Springtime in Oklahoma - A Close Call Last Night

It's spring...we're in Oklahoma...so we expect tornadoes...but we were unprepared last night for the rare 2:00AM twister that passed just shy of our house.

All afternoon the weather guys were on with severe weather to the west of the OKC metro area. Nick and I stayed up later then normal (for a work night) watching one said storm that was starting to enter the metro area. After a while we decided that things looked good for us. Yes torrential wind, rain and hail were headed our way but the tornadic portion of the storm was seemingly going to stay south of us.

At 2:00AM in a dazy half-sleep we hear a loud sound. Nick shot up out of bed and said "What the hell was that???" I sure didn't know...I was as confused as he was. Then we hear yelling from the front of our house. Our two neighbors are standing on the front porch yelling back and forth to each other random street intersections from where they thought the tornado touched down. Nick and I (like any good Oklahoman) also decided it smart to stand out on our front porch.

Our computer was off and our satellite TV was useless because of the storm so we had a tiny handheld radio tuned into a local station. Things were confusing they kept yelling out random intersections. Then....the wind picked up and the power shut off.

As quick as we could Nick grabbed the dogs and I fished through a pile of stuffed animals until I could feel Mason on his bed. (keep in mind that it was pitch black) Nick got our lantern and off we went to the storm shelter. No shoes, no coats, no identification, no cell phones, no valuables...no nothing. Just us..in our jammies and the two crazy dogs and our tiny radio.

After a while we deemed it safe to leave and went back up stairs...how does one go back to sleep after such a scare???? It took forever! The power stayed out until close to 5:30 this morning.

Generally we are very well-prepared for tornados. We are avid weather watchers, especially this time of year. Nick had cleared the shelter of all spiderwebs and dead bugs early that afternoon. We have packed up our expensive camera equpiment and have a bag of water/snacks packed. It's our rule that we put on socks and shoes before going down and always carry identification and cell phones. This time was too quick, we had no time to prepare. All of the stuff was even packed by the back door ready for us to grab, but it was dark, we were nervous and well..it just didn't happen.

Thank goodness for storm shelters and thank goodness for all of the weather expertise in Oklahoma. We give our weather guys a hard time but they are some of the better weathermen in the nation. Oklahoma has state-of-the-art weather computers and usually lead the nation in weather watching. For that I am grateful.

What I learned:
1) We need to work on our short-notice tornado drill
2) We need to get a weather radio
3) Nick is officially an Oklahoman now because he went on the front porch to look at the sky in the middle of a storm. :)

Steph

Hoppy Easter 2008

What a whirlwind of a weekend!!

Friday: Mason had his Easter party at school and they hunted eggs. He did a great job and got lots of eggs! After his party we headed down to Dallas.

Saturday: We woke up early and headed to the Ft. Worth Zoo...which happened to be waaaaay more crowded than we expected. The weather was FABULOUS and we quite enjoyed our trip. On the way to the car we noticed little penguins walking nearby!!! An animal outreach group had them on display - Nick and I thought Mase would surely freak out. He did! It was such a fun experience for him. He kept holding out his hands saying "Come here penguin, I hold you". He didn't understand why we couldn't touch the penguins but he sat very still and patiently watched them.
Later that night we dyed Easter eggs (which I have no pictures of, I'll have to get some from Summer) and the kids had a fabulous time!

Sunday: Sunday was COLD and WINDY. We headed out early to the Dallas Aboreteum which was phenomenal. The flowers are amazing. We ran into the Easter Bunny and got a lot of fun pictures. Mase especially had fun with his "tucker" (sucker) and Tim, Summer and Livee got lots of family pictures taken. :) That afternoon we had a big egg hunt in the backyard and Mase loaded up on the loot again.

All in all it was a great weekend!

Here are pictures from our trip. It's easiest if you click the "View as Slideshow" option.

xo,
Steph

The LOUD Toddler

Wow, two posts in one day!

Last weekend Nick spent quality time with the backyard picking up the dog poo (yes gross I know but someone has to do it). Mase wanted to play out there too...so Nick told him he could play but he couldn't touch the poo.

Today we went to Target and we were checking out when Nick realized that he forgot to pick up the dog food. So, I checked out while he ran to get the food.

Mason said: "Where Dad go Mom?"
I said: "He went to get the dog food, he'll be back"
Mason said (very loudly might I add): "Oh Mom I DON'T TOUCH THE POOP AT ALL I ONLY TOUCH DA GWASS (grass)"

Oh. My. Goodness.

