Year 2, Day 278: Worse Noise Ever!

"Oh my word, what was that?!"  That's what Jared and I both said a couple of hours ago at 8:30 while getting kids ready for bed after an evening out.  First thought: tornado.  It had been raining pretty heavily off and on for the previous couple of hours (that story follows this one).  But the winds suddenly picked up and we heard a crash, boom, bang we (or least I) have never, ever heard before.  Jared was in the bathroom changing Abishai's diaper, so he ran straight for the front door to find out.  I was in our back bedroom putting away things, and because I don't know what the "freight train" sound really sounds like, I tried to gather the wandering children into the hallway.  I'm pretty there have been storm warnings, but no tornado warnings, but still, I know they can come up at any point.  Well, upon further investigation, Jared found that one of our big trees in the backyard lost a huge chunk of it, and it scraped the edges of the roof.  Most of it is on the ground, however, we saw debris on our front walkway and in the truck bed, meaning, that pieces could have flown over the whole house! As far as we know there's no leakage inside unless it's in the roof at the very corner of the boys' bedroom.  But, it did knock into the power line, so we called the power company.  Thankfully, we still have power, otherwise I wouldn't be typing this now.  Jared went out and did some more looking around when the winds died down, but we won't get good pictures and see the real damage until the morning.

There have only been a handful of times I have been that panicked.  I didn't scream, because it's not something I naturally do.  I was truly frightened though.  I really don't know if I would do if I lived in tornado and/or hurricane alley. I would be scared for a good part of the year.  I think that's why God has us up here in the north.  Well, snow and ice does bring down power lines and trees because of their weight, and sometimes the winds in places like PEI will topple tree limbs.  I don't know.  I'm just super scared of these things.  And Keturah was very concerned, too.  But it was pretty much a freak accident because there was no way to predict a wind gust that huge in a normal rainstrom taking out a huge tree limb.  Granted, Jared wanted to take care of at least trimming the tree since it is old and probably has termite and/or ant damage.  This is the tree that is right next to the swingset, and I can see a few toys strewn about on our porch, so I'm guessing it's worse out there where some of the toys were left.

Abishai's words about the whole thing was, "Tree broken?  Daddy fix it?" because Jared was going outside with his flashlight to inspect everything.  No, honey, Daddy can't fix the tree.  Melt my heart kid, melt my heart.  Justin was mindlessly playing on his iPod and probably doesn't know what we were all talking about.  Otherwise, he would have been more anxious about going to bed.  Benaiah was still at Grandma's and Grandpa's because he was doing tech team at church while we were out at a wedding reception tonight.

Ok, so, wedding reception.  It was a decent enough day weather wise, so I was hoping and praying for my friend that was hosting the wedding reception to have a clear evening as well.  Well, it was an outdoor reception and thankfully they had rented a huge tent to put on their driveway.  It started to rain just as we were arriving.  And then it poured, and poured, and poured.  The tent held up and since it was right by the house and there were trees behind it, the winds weren't terrible and the rain didn't directly come in the tent from the sides.  However, part of the tent was on the grass and the rain started to pool there, which was right behind our chairs!  It was worst right behind the bride and groom's table, so the bride went inside to change out of her wedding dress so it wouldn't get damaged.  I felt so bad for the hostess and her family because this is the family who lost their barn in a fire 10 months ago and are now finally starting to rebuild it after tons and tons of legal tape.  But, everybody hung in there, and the rain had paused long enough for us to make our escape at around 7:45pm.

We got all dressed up, including three of the kids, begging them to wear nicer clothes, and ended up in a rainy tent.  Oh well, it's all just part of the adventure, right?!  We were smart enough to wear old sneakers, big boots, or sandals because we knew that it was at someone's home, probably on or near grass, and they have tons of animals and plenty of mud from the last few days of rainstorms.  In fact, Jared was smart and tucked his nice suit pants into his ugliest waterproof "mickey mouse" rainboots.  I laughed, shook my head, took a picture and didn't argue.  I felt bad for those who still tried to wear high heels or polished loafers.  But we did enjoy ourselves, and talked with a couple at our table with very little awkward pause.  I just wished that we could have gotten to the dancing part and had seen Abishai dancing or something.  I guess that will have to wait until next time.  Thankfully, the hostess, manages very well in most situations, relying on God to help her through it all.  She just dug in and kept going no matter what with a smile on her face.  She is the mother of the groom, too.

