Marisol started school on Thursday. She was pretty excited until she got there. Then her nerves kicked in. They worked themselves out by lunch time though. She's more than thrilled to be going. My days have become very quiet and very boring. :)

Some big changes are happening here at our house. After 8 years of being home with kids and not working I decided to get to work. But not for just anyone. Oh no. For myself.

That's right. After 8 years of nothing I decided to ease in slowly and start my own business. I may be crazy. That right there is the front of my store. A yarn store of course. I can't wait.

As a result of that some other things had to change. Mainly school. So this year we went ahead and enrolled Scarlet and Marisol. Scarlet is there for her first day today and is SO excited.

She was awake extra early just waiting for the minute I would come and get her up. I have a 2nd grader!! Marisol starts tomorrow. I'm not so sure she's as excited as Scarlet. :)

When we moved here last year, we ddid so at the start of the tornado season. We made it through a couple months of being on tornado watches and warnings (two different things) but we managed to not have any close calls.

Last night was different. The season has started early and with a bang. I got a call a couple nights warning me of a storm system coming my way. Sure enough, that night we had some crazy rain. At one point, I thought to myself that I had better get our emergency supplies ready since it seemed the power would go out at any second. Thankfully it didn't. That was just the start. I had 2 days of beautiful weather. It was sunny and warm with a slight breeze every now and then. Little did I know what was brewing.

I went grocery shopping last, came home, deep cleaned the fridge and then took a break. I logged into Facebook and saw two people near me mention sleeping in basements due to the weather. I talked to one and sure enough we were under tornado warning (meaning it's possible but not happening yet). I read the official notice at 7:50. The next couple hours prove to be intense. Not only did we get upgraded to Tornado Watch (meaning one was sighted) but it was just down the road from us. We had sirens go off twice. I cannot begin to describe to you what the sky and atmosphere is like in that situation. Lightening flashes (constantly as if the sky was blinking) but thunder doesn't sound. You can feel the swirl in the wind. The air is charged but flat. The sky is pitch black yet greenish gray. It was INTENSE. Luckily it passed right by us (and friends) and all we were left to deal with was the following rain storm.

I went to the store today and got to see some of the damage. There is a park we frequent 2.5 miles down the road. Trees are destroyed. There is a house, which amazingly enough was not damaged, with entire trees uprooted. Power lines and traffic signals are tangled into broken heaps or wire and tree. There was probably a 1 mile stretch of road blocked off just to fix and clean up things. I brought my camera along just in case we saw something. Here's a few (I got 24....you don't want to see them all lol).







As you can see, we have started spring off with a bang. Here's to hoping we don't have any more close calls! I think I'll head next door now and find out if my neighbor has a basement just in case (we don't!).

2 years ago a sweet, tiny person surprised us by showing up early.She got a bit bigger and stayed just as sweet.
She's quirky.
And happy to a fault.

Happy birthday to Amelia!

Scarlet decided to make me a book tonight as a surprise. I have nothing to say about it because it speaks for itself.

The front:
The first page:

The last page:

She sure knows how to melt my heart. <3

** Marisol taking a break from bike riding**



**A very toothy grin**

Wow. That pic showed up much larger than anticipated.

Yesterday, Marisol got to stand with the girl scouts while they did their opening pledge. Since she has a memory unlike any other she was able to recite it by the time we got home. Between her and Scarlet I think I've heard it a million times since 4 yesterday afternoon.

As I was getting Amelia in her seat to run to the store she throws her hand up in Trekkie formation and starts yelling, "HONOR! HONOR!". We all just stared ather for a minute before Scarlet says, "No say....I will try..." to which Amelia says "HONOR! I TRY!".

She has suddenly taken off with talking but this was above and beyond what I expected to hear today. :)