I can't really explain how loud he was...the checker lady just gave me this weird look and I pushed the cart away.

Oh the joys of having a toddler that repeats stuff. :)

Steph

Brainwashing him with Toy Story

Remember me telling you about our big Disney trip that's coming up? We're still soooooo very excited about it and can't wait for the trip to get here!!In planning we decided that Mason needs to go to Disney with as much knowledge of Disney characters as possible. We would hate to take him all of the way to Orlando only for him to meet people he's clueless about. :) So, we started the training.

He's well aware of "Queen" the red race car from the movie Cars...we've only watched that movie 4,937,416 times so if we don't know him by now then something is seriously wrong. He's in love with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so he knows all of the traditional characters too. He has the "monster movie" aka Monsters Inc. so he'll be set if we run in to Sully or Mike (the green one-eyed guy).

We thought he was set until I realized there were tons of Woody and Buzz Lightyear exhibits at Disney. Of course there would be, it was their first big 3-D cool cartoon!!! So, off we went to Target to buy Mason a new movie - Toy Story. But...turns out he didn't want Toy Story that day...he wanted the 'bug movie' aka A Bug's Life.

I was determined to brainwash Mason with Toy Story before we got to Disney. So, we finally bought him the movie (we didn't give him a choice at the store) and he's in LOVE!!!! Toy Story has now pushed Cars aside as a favorite in our house. And, we've only seen Toy Story 4,562,876 times so far...not too bad!

Mase LOVES Woody and especially Buzz Lightyear. I feel confident that he'll know who they are when we visit the magical World and he'll be so pumped to see them. He talks constantly about the scary toys and the scary dog on the movie, but his most favorite thing to do is to pretend he's Buzz Lightyear - he likes to fly!

Below you'll see a link to a funny video of Mason pretending he's Buzz Lightyear. For those of you that don't speak MaseTalk I'll translate.

At the start he'll say "Stand back everyone, stand back"
Then he'll say "To immimity (infinity) and byond (beyond)"
He'll turn around and 'fly' aka jump down on his bottom and then he'll say "I'm stuck in the tub!" We don't know why he says he's stuck in the tub, he just does. I don't think it's even part of the movie.

Operation Brainwash Complete.

Here is the video of Nick and Mason playing Buzz Lightyear.

Steph

My New Outlook on Support, Kindness and Generosity

From a young age I've worked hard to leave a good impression on the world. I am a strong believer in charity work, helping those less fortunate and donating my time/energy/goods for a greater cause whether it's a friend in need, a stranger in need, an animal in need and even an environment in need. I guess you could say that giving back is important to me. Until today however, I'm not sure that I have ever realized the extent kindness can affect a person's life or situation.

You see, I'm not normally on the receiving end of good deeds. I honestly don't even know how to feel about being in this position now. Sure I've needed a shoulder to cry on or someone to hug from time to time, but for the most part I've been extremely fortunate in life and have been able to give more than receive.

The out-pouring of support for Nick and I has absolutely blown me away. To believe that there is good in the world and that people are still compassionate is one thing...but to actually witness it firsthand is breathtaking.

To-date we've received many phone calls, cards, emails, thoughts, prayers and hugs. We've received beautiful flower arrangements, enough to have some at home and some at work so that both places remain cheery. Did I forget to mention the giant cookie tower or wonderful organic pampering bath products? And today I got the most precious gift. An online friend sent me a shawl that she received from a friend when she went through a miscarriage...I have no words for how thoughtful that was. Two of my dearest friends brought lunch to the house today, a large Diet Coke from Sonic and my favorite flat bread and roasted pepper hummus in the world.

I feel so many things right now..fortunate, blessed, loved and cared for. Nick and I can never begin to express how much this means to us. It is incredible to know that we have friends to lean on, supportive family members and a network of wonderful people that care about us.

I can promise each of you that after we heal from this situation we will make good of your generosity and pay it forward. Giving means something new to me now, it's not just about helping a situation become better, it's not about lending a helping hand, it's about healing emotional wounds and showing people that good still exists in the world.

From the bottom of my heart I thank you all. You have truly helped bring many smiles to my face.

xoxo,
Steph

Daytime TV is Offensive to Women

I'm back at work today but not after spending two grueling days being forced to watch daytime TV. Daytime TV is for the birds.

