7 Days and 81/2 hours later...

*My kids can survive without tv.

*I can not survive without a morning cup of coffee.

*I love having a daily routine and schedule.

*Friends are wonderful!!!

*It is easier to focus on the negative, but better to focus on the positive.

*I love my computer, dishwasher, washer/dryer, garbage disposer, and taking showers with a light on.

*Putting makeup on in the car is not fun...despite what my friend Jenny says!

*Thank God for his protection of our family and trees.

All that said, I am sure you have all heard about the wind storm we had. Our power was turned back on Monday late morning. In the words of my son, "Thank you God!" Thank you to all our friends and family who brought us dinner, helped with laundry, kept our fish so he wouldn't die, let me put food in their fridge, had us spend the night, kept me from gong insane, let me cry to them, and prayed for us. Losing power is not the worst thing that has ever happened, but it was a little challenging. It is amazing, and this will sound cliche, how used we get to amenities and convenience. I have a lot more respect for people like the Amish! All the pictures below are of trees in our neighborhood that were damaged. This is just a small amount of the damage. However, we have 7 trees in our yard and a utility pool. Praise to God that none of them blew over or had major damage. We only lost a few medium sized limbs. God is powerful enough to blow those winds, but he is just as powerful to keep our trees standing!!!


This is the line at McDonald's Monday morning. I don't know if you can really tell, but the line was about 10 cars out into the street. It was crazy!

Over the past several weeks...

Because of my many vacation posts I have fallen behind on the other happenings around our home. Broderick started his second year of preschool 2 days after we got back from vacation. He wanted his hair in a Mohawk the first day. Rob and I later found out that a little girl named Sydney likes his hair this way and that is why he has asked several time since the first day to spike it again. He is too cute!!!

Labor day weekend was a weekend packed full of fun...Rob and Broderick camped out in the back yard one night. Broderick thought this was the neatest thing in the world. They had a little fire and then went to bed. They made it all night in the tent.

Oh, the bond of a daddy and his son.
Broderick played in his first soccer game this past Saturday. It was great! For the most part it was just a herd of kids chasing the ball and knocking each other over to get it. I love this picture below. Broderick is number 7.
Number 3 on the gray team, pictured below, was amazing for only being 4 or 5. He was always out in front of the rest of the herd and had unbelievable control with the ball for being so young. He truly had a gift. I think he scored every point for the other team. Rob and I just kept cracking up whenever he would get the ball. We pretty much knew unless our goalie blocked his kick he would be down the field in a few seconds and they would have another goal. We had a great time and I am so glad Broderick has been enjoying the game.
That is the past couple of weeks in a nutshell.

Having Fun at the Beach...

I know, I know you all are like, "Okay Amy, you had a great time on vacation. Can we see or hear about something else?" I get it...this is the last you will see of vacation. There has been other things going on, like Broderick starting school and Carys getting rid of the pacifier. I will post of those things in days to come. For now, one last vacation post.

Above: Carys and Broderick on the beach the first day. I love this picture. Carys is posing just like a girl would.
If you know my daughter, you know she likes to eat. That was no different on the beach. I made sure to pack lots of snacks and most of the time her and I would be sitting in the sand or on the blanket eating. You would think this girl would be well over average on the charts, but she is not. She doesn't get that from her mother.
The kids loved being buried in the sand. We got Broderick all the way up to his neck. He didn't sit in his hole very long. He did want me to bury him every other day.
One day Broderick met these little boys. One of them just came down and asked if Broderick wanted to play. Of course he did. There where 4 boys in this family. Broderick played for hours with the older 3. He still talks about his "friends from the beach." I think this was one of his favorite days.
The last day we tried our best to get to the beach but it was raining on and off. We went down for about 30 minutes, but there was no swimming and it was super windy. (Due to the tropical storm.) We tried our best to get family pictures that day, but the wind was making my hair blow all over the place. We did manage to get this one when we went down to swim.

So...there you have it! No more post just about vacation. I may interject a random picture here and there.