleep, but I have to do it. I can hear the hail pounding on the windows and I'm praying to God that nothing too bad happens. Lily is ok and I explain to her what's going on and she follows me to Sophie's room. The three of us go to the laundry room and listen to the radio and all I hear is, "Make sure you are in a safe place or in your tornado shelters. The severe weather is heading East and a tornado has already been spotted touching down and destroying houses in a neighborhood." Then he says the crossroads to our house and I am doing everything in my will to not upset myself or my kids. 

Lily and Sophie were playing shadows with the flashlight and I pray some more that the tornado doesn't gain strength and touch down again. Then the power goes out and our radio goes dead. I put fresh batteries in the radio, but nothing! So I play with the kids for about 15 minutes before calling my sister on my cell phone and begging her to look at the weather on the computer to see what the map looks like. All I hear is a lot of wind and the poor dogs whining to be where we were. I talk to Lisa for a while and she calms my nerves. I was panicked because I was concerned that the storm was going to get worse and that I would have to brave pulling my car into the driveway to get to the tornado shelter. Lisa assures me that it looks like the worst has passed and that I should stay put for about an hour longer just to be sure. I listen closely for more wind and hail and I don't hear any. So I take the girls to the potty and grab the alarm clock to see if I can get a radio signal. An hour later I'm still listening to the radio and it seems as though we were out of the red and it was OK to leave the laundry room.

We decided to have a sleepover in Sophie's room since I didn't want to leave the kids alone and they were already amped up anyways. We set up sleeping bags and by this time the radio was playing music instead of the severe weather alerts. I fall asleep to the kids playing, totally exhausted from the 3 hours we stayed in the laundry room. Sophie woke me up when she was ready to be put in her crib and Lily continued to play. I woke up some time later to see both girls sleeping and the power back on. 

I made a lot of phone calls this morning making sure that my fellow friends and neighbors were OK. Luckily everyone was doing pretty well and thinking about what they need to do or buy in order to be better prepared the next time this happens. I'm not looking forward to it, but at least I know what to expect. 

Happy Easter!

What a fun and busy Easter weekend we've had! So many Easter egg hunts, so little time. The girls and I had a great time and it was so fun to see Sophie totally in awe of the Easter bunny. She just stood there and looked at him and has absolutely no idea what to do. She smiled for a picture and proceeded to just stare. I could tell that she was more excited than afraid of this big white, fluffy thing. 

Sophie had no idea what to do when it came to "hunting" for the eggs. I would put her basket close to an egg and tell her to pt the egg into the basket, but she was more interested in the eggs than putting them into the basket. She walked away with 4 eggs filled with chocolatey goodness. Lily got a whole basketfull of eggs and most of the candies they were filled with weren't the kind she liked. Lucky for me, not so lucky for her!

Later that afternoon, we went to a city wide Easter egg hunt and I was slightly paranoid about the amount of kids and the lack of "safe areas" in case one of the kids lost their way. Everything was either a tree or a patch of flowers, so it wasn't like I could say, "Ok, if you get lost, meet me by the tree." Thank goodness for friends! We all were able to keep our eyes on one or two children at a time and we didn't lose a single one! Sophie came away with one egg and Lily got too many to count. Again, Lily got candies she didn't like, but at least she had a great time! 

Happy Easter!

Going Green in Two Hours

Well, well, well... What have we here? In about 2 hours, I whipped up a reusable, cloth grocery bag. It is ridiculous how many plastic bags we accumulate on a weekly basis. Even with using them as "poop" bags for the dogs and stinky diapers, we still have too many. I'm sure our family isn't the only ones plagued with this situation, so after a little craftster search (www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=177482.0), I found a grocery bag tutorial that I thought would be fun to do after the Easter baskets. 

It only took me about 2 hours from cutting out the pattern to snapping the picture and I am very proud of myself for getting into sewing again. Even Lily wants to learn how to sew, but we'll get to that later! I'm not sure if she's quite ready to maneuver sharp scissors and pointy needles... So for now we'll just stick with the pot holder loom (which she's quite good at!).

Oh yeah, those crazy kids! Lily had her first soccer game of the season and we froze our noses off during the whole game. I was impressed with Lily this time around because this time she actually tried and ran after the ball. And guess what? She actually made a goal! Unfortunately it didn't count because she kicked the ball before the starting kick off whistle blew, but hey... I'm just happy that she kept her eyes on the ball and concentrated on kicking it into the goal! She ran the whole game with her hands in her pockets because I forgot her mittens, but I was quite impressed with how she ran and kicked without the use of swinging her arms. It was pretty great!