What do advertisers think stay-at-home-moms are?? A bunch of knuckleheads?? I can't tell you how many commercials I saw for green tea nail polish and bathroom cleaners...and if it wasn't those two then it was a commercial about the newest miracle paper towel or a hair dye that promises to rid the gray.

I hereby swear off of daytime TV as I think it's offensive to women.

Just because you've chosen to stay at home with your kiddos doesn't make you ditzy....doesn't make you excited about cleaning the bathrooms and it most certainly does not make your brain useless. I don't stay at home, not sure if I could even pull it off and keep my sanity. However, I have lots of friends that stay home with their kiddos. Most, if not all, of them have college degrees and have forfeited a promising career in order to offer their kid(s) what they feel is the best care.

These women are smart, educated and able to think on their own. Most come from a home where responsibilities are shared and they are not looked upon as merely the 'woman of the house' who only watches the rugrats, folds laundry and has a hot dinner on the table at 5:00.

Stay-at-home-moms deserve more than nail polish commercials. They deserve more than a reality TV show about what they should or shouldn't wear and they deserve more than trashy Hollywood tabloid shows.

Come on TV producers of America...get it together! How about shows that matter, shows that speak to the intelligence of women today??

Steph

Bad News...

Last week I started to lose some of my pregnancy symptoms. I freaked out of course but everyone around me was super supportive and kept reminding me that things fluctuate and every pregnancy is different and that everything was ok.
I even bought a pregnancy test (that came back positive) just to help trick my mind that it was all ok. I really thought that maybe I was just paranoid, maybe I was just imagining things because I was so scared to miscarry again.

I guess I should have trusted my gut, trusted my symptoms and trusted my inner voice. I think next time I'll just let myself worry and not convince myself that I'm crazy. Because, maybe I'm not.

This morning I woke up and had a little blood, not a ton and it stopped after a bit. I called my doctor who happened to be in the office so he told me to come up for a quick ultrasound. The baby was there and much bigger than my last one. He was cute, but he had no heartbeat.

So ends another sad pregnancy story for us. Nick and I are understandably devastated. We just spent over an hour last night talking about which kid would have what room and how we would decorate them both. We talked about perhaps needing a bigger car and lots of other stuff that included a family of four.

Where do we go from here? We honestly really don't know. We are so heartbroken after two back-to-back losses that we're not thinking clearly about future family plans. The doctor said after nature takes its course with this baby then we can do testing to see if either of us have factors that would make us more likely to have a repeat miscarriages.

I can't get away from this heavy feeling in my heart. I've tried foods, movies and even a giant glass of Diet Coke (that normally does the trick) - but nothing works.

Please keep us in your thoughts.

Steph

Losing My Mind...Literally!

Things are coming up missing. Files are filed in the wrong folders at work. I feel like I'm constantly saying "I don't get it" or "I don't understand". We got a new carseat for Mason last night and, as many of you know, I'm normally very on top of car seats, how to install them, weight limits, etc. I've even been called the Car Seat Natzi. But, last night the car seat was smarter than me.

Today at work I can't find a single thing. All of my 2008 files are labeled 2007.
I'm officially losing it. Turns out I'm not alone however. Here are a few tidbits:

Pregnancy brain manifests itself as simple forgetfulness, loss of memory, and other minor problems. A previously "together" woman may now forget simple appointments, not be able to retain names or dates.

There are many theories of why this occurs in some pregnant women. One of the theories includes brain shrinkage. Saying that the brain shrinks 3-5% during pregnancy, which takes approximately six months after birth to return to normal. Or the theory that the problems are driven by hormones during pregnancy. While others believe that it is just a period of time where the mother-to-be is reflecting inward and the introspection and problem solving of the future is what causes the mental fuzziness.

It may even be that since labor and birth are done with the right side of the brain, our bodies are encouraging us to be more right brained during the course of pregnancy.

What ever the reason, my brain is what they call 'foggy'. I'm so confused by this blog...I don't get it. At least I rememberd my login information in order to even post this blog.

Hopefully I'll remember to come post again.

Steph

Make Up Your Mind Oklahoma!

Saturday: Mid 70's, perfect zoo weather, Mase even wore capri pants.

Sunday: Windy, severe weather, two tornados, tornado sirens were blaring last night. Nick even thought about cleaning out our tornado shelter. (Which we need to get done soon since the tornado season is soon approaching)

Today: COLD, windy, blustery and SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How you can go from 75 degrees to tornados to snow in three days never ceases to amaze me.

Steph