No power ....no problem

The power went off at our house again today.  It went off around 11 and after about an hour we decided we didn't want to stick around a hot house (its projected to be 103*) and we sure didn't want to lose any more food with our fridge not having power.

Sooooo...we packed up the contents of our fridge and the kids and Emery and headed over to Mrs Sheila's house.   Not only does it have an extra fridge to keep our food cold but she also has an awesome pool!  We turned lemons into lemonade and had a fun pool day!

Here are some pics of the girls and a couple videos...mk wanted me to video her doing a cannonball and bria wanted me to video her "stirring the pool" ..enjoy! 

Ps...just got word from the power company that our power is back on! 

Challenge extended...

I am trying not to get discouraged bc I haven't been out for a run in almost two weeks...life was absolutely insane the last two weeks.  I don't want to make excuses...I am mad at myself for not going.   I didn't go when I had a chance and then when I was ready to go something would come up and Mike wasn't around to watch the girls.  It comes down to having a better plan and sticking to it...planning the night before when I am going to go for a run and then going.  That is my goal.  

On a completely separate note but slightly related, someone posted a link to a June 30 day ab challenge...so I decided to do it!!!  We are 3 days in and I have done it every night.  I hope I can keep up with it but either way, I am just going to try my best and push myself to do more than I think I can!  Mike is doing it with me and that is nice.  Its not too late...you can do it too!  Then we can cheer each other on! 

Storms

Last week we had a supercell storm come through and direct hit Rotan.  We had a very small tornado or two and about 4 inches of rain fall in about an hour.  It was intense!  Here are the girls while we hunkered down in the guest room as a shelter!  They were troopers and loved it...we made it fun and brought blankets and snacks and played farkle!

When the storm was over we looked out the door and this is what we saw...the parking lot was flooded, the barditches were full and the road in front of out house was flooded!  I have never seen that before!  

The next day we drove around some to see more of the damage and flooding.  This is where part of a road was washed out by where some of our friends live.  They still have the road closed because it tore up so much of the road that it is not safe to drive even though the water is not high anymore.

Here is the main road coming out of town...it was completely flooded still in parts, but the night before most of it was underwater!

This was a field...now it looks like Lake Rotan

This is one of our friends' barn.  They parked their farm trucks under them to protect them from the hail...not sure if this turned out to be any better

We lost power through all of this starting around 5pm on Thursday evening.  We didn't get power back until Friday night around 10pm.  It made me so grateful for the privilege of living in the USA.  So often I take for granted power, the ability to take a hot shower bc of hot water heaters, the ability to keep perishable food in a refrigerator, air conditioning.  There are so many places in the world where these are luxuries and yet I was miserable bc I was without for 30 hours.  It definitely put things into perspective.  

Needless to say, when these guys showed up on Friday night to start fixing our poles, we were very excited!

Bffs

Last week, Cheyenne spent the week with her Nana in Abilene.  We weren't able to go out there til Friday, but we met them at the Abilene zoo...our zoo pass allows us to take in up to 6 which was perfect!  As soon as they saw each other there were big hugs!!!  

They walked around holding hands most of the day!!

I had Baby Emery with me...this is how we roll!!!

And you can't forget Dakota!!! She was so enamored with Emery....

...and the waterbottle!!

These girls are so precious!  I love them and I love that we live close enough to Abilene to meet up and stay in contact!  They are bff's and I think they always will be as long as we are able to stay in touch!  That shouldn't be a problem because I kinda like hanging out with her mom too!

Recital

A couple of weeks ago we had our girls' recital.  We did ballet with Ballet Abilene and we have loved our experience there!  This was our first big recital experience!  The recital was at the Historic Paramount Theater in Abilene.  It is a gorgeous venue!  Dress rehersal was Friday night and we planned ahead to stay in Abilene that night with my parents since we figured it would be a late night. This was the first time I have done stage makeup for my girls.  It is a lot of makeup!!! But they looked gorgeous!

We had to get to the rehersal at 4 for Bria but she didn't practice until 645!!!  Her group was towards the end of the first half.  She fell asleep in my arms at one point for about 30-45 minutes!  It probably helped her get through it all!  When she woke up she had a cookie waiting for her that daddy had gone to get.  Doesn't get much better than that!

I got some pictures of Bria during dress rehersal, but not MK, my phone died and I grabbed the car charger instead of the wall charger....doesn't do me much good if I am not near or in the car!!

Here are the girls on performance night!  In my noviceness I didn't pack clothes that are easy to have tights on underneath and easy to change out of, so that afternoon we went to Kohl's and got them these cute and brightly colored sundresses!  I love them!

Here is Bria about 5-10 minutes before she went on stage!  Cutest.Lion.EVER!!!!

