I'm a thumb sucking wimp!

Yes, It is true! I am the biggest wimp. I was riddled with fear and I could feel my heart beating outside of my chest last night. It start almost 48 hours ago. The storm forecasters said that we had a possibility of severe storms. I now live in the Midwest. When severe storms come, they come with those wonderful things called tornadoes. I miss New York. Buffalo only had one teeny, tiny tornado in the 5 and half years that I lived there, and it wasn't even by my house. Oh, and it was in the middle of the day.

Indiana is proving to be different. Let me tell you the exact lines I hear from my beloved weather people....."Severe Thunderstorms on their way, with a few tornadoes probable! (like they are on the same expectation level of thunder and lightning!) Let us remind you that it is dark and the rain is coming down hard so you probably won't be able to see them coming. The storm warning is in effect until 10:15....now 10:45....now it's 11:30.....we have extended it to 12:15. This storm seems to be calming (as my sky is so lit by the lightning that I actually saw the dimensions and color of the clouds in the sky), but their seems to be another storm right behind it building strength."

My Princess came to snuggle with me along with my perfect dog. She was asking if a tornado was coming. What was I suppose to say? "NNNNNo HHHoNNNey, I I I think it is almmmost ovvver." She saw right through it. We decided to pray. It was the only thing that would work for her and for me. It worked though. Right after that, the storm finally calmed a little. By calm I mean we could see across the street again. We went to bed a 12:45am.

Where was Blue Eyes through all this? He decided that it would be a good time to sit outside under our porch roof and have a glass of wine with a cigar to watch the storm. His way of comforting me was knocking on the front door every few minutes to get me to come over there, and say "Did you just see that? Did you hear how loud that one was? I don't know if I ever saw a storm like this. If it gets any worse I will be coming in!" I would then go back to the couch with my daughter and dog and suck my thumb while watching "Storm Watch" until my eyes hurt. Oh and by the way, my boys slept right through it. Baby girl (I think that is what I will call her) transported herself to my bed and was fine. What a night!

Dear Mother-in-law, Can I move in with you for the spring? I will help shovel! I miss NY! I am great at washing bathtubs and I do laundry.

Sorry no pics of this one. I was shaking too hard to hold a camera.

She spoke to me!

I got an email yesterday asking what my nick name is? Well I have no idea! I do have this wonderful picture of this mother duck with her 4 ducklings at the zoo. As I chased after her with my camera, my dear husband laughed at me. He totally understood after I explained why of all the animals in the zoo, I chose to take a picture of her. She is an image of my life! She keeps track of her 4 ducklings with love. She protects, feeds, nurtures, squawks at, and raises those babies as any loving mother would. Oh! and let's not forget that she does it in the surrounding of a zoo. Like I said, it is a great image of my life. When a friend of mine emailed me asking what my nick name is? I thought of this picture. "Mother Duck" sounds good for today. Random me might find another name someday that suits my mood better, but for now this works!

You know you need new shoes when.....

My in-laws were in town this past weekend. They came in to help my dear husband drywall a room at his current job. After they finished in record time, they were available for all out playing with the kids. Today my son was looking for his shoe and noticed a dirty old gym shoe in the closet. Surely it couldn't be daddy's, because it was in the closet. And, surely it wasn't mommies because it was old and dirty and not very girly.

"Mommy! Papa left his shoe!" he proclaimed.

"He did?" I asked.

"Yes! See!" He said.

He then proceeded to show me the shoe. I sadly acknowledged that it wasn't Papa's shoe. It was indeed my old shoe. It still fits. There aren't any holes yet. The shoes just fall into the old and grubby, but still very usable category. They are my favorite lawn mowing shoes!

Gone Fishin'

We decided to take our kiddos fishing this weekend. They each picked out their fishing poles at Walmart. Princess kept up her image and picked out a Disney Princess pole. Batman picked out a Transformer pole, which later broke and we exchanged for the Spiderman one. Spiderman picked out a Disney Cars pole, and the little one picked out Barbie. My dad would be proud. After almost 20 years, I remembered how to tie the hook onto the fishing line. I remembered how to do the bobber too!

After some great concentration, Batman reeled in a great fish! It was his "Catch of the Day", or his 4th catch of the day. I think God blessed us with a lot of fish that day. I have never caught as many as these guys when I was growing up. Each kid caught about 4 fish. Their lines weren't in the water more that a minute or two before catching something!
"I am way to busy for pictures, MOM!"

Everyone knows that when Spiderman is thinking, pondering, concentrating, or analyzing something he has the face to go with it. His eyes and nose are scrunched and his mouth is slightly open. He was way too into fishing to give me a smile. This was the look that I got.

I could never be more proud or shocked at this! My Princess has unhooked her own fish and let it go into the pond, ALL BY HERSELF! We (I say we, but really Blue Eyes) was so busy taking fish of the hooks for the boys that Princess was forced to wait until he was done. After telling her that fish can only breathe in water, she couldn't let patience get in the way and kill her fish. Instead of letting the little thing suffer anymore, she took it upon herself to do the duty of unhooking and releasing it before suffocation took place.

