Sisters, Cousins, Grandma, Ants

Well, I have been enjoying my new camera a little too much. Dan thinks we will have filled up our computer's memory in a few months. It's just so hard not to take hundreds of pictures! He thinks that this is just the beginning of my wants-next it will be a bigger computer, faster internet, new lenses, photoshop. Yes, yes, and yes. He's right. But I will just add them to my docket and plan to get them for the next 15 years. Now he will never have to wonder what I might like for a gift!

Anyways, in case I didn't make it clear before, Thank You, Dan for my new rebel friend.

Another result of this camera is that I take so many pictures, it makes it difficult to narrow them down for the blog. I will do my best. And remember you don't have to look at them if you don't want to.

We just enjoyed a quick visit from my mom, my sister Leah, and her two boys, Noah and Ian. Her husband was out of town for a few weeks (sounds familiar), so she mosied on down to Texas.

It has been waaay too long since we've seen them. I did get to see Leah at our Girl's Weekend back in April, but it has been a year since Dan's seen her and either of us have seen Noah. This was also our first time to meet baby Ian.

This is Ian. He ate his first apple here at my house.




He's a cute little guy who enjoys a good bottle,





has some of the most deliciously chubby legs I've ever seen,




and smiles like a bulldog when he gets excited.




And this is Noah. He has gotten a lot bigger since I last saw him.




He's a sweet little boy, who probably wondered why this weird lady kept following him around and sticking a camera in his face.



He loves trucks, especially this garbage truck of Luke's,


Though he remained somewhat reserved around me, this little guy can let loose and scream and run with the best of them.


One of the favorite activites for the kids was playing in the backyard in the water.



And you guessed it, I took too many pictures. But because it's taking 30000 minutes per picture to upload on here and I don't have the energy to sit here all night, it was easier than I thought to narrow them down.







And finally, we had a small dinner celebration for Mom's birthday. Ava was so cute when she met my mom at the door upon their arrival explaining that we were going to have a birthday party here and it was going to be for her and she proceeded to tell her how she (Ava) was going to make a cake and decorate it with this and that down to the very last detail.

And you know what, she did decorate that cake! She was so excited!



Before the hurricane we did not have any problems with uninvited guests of the 4-8 leg variety. Now since the very day after the hurricane, we have seen a noticeable influx of insects and bugs in the house. Especially ants. They are getting in our kitchen and we just couldn't figure out where they were coming from. So, after the cake was decorated, we covered it and set it carefully on the table, a place so far undiscovered by the ants, because I am trying very hard to keep the counters absolutely clean and free of food or crumbs (bleh!).

Now the next night, when all views from the kitchen looked clear of ants, I moved the cake to the counter so I could set the table. And in the time I did that and we ate, Johnny the Scout and Scavenger Ant happened upon the gold mine that was Grandma's cake and alerted the neighborhood. They partied hardy with that cake before we even uncovered it.



Double Bleh!


Not quite the celebration any of us had in mind. But we did improvise with our famous cookie ice cream sandwiches and enjoyed our dessert regardless. Happy Birthday, Mom!



And Leah, thanks for stopping by. I love you.

Oh no he didn't!

Oh yes he did!

My present arrived yesterday. The one I was guessing. And it's spectafantastiwonderlous!

Dan hasn't been one to surprise me in our marriage. He usually wants to talk and plan things out down to the nitty gritty detail. Of course there are the occasional, well appreciated surprise bouquet of flowers, but anything worth any serious kind of money, is not surprise material. It gets added on to the end of our wishlist which is currently running about 5 years out.

It kind of goes like this-Any item you want gets put on the docket for either your birthday or Christmas. So If you have more than 2 items on your list, it gets bumped over to either your birthday or Christmas for the following year. So say you have 9 items on your wishlist, you can expect to get that last one for Christmas 2013. Items may be moved up and down the list according to priority at your discretion.

I'm only kidding a little. Seriously though, without Dan and his financial plans we would probably not have any money, be paying our school loans into our 90's, and have lots of cool stuff.

But 2 weeks away, calling for minutes at a time, mostly to hear your wife crying or yelling, must inflict a certain amount of guilt, sympathy, and love.

And he told me he got me a present. My heart jumped immediately to one item on my wishlist we'd been "discussing" lately. One that I wanted really really bad even though it wasn't Christmas or my birthday.

He told me the mystery present would arrive in 2 parts. One last week and one this week. I tried my best not to get my hopes up.

Last week I opened a box containing a memory card. Which led me to believe that part number 2 was the camera I wanted.

Back in the day, 1996, I took my first photography class. I liked it so much, despite my pot-smoking, tree-hugging teacher that I took it the next year, and the next, and then there were no more classes, I had done them all. But she obliged and let me do independent study and I pretty much got to make up my own curriculum and spend all my free time in the lab. Now don't be led to believe that I am a great photographer, I just really enjoyed it. And one of the funnest parts was developing and printing my own pictures.

