take a walk

I love taking walks with this guy....

he loves to explore...

this is just beyond the barbwire fence north of our house. from here we can walk to the turkey buildings...

the river if we wanted to...

if I wanted to pass out & have to call someone to pick us up.

we don't go very far because our exploratory journeys usually take place during one of isabella's naps or later in the day if daddy gets home early so he can stay with her {but her monitor works really good so no worries}. she's not walking yet & she weighs about 30 lbs... I can barely keep up with D, much less carrying 30lbs of cute baby. besides, I enjoy the walk as much ad D does.

I love this tree.

 I know it's dead but it looks pretty cool. struck by lightning I assume?!

down this hill there's usually some cows to the north, a creek tho the west and the hwy to south.

so we head south, out of the "woods" & into a field. 

during this whole time what's his favorite thing to look for?

lizards? snakes? grasshoppers? nope.

lady bugs.

he's got jars of them.

in my house.

he's discovered that they like tomato plants & sunflowers so I've had to teach him how to walk around the plants in the garden, not just straight through them.

then we go east, up the hill

& head home sweet home... 

going up that hill is exhausting by the way. thank God for "look there's a lady bug!" breaks ;)

exciting 3 days

On Monday night {one day after the EF5 tornado in Joplin} we had really bad thunderstorms. all day. & night. news reported that a couple of police officers directing traffic in the heart of the disaster area got struck by lightning. one was released from the hospital that night, the other was still in critical condition the last time I heard. our house got struck by lightning too. we're not sure where it hit but it came out our kitchen light fixture. one that has 5 lightbulbs. 2 of them busted.

 Mathew & his dad checked all over to make sure nothing was smoking, no insulation was smoldering in the attic or anything. but there was glass all up in my kitchen! other than that. no biggie.

Tuesday evening we had bad weather again. a friend of mine from my mom's  meetup group & her family who was in the tornado came & spent the night with us. they were in their Jeep & pulled of where the road dipped by a bridge I think & rode out the storm. The have a 2 and 1/2 year old and a 4 yr old (i think he's 4) that were in the back seat. I don't know the whole story & feel weird telling their story. I don't know, I just kind of feel like it's bad etiquette i guess. anyway, they came over Tuesday evening to ride out the storm. isn't he cute??!

and Isabella just loves her daddy...

It was fun. but we did have a few tornado warnings. a few funnel clouds that would descend partway down but would go back up. right by our house. Thank The Lord nothing major went down around here.

all those days I've felt helpless, hearing stories on the news, seeing the images. I want to do something. so Tuesday I went to donate blood. heard they were low on O (+ & -). That's me. I'm almost certain I am O- but not 100% positive. I'll find out when I get my donor card in the mail I guess. but I felt like I had to do something. I've never donated before. had a blood drive in high school but i didn't weigh enough. now I do.. :/ lol but I prepped, drank lots of fluids. when they checked my levels the nurse told me all my levels were great. that I had great blood :)

I chilled with my 1st time donor sticker & my copy of Midnight Sun on my iPod. {Is reading a book from a vampire's point of view while donating blood weird?}

The nurse that set me up said I had great veins... I already knew that. hear it every time I have blood work done. You can see them whether I want you to or not. even with concealer. good thing I'm hispanic. if I was white I'd totally be see through. lol anyway, she told me iron levels were great, blood pressure perfect.... I was feeling great the whole time... until...

The bag was almost full & the nurse said "you're almost done. should be any minute!" right after she said that I realized that I was feeling a bit light headed. So I let them know. They propped my legs up a little. then took the needle out. {I was already done}. She asked me to put my arm straight up & that did it. I started feeling claustrophobic. of course they lay me down even more {ugh!} I asked for a drink. coke to help with the nausea I now had {something I learned from my time working at a pharmacy}. I felt hot & started sweating. plus I felt claustrophobic because they didn't want me to move. dry heave. hazard bag in my face. wet paper towels on my neck, forehead & chest. almost passed out.

what the heck happened?! everything was going fine! needles don't bother me. blood doesn't bother me. guess I can't spare any of my blood?! after about 30 to 45 minutes! I felt better. got up slowly & score!

Gardetto's & Coke!

they made me eat something & sit there for another 15 minutes. the nurse said {& I quote} "you look a lot better! earlier you couldn't even see your lips, they had no color in them. but you didn't pass out all the way!" ha! only me!... only me!

joplin

I live in Carthage, MO. about 12 miles from Joplin. Joplin is where I go all the time. went there today for a birthday party. thought about going to target or starbuck's afterward but decided to just go home.