Yes, at some point in my childhood I took a few fish off of my hooks, but I grew up and realized how gross they are. I asked Blue Eyes if he would stop at home so I could get my old dish gloves so I could help with the unhooking. He laughed at me and declined. He did say that he would handle the dirty work for me. What a guy! I stood by for support.

One of our fishing poles broke in the first 5 minutes of fishing! We made Spiderman share his for 2 minutes. He didn't kick and scream, but the face shows how happy he was about it. My baby didn't catch anything, but she was happy to try!

By this time, my baby and I were at the top of the hill shielding ourselves from the wind. She was hiding her face in my legs and I took the last few pictures of our new hobby! It started to drizzle and I took our napless toddler to the truck. These guys fished for about an hour and a half, and they could have stayed for more.

New suggestions!

Well my kids were wondering what their mom was up to yesterday. I told them. They thought it so cool that they were going to be on a blog, as if they really know what it is. They honestly acted like movie stars! How cute.

I told them that I needed to find nick names for them and they took it upon themselves to give suggestions. The oldest said that hers of course should be "Princess". How fitting. Why would I ever think it should be different?

The boys, well the boys think of themselves as nothing less than super heroes. Dragons are slain, bad guys beaten, and I am saved from the evil of this world daily from these valiant defenders. They prefer "Batman" and "Spiderman". This is very fitting also.

When I asked what they thought the 2 year old daughter should be named, they all unanimously said......"Destroyer". My problem with this is that I see her as my last baby. She will be 30 and have children of her own, and I will still call her the baby. She will always have the littlest feet and nose compared the the rest of my flock. But, she is like a tornado. She is a tom boy. She is the toughest kid in the 2 year old class at church, not to mention the only girl. Boys are not a problem for this kid, when she has two brothers as her personal trainers. Oh, and lets not forget the "sas" lessons from her older, wiser, and much more mature sister. She would fit into the category of "Joan of Arc" or "Cat Woman". In all actuality I might go with these very thoughtful suggestions.

Oh and I did figure out one for my darling husband, "Ol' Blue Eyes". He may not sing like Frank Sinatra, although he does have a beautiful singing voice, he does have the most amazing blue eyes that this world has ever seen. They stole my heart. Those eyes literally came at me like arrows out of cupids bow. They zapped me into his world and I have been there ever since. So all this to say, Ol' Blue Eyes, is his new nick name, or is it pet name?

P.S. I promise pictures by tomorrow. I have inherited another kid for the past few days, and I needed to get some things done.

Ordinarily Random

Well, I did it. After pondering this for the last couple of months, I have decided to dive in and take the plunge into the blogging world. My dear sister-in-law, one of my BFF, led me down her path, and I in the end copied her! She does this more often than she knows. While on the phone with her I always have a pad of paper and pen ready to go, because she is a great source of ideas for me try. Ok, so I don't have a pad of paper or pencil ready. I am way to random for that. BUT! I do copy her all the time!

I really don't know when it started. She started to home school and a year later I decided to give it a whirl. She reads a book, I most likely purchase it with in a few months. She tells me about a blog, I listen intently for a year about it. Then while hubby is working late, again, I get lost in my new world of "The Pioneer Woman". My SIL started her own blog and I am so entertained by it that I think I must start one too. Well here I am!

I have no idea what I will write about. I do know that I have great stories provided by family which include: my dear husband, my 4 children that I home school (always full of great possibilities), my perfect dog, and may be some great growing up stories as well. I also would love to share some of whats on my heart from time to time.

Because I want to keep some privacy, I am going to come up with nicknames for my family. This is where you come in! I need help, because I am stuck on some possiblities that are draining my creativity.

Have you ever gotten an idea that has blocked all other ideas from your brain? It may not even be a great idea. Then your brain seizes to function, because it feels that it has already done its job. It happens to me all the time! Even when dear husband asks for ideas for his message, he's a pastor, I will give him my best idea. If he doesn't like it, I tend to repeat it a few times with different voice inflections. I am not trying to be annoying, which he might deny, I just can't think past the one idea that I already gave. It's like when someone needs money and you give it to them, and they ask for more. You look at them with a blank stare and say, "I already gave some to you!"

Anywho, I need help with names. My current ideas for the kids are the "Narnia" names. First born daughter would be Susan, second born son Peter, third born son would be Edmund, and the baby, ok she's not a baby anymore, would be Lucy. It works but I am not convinced of them. I can't think of one for my dear husband. He is a pastor and an amazing carpentar. He is full of personality and sensitivity. I adore him. He keeps me happy, litterally. He always has a way to make me laugh and smile, even when I am close to throwing something at him. Which NEVER happens in our house! If you have time, I need one too!