Not Quite A Month

It's not been quite a month since my last entry, but close.  A lot has gone on since my last post, my mom is now in Rehab/LTC (long term care) here in Alabama.  She was moved the Monday after Easter.  On Easter I got a call from my stepdad that she had passed her swallow test.  That was AMAZING news, as just the day before she failed.  While it's still a long road to go down, this is so very positive. They are still working on this at the LTC/Rehab place and plan to do a swallow test today and hopefully get her on a diet of food, not liquid food thru the tube as currently.  I pray she passes, not only because I want her to regain functions, but because I think it will help her move forward on healing.  I know her body has to be weak, it's been over a month since she had a real meal and she's been complaining of headaches nonstop.

I've seen her several times since she has arrived here, some days are good (like Wed) and some are so so, like today.  I can tell she's down and depressed. I can understand.  She went from having 1 of us there everyday all day with her to me just visiting about every other day.  My stepdad and sis came down this past weekend but weren't able to stay long due to the power outage from the tornadoes.

I plan to take all the kids up to see her on Sunday and bring her some gifts. I hope that will raise her spirits some and I hope she's got to eat by then as well.  Overall I would say she's doing well on adjusting, I just wish things could go back to what they used to be. I know it can't/won't happen but I can pray.

In other news, we had awful tornadoes come through on April 27 here in Alabama, many many tornadoes. It would take me ALL DAY to find links to show you the devastation but you can go to youtube and search for Alabama tornadoes April 27 and find tons of videos and there's groups and such on facebook with photos. I have friends who lost their houses, friends who have damage to their homes and friends who lost family members.  Thankfully and by the grace of God we're all OK as is my house.  It's heart breaking seeing the devastation all over Alabama, but one thing is for sure, the people of Alabama have come together as one.

Last but not least, Kaitlyn turns 1 this Sunday.  I am feeling quite guilty though because I don't have any thing planned, cake picked out or anything. I know she will never know, but it's 1st birthday and that's important.  We have had so much happen in the last month, I just could not find the time to get things done. So I will be working on that tonight and tomorrow and see what I can come up with on Sunday. 

So there is my May random update.

May Showers Bring May Flowers?

I know that isn't correct, but all we have had is May showers since May started. Yesterday we were so lucky to have a F2 tornado hit Madison/Huntsville. First of all, we are ok, there was no damage to our house or property. Others not so lucky, several people in our neighborhood lost trees in the winds/storm yesterday. The ones here were snapped off rather than uprooted like many others. We have had so much rain that even 18 ft pine trees were uprooted! Yesterdays storm wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, but it was scary.

Other news, it's May, the busy month of holidays and celebrations! We'll start off with Mothers Day later this week, my birthday next week on Friday, we leave for our Disney trip on the 21st and then celebrate our 9th Anniversary on the 27th of this month. Poor hubby lol I think my car and our trip will be the presents received. I am excited about the trip though, only 2 weeks to go and we'll be in beautiful Orlando for 8 days! We still haven't told the girls yet, so trying to figure out when we will. I am trying to think of some surprise...right now Jess thinks we are going to see our FIL who lives in Venice, a couple hours from Disney.

I am also in the 2 week wait (2ww) and those who understand that, know what I mean. I will hopefully know around 18th one way or the other. Fingers crossed.

Stay tuned!

Weekend Update~Happy Easter

Well the weekend started off with a bang....bang of thunder that is! We had storms roll in on Thursday night which promptly gave me a migraine. I had to take a pain pill to get it to go away, it's so much fun.. NOT. Friday was not to bad until afternoon time and of course right when Jess was getting out of school. Fortunately for our area we just had thunderstorms and some scary hail! It was baseball size hail out here, it was scary. I have never seen hail bigger than a golf ball, and it was soo loud. For awhile I thought the windows in the dining room were gonna get busted!
The only damage we had was to our cars, hubby's car took quite a beating. Has tons of dents on the roof and hood of the car and mine only suffered a few thankfully. After the storms had passed, it was a clear and warm beautiful day.

Saturday was a bit chilly since the cold front moved in, we tried to let the girls ride their bikes outside but it was just to cool and WINDY. So we dyed our Easter eggs instead, the girls had a great time.

Sunday morning we awoke to beautiful blue skies and a warm day! It's the first Easter we have had in awhile that didn't require winter wear. Normally its so cold you don't want to go outside if you don't have to. The girls opened their Easter Baskets and immediately wanted to go out and find eggs. We did that for a couple hours and I took a some pics, but just a couple below are my favorites.



Sunday afternoon we went over to my cousins house and had a bbq and Easter Egg Hunt. Oh there was so much food, ham, grilled chicken, pineapple, casseroles, deviled eggs and of course desserts. We had a great time and the girls were wore out from playing outside. They were both sound asleep shortly after the laid down.

All in all I would say it was a good Easter!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

I hope that we get enough rain this year but really am dreading the storms that come along with it! Over the weekend, I was in Nashville with some friends for a girls weekend out, it was great by the way! However on Saturday we were on our way to Green Hills mall when we heard the tornado sirens going off. We made it to the mall before the storm part hits, thankfully because soon after it started hailing and raining pretty bad. The sky looked pretty nasty and I was a bit paranoid since I had been in a bad tornado as a child. Thankfully nothing came out of the storm where we were at, but some other area's weren't so lucky. The next morning we found out a tornado had touched down about 50 miles west of where we had been. I believe there was damage done of course, but I didn't hear of any major injuries or fatalities.

We have another round of storms coming in tonight and of course the weather stations are keeping us posted about the impending severe weather. Today the weather is beautiful, clear blue skies, sunny and a slight breeze....however the storm system is approaching from the west. No doubt we'll get some thunderstorms and what not tonight and into tomorrow. I just pray they aren't as severe as they are saying it could be.

The lovely weather has made several flowers in the front yard beds bloom, I am excited there some already planted! I am hoping we have had our last freeze and the rest if any will bloom as well. Our flower beds need work though, they are over run with weeds right now, though hubby sprayed weed killer last week, I hope it works soon! We are going to re edge our flower beds with bricks to make it look nicer. Right now we have plastic edging up from the previous owners. It'll be a lot of work but the end result will be nice! Thankfully we have a friend who is giving us all the bricks left over from her remodel. :)

I'll be sure to post before and after photos!