Summer So Far!

Summer is in FULL swing over here! We have been kinda busy, kinda not.  It ebbs and flows which is exactly how I like Summer to be! This last week WAS kinda crazy busy, but it was the busiest week we've had so I can't complain. 

So let's see... since I left off last, we had just ended our school year abruptly with no goodbye! About a week later we were able to get back inside the school and collect the girl's things.  Lucy's teacher wasn't there, but Piper's was (of course- she never misses an opportunity to see her kids!) so it gave Piper some MUCH needed closure to say good bye to her.  However, she still wasn't able to say goodbye to her friends so Mrs. Sumler planned a Kindergarten class party at Bounce U for the kiddos to all have one last hoorah together (although, they are all staying in the same class and will see each other next year, haha!).  It was a fun night and all the families were invited so we all got to play and eat pizza and cake:)

There was also Father's Day.  Shawn went and played some golf the day before because actual Father's Day was calling for Thunderstorms.  However, the storms never came so we spent the day at the pool and then had some nice tender steaks for dinner.  It was a very uneventful day!

The girls just finished a week of VBS (Vacation Bible School for you Northerner's) and it was a blast. Part of the VBS goal this year was raising money for a well. These sweet kids came together as a community and raised double what they needed (over $7,000 in just 4 days!!) so now they can build 2 wells in a 3rd world country. I can't actually remember the name of the country, but it was so touching to see all these little kids pouring their pennies and quarters into a bucket for such a good cause!  

They always love VBS and the program that us parent's got to watch at the end of the week made me cry!  I just felt this rush of emotion shooting through my heart as they sang about their love for Jesus (almost 500 kids!) and tears welled in my eyes as I watched them all together. This feeling in my heart of pure love for where we live washed over me.  I just kept thinking "this is my home.  This is my community that I love SOO so SOoooooOO much.  I was MEANT to move here and raise my children here."  I'm sure it probably gets soooo annoying to anyone who reads my blog, but I just can't express my love for Oklahoma enough- for Jenks/Bixby specifically.  I've been here going on for 4 Summers now and I STILL get emotional when I think about how blessed I am to live here and how much I just LOVE it here.  I was talking to a lady at the pool who just moved here from Michigan a few weeks ago, and she said they had to get out of the Detroit area because it's just so awful. They could move anywhere they wanted to move in the country and so she just started googling "best places to raise kids in America" and Jenks came up as the NUMBER 1 place! In ALL of America!  The article said we are THE most wholesome city in the entire nation.  I'm not sure if that's true, but I wouldn't doubt it.  She said she learned that Oklahoma is considered the BUCKLE on the Southern "Bible Belt".  We have more churches per capita in my state than in any other state.  And these churches bring GOOD people out, doing GOOD things.  This place is perfect for me. The love you feel from people, the hearts of those in my community, the do-gooders around every corner, the hundreds of churches here that don't bash each other! (No one looks down on any other religions here and I've just never been in a place where everyone's SO respectful of others beliefs!), the kids' programs, the baskets that sit in front of grocery stores so you can give what you can and take what you need, the politeness, the "yes Ma'am's," and "no sir's," the countless willing volunteers for just about anything, the community get-togethers, the parades, the sports, etc. etc. etc.  This is my hometown and my heart is FULFILLED here!  The lady said that after she did her research, her and her husband flew down to check it out.  They stayed for a week and were completely sold on moving here- BECAUSE OF THE PEOPLE.  When they flew back home to Michigan after their week here, she said she felt depressed just going back up there because she came from "the best place ever" and had to go back to "the worst place ever" and she said "we couldn't pack up our house fast enough!  I tell all my friends that if they ever come and visit me, they're NEVER going to want to leave."  It's just a really GOOD place.  

Back to VBS.... after the program there was an after-party where there were LIVE animals for us to hold!  Sully held a baby crocodile, and we all held a baby kangaroo and little lemurs and saw turtles, snakes, tarantulas (gross) and more. The furry animals were SO SO cute!

ANYWAY- the girls took a week of tennis (we do this annually in June because they love this specific tennis camp) and they moved up a level and did great!  It was smaller balls than the pee-wee balls they are used to so it was more of a challenge, but they still did awesome!