Sophie loved every minute of watching big sister run up and down the field. There were numerous times she ran into the soccer field and she just wanted to get into the action so badly! Her time will come soon enough... I can't believe that she will be 2 this summer! I have to get her into something for herself. I always feel bad that she gets dragged around doing Lily stuff, but at the same time I think she enjoys it. When we take Lily to school, Sophie walks straight into the classroom like she belongs there. There is no slide at the park she will not attempt, no ladder or box unclimbed and all this because she has watched her sister do it. 

Well, we are looking forward to a green St Paddy's Day and perhaps a more "green" way of life. I'm going to try making a few more of these grocery bags in the next week because of course, with a family like ours, one cannot live on a single bag of groceries for the week! Hmm, I think I will work on some Summer dresses for the girls next... Oh wait, I just found out that 2 more of my friends are pregnant! Time to sew more baby stuff first! What's with all the babies? Must be something in the water... Either way, I love 'em and very excited to create something for the little guys and/or gals! 

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Spring is Here, Spring is Here! It's the Best Time of the Year!

I love the fact that the weather is warming up here in the OKC dust bowl! Park days, picnics and best of all, getting out of hibernation from the cold. I finished my Easter baskets and I am pleasantly surprised at how they came out. I was expecting this crooked sewn mess of a basket, but no... they came out great! I can't wait to get the girls in their Easter dresses and go Easter egg hunting at the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Hopefully I can get Sophie to sit still for one picture with her basket.

 

I am anxious to get my next sewing project together. I have not decided yet what's next: the tiered dresses for the girls or (in an effort to live more "green") reusable cloth grocery bags. I have been extremely lucky with my time this past week. I have decided that since sewing makes me happy, that I have to make time for it when I can. I feel like I am dividing my time pretty well, although I am constantly telling myself that I can't do everything all the time. I've decided to scale back on a few things and making sure that I still at least get the kids fed and the house cleaned. So far so good... If only things always went as smoothly as they have this week.

 

With that said, I am exhausted and so happy that it's Friday! We ran around all week getting all festive with Spring Break, St Patrick's Day and of course, Easter. Lily is excited about hunting for leprechauns and pots of gold as well as Easter bunnies. I've been struggling with getting her to pay attention to her soccer coaches yesterday, but what can you expect from a tired 4 year old at 5:45 in the afternoon. After running around and the tired attitude I got while driving back from practice, I know that the girls were happy to be home, bathed and in bed. Not one peep out of them at 8:15 in the evening! Hopefully I can get them tuckered out this afternoon in the same manner. After all, I still have an episode of "Lost" to watch and if I can get peace and quiet for that, maybe I won't feel so lost understanding what's going on!

I've Found My Thrill (again!)

Mom will be proud of me... I've uncovered my sewing machine and I've started sewing again! This is very exciting to me because something that I used to love doing was put on the back burner because of a demanding school schedule, work and other life concerns in general. I believe that ultimately, it was the lack of space in our shoe box of a house in FL that banished my sewing machine into the depths of the nursery (an even smaller shoe box) closet. I think that I have enough balance back in my life to start sewing again and so far it has worked. 

I've started little projects again, but not to the clothing proportions that I used to be able to do as a teenager. But I'm not rushing things, it will all come back to me soon enough. I have been focusing my energy on all things with four sides: burp cloths, napkins and kid sized book bags. I decided that I was getting a bit bored with this and I moved on to making pacifier clips (many friends and family have all of a sudden had babies!) and fabric covered buttons as well as hair bows. With the springtime holidays approaching, I knew I had to make the kids Easter baskets for the various school, church and community Easter egg hunts and other springtime festivals. 

I bought this cute Easter basket e-book pattern (http://sewsensible.blogspot.com/2008/01/easter-basket-sewing-pattern.html) and thought, "I have to make it!" Besides the fact that the woman who put together this tutorial is so creative, she is also a loving mother of eight! So I went to Hobby Lobby with the kids, who were bribed with a cookie if they were good (bad mommy, bribery is bad!) and I bought my materials. There was only one problem: I had no idea where to get the "Peltex extra firm stabilizer." We were unfortunately short on time because I had to get Lily to school, so I decided that the Easter basket project will have to be delayed a day so that I could do a little research on where to find this elusive stabilizer. 

