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WA, United States
I home school my kids, highly involved in my church, love to read, drink tea, and design tags.

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Thursday, November 18, 2010

If A Tree Falls & You Are Around To Hear It, How Much Noise Does It Make?





After my post last Monday night, we experienced an experience that I don't think any of us will ever forget!  The wind had started to pick up that evening and was blowing many things around outside.  It was quite a stormy night.
I have never been a fan of the wind.  Since we moved to this area when I was in 3rd grade we've experienced wind storms and we lived in the woods.  I remember a couple of storms that were quite bad.  Since Greg and I have lived here together we have gone through many many wind storms, we have them every year and we still live in the woods.  I hate to listen to the sounds of trees falling in the woods all around us.  Especially in the dark.  It is so eerie.  And the wind seem so loud. It is unsettling to me listening to the wind howling through the night and trees crashing to the leafy grounds.
Well the wind the other night was the most incredible wind that I've ever felt here in my whole life.  We had a few gusts that were just LOUD and strong!  Shook the house!  You could hear it, it wasn't howling then, it was more of a scream that threatened to shatter all of the glass in the house.  Then there was The Gust.  Greg and I heard it coming.  He said that I looked at him and said "Greg?!" like I was really scared, that I don't remember.  But I was scared!  Then I heard "Moommyy!!  Mommmy!" so I went running into the living room where they were sitting on the couch, their eyes as big as saucers. 
I heard a horrific sound just then.  I believe what I heard was the cracking of the tree as it broke off 25 feet up in the air.  Just as I ran through the dining room, I heard THUD THUD and then the sound of what I thought was glass breaking.  I ran faster because I knew it happened right behind me.  When I got to the kids I turned around and expected to see the tree through the window and my ceiling caved in.
The ceiling was caved in a little and the molding that holds up the paneling on the ceiling of a mobile home was hanging down.  There weren't any tree branches or anything inside the house.  When I went back in to Greg, he was on the other side of the dining room in his living room (we have 2 living rooms) and he had sat on his couch and watched it all, I asked him where the broken glass was because the window wasn't broken.  He thought maybe the wind blew out the window behind him, but we couldn't tell because of the curtains.  After a few minutes Greg realized the glass sound I heard was his chandelier.  Nothing broke, but the rims shook all around the glass lights and were all messed up. 
Greg went outside after a the wind died down a little and assessed the damage.  He thought maybe it wasn't real bad, but it was hard to tell.  But by now, I am so scared that I want out of here!  So we started packing things up to go stay the night at his dads house.  Greg called his mom, who is our landlord and his dad to let him know we were coming over, but then his dad lost power. 
I was still packing to get outta here for the night and Greg was having second thoughts.  I said that we all needed to stop and pray together.  Stinky was panicking.  Bubba was ok but he wouldn't let go of the lantern in case we lost power.  We knelt down and prayed together that the Lord would lead Greg to make the right decision for the family for the night.  After he had a moment of reflection and thought, he decided that we should just stay home.  His dad didn't have power and he has trees all around his house also.  And the chances of something hitting the van while we were driving over there were high also. 
I had quite a time settling down the kids.  Or I guess mostly Stinky.  But I finally did and we laid down on the couch to watch a movie.  By this time it was 11:30 I think.  We were up until almost 1am. 
The next morning I woke up before everyone else, as usual, and decided to go outside and investigate on my own.  The first thing that I noticed was that in the woods across from our driveway, 3 trees had fallen down.  One was a huge fir that pulled up all of the roots with it!  The huge fir in front of my sister-in-law's house next door had dropped a huge limb that took out a few others as it plummeted to the ground.  In the back yard I noticed that 2 trees were leaning in the opposite direction of the wind, like maybe a tree fell over there and uprooted them a little, but they are too far back in the woods for me to tell.  A limb from a huge tree in back also fell on our tent.  That is ok, it was ruined anyways.  Greg had it up just for fun.
The side backyard, where the tree fell on the house, was another eerie scene.  Bubba's Tonka trucks were back there and 2 of them got ruined.  One was totally smashed.  There are huge holes in my deck.  The gutter was ripped of the house.  I can't tell what the damage is to the roof from down here though.
Greg said there was holes in the roof.  It is too hard to patch because when they reroofed our house, they didn't take off the existing roof like they should have.  So we have to cover it for now.  Greg covered it like his roofer cousin taught him.  But because the gutter was torn off and there was an opening there, the wind yesterday blew again and the rain blew in under there, we believe.  Because yesterday we started to get leaks.  We went and bought more stuff to cover it better and a long tarp.  The tarp is currently hanging over the edge of the roof so no rain can get back in.  And it also hangs over the window.  But I'll live with that as long as my roof isn't leaking anymore!
So that is the stress of this week for me.  Since Saturday I've been busy with things out of my control.  Sick kids, high winds, falling trees, leaky roofs and panic from the kids and I.  I have to hide my panic which makes it harder for me too.  I don't want the kids to know I'm quite as scared as I am!  lol