Lucy had cheer camp last week where she started stunting! In 3rd grade they get to start stunting but they won't actually throw them in the air quite yet.  That starts in 6th grade I believe.  She is a "flyer" so she gets to take the top of pyramids, stand on girls hands, fall backwards to be caught, etc.  She said it was a little scary at first but by the end of the 1st night she was having fun!  She's such a tiny little thing I have a feeling she will be a flyer her entire "cheerleading career."  IF she keeps doing it.

 These are JUST the 3rd and 4th graders!

We fished at our Neighborhood's Annual Fishing Fest!  The turtles were biting more than the fish, but it was still fun! We get to grill, hang with the neighbors, eat yummy foods, compete for prizes, and all the bait is provided!  It's always a fun event!

Last week the kids got the opportunity to attend the Jenks Fire Department’s “Push-In” event! They literally got to push the brand new fire trucks into the station! It’s a tradition that dates back to when horses pulled and pushed carts of water waaaay back in the day before fire trucks were invented. It was so fun to witness this event and the kids LOVED it! I wish I could upload videos onto this blog because I got a great video of all 3 of them pushing the truck into the station!  And we were on the news! AND they got to meet the mayor and shake his hand :) Then they got to eat cake in the fire departments living room, which was pretty special too 💛🚒💛 The fire station only does this about every 10-15 years, so it's pretty cool that we got to be a part of it!

All the days in between all of these things we have spent at the pool.  We go to the pool about 5 days a week because it's so convenient for me!  The kids love it and it's just down the street so it's what we do!  Maybe when Sully's older and can do more we will venture out a bit and start going to lakes and rivers (the good ones are about an hour away so it's not just a quick trip, unfortunately) but for now the pool is perfect for us! With 3 pools to swim in, they never seem to get bored of it!  And I've already finished 2 chapter books and in the middle of a 3rd!!  I haven't finished a book in less than 3 months in YEARS because I never have time to read! Now that all 3 of the kids swim non-stop, I have reading time! I LOVE it. 

Oh.  One last thing worth mentioning.  The flood waters brought a TON of nasty allergens up and Sully got so, SO sick.  It was one of his worst bouts of asthma EVER (besides the time he was in the hospital as a baby for it).  He was on oral steroids for 7 days (usually they will only do 5 days) and he was on breathing treatments for 10 whole days.  Every 4 hours, 'round the clock.  We were waking up in the middle of the night every night to keep on it because he just couldn't stop coughing. When he coughed so hard that he couldn't breathe- my heart stopped every. single. time.  And he threw up for 6 days straight at least once a day because of how hard he would cough at times.  It was just awful.  He still has a little bit of a lingering cough and his voice is still really hoarse from it all, but it was just scary.  It was sad to watch him struggle, even though he wasn't super bothered by it.  He would throw up and say "Mommy, I barfed again" and just walk away like it didn't even happen!  We kept telling him "SLOW DOWN baby! You need to rest your lungs!" But he wouldn't listen!  That boy will stop for nothing.  And, on top of that, he had another ear infection so that sucked too.  We really need to get tubes in his ears :(

Anyway, I think I'm caught up now.... I guess a lot did happen within a month that I forgot about.  Haha, it doesn't seem like we've been too busy but maybe that's just because when you compare this current schedule of ours to our school schedule, it seems like we've been able to relax a LOT!  I love Summer!

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful....And it was just our anniversary!

Gosh, I have lots to update on....

Let's start with the night of my last post.  Due to flooding, the last 2 days of school were cancelled so  the kids got out for Summer break early.  It was actually sad for us because there was no time to say goodbye to teachers and friends, and all of the end of year parties were cancelled.  I am SO happy it's Summer Break, but sad for the anti-climatic ending!  We are safe where where we are located, but the schools are not as lucky :'( 

We trekked up to the school that evening (even though it was closed) to get our annual "jump pic" since they didn't get to do it on the REAL last day of school (since they didn't know it would be their last day) and then went to get them their end-of-year slurpees.  The flooding hadn't hit the school building *yet* just the parking lot and field.  Lucy's teacher said the school staff spent the day moving everything they could onto high shelves in their classrooms to prep for what might come- desks, chairs, everything they could stack they did.  When we left the school we drove past hundreds of people sandbagging houses and buildings and covering all doors and windows with Visqueen :(  We saw countless houses evacuating and people trying to get all their belongings into the back of trucks before the flood reached them.  It was so, SO sad.  The community banned together, as we always do, and actually had to turn away volunteers that night because they were at max capacity. I am so thankful for this sweet community of mine.

