Summertime!

How is June almost over already? Here are a few things we've been up to...

"Pat-patting" Bonner-dog


Helping daddy clean out the rocks that washed in the flash flood




Taking a break under the shade of the deck


Getting ready to go to VBS



Loving riding in our cousin's cool car


Nightly wrestle sessions with daddy




Sporting our DEKALB attitude


Reading books with daddy


CONSTANT fighting, er, I mean wrestling





Smiling sweetly for the camera

And...

To add to my last post, these past few days have made me realize a few things:

*I must hold and carry sweet Luke a lot. He has spent a good portion of his days walking around with arms up saying, "Peez? Peez?"

*I am not ready for those days to end with him!

I don't even know where to start

The past 4 days have been crazy, wild and exciting to say the least. Exhausting. Did I also mention exhausting? I really don't have many pictures to account for it. Wednesday morning found Jereme and me in Salina for me to have a complete hysterectomy. I apparently breezed through all the pre-op appts without much consideration to exactly how long and rather painful of a surgery this was going to be...but approximately 1026 am, I woke up in recovery and got a QUICK lesson.

I was in excellent care and actually felt compelled to send Jereme on back home to sleep in his own bed. My folks came up to stay with the boys. My parting words to him after several friends graciously offered up their homes in Salina were, "go to their houses or go home but just GO and get a good night sleep!"

Apparently, God had other plans. Jereme drove through a CRAZY storm and had to take several different paths b/c of tornado warnings directly in front of him. He finally made it home. I was just dozing off about 1130 pm when my neighbor called frantically b/c their basement was flooding. I quickly called Jereme who told me, "we have a helluva problem, Diane, I can't talk."

Long story short, SmallTown, USA experienced a Flash Flood on Wednesday night...something like 4.5 inches of rain in 30 minutes, eventually around 10 inches in just a few short hours. Thank God my folks were here (although I am not sure *they* were thanking God! Ha!) and mom and dad were able to help Jereme keep the water coming in to the unfinished part of our basement. Jereme also got to bucket out water from our egress window in the storm. Our damage was very minimal...the flood knocked out our ornamental iron fence but so many more lost so much more, virtually everything, so we are thankful.

Did I mention, prior to that, Jereme and my folks had to snatch the kids out of bed for a "rotating cloud" hanging right on top of SmallTown? Did I also mention that Salina was in a tornado warning and we had to be evacuated to the shelter? Did I mention that I had a cathedar and no one tied the back of my gown before racing off to get other patients so I was left to decide whether to let go of my balance pole/pee bag stand or cell phone in an effort to maintain a shred of dignity and not let my entire bum be exposed to God and everyone? Well, that decision was made easily enough...for crying out loud any woman who has experienced childbirth knows you only THINK you have a shred of dignity left. So, I kept a hold of my pee bag pole and cell phone and did my best to not send anyone over the edge with my open gown.

So, on this quiet Sunday night, I pray the week ahead only holds "boring" pictures of my kids doing random things for this blog!!

Last week...

we played outside a lot



got some kisses from daddy,




jumped for joy when Poppa G put up some pretty cool display cases,






pushed the paddle boat to the pond,

went for a ride with daddy,



realized daddy didn't take me and got a little teed off,


but decided I wouldn't be mad for long,


posed for pics,




played at the park a LOT,



and promised momma this would be the only time she saw my sweet face behind bars!!

The Neighborhood

Sometimes I worry that our redneck roots come out a little too much...you know kids half-clothed running around, peeing off the retaining wall. Or, when we do things like plant some Round-up Ready DEKALB corn on accident. Or, ride around the neighborhood every night in the Mule. I worry that we might belong out in the country (or Arkansas for that matter) instead.

But, then, I am woken up at 12 am listening to the neighbors behind our house screaming at one another until at least 1:15 am. And, the next morning, my next door neighbor is mowing her yard in her pajamas with a cigarette and I think, "you know, maybe we do fit in here after all..."

Already??

Today was the little boys' last day of Pre-K. It's been a great year and we have been so blessed to have Ms. Kim as their teacher. She is gentle, calm, quiet and has an endless supply of patience. Essentially, she is everything I am not. The boys have loved going and have grown up so much since the beginning of the year. Good thing they won't go to Kindy for another 2 years...I'm not quite ready to think about that!

And, let's keep it real...here is Luke playing and smiling for the camera one afternoon. Unfortunately for him, this was the afternoon after I had run a half-marathon. I was not moving fast at all. Shortly after grinning here, Luke got out and turned his car around. He then proceeded to drive himself right off the retaining wall you see head first. He was okay and grinning again pretty quickly!

Bugs...

Blogger is having some "issues"!

The other day, while at the park, Isaac found a piece of equipment covered in these delightful little creatures. Obsessed with bugs currently, he came racing over to me demanding I come check them out. He, of course, wanted to know what their names were. Did anyone else grandparents call them 'Democrats'? Only taking a split second to remember what their names were according to the grandparents, I responded quite somberly to Isaac that they were indeed 'Republicans'. He thought that over and practiced the name to himself several times. Not too much later, Jereme returned to the park after going to get drinks. Isaac runs to him, saying, "Daddy, Republicans are just awful, aren't they?" I might've laughed just a wee bit...maybe...