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after celebrating my brother's graduation on Saturday & going to the birthday party Sunday afternoon something felt wrong. Mathew doesn't worry about storms. he looks out the window, check's the weather app on his iPhone & that's about it. if he's not home, he rushes home & then doesn't worry about it because he's with us. sweet. but this time I ignored him & turned the TV on. I heard "tornado touched down in Joplin...." then it cut out. I grabbed Douglas & Isabella & told Mathew that we were going downstairs, he of course said ok & kept playing Xbox. I took them to the basement. went back upstairs, grabbed some crackers, a drink, my shoes, my phone & my lap top. turned the tv on. nothing major. a little later I heard Mathew's phone ring. then he came downstairs too. His dad had called to tell him about the tornado in Joplin. We don't have cable, satellite, or anything. we settled for internet & Netflix but we do get local channels. the one we got said where the tornado touched down in joplin. Liz lives close to there. so do A LOT of other people we know. I texted Liz. They're ok. My friend Deb's husband was in his car at a burger place. He's ok but their car was smashed & he got hit by some debri. but nothing major... I went to weather.com. I saw a button that said "streaming tornado coverage live from Joplin, MO". we clicked on it. saw this.

Mathew & I both said "that's not Joplin!.... is it?!" no one was talking, the guy Mike Bettes a storm chaser was walking around trying to see if there was anyone in the damaged cars. every window on the hospital building was broken. some places could only be recognized as a houses because just the foundation was still there.

it WAS Joplin! I almost started crying. The guy, the weather chaser. Mike, he said that he saw people die in front of him. he didn't realize how close they were to it. that he'd never seen anything like this. then, he started crying. 

That's Academy Sports & Outdoors.  Me & the kids were just there last week!

we were planning to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch tomorrow with the Mom's group.

NO damage here but please pray for Joplin, MO. Please pray for Mathew's cousin's grandpa. He was in that hospital in the first picture. and as of right now, we Still haven't heard how he's doing.

I'll keep you updated. Thanks for your prayers.

*update: they found him. he's well. but there are still a lot of people hurting & searching for loved ones.*

Billy

this is me & my younger brother Billy after his 5th grade graduation.

Saturday May 21st @ 4pm we went to Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas

along with about a million other people it felt like

to watch him graduate from High School!!

me, Billy, & our mom

I still can't believe he actually made it ;) lol

we got some really good pics

with Douglas 

with abuelita

with Mathew, I'll tell you why he's laughing in a min.

with his sweetheart, Erin. isn't she cute?!!

but it's me. & Billy. & when we get together, we tend to laugh at everything, & everyone.

no one is excluded from our fun making. including abuelita.

our mom

or even billy. this next pic explains why Mathew was cracking up in the other one. as I took the picture, he grabbed billy's butt. Billy's face is priceless.

gotta love billy.

this is me & my younger brother Billy after his high school graduation.

right now...

• I've got lot's of stuff going on. making crayon rolls, super hero capes, other misc items for True Treasures among other places.

• going to my doctor on thursday after finding out my prolactin levels are off the charts. gonna try a couple things then check them again in a few months.

• I'm catching up on Dexter while I sew. I'm only on season 3 so no ruining anything for me please. it's so weird to see that side of a serial killer. to see him be a person, a husband, a brother, a dad... I love it! lol

• finishing up Mother's day projects ;) shh!

• trying to figure out a "school situation" for Douglas. He wants to know everything & learn about lungs & everything I think I might start homeschooling him, maybe start with kindergarten, then when he's old enough have him tested to enter 1st or 2nd grade. he's 3 but super smart. & I'm not just saying that because i'm his mom. he know all his colors, #s, most letters, some spanish, how to spell his name, what happens to food when you eat it... soooo many things. & that kid can remember every little detail!

• I'm totally loving The Voice on NBC. I think I'm rootin for Blake Shelton but we'll see once the singers start "battling" next week. ;)

so, please "stay tuned" & be patient. I'm working on a rag quilt tutorial for you :) & some new items! I've also got some pretty great stories to share!

nature

so on Saturday (4.30.2011) Douglas & I were playing outside. we got a bucket & were picking up some Kentucky Coffee Beans from the Kentucky Coffee trees in the back yard. the in the grass, we saw this.

it looked like some weird crazy fussy alien worm 1/2 moth thing. it had tiny mostly red wings toward the top & fussy yellow antennae. honestly it was grossing me out. mostly the fussiness. If you don't know me you should know that I HATE MOTHS. they gross me out sooo bad. they are so disgusting. i get the hibby jibbies {sp?} from them. fussy gross thing plus it flies. ugh! 

anyway, I was really confused by this alien grub looking thing & wanted to know what it was. of course, so did Douglas. At that time Papa pulled in in the semi to get his truck & head home. We tracked him down & when we got back we saw this.

 the wings appeared to have gotten bigger... then I realized it was a moth coming out of its cocoon!

as grossed out as I was {still am if I think about it} you have to admit it's pretty cool! I mean how many people get to watch that?! Douglas loved it. specially because unlike me, dad isn't afraid, grossed out or allergic to moths.

it was super soft & of course couldn't fly yet. if it had been able to I wouldn't have been there. lol 

great experience