i prefer earthquakes

i started my day visiting my friend christi's blog. (you must make it to the end picture and explanation...i laughed for a good long while.) she inspired me. i went to my blog, signed in, clicked on 'new post', determined to take the lemons in life right now and make lemonade.

nope, nothing.

life has been hard around here lately. we've got our heads down and we're plowing. we're tired, but can't let up yet. we've known for a very long time that october was going to be like this. but it doesn't seem to help when you're in the midst of it.

no sleep, sick kids, unimaginably hard comprehensive tests. so i guess it would seem fitting that we faced a tornado today. as if life wasn't throwing enough at us already.

isaiah and matt spent the day at school in the basement. isaiah was in the 'duck & cover' pose for 35 minutes, as he recalls it. matt was with jr. and sr. high schoolers trying to keep them contained.

me? i was at home with the girls, watching the t.v. in terror as i watched the storm head my way. i listened to the weather man tell others 'now is the time to seek protection - now!' i let him tell me what to do, where to go. i'm an earthquake girl. i'm familiar with that natural disaster. tornadoes...well, not so much.

while we did get hit with the 60+ mph wind, and torrential rain. while tornadoes did touch down around us, we came out unscathed. except for the knot in my stomach and mess to clean up. the mess was due to me determining the hall closet was going to be the safest place for me and the girls, so i emptied the entire thing -- making it ready for us to bolt into it if need be.

after everything had passed, my men were home and light rain was falling outside i determined a couple things. facing a tornado puts things into perspective. we're safe. we're together. we're healthy and okay. AND because there is no warning, because you can't watch it come at you, because once you know it's upon you it's over -- i prefer earthquakes.

fun, not scary

every year the louisville zoo puts on a halloween party for kids. you walk a certain path around the zoo, pick up candy along the way, and you get to meet some of your favorite characters.

we braved it again this year, taking along some of our favorite people.


we had the cutest pink kitty cat.

isaiah and jakob fought everything in sight....

each other

t-rex

even being army guys and knights at the same time.
what more could a little boy want?

i have to say that the highlight for the night was when alaythia had her picture taken with, and got to meet, aurora, cinderella and belle. the look on her face was worth fighting all the crowds. worth all the walking and sweating (it was mid 80's) and all the hassle it was to get dressed up and get there. she was so happy, even standing in line a second time to get a second round of pictures.

onward and upward

i am coming to terms with the fact that my life is an ever moving journey. one where as soon as i get comfortable and familiar with it, it moves and changes. even ever so slightly. most of the time i think i'm standing still, i can't see the progress or change, but it's happening. i am making progress. and can see the ever so slight changes taking place right now, which really are huge markers.

onward. tomorrow matt will present his prospectus (proposal for his dissertation) to his peers and all the NT faculty. yes, a big day. they will grill him for just over an hour and hopefully he'll come out with their blessing to keep going.

i remember hearing about friends and acquaintances presenting their prospectus. and i can vividly recall the longing that filled me. the longing to be at that stage, to have that marker come...and go. and it felt so distant.

and yet here we are. it's matt's turn. it reminds me that we are continuing to make progress, continuing to move forward in this long journey of a PhD. and once it's passed, we won't have to do it again. i am grateful.

upward. sophia has decided that she can kind of walk... really she can walk, but she has to build her confidence. at this point she loves to push her new baby doll around in a stroller.

at the pumpkin patch she even walked around pushing her own stroller.

and with that my life changes. no crawlers. bigger kids. growing up. deadlines passing. not a completely new stage, but a slight shift that makes a huge difference.

my nemesis has been defeated

you know how my first trip to the pumpkin patch went. we planned our next visit for this last saturday. i never would have blogged about the flu bug and how 'funny' it was if i would have thought it was still lingering in our house. but sure enough on friday i came down with the sickness.

can't remember the last time those things happened to me.

we had to postpone our apple/pumpkin picking again. it started to grate on me. all my attempts to go and not being able to. it became something that i felt i had to conquer. i couldn't let it get the best of me. so we switched some school days around (the beauty of home schooling) and decided to go yesterday.

didn't matter that it was slated to be 92 degrees.

it was a good time. picking apples, and pumpkins. watching the kids run and play and plan. but let's be honest, the main reason for going is to get the great pictures next to the pumpkins...which of course i didn't get of the three of them together. but still some keepers.

isaiah was oh-so-willing to climb trees for us to get the 'perfect' apple.

alaythia loved to climb under the trees.

on the hunt.

going on a monday was great because we had the pumpkin patch to ourselves.
i let them roam and didn't call them back.

they both were proud of 'their' pumpkin.

and yes, sophia was on this trip with us...but between the 8 pounds of apples, cameras, diaper bags and stroller...mommy had a hard time getting a picture of the one that was at my side!

life in pictures

working hard

now look at mommy!

self portrait

now make a funny face

poor baby

let's try again

frog princesses

and a star wars brother

highlight

we've been holed up of recent, with a flu bug. my favorite you know. although i think i'm handing it better this year than i did last year. maybe cause we're all a year older, maybe being in a bigger space so we're not on top of each other while we're sick...

regardless the highlight was driving 50 minutes to the pumpkin patch on saturday, by myself with all the kids because matt was laid out. we were going to go apple picking and then get pumpkins, we had been talking about it for a week. a major undertaking to say the least, but the idea of not going sent the kids into hysteria. we hustled out of the house early and stopped at starbucks on the way out. AS SOON as we got out of the car isaiah says, 'mom, i don't feel good. i haven't been feeling good all morning, but didn't want to tell you because then i thought we wouldn't be able to come.'

i stare in unbelief for a brief second and a cold sweat breaks out at the idea of what might be coming. i know i have to act fast.

i must get sophia in a stroller so that i can put all my attention on isaiah. i strap her in and run to the other side of the field to find a trailer we can hide behind. and...well, you can guess the rest of the story.

it's my nightmare come true. all i remember thinking is that someone else must be the mother, because surely this can't be happening to me.

if he follows in alaythia's footsteps, he'll give more every 45 minutes. we're 50 minutes from home remember. i know the clock is working against me. we get back in the car and start for it. the freeways seem like death traps as i try to get home before he pukes again.

we did make it home, God is so gracious, and it seems we're on the mend. mommy is tired, but at least no one is puking.

now if i can just get the courage to try to go to that pumpkin patch again this weekend...