3 Down, 1 To Go!

So..........

Scott passed!

One more test on July 21st.
And, then, hopefully he'll be done! Wahoo!! :)

That's the Night the Lights Went Out......

So, last Thursday we were expecting SEVERE storms. So, "dangerous" they were comparing what we were about to get to the storms here in 1973 that produced tornadoes. If you know me, you know that I am deathly afraid of storms and, more importantly, tornadoes. I developed this fear when Scott and I lived in our mobile home years ago and anytime it rained it sounded, well, like rain hitting a metal roof....you get the picture. I won't even go into what hail sounded like. So, I got my storm strategy in action...1. Build a dam in the basement to prevent more flooding and prepare the spot in which we'd get on our knees and cover our heads...check, 2. Pack all my "valuables" in my purse, along with the flashlight, 2 candles and lighters (big purse!)....check and 3. Keep my eyes glued to the weather reporter (whose voice was shaking - doesn't help)....check.
We ate a quick dinner and waited out the disaster, ignoring all the other things I had wanted to get done that evening. When the storm "hit" it was all of 60 seconds of sideways rain and that was it. Yep, BIG STORM! However, apparently, the winds took out our power so for about an hour and a half we were in the dark. We decided to go hang out on our enclosed porch, which we never use, but turned out to be quite the entertaining spot.











Darby entertained us with some dancing....











And, just when we were trying to figure out sleeping arrangements for the night (I can't wait until our kids outgrow the "fear of the dark" stage)......











The lights came back on!











It actually turned out to be a fun evening! And, I did not die of a heart attack, anxiety attack, or any other attack resulting from my irrational fears. Chalk that one up as a good day!

Summer Fun

Well, aside from cleaning up the 3 inches of water we got in our basement on Monday (we were going for the indoor pool-but 3 in. doesn't cut it), we have been having lots of fun this week.
Our neighbor's little boy, Nathan, came over last night for fun with the water hose. I was watering my plants and within 3.5 seconds had 3 children staring at me with swimsuits on. (They're like Superman-run into house and voila! swimsuits!). p.s. Yes, I DO realize that Darby's swimsuit is a wee bit small - we're retiring it today.






We've been making weekly trips to Scott's parents restaurant for free lunch/breakfast and down the strip there's a little grocery store with a pay phone outside of it. I don't know what my kids' obsession with pay phones is all about, but they love them. I'm not a fan - what with people putting drug needles laced with HIV in them. I know, I know - I'm paranoid and I'm okay with it. But, it's kind of cute to listen to them "call" people and have conversations with them.

Today, we went downtown to the capitol with our friends Jenny and Emily to have a "brown bag" lunch and dance to The Exceptions. They do this weekly and thanks to overcast skies, today was the day to go. (It wasn't at all for the free hot dogs, chips, and pop. But, that was a bonus!) My poor friend Jenny realized after we parked, walked, and sat for about an hour that she still had the change in her pocket that we were going to put in the meter. Oops! She is now the lucky owner of an $8 parking ticket. I did offer to pay for half of it! :)









If you look really closely, in that last pic they are all running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I swear, they did that for a half an hour straight. They had a blast.





This last picture is SimonBob being really grateful that his human mama is too busy (okay, lazy) to finish folding laundry. ;)
If I could be any animal I wanted, I'd most definitely be a cat!!

New Rule at Our House

Your sister is NOT allowed to eat your two remaining bites of strawberries for you, while Mom is out of the room, so you can get up from the table. Even when "she's actually bein' nice to me, for the first time in a loooooooong time, though".
And, it was only 8:30 a.m.
That's all I'm going to say about that.

Weekend Fun

We are recovering this morning from a super busy/super fun weekend! Friday morning we met my friend, Sarah and her daughter, Camdyn, at the zoo and had a great time. It was our 2nd time at the zoo in one week, but the kids really enjoyed it all the same.










Scott took Friday off because he had a CPA exam that morning and so, we got some good family time in. We had to go update our cell phones/plan and the kids did a great job being patient through the process so we decided to surprise them with something they've never done before. Lake Shawnee has paddleboats that you can rent out for $3/half hour. Darby was excited but, Aidan was actually a little scared to get on one. Afterwards, he said "That was really great, after all. I'm glad I didn't get scared anymore." He's the one who didn't want to get out of the little boat when we were all roasting from the sun. Figures.











On Saturday, Scott took Aidan to his "summer camp" for church in Solomon, KS. It was only a day camp for the Pre-K/Kindergarteners. They had a lot of fun. Darby and I ended up helping Andrew and Ashley move out of their apartment and into their new house in Montara. It was so hot outside. I think we were all sweating by 9:45 a.m. But, they got moved and the house is really cute.








Yesterday, we ended up spending the entire afternoon and evening working in our yard. I'm really bad about planting things and then deciding I want them somewhere else. So, I transplanted some ivy and a wisteria "bush". Scott's working on getting our back yard to start looking like a back yard. It's going to take a lot of work so we're glad for a good start.

Well, it looks like we're about to get some really bad storms, so I'm off to watch the weather.......

Hope everyone had a good weekend!