Anyway, the Arkansas River is what is flooding because we have had SO MUCH RAIN.  The reservoirs can't hold it anymore so we are seeing historic flooding.  They have to let it out of the dam at a rate that allows slow flooding because if they don't let it out, the dam could actually break and then there would be catastrophic floods.  It's just awful.  Running trails are completely submerged with sinkholes everywhere.  Houses are destroyed. The water is flowing FAST.  Someone fell into it the other day while trying to take a video and sadly they died.  They got swept away immediatley! We had helicopters, drones, police, firefighters etc. looking for the body but it was nowhere to be found.  The reservoirs started letting water out of the dam at 165,000csf (cubic square feet) but they had to raise it to 200,000csf after more rain, then 215,000, then 250,000 and they said with the rain we are supposed to get tonight it will reach 300,00csf.  That will be the highest rate they've ever released water in history and it will be the worst flood Bixby/Jenks has ever seen.  It hasn't flooded this bad since 1986.  This is just devastating! I live in Jenks, but we are part of the Jenks AND Bixby community (our kids go to school in Bixby) because we are right on the border of Bixby.  It's kinda like Eagle, ID and Meridian, ID- they're so close together that it's all one area- if that helps give you an idea of it all. 

In the midst of all this, Shawn and I celebrated our 9th anniversary!  It feels weird that we have only been married for 9 years.  It seems almost like I've been with him my whole life because we've been through so much together.  Our lives have shifted so much and it feels like he's been with me forever.  We hired a babysitter and with money from my sweet Mom and Nana we were able to go out to dinner first, and then axe throwing later!  You might think that's weird, but Shawn and I love trying new things and this was one of those things we really wanted to do!  It is SO much fun! I'm absolutely terrible at it, but we laughed and laughed the whole time!  That man of mine is a gem! 

I asked Lucy to take a picture of Shawn and I for our anniversary.  She did, then she disappeared for 15 minutes.  When she came back she had a full face of makeup on and said "now can me and YOU take pictures together Mommy? I made my lips red so we could match since I'm your anniversary baby." I know she wasn't born ON our anniversary, but it was her due date so we call her our Anniversary Baby :)

Ok.... Last weather update on here.  This is a doozy!  I'm copying and pasting what I wrote on Facebook Sunday morning so that I don't have to re-type it all.

