Saturday, April 25, 2009... Here's how it went down:

A lot has happened between my last post and now. Darius had his last soccer game, and they lost. They were undefeated and they lost! :( Oh well, they are only 6. Earlier in the day, Ewan had decided to till the entire front yard, making it a muddy mess. But, he insists that someday, beautiful grass will grow there. I hope for his sake, that this really happens. But, he is watering and loving the rain. We had all been up since about 7:50am because we awoke to find Ewan missing, and found him outside "tending to the garden."

Then, my tornado dream last week, led me to live my worst nightmare on this Saturday as well. Here's how it went down...

A usual Kansas strange weather day. Nothing really out of the ordinary. A lot of rain. It was Darius' last soccer game of the season, and we escaped rain during the game, but it began raining on our way to the carnival at West Indianola. We took our coats in just in case, thinking that some of the carnival may be outside if it stopped raining. Well, I ended up carrying 4 heavy jackets and my arm was tired.

We had been at the carnival for over an hour, and it was time to get rid of those jackets and get busy playing games. We had already eaten, and Darius had found his all-time favorite game...Marble Madness. We walked outside to get some air because it was quite humid in the building. I had decided that I would take the coats all the way out to the van, and it was quite a ways from the school. I got all the way to the car, and just as I was putting the jackets in the back of the van, the tornado sirens started blowing. I am surprised that I didn't pee my pants or pass out, since, this in fact, was my worst nightmare FULL BLOWN. (Except for if I actually see the tornado in real life, which, I see it in my dreams.)

As you see in my tornado dreams, I am not with Ewan or the kids. And right now, I was alone. Alone on the street, far away from anyone. I was looking at the sky, luckily I didn't see anything suspicious. But, I was still in a panic. I really had to calm myself down!

I shut the back of the van and remembered that I was getting Sofia's shoes since I had traded her sandals in the van, and I couldn't let her go barefoot, so I actually went to the front of the van where the shoes were, and frantically grabbed them before I went running for the school. Now, once I reached the school, I wasn't any more relaxed. A) I had no shelter B) I still didn't know where my husband and kids were. I was running through the school. (Everyone probably thought I was crazy, since you could barely even hear the sirens from inside with all the chaos.) Someone asked what's wrong, and I said I couldn't find my husband and kids. They were like, "Yeah, sometimes that happens." and probably wondered why I was so frantic, I mean, I was just at a school carnival. I wanted to scream at them and say: "The freaking tornado sirens are blowing, I am separated from my family, and there is no basement in this place!" But, I walked (maybe ran) away and kept searching.

Now, had I known where this "tornado" was in the first place, I would not have panicked so much. I later found out from the fire department people that were at the carnival, that the tornado was SE and heading toward Lawrence. So, I calmed down and we were able to proceed at the carnival withouth leaving. Darius was having so much fun at the Marble Madness game that I couldn't take him away. Plus, we had to redeem his tickets for all of those fabulous "Chuck-E-Cheese" type prizes! We couldn't go home empty handed!

In church on Sunday, the electricity went out and a storm was brewing. All I could think about, was what Sofia was doing in Sunday School, and all Ewan could think about was the fact that the rain was pounding down, most likely washing away all of the grass seed he put down.

This was one long, eventful, exciting weekend.

How to eat fried worms...

So, when I picked Sofia up today, she had a bowl of slimy, gross, big worms. Her and Nanny found them while playing outside. She brought them home, and into the house. She put them on a plate and keeps "losing" the plate. Luckily they haven't crawled anywhere.

Anyway, she said she was going to play with her cooking stuff. I jokingly said, "Why don't you fry them?" Darius loves the movie How to Eat Fried Worms. The next thing I know, she goes and gets her grill, and it makes sizzling noises. She put them on there and was "frying" them! I love kids. They are so entertaining.

She finally set the worms free, but has already asked if she can bring some more home after she goes to Nanny's again. She said that they are under a can in Nanny's backyard. Great. What's for dinner?

This sucks. Literally.

Tornadoes suck. No really, they do. And, in my latest tornado dream, I could personally see the people being sucked out of whatever facility I was in. I still can't quite figure out where I was this time. From previous blogs, you will see that I am usually in Henderson on Washburn's campus trying to make my way down the stairs, but I am surrounded by the glass walls, and never get to a basement.

