Rather Than a Pregnancy Update....

How about a baby update instead? I didn't mean to leave you hanging after the last post but OhMyGoodnessWeHaveABaby!! Baby C is here and she's beautiful and perfect. As soon as I get a little sleep, I'll tell you the whole glorious story of her arrival. Until then, I hope a few pictures will tide you over!

Safe

One of the first things I fell in love with about our neighborhood was the fact that there were so many beautiful, mature trees.

Ironically, on Thursday afternoon as I huddled with my children in total darkness in our bathtub while a tornado ripped through our neighborhood, those trees caused fear deep within my soul. If any of the ones immediately surrounding our house were to fall, we were in trouble. We've had rain for weeks on end now with very little break for the ground to dry. With the heavy saturation, I knew that the tornado and winds could cause even more havoc in our neighborhood.

What seemed like an eternity passed and I could hear police and fire sirens whizzing past our house. I knew that if they were out, the worst was over. Leaving the kids in our safe place, I snuck out to survey the situation. Our neighborhood was alive with people milling about and police, fire and ambulance workers crowding the streets.

I cried as I looked around and realized just how blessed we were. I called Big Daddy to let him know we were safe and hearing his voice made me cry even harder. We were safe. We have trees down in the yard (none on the house!), shutters and shingles off the house and our fence was down...but we were safe. The worst damage was done by our beautiful old oak tree. The entire thing is now resting on top of our neighbor's car.

One block up from us, is a far more devastating scene. Houses are without their roofs and a few caught on fire from lightening strikes.

We ended up back in our "safe place" for another hour that night praying that the meteorologist was wrong and that another storm wasn't heading our way. Thankfully, we only got severe thunder storms for the rest of the evening. Even better, this time we were all together because Big Daddy was home. Something about his presence and just having all of us together made it all seem less horrible.

Most of us now have electricity back on and the cleaning up process is well underway. In the past few days, we've seen the best of people and the worst. The best is neighbors checking on each other and strangers stopping to help clean up fallen trees. The worst is the non-stop line of people knocking down our door offering to help for a small fortune.

I will post pictures in a couple of days as we have time to sort through them. I also have updates on the baby growing process this week. I know I've been terrible about updating my blog and I really do miss it and I promise to do better. I miss all of my blog friends and this funk I've been in is hopefully ending and I'll be a posting fool in no time.

Who Is The Fairest Of Them All?

Did you know that Disney recently re-released the classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Even better, this time, you can get the Disney Diamond Edition Combo Pack with the movie on Blu-ray! One2One Network sent me the combo pack and we have had a blast with it as a family! (Here's where I confess that until this arrived, I had never watched the movie. I know, it's a shame, right? Never fear, the original princess and I are now well acquainted!)

If you don't know about Blu-ray, you are missing out. We've been big fans around here for a while because Big Daddy's Playstation 3 doubles as a Blu-ray player and he's been singing the praises of the Blu-ray ever since we got it! Blu-ray has up to six times better quality picture than regular DVD and is more scratch resistant (which comes in handy around our house!). If you don't have a PS3 or Blu-ray player, you may just want to add it to your Christmas list because this is the next big thing and you will still be able to play your DVD's on it!

When you watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on Blu-ray, it's hard to believe that this movie has been around since 1937 because the quality is great! This combo pack really is an amazing deal for your family. Once we finished the movie, we spent another hour just playing the games on the disc and playing with the sing along feature; it was family night at it's best!

I'm really impressed with Disney for releasing their new and previously vaulted movies in these combo packs for so many reasons but the most important for us is that we will watch the Blu-ray at home for movie nights but we still have a DVD to watch in the car and on the lap top for road trips.

Thanks again One2One Network for sending this combo pack our way! We're still enjoying it!

Faith Like A Child

We had a huge event around our house last week. It's one that I haven't posted about because I'm just now getting to the point that I can talk about it without crying. (Dang pregnancy hormones!)

Our dog, Hurley, got out of the fence last Sunday morning. I've mentioned before that Hurley is Sister's best friend in the whole world, right? Don't get me wrong, Brother loves him, too. It's just that Sister and Hurley have a connection that I can't even explain. When she gets up in the mornings, she greets him before she does the rest of us. She can't leave for school without saying goodbye to him. In the afternoons, he knows when it's time for her to come home and he waits by the door for her. You get the picture. They LOVE each other.