"Storytime:🌪
This whole story takes place from 12:28-12:38am.
Last night I was just drifting off to sleep at 12:28 (you know when you’re in the middle of sleep and wake) when my phone blared the “severe weather alert” sound. Right then, my bed started lightly bouncing. I thought “oh great, we are in the middle of another earthquake- that’s what the weather alert is all about.” I picked my phone up and instead of an earthquake, I saw it said Tornado warning. I noticed Shawn wasn’t in bed with me so I went out to find him. It was probably 12:30 at this point. Shawn’s on our back porch, it’s pouring rain and thunder and lightening everywhere and an eerie feeling in the air. We look at the sky and it’s this greenish haze that you see when the weather is right for tornados. We start panicking because the wind suddenly starts whipping. People told me our city wasn’t in the path of tornados but this didn’t look good. We run through the house and out to our front porch to look and Oh. My. Gosh. In between the flashes of lightening that would light up the entire sky every 2-3 seconds we see this MASSIVE black mass coming out of the sky. Every flash made it look bigger and bigger and blacker and blacker. I’ve never seen anything like it. I was frozen. It took my mind a few times of seeing the mass to realize what I was actually seeing. I was seeing a TORNADO. It was incredible. It wasn’t like what you see in the movies when you see them form out in a field, and it wasn’t like I saw it ripping through the ‘hood. I saw it off in the distance just coming out of the sky. This was at 12:32. Shawn said “get the kids, go to the closet!” Our closet is a central room on our ground-level with no windows so that’s the safest spot. He grabs the girls, I grab the boy. They’re all disoriented from being woken up like this but we all go sit in my closet. Our phones are blaring alerts, the tornado sirens are so loud, the wind is howling, the lights are flickering, Lucy’s crying; it was not fun. We sit for a minute and I’m shushing the kids so I can hear what’s happening outside. Then I pick up my phone. It’s 12:38 at this point and I open my phone to see if there are any updates. Sure enough: the news says a tornado touched down in Jenks in 12:34am moving at 55mph (but with winds at 101mph). News everywhere saying “TAKE COVER. TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN JENKS. THIS IS A LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION.” It was over by the time I opened my phone.
We are ok. It hit 2 miles from my house and was only an F1 tornado; no damage to our house or yard at all. Half our city is without power and lots are without sections of their roofs. The most damage we had was that our grill got blown into the middle of our yard and our dart board got blown off. I’m literally shocked right now that I saw a tornado with my own eyes. Shawn said that the bed bouncing was because of the pressure building up inside our house and causing things to move and shake. At one point he tried to open the back door but it was getting sucked close. It was terrifying and amazing all at once! I’ve ALWAYS wanted to see a tornado in real life and I finally got to even if it was just the formation/growth of it. I am so thankful we are okay and our house is ok. It was an eventful night, to say the least!"

And, because I have nothing else to add to that (other than, as weird as this sounds it was one of the most incredible things I've EVER seen) I'll end on a happy note! I think we clocked in close to 20 hours poolside over the 3 day weekend and I don't think my kids fought even ONCE!!!!!!

Happy Summer! And, please continue to pray for my community because the floods seem never-ending! and.... P.S....this meme ;-)

Field Day, Awana, and Piper's Recital!

I feel bad.  We had so many events planned in May, and although I was stressed that I was gonna be oh-so-busy, "Central Celebration" (which is a grade-by-grade celebration at a big city park down the street from the kids' school) was cancelled both on Monday for Piper and Tuesday for Lucy.  We have had some pretty big thunder/lightening storms so everything was cancelled.  I feel sad for the kids because this is something they look forward to all year! School was actually cancelled today because there is so much flooding by the school from last night.  We had SOOOO much rain and pretty epic storms for 15 hours straight and some of the roads going into school were blocked off and closed. So they had to cancel school because of the flooding.  I hate that they didn't get to do all their fun things but at least they did most of it.  Tomorrow is the last day of school so let's hope it is open!  I don't know what will happen if it's not- they still have to empty their desks and all that!  

Despite the last 48 hours, here are all the updates from the last week!

Awards ceremony for my little “Sparkies.”🏅✔️

One event down, 6 more to go! 

Two things: Piper INSISTED on dressing fancy for her last Thursday of kindergarten (heels and all!👠💁🏼‍♀️). And Sully found these big strawberries growing in our garden that are probably the biggest ones we’ve ever had!🍓They were delicious!

Back to back Field Days for Kindergarten and 2nd grade! 4 hours in the sun was a lot for Sully, but thank goodness the kindergarteners let him join in on the fun! We are so thankful for Mrs. Sumler! {And we’re also so thankful for sno-cones to stall his meltdowns🍧}

On Saturday my Pi Baby danced her heart out with a hip-hop routine (usually she does ballet) and, as usual, I cried😆I LOVE watching her perform!💙🥰🖤Her 

{P.S. I can’t even with Sully’s seersucker sports coat and hush-puppies😍} 

P.P.S.  Her class danced to a song called "Wild Side" and her teacher, for 3 years in a row, was Ms. Molly.  We LOVE her!

This is obviously not a dance picture, but it cracked me up because Sully was NOT about to let any of the cake-batter go to waste.  I was cracking up and knew this was blog-worthy!

So now tomorrow is mine and Shawn's anniversary AND the last day of school- we have NO time to celebrate, however we have a sitter coming on Friday night so we can go out and celebrate 2 days later.  Then the pool opens this weekend and I feel like THAT will be our Summer kick-off!

PEACE OUT SCHOOL YEAR!