What we've been up to.

We FINALLY have wireless internet in this house! Yay. Doing everything on my phone was getting so annoying, and taking SO long. I love that I can lay in my bed with my laptop and finish something in 10 minutes, where I was waiting and waiting and waiting on my phone forever. I need to go take my phone to get looked at, but we also don't have good reception at the house. You'd think we would have awesome reception up here on top of the hill.

Friday = tornadoes! The news channels had been talking for a few days about how bad the weather was going to be. Thankfully we have a basement. When it came time for sirens to go off, we had blankets to wrap the kids up in, flashlights, candles, and a few sentimental things down there ready. I took Lucy's NICU box I have of all her things, Landon's scrapbook from maternity-christmas, and Landon's piggy bank ;) Of course, we stayed upstairs watching out all of the windows (some were on the deck). We've got a GREAT view of almost every direction.We can see UPS, the airport, the interstate, and downtown off the back side of the house. It actually didn't even barely rain during the warning at our house, it just split and skipped around us.  During the whole morning, Luke was calling & emailing back and forth to employees, assitant managers, district managers, and anyone else who needed to know or ask anything about his store and the safety of his employees. He had to make sure they had supplies ready to go in the aisles. He had to make sure the employees knew what to do when the sirens come on ( even if the cusomters are trying to come in during a tornado warning and seem not to care & get angry). The tornadoes that hit in southern Indiana are closest to his store and the Clarksville, Indiana store.

Today he spent the day making sure his store and the Clarksville store had enough employees from other stores coming to work with them, getting all of their donations together, taking supplies to Henryville and Pekin, and trying to take care of his assistant manager whose house was hit. If you don't live with a store manager of a top 5 retail business in the USA & top 10 in the world,then you probably don't understand what they 'at home' life is like.

Every minute of being at home, this thing goes off at least 1 time. Every time there is a big sale in the district, the DM emails every store manager, and then there are a lot of replies. Any time the store managers in the district want to talk smack about UofL and UofK, the thing rings and rings and rings and rings and rings. Any time ANYONE in the district or region needs to tell the manager something ( questions about hours or hiring , who is coming to walk the stores, service complaints, why a ceratin overhead is at a certain #, which store is going to beat who and make that big sale today, who just sold a $50,000 kitchen,who can transfer a certian sku to another store.....) the blackberry goes off! So, you can imagine how cramped Luke's fingers must be after these past 2 days!

Speaking of HOMe DEPOT, make sure you go the 1st Saturday of every month to the kid's workshop! It is normally  between 9 AM & 12 PM. TOTALLY FREE! Your kid gets a HD apron to wear every month, and then gets a pin to put on the apron after they complete their project. Some stores also have coloring pages and certificates. Luke actually NEVER told me about this until this past summer. He would  just completely forget until they day of. But, Landon now has about 8 pins on his apron and has made a race car ( today), a Valentine's box, a snowman napkin holder, a picture frame, a shed/bank, a helicopter, and pencil box, & maybe a bird feeder (?). His apron is in the garage, but each pin has a picture of what they built for that month. Next Month will be a window bird feeder. Each kid gets their own kit, gets to wear safety goggles, and use a hammer! There is also sometimes glue, and there is paint most of the time too! We love it--and not just because it is 'daddy's work'. PS-->There's also usually popcorn popping on Saturdays on an endcap nearby.

Landon also had his last basketball game of the season today. Oh my goodness. 3 year old boys are MOODY! Out of 8 kids, only 2 have not cried almost every game. Ok, so mine only cried 2 times, but he does like to run behind the goal to try to climb up it. The main 2 that didn't cry are girls. Those little boys want their mommies on the floor with them, and refuse to go on the floor half of the game. But they can all shoot good. My poor little boy FINALLY just hit the front of the rim last week. We are allowed to lift them up at 3 year old level, but we got tired of that half-way through ;) He does love to run up and down the floor, and every time we pass the High School where they play at, he reminds us that is where his 'baksetball' game is and how he loves it.

We also went to see The Lorax tonight. LOVED IT! Krispie Kreme sounded good on the way home =) 

And during all of this, my Grandpa has been in the hospital with gallstone & pancreas issues. He has had 1 procedure done, and they are awaiting another.

My dad has also been in the hospital from an erupted artery on or in his spleen which has caused a blood clot in his spleen. His blood pressure has also been very high, and he has been in a lot of pain.

 My niece ( who lives in our basement) had the stomach virus through the night Thursday and into Friday morning. She is finally feeling better, might have overdone herself today riding her bike3 miles while I ran, and she  passed on a doughnut after the movie!

There is still no answer as to what has caused the spleen issue with my dad, and as of ysterday 1/3-1/2 of his spleen is dead. The doctors are not planning on removing it as of now. They are continuing to do tests--several blood disorders and cancers have come back negative so far. Keep both of them in your prayers!

I think that wraps up what we've been up to the past week. Oh, and I've also been thinking about.....

Luke heads out the 13th for Store Managers meeting, and I will be joining him on the morning of the 16th! This will be my first time away from both children. This will also be my first time away from Lucy since we brought her home. Luke went to NC the week she came home, and went to Atlanta back in September-ish. I wish we could fly someone out with us to take care of them, I just can't imagine something happening to them and being so far away. I'm not sure that I have slept-in in over 3 years, as in waking up when I want and not to get up with a child. I just want to sleep. And I just want to lay out. I've been checking the 10 day forcast, and it seems like it will be low 70's! I went to Vegas one time before, and there was like a record high in the 90's =) It was this same weekend in 2007. Luke got me a new swimsuit(!!!!!), so I'm ready to go!

Luke must have fallen alseep talking to Landon before bed because I hear snoring coming from the room. I think I'll just shut my door a little to block it out, and wake them up in the morning!