Last Week In Pictures

My friend Nicole (one of my favorite people in the world) sent me a facebook message about a month ago saying that she was going to be in Dallas soon and asking if I wanted to meet her for lunch. Umm, yes of course! I was so excited when she sent me a text on Monday to set a time and place for Tuesday - yay! Nicole and I go way back - we met at Girl Scout camp when we were 10 or 11 (admittedly, I was not very nice to her at first - I'm lucky she gave me a second chance!) and then again when we were 14 and spent a few weeks together as CITs. We spent the next three summers together as partners-in-crime and shared so many misadventures. One time we accidentally shared a tent with a black widow spider and her egg sack for an entire week... terrible idea, but we survived. The spider did not.

Here is the picture Jackson (!!) took of us. Of course, Brenna had to be in the picture because this child does not let me put her down for even a second.

 And here's a picture of all of us at the restaurant, right before it was time to leave. The angle makes our faces look weird, but I was impressed that we were able to fit all four of us in the picture!

I hadn't seen Nicole in person since before I got married, so we had a lot to talk about and a great time catching up. She is one of the most fun, loyal, kind, and genuine people I know. She doesn't have kids of her own, but she was so sweet and patient with my kids - Jackson even climbed in her lap and showed her a game on my iphone. It was a great lunch with a great friend.

Later that week, on Thursday, we had a bit of a thunderstorm with some HIGH winds. I mean, I thought the tornadoes a few months ago were scary - this was so much scarier. Jackson had asked to close the curtains on our windows, so I didn't notice how bad it was until I peeked out and saw the rain going sideways! I remember thinking that the storm looked a lot worse than I had thought. A little bit later, I felt something hit the side of the house, HARD. I panicked and screamed to Jackson "Get in closet! Now!" while I ran upstairs to grab Brenna from her crib. I truly thought I was on borrowed time before the whole roof started blowing off. Jackson followed me upstairs, asking "Which closet? Mommy, why can't I come with you?" Oh man. We need some work on our disaster-response plan. Once we got in the hall closet, there wasn't even room to sit down. So much for our safe room! Luckily, it was all a false alarm. I peeked outside one more time to see that the sound I had heard was actually our fence being blown down. I have since re-organized the closet to make it much more conducive to hiding out during disasters. I cannot say the same for our disaster response plan though - that still needs a lot of work. Pretty funny, considering that Steven's degree is in Emergency Management.

Once the rain cleared, this is what we were left with:

This is the field behind our house, can you see the trampoline in the pond??

Our garbage can ended up in the pond too, but sweet husband fished it out. The trampoline is still there though, I'm not sure if and when the owners are going to get it out. I'm just glad we didn't have anything go through our windows!

Since the fence went down (and honestly, it was hanging on by a very thin thread), Steven and my dad spent all day Friday and Saturday replacing it. They even had Jackson helping out:

Jackson's job (clearly) was to add the water to the cement at the base of each pole. These things aren't going anywhere. Ever. Jackson did a great job and really enjoyed being out there, helping his Daddy and Poppy. When I was taking these pictures, he kept looking over his shoulder (like in the second picture) and saying "Cheeeeese!" I was really surprised that it held his interest for so long.

And finally, what we've been doing most of this week, hanging out at home. Brenna and Jackson have started to be able to play together a little bit, and it just warms my heart so much to watch them. I am so blessed by these sweet kids.