thankful

what in the world do you blog about when your State and your heart have been left in despair??!!?? wade just drove me around the 280/cahaba heights area and I found myself in a puddle of tears. Our tree incident WITHOUT A DOUBT fails in any type of comparision to what I just saw!! And when we were in the thick of the tornado warnings, I realized that I may be a little tramatized. And I'm really thankful that I do NOT know how to work a chainsaw because I'm pretty sure I would have taken down the rest of our pine trees by MYSELF wednesday morning BUT instead I grabbed our hedge clippers and hacked away at anything that was remotely near our windows. I felt {and LOOKED} like a crazy person. The wind was blowing so hard that my black trash bags kept flying into the street but I would chase them down and resume "business." And lo and behold, I uncovered a single rose in the middle of it all. And since the blooming rose didn't fit in with the "dying plants" look we've got goin' on outside, I chopped it down and brought it inside.


And Praise the Lord our area was not hit by the tornado and the only pain that we have encountered is the tremendous heartache for families that were. For as long as I live I will never forget being huddled in that hallway with my children wearing their bicycle helmets and listening to the voice on the radio telling us which way the tornado was heading and the ever-changing direction of its path. I hope to never experience that again.


So {again Praise the Lord} the rest of our week pretty much played out as planned. we celebrated a birthday.


And lucy screamed at the top of her lungs throughout the entire "happy birthday song." I'm pretty sure she forgot the order of ONE: sing to daddy; TWO: "let them eat cake".



because she got happy pretty quick after she stuffed herself.


sweet kate won the gold star that night!!


and on friday, emma also had a field trip to the botantical gardens.


where they got to do a little bird-watching.


emma was very serious the whole time and I couldn't really tell if she was digging it or not! in all honesty I wasn't digging it either after another one of the moms asked me if I was pregnant and it hurt my feelings more than anything has in a long time. My personal philosophy is not ask anybody unless their belly is so big that they very well could be on the way to the hospital for delivery. This mom actually has twins herself and if anyone should understand, she should. I'm now moving on.


emma and her best friend from school. we will miss this little girl very, VERY much next year.



actually we're going to miss the whole class. don't even get me started on how sad I am about her leaving this school.





we also got the privilege of doing ballet hair twice this week. once for class and then the next day for pictures. after the pictures were over, I received a "good ballet hair" compliment from the teacher which I have been striving for for two years. one of my best friends said it best, "Few will understand the magnitude of your accomplishment."


and I had to bribe emma for the ballet hair on the second day {because she hates it more than anything in this entire world} and I put the little girls hair up and she got to hair-spray them. what...ever....works.


and we ended our week at the school playground.



where I took my new favorite picture of emma.


I just don't think she understands how breath-taking beautiful she is.


and if you ask ME, wade and I have three of the most beautiful girls on the planet.



and I'm just beyond thankful that we're okay.