Hello Sunshine

Moore Tornadoes.  Moore rain.  More tornadoes. More rain.  This Great State I call home has had it’s share of weather drama over the past few weeks.  But we are #oklahomastrong.  We have finally had a couple of beautiful days with bright, abundant sunshine!  We were DUE!  The Weavers even got in on the bad weather blues  last week – in the middle of dance recital!  Thursday during dress rehearsal, all the moms and dancers took cover for 30 minutes or so before resuming the run through.  The first show was scheduled for Friday night at 7.  It was postponed until 7:30 as everyone that was there – dancers, staff, spectators, and vendors – was once again shuttled to “safe” locations within the building.  Some dancers and families never showed up in the first place since there was a threat of severe weather, and some left when we were sent to take cover.  So, the show was completely cancelled and rescheduled for Saturday.  In the meantime, we had a babysitter at our house with Mr. Finn.  She called while we were sheltered at the high school to tell us the power had gone out in ½ of our house.  Come to find out, we had lost a VERY large limb on a tree in the back yard, and it had taken out the power lines that run to our house as it fell.  The power company had to shut off all our power due to the fire risk, and we ended up in a hotel for the night – checked in at 11:15 pm!  LONG night….  Then, 2 recitals the next day (the second one was missing lots of dancers, and the dancers were tired, but I am glad we got to get both shows in!).  Here are my favorite images from that very crazy, more than enough, 24 hours:

Dress Rehearsal - before taking cover

Dress Rehearsal - after taking cover and back to work

Recital - Night one "taking cover." SO BORED!

Betsey and Britt - waiting out the storm..

4 hours later - Finn in the hotel room... "I may not be able to fix storm damage, but I stayed at the Holiday Inn last night!"

Since then, we have been trying to enjoy our summer.  T-ball games!  Several have been canceled and rescheduled due to rain, but we are just a couple of weeks from the end of the season!  The rain has been a constant companion, but it comes with cooler temperatures and overcast skys, so it is a nice change for an Oklahoma summer!  The kids are adjusting to days with Nana, and I have started my summer schedule of 4 – 10 hour work days with Wednesdays off.  This past Wednesday was my first.  We did chores around the house in the morning, ate lunch, then went bowling.  We ran a couple of errands, then came home to make Jello play doughcookies.  Over all, a pretty fun day.  But, FWIW, 4 kids who are all very high energy and 3 of them are high maintenance with forceful personalities will wear ANYONE out!  KUDOS to Nana the Wonder Sitter – I don’t know how she does it!

And in Finn news…  We were trying to sleep train him, but then we had to spend a night in a hotel, and he got this silly summer cold - which put us at his specialist on Monday.  (21 pounds!  YAY!) We’ve been derailed a bit on the sleep thing…  But as soon as he is feeling better we are back at it!  he is on breathing treatments and Dimetapp 3x a day right now.  Poor Peanut! Here is a slide show chronicling the first few nights and how it all went:

By Slide.ly - SlideShow Maker

Finn’s Child Development specialist came to the house for an evaluation yesterday.  She was SO HAPPY with his progress.  He has come a long way in a few short weeks, and he warmed up to her very quickly (which is rare).  He even shared toys, pillows, and used tissues with her! LOL!  At the beginning of the appointment, I told her Finn had 5 words: No, Yes, up, down & uh-oh - in that order, all in the last 7-10 days. These 5 words he uses often and appropriately. While she was there, Finn added cup and ball. Can you say, language explosion?!? She said he is now caught up to his actual age as far as language goes! Just a few short months ago he was MONTHS behind!  And of course, since he is running and climbing like crazy, he has caught up physically, too!  Nana the wonder sitter said he used hello and bye-bye, too!  YAY for talking Finn!

Here's hoping the good news and good weather continue!  We want to go SWIMMING, but it's been too cool!  June doesn't quite feel like June... YET!  Stay tuned!