Birthdays, Tornadoes, and Toads

Part 1 Tornadoes

For months we have been planning to go to Dallas for Kirsten's birthday and to go to the American Girl store. She didn't want a party or anything other than this. Since Max had an appointment in Dallas last Friday morning we decided to head down there Thursday night. We had heard a storm was headed toward Tulsa so we thought it would be nice to get out of here and evade the hail and tornadoes. Not that I'm scared in fact I actually like storms, especially when I'm in the comfort of my own home. Anyway, Kirsten got off the bus and we get in the car to go. We had to drop Marpie off at the Kennel first and then we headed down through Tulsa. Traffic in Tulsa was actually really bad. I guess people were trying to get home before the storm hit. The whole way we kept hearing that a really bad storm was almost to Sapulpa and South Tulsa. As we drove past Sapulpa we thought we were in the free and clear and were feeling pretty good. Keep in mind that when I say we, I mean me and the kids. Jonathan was in Canada for work and was going to fly down on Friday to meet us there.

So as we continue to head south; and the weather continues to get worse and worse. The people on the radio were only talking about the weather advisories for Tulsa and so I had no idea what was going on except for that it was raining really hard and it was hailing. I pulled over twice to try to get out of the hail. I see storm chasers on the side of the road all excited with their cameras. I do not like to drive in heavy rain so I'm freaking out a little. Especially because it's dark at this point. Kirsten was very nervous, Colton didn't know what was going on, and luckily Max was asleep (he has a really disturbing high pitched scream that probably would've put me over the edge). I guess my mom and Jonathan had been trying to call and warn me but my phone wasn't working.

The second time we stopped I was looking at my phone to find a hotel. I was not going to drive in that weather for another 2 hours. For some reason my phone still wasn't working. Which actually ended up being a miracle because I sat in that gas station trying to get it to work for a good 10 minutes. I decided to get back on the road. a few minutes later I went through a town called Tushka. If you've seen the news lately you've probably seen pictures of this little town. Just about 10 minutes before I got there a tornado had made it's way up the road I was driving on. There were overturned semis, trees down everywhere, houses destroyed...I have never seen anything like it. Even though I probably could have gotten all three of my kids out and in a ditch and that we would've been fine, I cannot even say how grateful I am that I didn't have to do that. I seriously feel so blessed.

On our way back home we went through this town again and it was amazing to see so many people working on getting people's roofs fixed and houses back together. I'm so amazed at the kindness people show during crazy scary events like this.

Goodbye Midland

So now that we have officially moved from Midland I thought I'd make a list of what I will miss the most and what I will not miss about our 2 years in Midland.

Starting with what...

I Will Miss
Proximity. everything in town is so close. 7 minutes to Jonathan's work, 5 minutes to ballet and gymnastics, 8 minutes to Kirsten's school, 2 minutes to the grocery store...

The airport. This probably seems weird, but it is so close and so convenient. You can literally stand in one place and see the entire airport.

Kirsten's School. I love her teacher, I love the class size (10 kids in her class), I love having her home twice a week.

The Sky

The Weather. I love the warm weather throughout the year and I even love the Summer weather. Little humidity, nice cool nights...love it.

Rosas. Best Mexican food ever!

Friends. We've made some really great friends in our ward. I've especially realized this the last few months. I've been so busy traveling to Dallas every week and I've had people who just had babies, have 3 kids at home, have 5 busy kids insisting on helping me. This last week we've had so many people help us with our move. We really have been so blessed

Danie. Ok I have to do a special category for the person who made Midland bearable for me the last year and a half. Before she moved in I didn't think I was going to make it. But after I actually really started to love living in Midland. We have had so much fun running together (well mostly fun except for that 16 miler that almost killed us;), having play dates, and mostly just talking. I've really needed her these last few months. I had a particularly bad day last month and she dropped everything to come make sure I was ok, and I really needed that! It hasn't sunken in yet that I'm not going to see her everyday, when it does...well, let's just say that's going to be a bad day for me! And I know Kirsten is going to miss her little girl, Brighton, her BFF for the last almost 2 years.

I Won't Miss
Nothing to do.

The Water. I can't wait to be able to drink water out of the tap without risking disease.

No Water or rain. I love lakes, rivers, streams, oceans, and rain.M y parents have more of that in their neighborhood than in the whole city of Midland.

