I think Dad worked on budgeting and exercised and worked. Mom sewed some on the quilt she's been trying to finish for a long time. The kids played together. Christian and Grandfather went down to the woods really early to hunt. Chloe did some writing. I caught up on a bunch of stuff and nailed down plans for the coming week.
We left early for church to go to Costco and one other place on the way.
Nap time!
It was Aunt Cendei's birthday so she threw herself a party for the church! It was so wonderful to worship with our church family and then celebrate her afterwards. And I love church meals. They are a lot of work, but so fun and I actually enjoy working with everyone to clean up. (And helping with all the kids is my favorite of course.)
We got home pretty late and the littles were all asleep. (As was Christian.) The rest of us were about to turn the lights out when Mom and I both heard what sounded like an explosion. It was too loud for a gun, we thought. Mom speculated that maybe it was fireworks at the racetrack or a plane crash (because we felt the whatever it was as well as heard it). We decided not to worry about it.
A few minutes later Chloe came into my room and said to look out the window. I joked and replied, "What? Is the backyard on fire or something?" When she said, "Actually, yes" it took me .3 seconds to get to the window and look out. We could see a glow behind our barn and smoke.
As quietly as we could, we ran down to Mom and Dad's room and told them to look outside. They told us to run and get Nana and Grandfather. Meanwhile Dad got on jeans and Mom called 911.
It took a lot of ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door to get Nana and Grandfather up. Grandfather went straight to their back porch.
It was our neighbor's goat barn, right down the hill in the woods. And it was big.
The emergency dispatcher was asking Mom if she saw firetrucks because the neighbor had already called in the fire, but the trucks were having trouble getting access to it.
Once they arrived we could see all the lights from Nana and Grandfather's porch and Grandfather took off to go see if he could help.
Mom and I were transformed into leaves caught in a hurricane. We were shaking so, so bad. Not from the cold (even though we were in our pajamas and barefoot), but from the ginormous adrenaline rush we both got. (Believe me, when I was told to go get Nana and Grandfather, I ran faster than I have ever run.)
We couldn't see the barn, but we could see the huge glowing ball in the woods and we could see smoke. We could also hear the metal of the barn creaking and then finally the water spraying on the fire. Because there had been so much rain a few days ago the trees were safe and the fire did not spread to the gas well 200 feet away.
Grandfather came back with the report. The barn was full of hay and goats and tractors. The fuel for the tractors was all around the barn. Somehow a spark caught the fuel and there was an explosion. Our neighbor was down there very quickly but the barn is gone and several goats were killed.
On the left are the firetrucks and on the right is the fire.
It's pretty hard to see, but it was huge.
Nana, Mom, Chloe, and I all went to the neighbors' house to see if there was anything we could do, but there wasn't.
We heard the explosion about 11:30, woke up Nana and Grandfather about 11:45, and it was all over about 12:15. I know this will come as a surprise to most of you, but going to sleep after that was not easy.
Sunday morning I was the first one up, at 8:00. I made coffee and then went back to my bed to have my quiet time and rest.
I've been Pondering...
This has been a week...
All of Dad's family showed up at our door came over for brunch and part of the afternoon to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. Gramma brought the new puppies, Royce and Ranger.
In her happy place.
Taking stock of the feast.
There was plenty of food; pancakes, skillet vegetables, french toast, sausage, egg casserole, muffins, fruit, and more.
Opening his gifts (with his personal gift un-wrapper assistant).
Dessert was (of course) cake and Blue Bell Ice Cream. (It's a Linn thing.)
The kids played outside with the puppies while everyone else took a nap visited in the living room. It didn't take long for Thanksgiving to be all planned out with an email sent too.
After everyone left we all had some rest time and then welcomed Aunt Amy and Rowan who are here for the week!
The rest of the evening was pretty typical of Sundays around here.
Monday morning Chloe and I left at 8:00 to go to a friend's house. From there we went with them to a mall in Dallas to find Speech and Debate tournament clothing. The dress "code" is work professional and, obviously, modest. Mom would have taken us, but they offered and it was decided that since they knew what they were doing, we'd be more efficient going with them.
They made us coffee, really good, coffee with their espresso machine and we formed a plan and headed out. We mainly looked at things in Forever 21 and H&M. In the middle we took a lunch break in the food court. (Anyone want to guess where we chose to get food?)
All of us that went found what we were looking for in good time and it was so fun to do it together.
After we finished we got more coffee, but this time in the mall.
An amazing caramel latte.
We got home just in time for me to turn around and leave with Nana and Grandfather to babysit for their small group. I was worn out, but definitely ready to snuggle babies. I even got to rock myself baby Kyle to sleep!
Tuesday Mom and the littles left for Bubble Land and then Town Talk. They were gone most of the day.
Kate came and did take her naps!
Sleepy me and giggly her.
Faces when playing with ice
Baby Tips-
When a baby is teething they usually drool more than usual. They can also be more fussy and tend to put their fingers or toys in their mouth. Sometimes they will have a slight fever, but it is nothing to be concerned about. An ice cube to suck on can feel really good to them, just make sure they don't choke on it.
That moment when...
Kate feeds Gabe her carrot.
Your next door neighbor's barn explodes in the middle of the night. Now sleep.
You get to find out what a huge adrenaline rush is like.
You decided you'd rather not have to call 911 again too soon.
You wake up Monday morning and decide that if would be nice if it was just Saturday already.
The Herd: Quoted
"Your hair is too long. You are almost sitting on it!" -Gabe to me
"So that guy I just met next door is single..." -Mom to me
"I don't want North Korea to do anything, we are debating about Taiwan." -Christian during cross examination in debate
"...And I never started the timer." -Christian mid-debate speech
"I'm so hungry I could eat a bear!" -Gabe at breakfast
"Well, we are out of bears, but let's see what we can find." -Dad
"I sat in the tree blind and froze my patootie off." -Christian
"Aww I liked you patootie... Will it grow back?" -Mom
"I was thinking we might schedule a pregnancy massage for 'so and so'." -Mom
"I'm happy to get one too. A massage, not a pregnancy one, that is not one of my current conditions." -Dad
"Dad, you are really doing well at being funny these days!" -Me
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