When we got married, I told Dan that someday I wanted to have a dark room in our house. He said, "Okay, sure" and we went on our merry way. Well, times have changed and so have cameras. I don't see a darkroom in my near future, but I had set my sights on the Canon Rebel xsi. No dark room necessary.

The present came yesterday and I was right! Dan was right! Oh mansie, was he right! There's so much to learn and play with!

I busted it open and tried to figure out how it all worked last night when the kids went to bed. That left me 2 subjects to photograph.

This one, especially, was a glamourpuss, as it was the most attention she's probably gotten in a year.





And this one. This one.


He is my favorite subject ever.

It ain't over til it's over

In the early hours of this morning, a storm was upon us. We had drained our bathtubs, let our phones run out of charge, and basically taken a nice deep breath.

But from our bed we could hear the rain pounding and thunder booming, and the lightning looked like it was in our backyard, at least from what we could see through the cracks of our still boarded up windows. And then we lost our power.

And all I could think was, "Oh my gosh, it's not over!" It was disconcerting mostly because we thought we'd made it and the hurricane was gone.

Luckily, after a handful of hours the power was back.

Dan jokingly said that we didn't lose our power on Saturday because God wanted him to be able to see BYU whip the patooties out of UCLA.

And yes, Dan made it home, thank goodness. I can't tell you what a welcome sight this car was.
And this is Ava saying, "Come out, Dad, come out!"




Literally just a few hours before Ike's arrival. Like a good daddy does when returning from a long trip, he came bearing gifts.



These life savers for the kids are especially meaningful as they are what my dad always brought us kids after a trip.

He got me a present too. Supposedly arriving next week, I'm not positive what it is, but I have an idea. I'm not even gonna type what my guess is, because I won't believe it till it's in my hands.


He walked off one of the last planes to land at Bush airport and straight into hurricane preparations. I had been busting my bum trying to get things ready. He got back just in time to help board up the windows. (Thank you Lee and Dave, for your invaluable help and tools and work!)



I had cleaned out the garage so we could park Dan's car, Pearl, in the other side. And I set up our "slumber party closet".



We disassembled the bricks,



and now all that remains is the grave of my garden.



This picture doesn't quite capture it, but by about 7:30 pm, it was so eery outside with this purple/orange glow.




It was a long and scary night. Dan was so exhausted he fell asleep when the kids did. I was too anxious to sleep and spent a good part of the night glued to the TV.


We each got up a couple of times to peek out the windows. When I looked out the front our trees were being blown at a 45 degree angle.


In the morning, we were frankly shocked that we still had power.





We were relieved that the worst of our damage only consisted of 2 of our fence panels being blown down.

The trees were back to their upright and locked positions, though it was quite telling that the twine supporting our littlest tree was snapped in the night.


These trees down the street were not as lucky!





Out where we live would technically be considered a "flood plain". But when they develop a big community like this, there are alot of measures taken to elevate the ground so that it won't flood.

But on the road out to our house, there are some homes not associated with a "community" that perhaps are not so equipped to deal with the flooding. And I think that most of the problems we are having out our direction are from today's storm, combined with the high waters left from the hurricane.

And for reference, in normal conditions there is no water here. Your not seeing overflowing ponds, lakes or rivers. Any water in these pictures is not normally there.




This is "Grandma's donkey's" pasture (a cute miniature donkey that my mom loves). Hopefully he got put somewhere safe before the storm. This water would probably be up to his belly!




And here's the road, rounding the bend to our neighborhood.



Church was canceled, work is canceled, thousands of people are without power, homes, and/or have major damage. We feel very lucky to be safe and sound.

Our phones are very spotty, but I really appreciate everyone who has called and left messages. Really, on Friday, before the hurricane, when Dan was still gone, and impending doom was upon us, one by one I got a call from each of my siblings. I don't know why that should make me so emotional, but it meant so much. Just to know people were worried, concerned and thinking and praying for us, made me feel comforted.

Dan got home, we survived the storm, and BYU won. Life is good.

It's Over!

We are safe and sound and feelin' lucky! By some miracle we still have our power! I'll update later with some pictures, but I wanted those who were concerned to rest easy!

yIKEs!

Oh me, oh my! I'm trying hard not to get my panties in a waddy but IKE looks like he's headed right for us! I've tried to do my research and it looks like we can expect anywhere from 75-100 mph sustained winds.

"I want my daddy!"


I am crossing my fingers that Dan can get back tomorrow before the winds get too high. I went to Sam's today to get batteries. The place was a mad house. I picked up some more essentials, got in line, waited for more than a 1/2 hour and then realized that I forgot batteries. I didn't have it in me to get out of line. Other than that I think we are prepared!

