Random bits of Life....

Today I dropped the girls off at preschool while the tornado sirens were blaring.  It reminded me that I do again live very near the Ohio River and that severe weather patterns tend to follow the river, just like they seemed to when we were living in Louisville.  I wasn't too concerned about the storm since it seemed to be only high winds, dark clouds and lots of rain.  I didn't have that feeling of danger that I experienced a handful of times while we were in Louisville.  On those occasions we could sense the danger and quickly headed for shelter.  This afternoon I had been out running errands and had heard the sirens earlier in the day.  They began a second time as we grabbed lunch before the girls went to school.  I literally got soaked shouting out my McDonald's drive-thru order while sheets of rain pelted the car and my face.  I was impressed they got the food right since I spent no more than nine seconds giving them run down of what we wanted.  I chuckled at how relaxed all the workers were as the sirens wailed.  I was relieved when I got to the school and it hadn't been canceled.  The storm lasted another half an hour and then calmed down.  Only a mild drizzle of rain remained.

I was surprised when I asked the boys about the sirens and found out what happened in their school.  They immediately headed to the shelter areas in the basement near the kindergarten rooms and then were instructed to get on their hand and knees and place their hands over their heads.  They stayed in that position until the sirens stopped.  Josh thought it was about 20 minutes.  Wow.  I can't remember that happening to them in Louisville.  Hopefully today's severe weather threat is not a foreshadowing of a season of serious storms ahead.

While the storm was fierce with wind gusts up to 55 mph, we did need the moisture.  It has been months since we had rain.  In fact, it's been dry since we moved here in August.  We truly need the rain.  It's evident when you look at the dry, brittle, yellow grass in every yard and at parks.  Every one of our Saturday's soccer games are a dust-fest.  The ground is so hard it's like playing on concrete.  When the ball hits the ground a cloud of dust swirls from the rock hard field.  It was nice to finally get a little bit of precipitation.

The fall leaves were a bit of a bust this year since Cincinnati and most of the Ohio River Valley has been in a drought. I love the glorious reds, yellows and oranges that usually cover the trees and bushes this time of year. At least the warm, dry weather will hold on past Halloween. It's forecast to be 70 degrees with Sunshine on Sunday. There's nothing like Trick-or-Treating in t-shirts and seeing those darling little fairy costumes shine without the damper a coat or jacket would bring.

Halloween festivities are in full swing.  We crossed trunk-or-treat off the list this past Saturday, but this weeks has a slew of activities we are excited about.  We managed to paint a few pumpkins and carve one complete design on Sunday.  We still have FIVE more pumpkins waiting on the kitchen table ready to be sliced and diced into glorious creations.  Thankfully they have been scraped clean, so the major mess is behind us.  Zach did love getting his hands into the 'guts' and looked like an ice skater trying to walk on the wood floor after getting his feet covered in slime while exploring on the tarped area.

The girls have their Halloween parade and class parties tomorrow.  The girls are thrilled to wear their costumes again and never complain about posing for pictures (well, usually).  I signed up to do the game for Kaitlyn's class party.  We picked out prizes at Target the other day and she's been talking about it non-stop since.  Brynn's class party is right after (so convenient!) so I'll sneak into her room and get a few pictures of her too.  She's excited that I'll be helping with Christmas party, so there's no jealousy that I won't be officially be doing anything for her class tomorrow.

For the first time since preschool Josh and Matt will have a costume parade at school.  It's only for K-3, so they just made the cut off.  Josh's room mom is our ward's Primary president, so I talked with her about his class party and she said it was fine if I brought the girls and Zach with me.  I'm bringing doughnuts for the class.  It will be wonderful to be there to help since I've been limited with what I can do for the boys' classes since I still have three at home.  I hope being there to see Josh and Matt will maybe make up for the Halloween parade disaster four years ago.  The girls were babies and I got there late for Matt and Josh's preschool parade.  I almost missed the whole thing.  Man alive, were those boys disappointed in me.  They didn't give me one picture with a smile.  Glad I've got one more chance to make it up to them and be there, camera in hand.