The Ugly. Even people who love West Texas will admit that it's one of the ugliest places on Earth.

"Don't Mess With Texas" Litter commercials. "Cause God blessed Texas With His own hand. Brought down a piece of the promised land. He gave them a place like they've never seen, said all got to do ya'll is keep it clean..." See previous "won't miss" for why this song drove me nutty; and I heard it at least once a week for the last 2 years.

Dust. When we first moved to Midland a lady in our ward could sense that I didn't love it there. Her response was just wait until April when the dust storms come and you'll be cursing your husband for moving you here. What she didn't know is that I already was. There's nothing like seeing the dust blow in.

Isolation. It's not that Midland is too small it's just that it's so far away from everything. 5 hours to a major city is too far.

Colton

We have seen so much progress in Colton over the last few weeks. When his speech therapist was here last time I was changing Colton's diaper and he counted to 9! Before that he would say 1-2 or 5-6, but he counted all the way to 9 perfectly! It was so exciting. He repeated all the shapes she told him, and he's started putting 2 word phrases together too like, "shut door", "push button", "lay down"...mostly he copies phrases but he has been doing it more often. He repeats words and phrases a lot more now too. And I'll catch him playing pretend every once in a while. He had Jonathan's shoes and he was moving them like they were walking towards some trucks while saying "watch out!". He says everything in a really high pitch, so it's kinda cute.

The most wonderful improvement though has been socially. It used to be if any child (other than family) came near him he would hit them or put on his "mad face" and fight back the urge to hit them. Last time our friend Porter came over, Colton tortured him. This time...he played WITH him! It was so exciting! He followed Porter around with his truck, he even stood right in front of him and tried talking to him. I know Porter was a little put off by Colton standing so close and being a little rough with the trucks, but he even said "Colton's being nice". I can't tell you how happy this makes me to see all these improvements/miracles!

Blessing Day

We finally blessed Max today. It was our last day of church here so it was a bit of an emotional day, to say the least.




A really awful picture of us before church today.

Since we didn't decide to bless Max today until this last week Grammie was the only family member there, and we are very grateful she made the trip down.

Just a little note about Max. He's gotten so fun. He started crawling a couple weeks ago (luckily he's still really slow!) . He went to the doctor last week and weighed in at 18 pounds.
My friend and I were just talking about how silly it is to put up 4 of basically the same picture of your kid; and that only a mommy can see the difference. Well, here are 4 very different pictures of Max, see he's sticking his tongue out in one and smiling in another...I know they're the same 4 pictures, but I, mommy, could not choose just one.








Oh and did you notice Max's awesome helmet?

And another picture of our little chubbers.

Kirsten's Disney Cruise

Kirsten got to go with Grandma, Papa, and Emily on a Disney cruise last week! She had so much fun, she stayed up until midnight the night she got home telling us all about it. She told us her favorite thing was going on the water slide on the boat. I guess she didn't want to go on it, but after she was convinced she didn't want to stop. She got to eat mac and cheese for every meal.
Her favorite character was Snow White, because she was so sweet. She was so excited to show us her autograph book and show us all her "treasures". She even made a sand castle with Mickey Mouse! On the night she got home she asked when she was going to see Emily again. I told her in just a couple weeks. She said "that's not as long as we usually do, but I'm so used to seeing her." I think she really loved hanging out with her aunt.
She had a great time and I'm so glad my parents and Emily took her, but man did we miss her! This house was pretty quiet without her.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Crazy!

I don't think it's been a secret that I don't exactly love it here in West Texas. It's not that I hate it, we have made great friends and have found happiness here. But, I have never really felt settled here. Something about not being able to see water and trees that I just can't handle. So at the beginning of this year we realized that we had lived here for 2 years now and were kind of looking for a way out I guess. Jonathan has been planning on getting his MBA since he went to business school. The timing just has never been right. So we thought now would be a great time. He applied to Rice and got in and we thought we could easily get transferred to Houston. We were wrong. The week after getting accepted to Rice and finding out that we may not be able to move their until the end of the year Jonathan was offered a job in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I must say I never thought we would go back there, but we felt good about it and he accepted it. So we are heading back to Oklahoma, but this time we are moving to Collinsville (closer to Tulsa). We are actually really excited! We went last week and found a house and we are moving in 2-3 weeks! It's crazy and fast, but we are really excited.