Tomato Storms

Being able to watch the news, keep up with the weather and follow the latest from work is not always as much fun as it sounds. Incredible storm cells burst into action suddenly Tuesday afternoon. As quickly as I realized this was severe, I realized Coppell, my home, laid in its path.

Keep in mind that I am not at home.. I am at work. Instead my 3 children are in schools in the path of the storm.

Thankfully my teenager Jules kept her cell phone close. The 2 of us were able to text while a small tornado blew a mess of our streets, schools and homes. When the storm finally cleared enough for a safe journey home I passed cars with missing windows hail littered lawns and downed trees.

At home we found our trees damaged and large hail stones still thawing in the lawn. A closer look discovered our storage shed popped full of holes and leaks in our roof from the large hailstones.

When we finally had everyone home safe we asked the kids if they knew what had happened.

Liam quickly answered with excited bright eyes,
“We had to hide in the kitchen at school, because there were bad tomatoes banging on the doors to get us”.

I guess when you’re 3 and someone tells you about a tornado, you might just hear tomato, and the banging of Hail would sound like insane Tomatoes trying to get in.

Thank God everyone was ok!

Elle's First Play

This morning Elle woke before the rest of the house and started working on her play. She had been talking about writing one for a few days now, but her first masterpiece well exceeded any of my expectations! I love how well she writes, and spells!!

In case you can't read it clearly, here is the translation:

"Elle is a little Girl"
"Liam is a little Boy"
"But we love to pick berries"
"Mom is a cooker"
"Daddy is a waiter"
"Elle and Liam skip to the restaurant"
"It's Over"

Wildfires and a New Boat

At last the, search for our new family boat has ended! In a too good to be posting on Craigs list hurry, we all headed out to Hells Gate, Possum Kingdom to hopefully be first in line! High winds made driving the first hour quite hard and wild fires added a smoky smell, taste and haze to the air to the rest of the journey there. We arrived around 3:30p, and met two of the nicest more hosptiable people we've encountered in awhile. They opened their beautiful home to us and while Jay and Mr. Mitchell finished the dealings on our soon to be new boat, Mrs. Mitchell spent time reading to Elle, telling us stories of their adventures and letting Elle and Liam into their grandchilrens toys. The news reports of the near wild fires made their way to the TV several times.

We finally left a little after 5p with the deal sealed.

The smoke seemed even thicker now and as we headed towards Weatherford we passed several visible columns of smoke that appeared to be just over the hill we drove by. Seemed out of this world and impossible to catch in pictures, we attempted anyway. Here are some shots in the drive down from Hells Gate to Weatherford.

I think we'll have to name our new boat something like "Smoke on the Water" so we'll always remember our adventurous trip to the purchase.

Elle's First Catch

We made it to the Lake House this weekend for a much needed break. We expected the weather to be dreary, rainy and cool but were delightfully surprised with the beautiful sunshine and highs near 60. Jay and I went out on our own fishing Saturday and I caught some monster crappie.. it was great fun.

But the highlight of the weekend came on Sunday when our little Elle caught her first fish.

We were spending some quality Elle, Mom time together while Jay and his sister Dana were out on the boat and Uncie Eric got some quality Liam time up on the deck. Elle had already started to complain at me,

"Where are the fish?" "It's just not working." "The sun is blinding me."

Trying to keep her interested I said, "Just be patient, just believe you will catch a fish, stay positive it will happen and remember to wiggle your pole a little bit occasionally"...

Here is where I say thank you for the tip Mr. Marshall because her next series of complaints were as follows..

"Mom! This is just too heavy! Look now its stuck!... "

I realized the "heavy" was her little barbie pole nearly bent in half and the "stuck" was her fighting a fish attempting to escape from her hook. I quickly, calmly replied,

"No Elle you have a fish on, you need to reel it in!"

Our sweet little girl reacted and turned that reel with all her might holding tight to the rod! I finally assisted and lifted the fish out of the water. Realizing I was on the dock without my camera I called to Eric and Liam to bring the camera quick.

Elle was so happy and beaming from her catch, she quickly put her line back in the water and tried the Mr. Crappie tricks again. She immediately snagged her 2nd catch, a poor Blue Gill almost in the eye! I figure it still counted as a catch, so I snapped this photo too.

While in the house getting Liam down for a nap I asked Elle if she was ready for a nap too. Her reply was haste and stern as she stated, "No, I will not nap, I am going to go potty then I will fish more!"

What a wonderful weekend!

Trick or Treat and a Birthday

Halloween was soo much fun this year. Our little Liam refused to wear the Elmo hood on his costume at his Halloween party last Friday. Luckily he tooted a different horn on Sunday when we set out to Trick or Treat with our great neighbors and their 2 little ones Owen and Ally. After only the 2nd house he quickly understood what Halloween Trick or Treating was and did everything he could to keep up with his big Sister and Owen.

We couldn’t stop smiling and laughing, it was so much fun!

Jules and her best friend Kendra went off on their own for some big kid Trick or Treating. She’s just too big, but thankfully she made time to pose with her little siblings.

After all the candy fun, we gave our sweet dog Poppy his birthday cake. He joined us for Trick or Treating wearing his Nowitzki jersey. Unfortunately none of the pictures really show off his attire. Either way I think he enjoyed his 1st Birthday!