Kids Say the Funniest Things

Michaela has a little set of scrubs her Nana and Papa gave her for playing dress-up. (See my Christmas post.) This morning, I decided to wear some scrubs to go work at the Lactation Clinic in Starkville. When she saw me getting dressed, Michaela asked "Is that your costume?" LOL!

Heading Home

So, I'm finally getting around to posting the last of the pictures from the AZ trip. On the way back from Hannagan Meadow, we stopped again at the bottom of the Salt River Canyon where there were several merchants selling jewelry. Hunter really liked this green turtle necklace I got for him. I wish I had thought to ask the merchant what kind of stone it was made out of.
We set out to return home on the morning of Sunday, January 18th. I was dreading the almost 4 hour layover in Dallas/Ft. Worth when my dear, childhood friend, Tia, came to the rescue! We met in grade school at NAS Lemoore, CA. She now lives in Texas, near Dallas. Tia picked us up at the airport w/ her two youngest children. We went to a nearby Chucky Cheese to allow the kids to burn off some energy.

Hunter had a blast w/ Dylan and Alyssa.

Michaela didn't like the kiddie rides! She did this roller-coaster ride w/ Dylan over and over! I only wish that I had gotten some pictures of Tia and I. Thanks, Tia!

More Michaela-isms

Tonight, Michaela wanted me to open her bedroom door and I wouldn't. She kept saying "Help me, Mom. Help me!" All of a sudden, she got the door open herself and was so excited, telling me "I help me!" Too funny!

Michaela-isms

Michaela has officially entered the 'Whhhhhyyyyyy????' phase. She has been saying it for a few days. Just a while ago, I asked her to step back as I took our breakfast out of the hot oven. She readily obliged, evidently thinking I was about to serve up some for her. (Have I mentioned that my children like to eat?!) I said we would have to wait a few minutes for it to cool off. "WWWWWhhhhhyyyyy????" I picked her up - "Because we don't want to burn our tongues." I set her down and went to check my e-mail real quick thinking I had satisfied her w/ my response. I suddenly realized she was awfully quiet and stepped into the kitchen to find she had managed to unscrew the lid from the peanut butter jar and was eating it right out of the jar! (I know - I should have gotten a picture!) At least she was using a spoon! And she wasn't touching the hot pan!

She has also started saying something else lately that cracks me up. As many of you know, Michaela likes to be held. And, unlike her brother, most of the time she is not picky about who is holding her. (Though, if you have food, you will probably be her best friend!) She has been known to reach out to complete strangers in Wal-Mart to be picked up - Scccaaarrryyy!!! I can't say I blame her, though. She's short. The view down there can't be very good. Anyway, instead of saying "up" or "pick me up", she has taken to saying "I want to hold you!" Awww - how sweet! How could I not let her 'hold me'?

Blogworthy

Well, we got a little more excitement than we bargained for this afternoon. As I told Allan, "I think this is worthy of a blog." So, here's the story. Many of you know that we bought a house at the end of September. One of the features that most attracted us to this property was the 'little house' or shop in the back. Shortly after we moved in, we asked the power company to take out some dead trees. But I noticed there was also this pine tree that seemed to be towering above the shop and was making me very nervous. Someone, supposedly w/ his own tree business, even came by and said one good storm could snap the top of that tree and send it crashing into the attic of our shop. I was starting to think maybe we should just go ahead and fork over the money to have the tree taken out, even though I don't think it was technically on our property.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I had worked the Lactation Clinic in Starkville and had just gotten home w/ the kids. Michaela was resisting a nap and she and I sat cuddling on the couch. It had been pretty breezy all day. Suddenly, it is hard to describe, it was like a big gust of wind slammed into the house. And as I looked out our back window, there seemed to be a strange horizontal shadow bouncing up and down. I thought "Please don't tell me that was a tree." I, of course, immediately thought of that pine tree. But then I thought, if that tree just crashed into the shop, it would have been a lot louder. I was afraid to go look. But I did . . . and it was the pine tree. It was inches away from our shop - caught on the power lines. I don't remember what was coming out of my mouth. I think it was along the lines of "oh no, oh no, oh no". Our neighbor, Stan, had heard it too and came out. I told him I would call the power company and ran inside. At first, the lady asked if we still had power and I said yes. She said she would put in a work order. I asked if they would be out today and she said 'probably'. But it didn't sound convincing.

About this time, Allan pulled up, home from work a lot earlier than I was expecting. He looked perplexed as to the expression on my face and why I was standing talking on the phone looking out the door. I pointed behind him - he hadn't even noticed as he drove up. "Oh! Are they coming out?" Allan looked closer and said "Call them back, that support beam is leaning!" See photo above. Allan rushed right for his camera and took these photos.

One worker showed up immediately. But had to wait a little while for one of the bucket trucks to show up. In the meantime, he was assessing the situation. He pulled out a telescoping saw and began cutting away branches, trying to take some tension off the wires.
A view from the side. See how it is leaning on the wires? Just inches from our shop? Closer examination showed the tree had uprooted from the super wet soil underneath. I guess the electrical wires actually saved our shop! Thank you to 4-County Electric for coming out so quickly to take care of this matter. I told Allan, "On the bright side, now I can stop worrying about that tree!"