After the Storm

What an unexpected day. I was going to write a happy blog yesterday. Now I have a somewhat less happy blog to post. We had a severe storm yesterday that wiped out our power and had us hoping that the hail would stop. I have never seen such a long hail storm. I posted pictures of the hail size and of our home, and you can view those by clicking on the "My Pictures" link to the left of this post. We were lucky, as more than one tornado danced around our tiny town yesterday. This is a picture that my neighbor took from the middle school here in town. This is the tornado that started near Gilcrest, a small town to the east of us, and headed to Windsor and left massive devastation there. We went and stayed with my parents due to the power outage. Power was restored to our home some time last night and we are home now. The aftermath of the storm left many homeless, but the miracle is that only one person was killed as he tried to outrun the tornado in his car. The tornado shifted and he ended up right in it's path. Our hearts go out to his family, the neighboring communities, and we ask that you might include our little area of Colorado in your prayers. Until I write again, may we all be safe.

Butterfly Pavilion

Hello all! This weekend found us at the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver with Chris' brother John and his family. Chris was with his dad at a gun show and also a coin show. Chris' mom, Rue, was with us. The kids had a lot of fun, and it was neat to see an entire room dedicated to different exotic bugs. The had a living beehive in that room, along with different looking leaf bugs, HUGE spiders (EW!), and even cockroaches. You can see the link in my pictures for all the photos from that trip. It was great to see the kids faces. They had an ocean room with different sea creatures. The kids got to pet a starfish and a sea urchin. There was also a kind of crab to pet that looked a lot like a stingray. Anyway, it was quite a bit of fun to plant flowers to take home, and to tour their new garden and get tips on how to plant a garden that will attract butterflies. Besides Chris having the flu, an ear infection, and pinkeye this weekend, everything was pretty laid back. Saturday was also Gary's (Chris' Dad) birthday, so we celebrated with banana splits. We hope everyone is well, with all that seems to be going on in the world. Hurricanes, earthquakes, fires--the earth is sure groaning right now. Take care all, our love goes out to you.

Beyond Mother's Day

Sunday was Mother's Day. It was great! I taught Sharing Time at church (the lesson for the children). We made flowers for the moms out of pipe cleaners and tissue paper. It was cute.

For dinner we met at my mom's house and had dinner and hung out. All I had to make was a salad-it was nice. We had flank steak, which is an all-time family fave. I had my mom take a 4-generation picture which is the one you see. Sawyer had pink eye, so Chris stayed home with him. Aside from that little hiccup, we had a great day.

Monday we left as a family to go to the funeral for Glen. It was nice, and I could not believe how many people came. Even the Governor was there. It was a short, but long trip. I found out that the three other soldiers with him were also killed. I hope things hurry up and end over there. I know, probably not, but I will hope an end will come soon.

Today the kids went back to school. It turns out that Aiden won't need any more speech help when he starts kindergarten. They think he is doing well enough to be on his own, and can speak well enough to be understood. That was nice to hear. It was great to see the smile on his face when his teachers told him how well he had done this year and how far he had come. He still mixes up some sounds and he still can't say his "R's," but they assure me it will come in time. Caylee had a "Wacky Day" at school, so I did her hair funny and she wore her shirt inside out. I remember doing funny stuff like that when I was younger. It was part of her school spirit week.

So, the grandparents are coming down this weekend. The "Men" are going to the gun show while us females and youngsters will be going to the Butterfly Pavillion. I will have to let you all know how that goes. Until then, take care!

Honoring the Fallen...

This is Marine Sgt. Glen Martinez pictured with his wife, Sgt. Melissa Martinez. Glen was on his second tour in Iraq when he was killed on May 2nd by a roadside bomb. Chris and Glen went to high school together back in Monte Vista, and they were both on the wrestling team together. Chris will be going back to Monte on Monday night with his brother, John, to attend his funeral services on Tuesday. I thought we would honor his memory by dedicating a post on our blog to Glen. May the brave men and women serving in Iraq be watched over while they accomplish their missions, is our prayer. Thank you Glen and Melissa, for your selfless sacrifice. Melissa, our deepest sympathies and prayers go out to you today. We honor you both.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook Made this for my best friend for her birthday today. Thought you all might like to see how skinny I used to be!! Enjoy! Love you Amers!

Here We Are!

Hello all! We decided to start a blog so that you can always find out what we are doing out here in Colorado. There are only about 2 more weeks of school and Caylee and Aiden are excited about that. Over the summer, we plan to get the kids signed up for swimming lessons. I am going to start teaching Caylee piano, and hopefully we will get Aiden into soccer where he can have an outlet for all his energy. Sawyer is just as happy as he can be, and is getting quite a personality. He has started taking off his PJ's after we put him to bed, although it really isn't that hot yet. He also begs me to make a paper airplane whenever he finds a piece of paper! Well, that gets us started. Be sure to come back often as I will try to update a couple of times a week. Have a great rest of the week, you all...