Back to Sunday morning. Big Daddy noticed that he wasn't hanging around the door staring at the kids begging them to play so he snuck out to check on him without mentioning it to us. He was out for a while and when he came back in, I followed him to the kitchen because he looked upset. Long story short, we have a tricky latch one of our gates in the back yard and Hurley managed to get out.

This would normally not be a huge issue but we haven't updated his tags since we moved here. We've talked about it several times but just haven't done it. Bad, bad dog parents. So, our dog is running around a new neighborhood where no one knows us with a tag around his neck that claims he should be living in Virginia. Awesome.

We decided that Big Daddy would drive around looking for him alone before we told the kids because we knew they would be devastated and honestly, I'm pretty morbid and my first thought was that I didn't want to have them with us if we saw him lying in the middle of the road.

When he couldn't find him, we decided it was time to tell the kids. I had kept them busy with an art project while Big Daddy was out so they didn't notice anything was up. Even when I ran to the bedroom every five minutes to cry my eyes out, they didn't say a word. (Again, thank you hormones!)

We told the kids and were shocked at their reaction. Brother was very matter of fact.

"Oh no. He was such a good dog, it won't be the same without him."

Sister is known for her drama so we braced ourselves for her reaction.

"I'll get my shoes and we'll drive around. He will come when I call him because he knows my voice best."

Ok, then. She was sure we'd find him with her help. As a matter of fact, even after we drove around all day calling for him and asking every person we saw outside if they'd seen him, she didn't give up hope. When we went out again hanging up posters and asking even more people if they'd seen him, she still maintained that he would be back soon.

The only time she got upset was when we came back to take a break for lunch and she thought we were giving up. Once she realized that we were going right back out, she was good. I can't tell you how out of character this is for her. She was positive that he was coming back.

I would like to tell you that I shared her faith but I, instead, cried like a baby as we drove around calling for him. I was convinced that we'd never see him again.

When Sister left for school on Monday, she assured me that someone would call and say they had found him before she came home. When she bounced off the bus that afternoon, she was beaming.

"Well, did someone bring my Hurley back?"

When I told her that we hadn't had a call yet, she didn't stop smiling.

"Don't worry, Mom. They will call. He'll be back by the time we go to bed!"

Ten minutes later an unknown number showed up on our caller ID and a sweet man a few blocks over said that Hurley was waiting for us in his back yard. We were all so giddy and rushed over to get our puppy from this angel who was holding him for us.

I know this is long and seriously, hormones? I'm crying again. My daughter never lost faith that she was going to have her dog back. I lost faith the second we knew he was missing. I am amazed daily at how much I have to learn from these little people that I love so dearly.

We love TRIO and a GIVEAWAY!

I recently received this set of Fisher Price Trio Building blocks to review thanks to Mom Select and I have to be honest, my kids haven't stopped playing with them! Brother has built every single thing in the pamphlet that comes with the set at least once and is now coming up with his own creations to build. His current Christmas list has only two items and they are both additional Trio sets.

We have had so many rainy days here lately and I've been so thankful for these blocks! The kids will play with them for over an hour at a stretch and at one point, Brother actually said, "Mom, these are so cool! They are like Lego blocks but way better!" I'd say he's impressed.

Thanks to Mom Select, I have a set to give away to one lucky reader! Christmas is just three (!) months away so these could easily be tucked away for your little one until then. Just leave a comment on this post before Monday, Sept. 28 telling me your favorite fall activity and you are entered to win.

Want extra chances? Subscribe to my blog and tell me in a separate comment and you'll get another chance. (If you already subscribe, let me know that.) You can gain another chance by blogging or tweeting about this contest and leaving me a link in the comment section.

If you can't wait that long, use this link and follow the steps in the top left to receive a $5 off coupon for Trio! They actually have several different sets geared towards several age groups that you can check out! (Hint: Some are actually only $5!)

Good luck!

You Just Never Know What You May Find in Those Boxes

Remember how I said our movers in VA were pretty awful? Their folly has actually turned into quite the joke around our house. We'll come across a box (No, we're still not completely unpacked. What?) that's labeled "Dishes/Kitchen" only to open it and find that there are three lamps, two extension cords, a pair of shoes, a trash can and a plate inside. Somehow, the plate was the only thing that made the label. For the record, we don't keep shoes, extension cords and lamps in the kitchen but these guys were really creative in their packing skills. At this point, we just laugh and chalk it up to experience.