And that was pretty much our day.  We had playtime and worktime and even a little schooltime while the boys were at their first Bible Bowl competition for the season.  They did well enough.  I don't know how many 7th graders there were, but Justin seemed pleased he was the 4th best scoring 7th grader on the test at 61%.  Benaiah got over 100 (out of 150), which is a vast important from last year.  Their team placed 2nd in Division 3 (there's 3 divisions, with the first division being the hardest) with 7 wins and 3 losses.  So, overall, a great day for them!  But that's how it went last year.  Strong start, but then they grew weaker in the middle and then a bit better by the end of the year.  Just as long as they have fun, that's what's important!

Time to get their "bowl" on!

Benaiah and Justin had to leave early, otherwise they would have been on stage, too, receiving the 2nd place trophy for the 3rd Division.

There they are!

Breakfast. Justin. = I want to eat breakfast next to Justin and there's nothing you can do about it!

I think I'll take a mid morning nap right here.

Player!

And, if this kid doesn't stop moving his food bowls around...oh my word...I'm tired of the crumb trail!  I finally had to say, enough is enough, eat at your spot at the counter and don't move.

A moment of bliss.

I found the tape player (I bought off of eBay a few years ago) in with my office/craft supplies.  The kids love it!

Gorgeous triple rainbow that merged into 1 as we drove to my friend's house.

What a mess!  They have to rebuild the barn 7 feet higher than it was because it's in a flood plain.  The roof of the barn will be taller than the house and the house sits up on the hill a bit.  If there was a flash flood, it would take the house before it would take the barn.  Frustrating.

Goofy boots!  Abishai is like, "why can't we go see the horses?"

A rose petal in our drinks!

I brought the big camera so I could get better shots because I'm just not happy with grainy iPhone photos, although this one is way better than my last one.  But, I was more concerned about it getting dropped in the mud and we were sitting the whole time, that I didn't need it or use it like I had wanted to.

We both keep telling ourselves not to buy more books, but, we don't listen to our inner self. And we both bought books this week without the other one knowing it.  The book I bought was to replace a library book that is overdue because we are still reading it but someone else wants it.  And Jared's book (books, because a couple more are coming in the next week) is for "market research."  Ok, then.

Yes, Indy (technically north of Indy by 10 minutes I think), has one of these things now.  It's not my cup of tea at all.  Not even their bookcases and cube shelves.  Too modern and "clean line" looking.  Prices aren't horrible but they are still way out of my price range even if I did want/need something.  Which we still need a tall bookshelf and cube storage, but I'll buy them second hand.

Loads of trouble, this one is.  Notice, this is the third place this child is eating today.  Same bowl of food.

My sister dug up some pictures of Justin and Keturah because she misses them.   And this is why I say Abishai is Justin's clone.

Again, this is Justin, not Abishai.

Baby Keturah.  You can barely make out that she was a bit chubbier than the boys.

My evening attire.

Oh makeup, how much a dislike using you.  I don't have enough patience or practice and not enough time to learn.  But my friends said I did it well.  What you can't see is the eyeliner that smudge halfway up my eyelid on one side and the mascara that smudged halfway up the other eyelid.  And this was before we went out!   And I got lazy and ran out of time and did absolutely nothing with my hair because you know what, leaving it down IS doing something with my hair that I don't normally do. I do like to show off my natural (totally natural aka the sun did it) highlights sometimes though And wear real pearls.

A better view of the rainbow!

This was right behind our chairs.  Ew!

Decorations were beautiful, but it was loud with the DJ going and everybody in a small space.

Good call, husband, good call.

Guess how old these two items are?  Older than Keturah! No joke!  It's probably been that long since I have used this little purse or I did use it but didn't check the expiry date on the tic tacs before.  It says 2007.  The gum is still soft though.

Reading about the red, yellow and kid "michael" as in motorcycles!  Check out those toes holding up the book!

There, that's the close up.  I do have more eye wrinkles (but who cares) and I did try a deeper blush and I actually did use eye liner.  And I noticed that I have too much blotchy skin from too much sun exposure without protection.   I love my freckles, but I do want to be careful with skin cancer.  What's my secret to glowing skin? Only wash it and moustireize it after a shower and no make up 99% of the time.  Same goes with the hair.  I don't blowdry or put chemicals  in it  so it stays healthy.

Yeah, NOW I look at my weather app AFTER a tree nearly put a hole in our roof! Go figure! But storms are done for the night.  Yeah!

P.S. I almost forgot!  This guy turned 60 today!  I've been waiting for this day all year!  So what he's a Christian celebrity, I know 60 is a significant year, and he's been a huge influence in my life.  But 60!!! Remember, I became a fan when he was my age, 36!!!  And he just posted this week that his 14th grandchild was born!  He's out on tour right now, and not coming anywhere close to me, but I hear it's incredible as he starts sharing his new songs.  New album due out February 16th, 2018!  Can't wait!  Happy 60th Birthday to the one and only Michael W. Smith!