Monday, November 15, 2010

Juggling

I have spent the last 3 days taking care of sick children. They job has gotten easier and easier by the day, but not without it's little surprises.  We woke up Saturday morning because Greg's friend had called at about 6:20am to see if Greg wanted to go for a ride.  Since I had to get up to answer the phone, I figured I might as well stay up even though it's Saturday.  Stinky woke up shortly after I did and after a bit told me that she thought she was going to be sick.  She had puked before Greg left for his drive.
Bubba woke up.  I tried to give Stinky some Pepto-Bismol and as she was sipping it, Bubba said he wanted some.  So I told him that he just can't have medicine because his sister was.  He told me that his stomach hurt.  I didn't believe him, I thought that he was just saying that to get some Pepto.
After a few minutes, Stinky was puking again.  She puked pink Pepto all over the blankets and floor.  I heard Bubba say "MOM!" and it sounded like he was crying.  While Stinky puked into the pan, I looked over my shoulder and there is my poor baby boy puking and crying.  I told him to run to the toilet.  When Stinky was done heaving I went in to assist Bubba.  Then I heard Stinky crying that she was puking again, so I told her to bring her pan into the bathroom with me. 
That's pretty much how my day went.  Kids puking, towel and blanket washing, changing of clothes and drinking of fluids to keep hydrated.  All day they just wanted me to lay down with them.  Once Bubba said that "This isn't how I planned to spend my day" and I had to agree with the poor little baby.  Stinky had puked all day long.  It started at about 10 min. in between each for quite a while.  After about an hour it started to slow down until she was down to once an hour.  It went that way until early evening.  She stopped throwing up when she fell asleep at about 9 or 9:30pm. 
Bubba had it much easier.  He only threw up 4 times.  But felt sick all day long. 
Yesterday they both claimed to feel better in the afternoon.  We let them get up and play last night a little as long as they were not wild.  Then Stinky wakes up this morning, 6:55am and puked.  She has felt sick all day.  Bubba started complaining of his stomach again later this afternoon. 
Not too much has gotten done the last few days.  I have gotten some things done here and there.  I have kept up on dishes a lot better than usual.  I figure I better do that since any day now, I could be sick.  This way everything will be clean when I'm sick.  See, I'm thinking ahead.  I'm a planner.
I finished reading the book that I was reading.  I am currently reading my second book that I had planned for December in my Fall Into Reading Book Challenge.  I thought that I had almost picked too many for myself to read, even though there were some children and YA books in there.  But I guess I was wrong. 
I am reading a book right now that is called Let God Be God by Ray C. Stedman.  It is a book that deeply explains the book of Job.  So far it's very good.  I'm only in chapter 3.  It's a book that you have to really concentrate on and not something you can just read willy-nilly to pass the time.  That is a great thing!  It expands the mind! 
On the other hand, my mind is currently seeking somewhere to go and relax.  So I think I am also going to be reading Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.  I have never read this story before and I want to see if it's something we can do for school.  I am going to start this after I finish reading the chapter that I am reading in Let God be God.
It's time for me to go and be motherly.  My sickly children are hungry.  I must go and feed them.  Poor little babies.






Thursday, November 11, 2010

Not quite ready yet....