This time, it was some type of parking garage, only there were no cars, and the columns that hold the levels up, were skinny enough that you could sort of wrap your arms around them, because, that is what I did in my dream.

So, the tornado hits, and of course I see it first. (I have never seen a tornado in real life, but in my dreams, I always see them before I take shelter.) I see and hear the tornado, and head into this place. My Grandma and Mom are usually there, and my husband is never there. That's probably because I already know he is somewhere NOT taking shelter, because he believes that since he is from an island, that hurricanes are much more severe.

Yes, the damage from a hurricane may be more widespread, but if a tornado directly hits where you are, you are in serious trouble.

There are different levels in this garage and of course I am on the middle level, and my Mom and Grandma are on the level above. Now, I can see people literally being sucked out of the sides of the building. The sides that are open. I am right in the middle, where I have managed to hang on to these columns. Of course my feet are flying and my entire body is waving in the air like a flag. This time, I have no idea where my kids are in the dream. I usually end up finding out that my husband and kids are safe.

After what seems like several minutes, the tornado is over and I am quite convinced that My Mom and Grandma are dead. I try to make my way to the level above me, and I see my Mom. She's alive! I go running for her and remember falling at her feet. I didn't even hug her. I was so exhausted from hanging on and the stress of the situation that I had no strength to wrap my arms around her.

Here's where it gets bad. I assume that since my Mom is fine, so is my Grandma. My Mom tells me that she didn't die from the tornado, she had layed on a stretcher from an ambulance, and as soon as she layed down to rest, she literally laid down to rest.

These dreams totally freak me out because they are SO real, and there are so many details. We'll see when the next tornado dream will surface. Hopefully not tonight, because it is very disturbing! But, I will try not to complain. At least it's a dream, and not for real!

Tissue please

Do I seriously get this emotional over everything? Wow. Okay, so over the past few years, I have learned that I cry every single time I see a baby born on a TLC show, I cried watching 90210 when Dixon saw his Mom for the first time. I cry when people get a new house on Property Virgins. Icried on many episodes of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. To me, there is something wrong. I mean, who cries over some of that stuff? Well, apparently I do.

Thanks for reading about my emotional craziness!

hello?

Does this work?

And the Award goes to...

So, I ruined the surprise. I really did earn the $100 award for the past two months. Woo-hoo. But, I didn't realize that I wasn't being told because it was going to be a surprise. Oh well, either way, it is $200 headed right to my bank. A pleasant surprise on a Tuesday afternoon!

Back to School!

Well, today was the day that Darius went back to school. I am sure he enjoyed his time off, but he was definitely due to go back. Summer should be interesting. I am sure he will get so bored. I will have to try and come up with things for him to do so he doesn't drive everyone crazy!

We heard the squeak of the bus, just as I was helping him get his shoes on, and I had to shove him out the door, throwing his coat, backpack and lunch at him. I am sure the bus driver was amused that we were definitely not back on the ball yet. It's a lot of work to get them ready for school. I mean, Darius drags for a big because he is still half asleep! I wish he could just wake up and be ready to go, but, I guess I am usually half asleep too!

Happy Easter! (yesterday)

Well, I do hope that everyone enjoyed their Easter holiday. The family and I went to church as usual, and enjoyed a nice Easter service, and then went home to a fabulous meal prepared by Ewan. He must hate it that he is such a great chef. We had marinated pork, chicken, fried chicken, ham, corn, red potatoes, cake, apple pie with ice cream. Needless to say, I was pretty full after we ate. Of course I didn't eat everything, but at least a small sample of each.

The kids enjoyed the day and found a t-shirt and pajamas that were dropped by the Easter bunny while we were at church. Apparently, the bunny tried to stop by, but rang the doorbell and no one opened the door. It was raining, so he took the baskets and hopped somewhere else until we got home. Shortly after we ate, the doorbell rang, and they were very excited. The bunny had dropped off a basket for each of them. Darius got the volcano experiment he has been waiting for. Sofia? The tatoo stamper Barbie that was all I heard about. The baskets of course were overflowing with other goodies, such as Darius' Mighty Warrior Bible, and Sofia's Princess Bible. We had some of the Washburn players over to eat, and they thought that it looked more like Santa Claus came, but, hey, it's all good. He said, "Ho, Ho Ho! The Easter bunny is here!"

