Just Something I Wrote While It Was Raining 4/11/11

It's storming like crazy here right now. Sirens are going off every fifteen minutes it seems like...I can't concentrate to read. Parker is sleeping like the baby that he is on our bed...Jim is singing along to the Zac Brown Band tunes he has downloaded on his laptop. I'm writing this blog post on paper (I'll type it later when it's safe to actually turn my computer on. It hasn't been backed up in a while which makes me super nervous that it could possibly crash.), and Jake is laying on the floor beside the chair I'm sitting in using up all of the pages of the notepad I use to make out my To-Do and Shopping lists, and he just informed me he's "...working too". (I guess he thinks I'm working since I'm actually writing on paper - which means he's being super quiet. Hmmm...maybe I should "work" more often.).

The past few weeks have been a little bit busy and a lot great. We stayed with my family for several days (when I say we, I mean Jake, Parker, and I) two weeks ago, and it was wonderful. I honestly can't remember the last time I went "home" and stayed for several days like that. It was so overdue and so incredibly great. We saw relatives that we never get to because we're separated by hundreds of miles and several states, ate grilled hot dogs, watched it rain and watched birds. I repurposed an old frame into a chalkboard for our kitchen, Jake road on wheelbarrow loads of leaves, and Parker ate and slept as if he had never left home. Heavenly! We dined at Burger King, pulled cactus thorns out of little hands, and played Spinners with cousins. I shopped for and found the perfect outfit for Parker to wear on Easter Sunday (and lots of Sundays for that matter until he outgrows it), Jake took laps around the driveway on my parents' golf cart, and Parker was held by his Grandpa. Even more Heavenly!

We came home to Jim, warmer weather, and relaxing days spent at home doing things like framing illustrations from a Curious George book to hang on the walls in Jake and Parker's shared bathroom.

Last week Jim made had an overnight stay at Eglin AFB and doctor's appointments to prepare for his retirement.  My mom made a last minute decision to keep me company while he was away, and so was pretty much everything we did while she was here (last minute, I mean).  We went with the flow, went to the Galleria, and went for walks. 

And in the last thirty-six hours, I've photographed two brothers (but not the two that live under the same roof I do), watched a great chick flick that I rented from Blockbuster Express, rocked and sang to my three-month old Parker in our church nursery, bought some really gigantic blue and yellow carvable Easter eggs, and made a grilled barbecue chicken, Santa Fe rice, corn-on-the-cob dinner.

I've also ran out of room on the paper I've been writing on, and so has Jake.

Good night!