I feel really lucky to have people looking out for me. One of the hidden blessings is that because Dan is gone, people are so willing to help, even though if Dan was home we would still need this help, because Dan is not, shall we say, handy. Though if he were here, friends and neighbors would not be thinking, "The Colton's need help!" even though, the Colton's would need help.

One nice friend is coming to check out our window-boarding-up situation. Another neighbor has said we can come to their house (they've got a generator) should we need anything.

I've thought about loading up and taking the back roads to my parents, but I won't leave until Dan gets back for sure, then part of me wonders if he'll get back at all and then we'd be getting such a late start. So many false alarms in the past has given me false security. But maybe this will turn out to be nothing.

Crossing my fingers that Dan can just get here.

Big D (and I don't mean Dallas)

I'm ready for Dan (not divorce, for anyone who knows that song) to be back. Really. Like right now.

We got back from Dallas yesterday so Ava could make it to preschool today. She had another great day and apparently spent a lot of time painting.

In Dallas, my mom told me I should paint. So I did. Unfortunately, I didn't finish and left it there so I can work on it next time. It was pretty fun though and Ava kept saying she wanted to paint too. I promised her that when we got home she could use her special watercolor paints (not grandma's expensive paint) to make as many pictures as she wanted.

Ms. Tamara told me today that Ava must be going through her "black period" because she would paint with lots of bright colors and then cover it all with black paint.

Here's some of the pictures from our weekend diversion.

This is the painting with still a lot to be done,


We went to some antique stores and here's Ava in an old feather hat,


Then we had lunch in this old diner. I love how Luke likes to relax during his meals. Notice his little foot up on the table.




The weather was pretty nice and the kids liked to be out on the back patio. You know Ava was in her Cinderella dress.


Here she is hanging on the fence singing a song to passerby and Murphy. The lyrics included "my wife", "my life", "my sisters" and alot of other things. It sounded like every Disney song rolled into one.


And once he got over the threshold,



Luke liked to walk around very quickly out there and point up at the ceiling fan because it was very very exciting.


You can also see some of his new top front teeth in that picture.




Ava also took me for a ride down memory lane as she played with all of my old My Little Pony's my mom had.


But we are all anxious for our Daddy to be back. Ava keeps saying she wants to show him things. Or when she got up from her nap a day or two ago she said in her classic "statement with question inflection" form, "Daddy call on a phone and say he's coming home now?" or "Daddy is gonna be berry (very) hungry when he gets home." or as I tuck her into bed at night she asked that Daddy come in and giver her a kiss when he gets back "tonight".

And finally, we've reached the point where if there is any problem, meltdown, fit, stubbed toe, I mean anything, she immediately begins to cry and say, "I want my Daddy to come home!" And it is all I can do not sit down with her and cry, "me too!"

Do you miss us, Dan?

So it's day day 5 of 13 and more power to all you Mama's who make do without a husband frequently. But I stink at being alone.

This week Ava took crayon to wall and further cemented the fact in my mind that the structure and entertainment of preschool is just what she needs.



We have settled into a nice little evening routine, which is good as that's usually when Dan comes home and we need to fill the void. After dinner the kids have been happy to play outside for a good bit of time, then hit the bathtub, play a little more and then off to bed.



We went to "Meet your teacher" on Tuesday morning. My parents were nice enough to stay an extra hour and keep Luke so I could go with Ava unaccompanied.

Her teacher, Ms. Tamara, is super nice. Anyone who knows Ava knows she takes her time to warm up, but I think they'll get along just fine.

Here she is showing off her cute new backpack, which she loves. Unfortunately she has some sort of complex about looking at the camera and smiling.


I asked her again, "Please, Honey, smile and look!"




I tried a different tact with, "Ava, show me your eyes!" to which she obligingly did this,





Here she is in front of the school. The school/church is in the old part of town, with great big trees and an old-school playground. I like it a lot.



We went into her classroom and she was greeted warmly by her teacher who listed off all the fun things they would do that morning and Ava literally jumped up and down asking, "right now?"


After a hug and kiss, and "I love you" I was on my way. A very sweet and sour moment.

From all accounts, she had a really good day. In fact, the teacher told me as she put her in the car, that she wasn't really ready to come home yet.

That makes me pretty happy, because hopefully she'll just continue to look forward to coming back. I'm really proud of her and amazed at the growing up she's done over the past few months.

And also exciting are the miles I walked with my gal pal Val, after we dropped off our kids. Here's to our Tues/Thurs and hopefully Sat morning, exercise regime!

And for the memory-Ava has started referring to things she doesn't like as "sigusty" (disgusting)