My crew is finally getting over a lingering cough that I am sure was croup.  I was grateful Zach was big enough he could still breath despite his violent coughs and raspy airway.  The girls were sick too, but managed to not miss any school.  They were great during the day (until you heard their hacking coughs), but at night they had no energy and looked so sick.  It must have been virus.  It's nice to have them perky and peppy and get them sleeping through the night once again.  Relief to us all.

Today Zach got his second flu shot at the pediatrician's office and didn't even make a peep.  I haven't had the girls' medical records sent to the doctor here, so I needed to get them a shot somewhere else.  One flu shot wasn't worth the effort of getting records and making a set appointment with a doctor.  After Zach's show of bravery, he was a perfect shining example for the girls that getting a flu shot wasn't a near death experience.  So we headed over to the massive Kroger where they had a flu shot clinic for kids.  Once Brynn and Kaitlyn realized a shot was in their future too, we nearly had two meltdowns.  We managed to survive with minimal tears shed, though most were from Brynn and Zach.  The girls had the poor little fella so worked up and nervous that he was crying by the time Brynn got her shot.  What a sweet little guy.

Every Saturday since August we have spent the majority of the day watching two soccer games and a baseball game.  We also have long nights of practice on Tuesday and Wednesday.  These fall sports will wrap up this weekend.  It will be a relief to have a bit more free time, but I'll miss watching Josh pitch and play first base and seeing Trey and Matt hustle on the soccer field.  They have all played well, worked hard and stayed positive even when the outcome of the game wasn't what they had hoped for.

Rich recently got a calling in our ward.  He is now the assistant cub scout leader.  Trey just earned his Webelos award and now that he is eleven, moves up to the boy scout program.  With these two new changes, it required me to locate our nearest scout store and get some much needed supplies.  I almost laughed when I purchased an adult size medium shirt for Trey.   They need room to grow, since they'll be wearing it until they are 18, but holy cow, it's gigantic.  It would swamp me.  I can't wait to see what it looks like on my skinny son.  Now during my precious free time (aka Zach's nap time) will be spent sewing on endless patches.  It's the bane of the existence of a mom with scouts.

When Rich and the boys returned home from scouts tonight, Trey had a surprise in his hands.  Rich had found a toad in the parking lot and they carted it home for us to see.  He was the cutest toad ever and it reminded me of Zach.  Big eyes, soft belly and a bored look on his face.  We put it in the tub for a few hours so we could enjoy watching it, but knew we needed to let him go.  After a quick photo session Trey let him go in the backyard.  Brynn cried when we shut the door.  She wanted to keep it for a pet.  She also blessed the toad in her prayer tonight.  Sweet little toad, sweet little girl.

This past weekend marked six months of having our home in Lexington for sale.  Our contract with our realtor was set to expire and we knew we needed some new blood involved who could try to get our house sold in the near future.  With no clue of what to do next and many phone calls to my mom and an always creative Kristi, I called my uncle who is a realtor in Utah.  He stepped in and interviewed five prospective realtors and found a great couple we are going to list with.  I am excited to move in a new direction and hopefully have much better communication.  Since we moved to Cincinnati I only talked to my realtor twice.  They didn't even let us know we had a showing.  With a record like that, I can only imagine things with get better, because I truly doubt it could get worse.

Rich will be headed to Lexington to give a radiology presentation on Saturday.  The rest of us were saddened that we couldn't come down with him, but we have soccer and baseball tournaments and commitments here.  I found out that our old ward is even having Trunk-or-treat that night.  Dang it.  Wish I could be there too.  Rich is going to meet with the new realtor, catch up on yard work and do some cleaning in our house.  It's hard to believe that we have only been back down once since we left in August.  It's just hard to find time when our Saturdays are full and we have 9 AM church on Sunday.

This has turned into a LONG post of totally random things, but it's good for me to write down the day to day events, since my memory melts away faster than the popsicles my girls leave lying on the kitchen counter.  We are enjoying Cincinnati and excited for the upcoming holidays.  We are not going home for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  While we'll miss seeing family, we are excited to have our first Christmas away and make some new traditions and explore this area while Rich has some time off.

Everyone have a safe and Happy Halloween. Boo to you all!!