And here are some of her other lion friends...sweet girls!  Next year Bria will move up to the next age group class!  It will be fun for her as she lives for Ballet and will be able to get into more technique!

And here is my sweet doll, MK!  She still has not decided if she wants to do ballet again next year or if she wants to switch over to gymnastics!  Either way I know she will do great...when she sets her mind to something, she does it!!!

And here are some of her fellow dolls!

Overall we loved this year and are so excited for next year!  But before that we will have ballet camp for Bria with a special friend coming as well!!!  Cheyenne will be joining her for it!  

Snakes

Sunday afternoon I took the girls to Walmart to look for birthday presents for Mike.  We got home and Mike was still at the baccalaureate service for Roby High School.  While we were at Walmart we also got a hummingbird feeder.  We have ALOT of hummingbirds and the girls really wanted to get a feeder so that we could see them more up on the porch.  We got home and went into the house, wrapped Mike's present and filled the hummingbird feeder.  We went outside to hang it.  We decided where to hang it on the porch and MK went in to get me a stool since I am short.  As I was standing there waiting watching Bria play by the front flower bed, I looked over to the right and noticed a rattlesnake!!! This is the first rattlesnake live or dead that I have seen since we moved here outside of the roundup.  Bria was great...she was only about 4-5 ft away from the snake.  I immediately told her to get in the house bc there was a snake...she obeyed beautifully!  We went inside and I grabbed the gun...unfortunately when I grabbed the magazine to load it, it was empty.  I tried to overcome my shaking hand to load the ratshot into the magazine and went out on the porch.  I shot it and it didn't move much.  I am not sure what I was expecting.  So I shot it again.  In my franticness I only put two rounds in the magazine, so I went inside and put a few more in.  I didn't want to take chances that the snake was only wounded or that somehow I had missed.  I shot it again and 2 more times....never too many times for a snake I say!!!  Of course 5 minutes after I killed it Mike came home!! I made hime do the dirty work and cut off the rattles for me!

Here is a pic of the snake after 5 rounds of ratshot...it was dead!

Before Mike cut the rattles off, he let MK practice using her bb gun and she shot it a whole bunch and then he took the shotgun and shot it close range twice to make extra sure it was dead dead and done!

Here he is holding it up so we could see about how long it was...We figured out it was about 38 inches or so without the rattles...the rattles add another two inches...pretty bit snake...and old!

Bria was being brave and holding the trash bag for Mike while he disposed of it!

And here are my rattles...they say that each rattle is a year of its life since it sheds its skin each year and that forms the rattle.  This particular snake had 11 rattles...quite the old snake! 

On a side note, I am so thankful I saw the snake sitting there before Bria got any closer!  She likes to come up on the porch between the two garden beds and had she done that the snake likely would have bitten her. Also, I am thankful that the snake was pretty calm.  The sun had just dipped down behind the house enough to shade the garden beds and the snake was sleeping in the shade.  We hadn't disturbed it (until I shot it)...it was not defensive.  It was minding its own business.  God was looking out for us and protecting us I know!

32

I have a bunch of posts that I want to post but I have no internet and I need to post them from my computer.    So tonight I will leave you with an ode to my husband on his birthday!   Since he is 32 today here are 32 reasons I am thankful he is alive and mine!
32. He kills spiders
31. He takes out the trash
30. He has an awesome beard that he keeps bc I love it!
29. He has such a strong faith in God
28.  He is always encouraging
27. He Loves God with all his heart and soul and mind
26. He teaches our daughters to do the same
25. He sets a great example for our girks for how they should be treated
24. He always treats me wuth love and respect
23.  He gets that I am a little crazy and unpredictable and..
22. He loves me for it
21. He puts up with all of our girly stuff
20. Family is 2nd for him only behind God
19. He seeks Godly wisdom
18. He strives for righteousness
17. He likes to cuddle
16. He knows the importance of reading Gods Word daily and tries to do so
15. He is big and strong
14.  He puts up with and supports me with everything I overcommit to
13. He is willing to explain everything I ask about all the sports we watch and he does so with patience and love
12. He is silly...and silly with me and silly with the girls
11. He loves to have fun
10. He makes discipline and self control and integral part of his character
9. He strives to live above reproach
8. He takes his responsibilities to our family very seriously
7. He preaches the Word unashamed, allowing God to speak through him regularly
6. He is incredibly hot!!
5. He treats our girls and me like princesses
4. He is the perfect balance in character for me
3. He understands more about me than sometimes I do
2. He love, cares, and prays for the members of his church like they were family
1. He loves my cooking and I love to cook for him!

I could go on...but I guess I have to wait for him to get older!  I love you babe...Happy Birthday!