So far, so good! I have my patterns cut out and now I am just waiting for the weather to clear up a bit so that I can venture out to the fabric store this time to ask the experts what this stabilizer is. To the best of my recollection, I don't remember using stabilizer in any of my childhood sewing projects, so this will be new and exciting! I will keep you all posted on how it turns out! So I have started sewing again and hopefully all of this crafting business will get Lily into crafting. She's a bit more into her microscope right now, but I'm sure I can sway one of my children to pick up a knitting needle or sit at a sewing machine. 

A few other things I have been doing: Reading "Eat, Pray, Love" which is an almost life changing book! Simply amazing! Watching Lily play soccer again this season. Watching Sophie grow like a weed and laughing at her back seat conversations with herself. Still watching Project Runway and Lost. Going to church again and consistently making time to go to the gym! This new year is unfolding in the most pleasurable manner! Happy Spring and don't forget to reset your clocks this weekend! Err, except for my folks in Arizona!

A Funny Thing Happened at Sam's Club

This is just a funny thing I have to share with my sister, Lisa... 

Once upon a time when we were teenagers, Lisa used to get asked how old she was and if she was my younger sister. "No," she'd reply, "I'm 3 years older than Elena... She's the youngest." To which she would always get the response that she's going to LOVE it when she turns 30 or 40 where her youthful looks would flatter her to no end. 

Well now that my husband and I older and wiser, apparently we still look like we're 16. Matt and I are used to the looks and stares at the park or in other public places. The constant questioning in their heads of how old we are, maybe a little math in their heads when we talk about the first cassette tape we'd ever bought or how funny it is that cartoons like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and My Little Ponies are coming back with a vengeance. Oh and not to mention that we were invited to a "90's" theme party on Friday and it made me feel a little, how should I say this, Old? Maybe "Aged" is a better word! 

Which brings me to the point of this post, where I'm sure Lisa is already laughing at me... Matt and I were doing our usual weekly visit to Sam's Club with the kids and we were looking at the meat case for some tasty steaks to have this week (yes, I actually planned out my dinners for the week!). The lady behind the counter gives us the once over and turns her back towards us, only to turn around to look at us again when Lily asks, "Mom, what's that?" She sort of looks at us up an down, looks at the kids, and finally asks, "How may I help you?" As Matt orders, I go over to the fresh strawberries with Lily to pick out a carton and after the meat lady served Matt, she walked over to me and Lily and point blank asks, "Excuse me, but how old are you?" I look at her slightly confused and I ask her if she's talking to me or to Lily. And she says, "You, how old are you? You look very young to have 2 kids." I smile and laugh on the inside and tell her that I'll be 30 this year. "Oh my! You and your husband look so young to have these kids!" Then she proceeds to ask Lily how old she was, made small banter, etc, etc... It was hilarious! 

I honestly am flattered. I am actually glad that the lady went ahead and asked me how old I was instead of just assuming that I was probably too young to have a 4 year old and a 1.5 year old. Of course, age doesn't dictate how well of a parent you are. It's just too funny that I finally got to have my Lisa moment!

Four Things

There are so many versions of these kinds of e-mails going around and I thought I'd indulge my sister-in-law and complete one of these! So Megan, here are my Four Things You May or May Not Know About Me: 

A) Four Employers: Well, considering I have never really held a "professional" job... Preschool Teacher in FL, MAC Cosmetics, Aveda, Estee Lauder 

B) Four People Who E-mail Me: You know who you are!!! 

C) Four of My Favorite Foods: Skinny pancakes that Matt makes, Corned beef with mashed potatoes, Clam Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, scrambled eggs 

D) Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now: The beach, in bed because baby, it's cold outside, with family, the library (where it's QUIET!) 

E) Four People Who I Think Will Respond: Well, this doesn't actually apply here now does it... :) 

F) Four Movies I Would (or do) Watch Over and Over: Love Actually, Star Wars (any of them), Monsters Inc., Donnie Darko 

G) Four Placed I Have Lived: Well, isn't this funny, I've only lived in four states: Arizona, Florida, California and Oklahoma

H) Four TV Shows I Watch: Lost, Project Runway, Heroes, Family Guy 

Remember to copy and paste your answers to the questions. Send it back to me and several of your friends to continue the fun! Thanks, Megan! I'm always a sucker for these kinds of things! Much love to you, Kevin and Cayd.