May 1
Happy May Day! I can't believe May is already here. This year is flying! Why? Why do my babies have to grow so fast and time zoom by making me old? I found the following on an old friend's Facebook and really felt the sentiment (as I'm sure any mom would):
Most of their lives, our children are separated from us. Their arms are drawing or clapping or climbing, not draped around our shoulders. Before we can catch a breath, their heads are turning, asking questions, thinkling up the next adventure or solving the hard problems; not snuggled up, quiet and still, against our necks. So fleeting is the fuzzy hair, the silky soft smallness of their chubby bodies. I'm grasping to hold onto the seconds of sweetness, snuggles, and childhood tenderness before their special, unique childness disappears. Life feels infinitely brief today.
May 3
Sami got her braces off!!!!!!!!! Wooooohooooo!!!! It's been a very long three and a half years! She looks amazing!
May 4
Kassi loves books. She sleeps with a pile of books the way that most children sleep with stuffed toys. I often find her at night sound asleep with an open book propped on her chest. A few nights ago, though, she had a bad dream. The next thing I knew, I was awakened by "Pinkalicious" (her current favorite read) smacking me in the bumm. She had thrown the book on me before climbing onto my bed for a comforting snuggle. For the next hour of lack-of-sleep, the book jabbed me in the ribs, the neck, the thigh, etc. I don't know how she sleeps with those things... and from now on, I'm buying only paperback.
May 5
It's Cinco De Mayo! And we did absolutely nothing to celebrate. Oh well.
It was a full day! Today Emmy did her Mother's Day Program. I loved it! what a darling program. I just sat and enjoyed every second of my cute little Emmy singing her heart out for me. I love that girl!
And Sami had her final track meet that qualified her for the Regional one next week. She focused just on the mile again this time and did so well. Her time to beat was 7:40 and she ran it in 7:14!! Go Sami! If she keeps making improvement like that, she will reach that big goal: run it in under 6:00.
May 8
Today is Mother's Day. I'm so grateful for a wonderful husband today who slaved away in the kitchen all day to make me cheesecake. And the five beautiful, incredible little girls who made me feel so loved all day. I'm also thankful for my own mother who is here spending the weekend with us. The older I get and the more children I learn to juggle, I grow a greater appreciation and understanding of what she must have gone through during my childhood. Motherhood is not easy. Especially when we get distracted by so many other things. I love it though. I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I am where I'm meant to be, doing what I love to do.
May 12
Poor Sami. Today was her big meet to determine who goes to districts and she missed it! She was so sick with the stomach flu all night last night and has absolutely no energy today. I feel so bad for her. The season is over. But the good thing is that now she knows what she loves and can work at improving her times and condition herself to be a strong runner. She and her dad are hopefully goung to take up running together this summer!
I was running late on my way to pick up carpool today with Kassi and Lily in the car. Kassi was having one of her "TYRANT Moments," throwing a full on tantrum because she had forgotten her porcelain turtle she's been insisting on taking everywhere lately and I would not go back to the house for it. I was feeling exasperated until I heard something over the top of all the screaming. LAUGHING! Lily, the baby who won't laugh unless you catch her off guard, was cracking up, giggling and squealing and laughing her head off! Apparently she found Kassi's plight hilarious. Made my day. ;)
May 19
Kassi had her last day of preschool today. The class put on a little program for the parents. It was so darling! Kassi was the cutest little doll! She was just SO Happy to be there and have Jeremy and me there. She smiled from ear to ear through the entire thing!
May 22
Taught lesson today in Primary on the Rameamptum in the Book of Mormon and the importance of humility before the Lord and love for others regardless of their circumstances. I also sang with the choir for the first time in our current ward. And President Eyring gave heartfelt remarks at the end of a really good sacrament meeting. I was feeling good about life when church was over. Only, during Sacrament meeting today there was a thunderstorm going on outside. A few of the lightning strikes felt really close and caused the mic to go out for a couple seconds. We later found out that two of those hit the Angel Moroni on top of the temple just a mile from our home. While I was singing with the choir, there was a really bad strike that caused all power to go out for about ten seconds. It turns out, that was the bolt that hit my house.
We came home from church to find our power was out and we couldn't open our garage door. We don't usually take a house key to church with us so Jeremy walked around the house to see if there was an unlocked door or open window. While he was gone, I noticed Bell was running around in the family room and barking at us through that window. She seemed upset. I thought that odd that we forgot to put her in the mudroom where she usually hangs out when we're gone. When Jeremy came back he said, "I think we were struck by lightning" Huh? He showed me the phone box that had exploded with pieces of it strewn about the woods by my garage, the gutters that were in pieces in several places, and the satellite wires that were severed and lying all over our deck. Bell was very upset so we decided to break a window in the garage and send Jeremy inside. As we were breaking the window, we noticed the gas meter going crazy. Jeremy went in alone and let Bell out. Then he came running out of the house with a wrench to turn off our gas. "There's a fireball in the Livingroom!"
I ran into the backyard and looked from a distance through the windows of the livingroom just in time to see a giant fire under the mantel where we used to have a brand new gas fireplace. Then it was gone as Jeremy turned off the gas. We went inside and found the fireplace sitting in the middle of the room face down, about ten feet from the mantel. The gas line had severed and ignited but was tilted just right that fire was contained in the chimney! Many thing have blown off the wall, including the clock from my wedding. There are cinder marks (holes) on all the furniture in the living and dining rooms and pieces of mental burned into our carpet. The mantel is all blackened and charred. The fireplace downstairs is toasted as well but still sitting where it belongs. The middle tube in our chimney is destroyed. The bricks on the backside of our chimney are crumbled. The lightning must have struck the chimney to our formal fireplace. The electrical currents traveled through the water in our gutters and blew out everything electrical in our garage--dog fence, sprinklers, garage doors.
We figured we were OK though and turned the electricity back on. The basement filled up with smoke and we turned the electricity back off and called 911. Next thing we knew, the house was being invaded by every fireman in the county. I guess they don't get a lot of reports of lightning strikes. I took the kids and the dog to a friend's house to get them out of the way and calmed down. When I came back, they were wrapping up the search of the house. They said there were no active threats but that we couldn't turn our electricity or gas back on until everything was checked, fixed, and then cleared by the city.
This morning Sami said something about wishing the power would go out so we could camp out in the family room with the wood burning fireplace. She jinxed us and here we are. Camping in our home.
May 25
If anything good has come from this lightning nightmare, it is that we have experienced the love that our ward has for us. They have really rallied on our behalf. I've had to turn away help because there's just nothing else we need for now.
May 28
It's been a long week of dealing with repair people, electrician, plumber, and the insurance adjuster. To take a break I took Sami and Ally to see Cavalia Odysseo. WOW! It was amazing! I'm not really a horse person but I was sincerely impressed by the show. Ally's favorite part was the carousel with the acrobats and contortionists showing incredible strength and grace.
Sam's was the riders who did flips and tricks while speeding by on horseback.
Mine was also the carousel. Wow!!
No comments:
Post a Comment