Making No Promises: May 2013

May 30, 2013

Today is the beginning of the end of the school year. So if you don't want to read posts where I shamelessly show-off what my kids have been doing, tune in on June 7th, when I'll start posting about my messy house and what's for lunch again.
We attended the 5th grade awards assembly today. I told Jeff that this year I have no reason to expect tears. Except I'm the one who teared up when Shelbi won the WOW award. It was the final award of the assembly and it's given to one boy and one girl in the grade for being awesome (among other things.)

May 29, 2013

We are not meant to have a nice landscape in Amarillo. If it's not the scorching drought, it's late-season freezes, or tornadoes, or hail storms. I've shown a picture of this spot in my yard before. Here's the aftermath of the storm:

The hail and wind wiped out every bloom and most of the leaves off the plants. Our trees in the back also lost most of their leaves.

I'm not sure what this black sludge is. It took all day for that pile of hail to melt.

This back patio was a mess. Yay for Jeff for cleaning things up.

May 28, 2013

Today will go down in history as the first time since we've lived in Amarillo that we've had to hunker down in our broom closet because of a tornado threat. Of course it happened at night when all the kids were already asleep. And of course Jeff was at work. Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal. I had been watching the progress of the storm on the news. I could tell that the real tornado threat was south of us. But when the hail began and the tornado sirens started going off, I cleared out the closet and got the kids up. We watched the rain for a while. But when Erik started shivering because he was spooked I suggested we go to the closet. That made him feel much better. So we hung out in there for 20 minutes, watching Phineas and Ferb on my laptop. A couple of things I learned for the next time we have a tornado warning:
1. It's really hot in there with six people.
2. We didn't have our shoes on because we were all in our pjs.
If a tornado had struck us, it would have been nice to have
shoes.
3. Next time, I'll take the box of tools off the top shelf. I
imagine tornadoes shake things up a bit.
4. There's not room for Jeff.

The weatherman suggested wearing bike helmets. I thought that was a good idea. We didn't actually need them for the storm. The kids put them on because they kept hitting their heads on the shelf above them.
At the peak of the storm, it sounded like the hail was in my kitchen. But then all of a sudden it was over. We emerged from the closet to see this:

(Blurry, but you get the idea.)

Our hail was half inch to an inch in size. At the hospital, it was more like ping pong ball size. When Bailey saw it, she said, "Snow!"

May 27, 2013

Today I celebrated Memorial Day by getting up early, "preparing" breakfast (cereal), making the kids lunches, and sending them off to school. Yep, no holiday for us today. We had a make-up day today because of the snow days we had earlier in the year. At first I was pretty bugged by this, but then realized that all too soon they'll all be home, all day. I'll enjoy my peace and quiet and semi-clean house while I can.
Honestly we haven't properly celebrated Memorial Day for 10 or so years. We've always lived far away from family and more often than not Jeff has had to work. This picture is the last time we were with family at the cemetery in Garland, Utah. I spent every Memorial Day of my youth here, visiting my grandpa's grave.

That's Shelbi in the pink shirt on the right and that girl in the white shirt in the back is about to graduate high school. So yeah, it's been a long time.
We did have a barbeque and s'mores tonight. Is that festive? Bailey worked on this s'more for a good part of an hour. I think Jeff finally took it away from her.

May 26, 2013

Spoiled, spoiled little girl. Staying up past everyone's bedtime to watch cartoons.

May 25, 2013

Apparently it's extreme weather season in Texas. This is new to us because we've been in such a drought that any rain has been welcome. After the tornado in Oklahoma, everyone seems especially anxious about any threat. Our neighbor just installed an underground storm shelter and another neighbor came to tell me that she has a basement that we are welcome to hunker down in, if need be.
We had some rather impressive lightning tonight. I thought the sky was looking especially cool.

May 24, 2013

Today was a career day of sorts at the elementary school. The kindergarteners were supposed to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up.

We're so proud.

The third graders put on a business expo, where they showcased the business plans they've been working on. Syd's business was Sydney's Style, original jewelry made by her.

May 23, 2013

As I handed these two kids their lunch today it occurred to me that the days of just the two of them enjoying lunch together are numbered. Pretty soon the kids will be out of school and lunchtime will be crazy and loud. Then before I know it summer will be over and it will just be Bailey around for lunch. Poor Bailey is going to be so bored.

May 22, 2013

May 22, 2007

A lovely Spring day in Michigan, out on the front porch

May 21, 2013

Tonight was Shelbi's end of year band concert. She has loved playing the flute and plans to continue it next year. She was among about 5 kids to receive a special award for passing off different scales and techniques. She was the only one in her class to also pass off the second level of scales.