What I found in a box today was no laughing matter. At least not to me. Best of all? I can't even blame it on the movers.

We have boxes and boxes of books that we haven't unpacked yet because we haven't decided exactly where we want our bookshelves to go. Last night, we figured out a location for one of them and this morning I decided to open up a couple of the boxes and put the books in their new home. Just as I lifted one of my favorite Shel Silverstein books from the box, something scurried across the top of it an hid underneath the paper at the bottom. It was fast. Not so fast that I didn't have time to see what it was. Oh-Em-Gee there was a stinkin' lizard in the box. I won't even resort to my usual love of exaggeration here and tell you that it was big. The thing was tiny. In fact, it's small size has only added to my paranoia all day because something that tiny? IT COULD BE ANYWHERE.

I'd love to tell you that I set the little guy free to find his little lizard family but I can't lie. I dropped that book and ran like a sissy. My heart was beating so fast and I was convinced he was chasing me. I refused to even walk past the room where that box was sitting all afternoon. Poor Brother thought I'd lost my mind when I asked him the third time in an hour if something just ran across the floor.

If you're concerned about the state of the creepy little lizard, don't be. When Big Daddy got home tonight, he went to the box and as he lifted the first book, he let out a big, "Aww, he's cute!" and dutifully carried him outside and set him free...

...so that he can wiggle his way back into my house and torture me tomorrow when Big Daddy isn't here to think him adorable.

Here I Am!

So sorry! I didn't mean to leave you all to play the game of "Where's Heather?" lately! I dropped the news that we were moving and then just disappeared. No worries, we made it to the great state of Louisiana about three weeks ago and have had our fair share of adventures since then. Since it's been so long and so much has happened, how about I just update you with a list and promise to be a better blogging friend now that we are somewhat settled? Thanks, I knew you'd understand!

*We left VA a little behind schedule because we had the WORST packers in our history of many, many moves. Seriously guys, they were bad. Even worse, they were slow and took so many breaks to smoke and make phone calls that we could have allowed the kids to pack our stuff and they would have been faster.

*For the first leg of our drive out here, we headed to TN to visit Big Daddy's family and meet our beautiful (and I mean GORGEOUS!) new baby nephew. I tried to steal him but my sister-in-law just wouldn't have it. Along the way, our Jeep started acting all crazy so we (the kids, my sister, my nephew and myself) left Big Daddy in TN to get the necessary repairs and we made the rest of the trip on our own. That was an adventure! Remind me to tell you of the hotel with the faulty fire alarm that made the trip one to remember.

*We arrived only a day ahead of Big Daddy and slept on air mattresses until it was time for our stuff to arrive several days later. The day that it came, it was about 101 degrees outside. You may think that's hot but it's not as hot as 101 degrees with 100% humidity. Normally, I'd just hide inside and pretend not to notice people outside melting away. Except. That's the first day our air conditioner in the new house decided to stop working.

*Notice how I said the first day? It took a couple of days for them to get out and take a look at it and all of ten minutes to repair put a band-aid on it. We were cool as cucumbers for a whole twenty four hours when it decided to take another little break from working. (Looking back, I see so many parallels between our A/C and our movers in VA.) After three more days of melting (need I remind you that I'm six months pregnant?) they came out and spent 15 more minutes putting another band-aid on it. Lather, rinse, repeat twenty four hours later. I think it was around this time that we stopped laughing at all of our bad fortune. I'll spare you the rest of the details but I'll tell you that twenty nine hours ago, the repair guys came out for what I hope (for their sakes) to be the last time and we still have air. Friends, LA has got to be one of the hottest places on the planet.

*Sister started first grade and is loving it! I promise a story about that, too. Probably even with pictures.

We really do love it here, so far. We have met so many kind people already and aside from everything under the sun going wrong, we are still smiling and saying that this may end up being one of those places that we never want to leave. Sorry this is so lengthy and I really (no, really!) promise to be a better blogging friend now that we have air and are a little more settled. This whirlwind of a life is crazy but I'm not sure I'd have it any other way!