I started my new schedule today and Sofia did not give me a very enjoyable night's sleep. She was up every two hours, crying for no apparent reason. At one point, she said she was trying to lock the door. I have no idea what that was about.

Schedules, Snowgirl Cheerleaders, and More!

Where does the time go? I am so thrilled that today is my last day of working at 7am! I have enjoyed this schedule, as I get off work at 11am, but my new schedule will allow for a day off during the week, which I appreciate greatly. It seems like once I wake up at 5:50am, and come to work, and even going home so early, it's just not the same. I believe I can get a lot more done on my day off.

Soccer will soon be wrapping up. Ewan is enjoying it thoroughly, despite his hectic schedule. I admire him so much for his hard work and dedication to whatever he does.

I hope you don't mind the randomness of this post. It has been awhile, so I just tend to let it all out...

I watched In The Motherhood again last night. I have grown to really like that show, especially after watching the Oprah show last week, where she had the main actress on. It's unbelieveable what some of those mothers do to get by, but hey, they make it work! I do a few things, but none seemed to be to the extreme of the show, which, supposedly comes from the stories of real life mothers. At least we all get a laugh out of it!

Darius was out of school yesterday due to Kindergarten Round Up at West Indianola. Today he is out for a teacher training day, and Monday as well, due to being a snow day that never had to be used. Yes, we did have a very odd winter. It is freezing today, and rainy, and dreary, and I could definitely crawl back in bed. Unfortunately, I am sitting at work with headphones glued to my head, waiting for sometime to beep in and interrupt my blogging.

Let's see. I know Sofia did some silly things yesterday. She lined up her singing, dancing snowman (or snowgirl) cheerleaders and jumped along, swinging her arms. You see, I bought one of these snowgirl cheerleaders, because at the time, I was coaching cheerleading and thought the team would think it was cute, then, because I am sure whenever anyone saw one, they thought of me, I received 2 more. Actually, maybe three! That's scary. So, now I have a team of snowgirl cheerleaders. Sofia thinks it's awesome. She gets them all going at the same time. Go, Go Santa. Go, G-O, Go Santa, yeah. Keep it up, Keep it up, Keep that Christmas spirit up. Wooo!

St. Lucia Surprises...

We were pleasantly surprised with a package from my wonderful Mother-in-law, Veronica. The package was addressed to Ewan and I was sure that it was some saltfish, some Shirley Biscuits, and a few other things.

Well, to everyone's surprise, they were St. Lucia items. How exciting. You should see Sofia proudly toting around her new St. Lucia purse and coin purse. I was going to keep the little one for myself to put in my purse, but Miss Sofia snatched it up. When she looked at me with those big brown eyes and said, "Mama, whose are these?" I said, "Yours!" She was very delighted.

Darius got some new books that are similar to what Dad used to read when he was little. We are so impressed with Darius' reading skills. I can't wait to sit down with him and read all about it. :)

Twitter

Okay, so they say no one cares what you are doing. Who cares. I don't care if no one cares what I am doing, but I can certainly say what I am doing, whenever I want.

Also, if they don't care, then why do people read it and check status' on facebook. The point is, that is the way these are set up, and I do care what people are doing. I don't mean that it is important for me to know that you tweezed your eyebrows last night. Just because it isn't important doesn't mean I don't want to know. You have to combine the important with the non-important.

The only reason I am even on Twitter was to update my status on facebook when I am not at home and I have something "really important" to share. I refuse to pay $40 a month for internet service on my phone. Twitter is free.

So, feel free to follow me on twitter and send me a tweet.

Man, who comes up with this stuff? I am married to a computer programmer, I need to make him create something else, bigger and better. Yeah. That's it.

Snow- was a NO!

Well, check that out. I was all worried about getting 4-8 inches of snow and how many inches did we get? ZERO!!! Woo-hoo, AND the soccer game was rescheduled.

I didn't realize it had been that long since I last posted, so here I am. I have had some nice workouts the last few days. 3 days in a row on the elliptical combined with some weights. Feeling good now.

I'll be back later.