May 20, 2013

Ry-Guy's favorite activity as a one-year-old, playing in the dishwasher. I see this picture and can totally remember what this little boy feels like to hold in my arms.

May 19, 2013

The kids are outside playing "Survivor." The main objective of this game is to see if they can stay outside for a whole hour. I am 100% in favor of this game.

May 18, 2013

A list of pictures I could have taken today, and the reasons why I didn't:

1. The holes I dug to plant new shrubs--a picture wouldn't do it justice. We don't have dirt here, we have unformed rock. So when that unformed rock is compacted, it sure feels like you're digging through formed rock. Sucks.

2. Bailey covered in stripes of self-applied fingernail polish--too furious to take a picture.

3. Sydney's fishbowl stuffed with anything Bailey could find nearby (money, Littlest Petshop toys, Syd's plastic jewels, etc.)--no time for picture, had to save the fish.

4. Me soaking wet from trying to take the sprayer off the hose when the water wouldn't turn off--I just wanted to change.

Now the kids are in bed, the house is cleaned and vacuumed, Primary sharing time is ready for church tomorrow, and I have ice cream and fresh strawberry sauce.

May 17, 2013

Oh how I loved this car today. I folded up the back row of seats to fit two loads of plants and one load of dirt weighing roughly 500 pounds. The rubber mats in the trunk meant I only had to take them out and shake them to clean up after the plants. And when the temperature outside was a toasty 95 degrees, I stayed cool with my air conditioning and cooled seats.

May 16, 2013

WHY?? Why do my kids at this age think it's awesome to dump all the books off the shelves? No matter how many times I tell them NO! and make them grudgingly help put the the books back on and I think they've finally learned their lesson. Nope, inevitably they do it again. Grrrrr....

May 15, 2013

I think the weather has finally decided to get hot and stay hot. The thing about Amarillo is that it's hot during the day and just doesn't cool off much until late at night. I'd like to be able to go out onto my patio in the evening and have it be a comfortable temperature. Oh, well.
Here's a picture of the girls enjoying the sunshine in Michigan. We put the sprinklers on right by the swing set so they could swing in and out of them. They loved it. (No seriously, they did. Even if this picture makes you think otherwise.)

May 14, 2013

Jeff bathing the kids while I took care of important PTA business.

May 13, 2013

Here we go again. T-ball has started. Technically the boys aren't supposed to be on the same team. Ryan is supposed to be on a Pre-K team, but they made an exception and put him on the Kindergarten team with Erik. This year's coach is taking things much more seriously. We've actually had practices. Jeff has been out with the boys, working on their swings and fielding. So far I can tell it's really made a difference. And of course, Jeff convinced me that they needed cleats this year.

Erik was especially careful to line up and swing the bat, just like he practiced with Jeff.

Ryan just needs to work on not throwing the bat after he swings.

May 12, 2013

My Mother's Day leg massage.

May 11, 2013

This balloon is from the baby shower I had at my house a week ago. All the others have long lost their floatiness. Needless to say, the kids are very anxious for it to come down from the family room ceiling so they can play with it.

May 10, 2013

I saw this tonight with Jeff. We saw it in 3D Imax because it was the only time that worked for us. It was cool. I'm pretty sure the woman sitting a few seats down from Jeff didn't have much experience with 3D movies. There were lots of "Oh, My!"s and loud comments, as if we were all right alongside Tony and Pepper, fighting the bad guys.

P.S. Trevor cracked me up.

May 9, 2013

May 2007

This day, Sydney asked me to put "bums" in her hair.

May 8, 2013

A few days ago I was searching through the storage bins of clothes for some black shoes for Sydney's choir concert. I left the bin out and Bailey found these little white church shoes. I don't even remember where they came from. Handed down from someone?

They've got velcro so she can do them herself. More often than not she'll have them on the wrong feet. And they're stiff, so when she wears them without socks, she gets little sores on the sides of her feet. But boy does she love them. Sometimes I'll put her sandals on her when we're on our way out the door only to discover that she's changed into these shoes somewhere along the way.

May 7, 2013

I decided to go short for the summer.

Self-portraits are not as easy as they look.

May 6, 2013

Future blackmail material. Those are Christmas stocking on his feet, by the way.

May 5, 2013

I don't remember the last time the older girls played with dolls for any significant amount of time. But they've been playing "daycare" all afternoon. I suspect it has something to do with keeping Bailey happy. Any time they show any sign of leaving the game, Bailey musters up some tears, waves at them, and cries, "Come'on!" And back they go.

Making No Promises