I know that I said I was going to blog about something soon.  Well, I'm just not ready yet.  I really want to.  I know just what I want to say.  But I'm not sure that I'm ready to let everyone in on that yet. 
So on we go.....Things here are going smoothly along.  Besides the temperament of a person I put up with daily.  But that is something I have been dealt to deal with and I just do.  I try not to let it bother me, along with other things.  I am trying to grow in the Lord everyday.
Homeschool, as I've mentioned before, is going great this year!  How much fun we have!  Yesterday we did a Science experiment to make rain.  It was awesome and I will blog about it later on my homeschool blog called Teaching at Home in a Christian Way.  As my friend Tawny said on Facebook, "I'm so thankful that we answered the call from God to Homeschool".  That is not word for word, but I can't find it to quote it exactly.  But it was something along those lines. 




I found a new Christian bookstore up here on the hill, about 15 min away in good traffic.  In great traffic it would only be about 10!  But that never happens on Meridian.  So I plan on 15-20 min drive.  But the store is great!  It's a Christian bookstore (I know I already said that) and thrift.  I did see some clothes and such in there but honestly, I just wanted books.  lol  The name of the store is Love's Treasury.  Isn't that a great name?  So inviting!  The books were so fairly priced that I am going back probably this weekend!  I can't wait!  They had a large selection of books for homeschool.  I mean large
Speaking of Christian and bookstore.  I found a new used book store called A Novel Idea in Puyallup.  I went there to meet author Christina Weigand.  She found me last year on Facebook because I was signed up to do NaNoWriMo and she lives in Puyallup.  At that time, I didn't realize she was in the process of getting a book published!  Well she did get that book published and it's called Aaron's Revenge. 
I found the bookstore and actually got to meet her.  The best part?  She gave me a book for free for just making it there (it was quite a feat for me) and signed it.  It is the next book that I am going to read.  I have to finish White Fang first.


I have a busy day planned today.  Trying to get my house all cleaned and ready for the holidays.  Decorating is going to be kept at a minimal this year for Fall and Thanksgiving.  I don't know where any of my decorations are at the moment and really am not going to try and get them from my garage.  I'll save that for Christmas.
And since I have so much to do, I am going to start my work now.  And that has to start by stopping my blogging.  Oh I hate it when I have to do that.  I could just keep on blabbing. 

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Where Oh Where Has the Blog Author Gone?

I know....bad me.  I've been missing pretty much for a month.  I messed up on my NaBloPoMo for October and decided to just give myself a break from the worry of posting.  Maybe that was a mistake. But, here I am now!  That counts for something, right?
I am busy getting the house all picked up for the holidays.  It's been a slow and painstaking job, but I'm getting it done.  Now the hardest part is keeping it picked up!  That seems to be my downfall.  I do well on one room, while another gets messy.  I must admit, I am not perfect.
At the end of October I went to the AWANA conference and fully enjoyed myself.  It was a great learning experience and send us home with many ideas to implement in our group.  One fun activity that I wanted to start was working through the workbook for adults that go along with the workbook for kids.  The first book makes me memorize the same amount of verses as Kindergarten Sparkies do.  Then I can move into the book that matches the 1st graders and then the 2nd graders.  I am making this more fun for the kids by letting them sign my book for me when I say my verses. 

We are moving right along with school this year and it is so nice!  So far, this is the best school year that we've had.  It's been smooth and for the most part they've enjoyed everything that we've learned.  I am looking forward to having a break though.  In 2 weeks we will then have a week break, during the week of Thanksgiving.  I know that seems short, well at least it does to me, but we are only doing school for one week in December.  We will have a break for the first week because I may be going to court, and then we will have a Winter Break. 
We haven't had the chance to do lapbooks this year.  I haven't really been able to find one that I liked for the topics that we have been learning.  Right now we are reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume together as a read aloud and the kids love this story.  Bubba gets so happy to read it.  And Stinky has finished 4 chapter books these past few weeks, one of the Charlotte's Web that is a reading level 4.  She is definitely my daughter!  I am currently getting ready to start book #53 for this year.  My goal was to read 50 and I have made it.  Obviously.
I have definitely missed blogging.  I am hoping that my time and memory will allow me to blog more often like I was before.  I have many thoughts and ideas that I want to blog about.
One is a subject that is causing me some sadness in an area of my life.  But I want to blog about it so that maybe I can give hope to others that may be in a similar situation.  I still am forming thoughts about this though, so I may not blog about it right away.
With those words.....see ya later gator!




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