Crazy Beautiful Life

Blogging has been off of my radar this week.  Sorry for the silence.  I'm not sure of the exact reason, but I think there are a few things that have contributed to it.  I have been thinking a lot and praying for the families in Joplin, and the other many towns that have been hit with tornadoes.  My friend, Crissyanna, over at Created for Home, lives in Joplin.  While she, her family, and their home are all okay, they have been working in crisis management all week at their church, and are trying to establish a new normal in their lives.  My heart is breaking for this town, and I so wish that I could go down and help her serve.  However, this week has reminded me that I am 26 weeks pregnant, and at risk for preterm labor (both pregnancies, it started at 30 and 32 weeks), so I am limiting my activities.  I don't think removing rubble would be the greatest of ideas for me!  However, I have been in constant prayer for these families.

We started off by spending the weekend at my parents in Illinois.  We came back on Monday, so Tuesday was spent trying to get things put away (and working around window installers) so that if we had a showing on the house, we would be ready.  Good thing, because Wednesday was spent trying to stay out of the house.  We got up late, and then immediately got a phone call that requested a showing in an hour.  That meant showering, eating, and getting girls ready to leave the house, in addition to having a house ready to be shown.  This time was also spent listening to tornado sirens going off (thankfully, it was not for our specific area, but it was close by).  Being from Illinois, if the siren is going off, that means (in my mind) that we need to hit the basement, but my oh-so-experienced-husband-from-Kansas informed me that here we don't panic, and we don't go downstairs until it really is west of us.  Silly me for panicking when I heard tornado sirens, especially after all of the action recently in Tornado Alley!  So, the girls and I made it a practice run while Scott cleaned windows.  Bella is especially scared of tornadoes, but she really wanted to watch the news covering the storms, and has gotten better about it this week.  I think that being educated about them has helped her a bit.  I put off telling her too much about what could happen, and showing her pictures, but she has been more relaxed about the whole ordeal since seeing the weather reports and pictures.  Somehow, the opportunity for her to pray for the people who have suffered has eased her fear.   

After our adventurous hour, we headed to Walmart to pick up some things for school and such, plus I needed to get some storage bins to organize my wonderful stash of baby boy clothing I was blessed with on our trip to Illinois.  (Baby Bumblebee now has clothing up to size 2T!)  I apparently found the perfect time to go shopping:  in between severe thunderstorms.  I've never seen Walmart so quiet!  So we spent some extra time there checking out all of their baby items.  Pretty soon, Scott called to tell me there was another storm headed this way, so we should head towards home.  We were home all of 20 minutes, maybe, when he called to let me know that there was yet another showing now scheduled, so the girls got their pencil boxes put together and colored a bit while I tried to vacuum the carpet.  This time while we had to leave the house, we went to McDonald's for lunch and playtime.  I think all the busyness got to me, because I wasn't drinking enough water, and I was terribly sore by the end of the day.  I sat with my feet up for the rest of the evening, minus that half hour where I took the girls to church, only to find out that I missed the memo that there were no children's activities!

The rest of the week has been relatively quiet, as far as I can remember.  I did take the girls to Target on Thursday to pick up a birthday present and get some new swimsuits.  I was dreading the swimsuit shopping, but we did pretty well, and were out of the store in an hour.  That is good, considering that Bella takes forever to pick out birthday presents for her friends.  I can't blame her, I am the same way!  We just want to pick out the best present possible, and its so agonizing!  We also went to Scott's first volleyball game.  He is playing in our church's league this summer.  I would love to play also, but my balance is just a little off right now. :)  So we go to watch Scott play socialize. 

Friday was pajama day here mostly.  At 26 weeks pregnant, I am starting to leave the 'honeymoon' stage, and am feeling some aches and pains, and am tired exhausted without 9 hours of sleep!  The girls and I attended a birthday party at a friends house, and then we went to Party City to scout out Toy Story party decorations (Bella's party is next Saturday!) and Walmart to see about a pool (a small kiddie pool), since its going to be in the 80s all week. 

watch the new Yogi Bear movie that we got from Red Box last night!  Have a great Memorial Day weekend!  Hopefully I can find a time that I feel decent enough to get my pregnancy picture taken this week, but mostly I want to just rest.