Oh My Hail!

Last night Dallin was helping me with Young Women's (first aid stuff for camp) so our whole little family was at the church. We had just wrapped things up and were ready to walk out the door when suddenly (yes it was sudden) we heard a roaring coming from outside. We all ran to the door of the church and it was dropping rain by the buckets! Within minutes, that rain turned to hail. The noise inside the church was a thundering roar. Never heard anything like it. The hail started out as pea sized, then marble, and finally quarter size. That's why it was so loud. I wasn't able to take pics until we got home and the hail by our house was only a very large marble size. Still, I think we were pretty fortunate. The storm lasted only about 15 minutes and at least our windshield wasn't broken out (some folks were not so lucky). However, our truck did not escape unscathed! When you sit behind the steering wheel and look out the windshield, you can see at least a dozen small indentations on the hood. Poor truck. It got pummeled! (And so did Dallin when he ran out in the storm to collect the big pieces of hail....really what was he thinking!!!).

This is our deck in the back yard. We will also need to buy a new grill cover, since the hail ripped that up!

In the trash...

A lot can be said about a person's trash (have you seen the movie "Along Came a Spider"?). Thankfully, I'm not talking about stalkers. What I am talking about is a one year old little boy who loves to "help" mommy around the house. After all, he is cleaning up isn't he? These are some of the things we have recently found in our trash: Shelbi's rag, a stuffed animal, mp3 player (glad we caught that one!), toy dishes, a roll of toilet paper (or nearly a roll that Kam unraveled into the trash), my scrapbooking stencils, a childrens book, and various other toys. Sometimes I don't really mean it when I say I'm going to throw something away, but this kid has taken it to heart. I need to put some sort of alarm on the trash cans to alert me when something goes in! And those are the things we've found! Now, if something is missing, we wonder if Kamron did away with it!

For those of you who haven't read my FB page about Shelbi and her silliness recently, you should. Today she received a Book of Mormon from her primary teacher. We told her she needed to be really careful with it and take good care of it. Her reply to this was, "I know, 'cuz it's incredibly awesome that she gave it to me!" Love her vocab!

Mommy and Me

Last night was the Father and son's outing for our ward. Dallin and Gavin left right after Gav got out of school and me, Kam, and Shelbi planned a night of fun! Shelbi wanted to go to McDonald's for dinner, so we did. Then we came home to watch Princess and the Frog. However, shortly after we got home, my doorbell rang. It was the neighbor girl wanting to know if Shelbi could play outside for a little while. I consented and Kam and I joined them in the front yard. I left my front door open and I was on my cell talking to my dad (it was his birthday). After several minutes of playing, Shelbi came to me with a VERY concerned look on her face. Mothers instinct told me what had happened. So I asked the question of which I was afraid to hear the answer, "is the front door shut?" You can open our front door from the insider EVEN when the door handle is LOCKED! I, of course, had forgotten to unlock the knob before I stepped outside. I guess I assumed the front door would stay open. Shelbi had gone in the house for something and SHUT the door behind her when she came out (curse my teaching them to shut the doors!). I was unable to find a spare hidden on the property and all other doors and windows were locked. And, the only one wearing anything on their feet was Shelbi. It wasn't too cold and Kam was loving being outside. I got the number for a local locksmith and called him. He said he would come out, it would cost $55 to unlock the door, but he wasn't sure if he would be ABLE to pick the lock. He stated that most of the houses in my subdivision had locks installed that were not pickable, but he would be able to tell when he looked at the lock. So, while we waited for him to show up, we said a prayer that our lock would be one of the few in the neighborhood that could be picked (in retrospect, this seems a little strange because the whole purpose of having a good lock is so that people can't pick it!). Our neighbor had also come over and said that we could go to his house (his wife was at home) and stay if we needed. We only waited for about 15 minutes before the lock guy showed up. I think it took him less than 5 minutes to get the door open! I was so relieved I thought I might cry, but since you all know how I am about crying in front of other people, I kept my emotions in check! Still, it was an adventure and hopefully I will learn something from this (unlock the door if I go outside)! I think Kam's favorite part was the driveway. He could get going really fast when he walked down it (it slopes).

Also, a few weeks ago, Kam decided that he was going to walk. He was already standing up by himself in the middle of the room. It seriously was one day he was crawling only and then the next he was walking.....and he doesn't crawl anymore! He tries to mimic things you say too, which is really fun!

And, Gavin has been referred to a summer program for kids who are excelling in their grade. His teacher referred him and we are so excited! We will know if he got in sometime this month.

Shelbi is still my little helper and seems to really like helping me do chores around the house (she especially likes shucking corn!). When we go to the store, she likes to get the little people shopping carts and do the pushing for me. She's a huge help with Kam too and tries to keep him from "wreaking havoc!"

It's been a good day!