Alligators & Tornados, Topped Off With Easter

Over conference weekend we went to Houston to visit with Todd and Pam’s family. Does this sound like a Josh plan or what? He arranged to fly directly from West Virginia to Houston on Thursday night. The girls and I met him there Friday after school. Yes, that left me driving four and a half hours alone in traffic with car sick girls and my own perpetual nausea to worry about! I think this plan came from the same guy that conveniently arranged to start work without delay so I had to pack up the entire house, load up the moving truck, and drive across the country alone...TWICE! All husband jabs aside, we had a great weekend. We were entertained with stories of wind surfing in an oyster bed (Not a great idea, by the way, Nathan and Todd were both limping around with torn up, infected feet) and stories of travels in and around Australia. I loved seeing everyone’s eyes light up as they told us about their adventures. Todd made us an amazing Indonesian stir fry. Food is not my friend these days, but that was delicious. The girls were in heaven playing with Elise. She’s their kind of gal with a great imagination. We managed to weasel in on the end of Nathan’s Spring Break, convince Mikaela to neglect her homework and come play with us, and pull Carson away from his books long enough to use his mad skills in hiding Easter Eggs for the little girls. We had a wonderful weekend with no errand running or To Do Lists, just enjoyable time with a great family.

One of our Houston adventures was a trek to Brazos Bend State Park. We saw over 30 alligators. Some were little babies sunning themselves on logs. Some were up to their eyeballs in swamp slime and apparently loving it. A few of them were moving, but unlike the National Geographic videos none of them seemed very threatening. The girls thought it was pretty amazing to see alligators that were not in cages! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a place quite like that before: swampy, huge trees, and dangling moss with an amazing cacophony of birds. If it weren’t for the 12 foot alligators it wouldn’t be such a bad place to live.

During our drive to the State Park we stopped at a beautiful Texas ranch. There were horses and long horns grazing in the field and I wanted to get a picture with Grace’s Flat Stanley because it seemed so very Texan. I, not being a true Texan, was wearing flip flops. I carried Kate over by the fence and got a great picture. Then I felt some pain in my feet. I was standing in a fire ant nest! Fire ants are nasty. I still have the bites all over my feet and ankles and they hurt. Nasty, nasty, creatures. I obviously need to get a pair of cowboy boots!

Back in Dallas, we survived our first Tornado scare. Jane and I were with our preschool group at the Dallas Art Museum enjoying a great program they have for kids. We were having a grand time when one of the other moms came over and said she had just checked the weather and there was a severe thunderstorm warning. Being my very uptight, conscientious self I said, “I’m not worried about that.” Within the hour we were undercover in an auditorium because a tornado had just touched down. After a while they said we were all clear and could leave. We jumped in the car to make it home to pick up Kate from school. We drove right into the storm. I was with a friend who is from Texas so, by this point, I was relying on her judgement. We went through some impressive rain, then the clouds started churning to the side of us. We were listening to the radio. They described the path the storm was on and we were headed exactly where it was headed. By the time we got to the school it was hailing and pouring rain. I ran inside to get Kate. They wouldn’t let her leave because the tornado sirens in the neighborhood were going off. The school was in lockdown. I went back out to the car, got Jane, and told my friend to go home quickly. Jane and I went inside and sat with Kate in the safe room for an hour. I was soaked from head to toe, completely soaked. By the time they let us leave the storm had passed. We went home, changed clothes, and drank hot chocolate. When we moved here I left the closet under our stairs mostly empty as our tornado closet. I think it’s time to take a closer look at what supplies are in there!

To follow up all of those grand adventures we had a nice, low key Easter Weekend. We went to the temple Friday night. We had our usual Saturday mad dash to accomplish all we can in 12 hours. Sunday was lovely. We made bread, dyed Easter Eggs, watched an Easter video, went to church, had a nice dinner and finished off with Family Home Evening. Then I mourned the end of the weekend. I wish we could slow down time on Saturday and Sunday to give us a little more time together.

Two quick stories to end:

Little Jane has a great interest in nature. She has a rock collection, a leaf collection, a flower collection, an acorn collection, and a stick collection. Anytime you walk anywhere with her you have to allow time for frequent stops and you have to remember to take something along to hold all of her “treasures.” Jane was standing in the garage the other day when a gust of wind sent leaves swirling around her. Instead of crying because of the pollen and the dust, she immediately turned to me and said, “I like wind because it brings leaves in the garage and I like Spring because it brings me flowers.”

Kate seems to be on a mission to prepare Jane for the coming of our new baby. The other day over breakfast Kate started in on a wise older sister lecture: “Jane, you are the cutest now because you are the littlest. But when our baby comes you won’t be the cutest anymore. The littlest one is always the cutest. You will not be the littlest anymore, the baby will be so it will be the cutest.” At least we’ll all be ready for the transition.

Have a great week!