Out of Torii's mouth

Torii is always coming up with something. This is his new one. When I tell him something that he doesn't want to hear he says, "you're ruining my day." Sometimes he's more dramatic and says, "You're ruining my life." He'll be a fun teenager.

April's Fool?

Yesterday I came home from work and found a note on the door. It said, "Get dressed up. I'll be back to pick you up at 6:00." I was hoping it wasn't an April's Fool joke. I was totally unprepared so it took me multiple changes before I finally decided what to wear. I think I need to go clothes shopping. I finally got ready and just in time for Fred to get home. He told me the kids were with Grandpa and Grandma and we were going out. We had supper at Ruby Tuesday's, which was really good. This was the first time we had eaten at the Ruby Tuesday's here. We used to eat there all the time in Tenn., but that was before kids when we had nothing better to spend our money on. After supper we decided to see a movie. We decided to see "I love you, man." We were both in the mood for a comedy and we both liked it. There was one scene that made everyone in the theatre laugh hysterically. I have not laughed that hard from a movie in a long time. It was so nice of Fred to plan the evening. Usually I am the one that has to plan everything and make sure the kids are taken care of. It was so sweet of him. We had a very nice evening and I'm so glad it wasn't an April's Fool joke.

Another snow day

Today we had another snow day. School was canceled and I stayed home from work yet again. I don't know how many days I've missed this winter. We got 16.5 inches of new snow today. We are only two inches from the all time record and at this point I'm rooting for the record. It would be an awful shame to go through this winter and spring without a record. Although I am so sick of winter and snow I was grateful for the snow day today. Yesterday I wanted to sleep in so badly and be lazy, but I drug my butt out of bed and got the kids to church school. I was really pokey and we barely made it there on time. Today when I heard school was canceled I went back to bed. Fred woke me up for breakfast. He made biscuits, bacon and eggs. The kids and I had a good day snowed in too. We played all kinds of games; Monkey in the middle, Monopoly Jr. and some video games too. And of course we got outside for a little while. We went outside about 5:00 and until then we were still in our pajamas. It was great. I also got some much needed housework done. I did a lot of cleaning today and the house looks great. Of course I'm sure it will look like a disaster by tomorrow.

Last week I was so happy that our back porch was finally getting clear of snow. I wanted to get out and grill. Guess I will have to wait a little longer.
This is Cordelia at nap time today. Sometimes she rolls around before actually falling asleep and then we find her pillow on top of her.

Communication

Cordelia is only saying a few words on a regular basis. She says book, here, hi, mom, daddy, baby, and meow. She says mom very clear and usually really loudly, but the rest of the words are hard to understand unless you're around her all the time. Fred and I also heard her say juice the other day, but she hasn't said it again. That word was clear and understandable too. I also heard her say cheese yesterday when we were having some cheese for a snack. Although her verbal vocabulary isn't large, she is understanding a lot of what she hears. If I tell her to do something like throw a piece of paper in the garbage, she'll do it. Also when I tell her not to do something she understands that too. She doesn't verbally say no or yes, but she knows that a nod of the head means yes and a shake means no. We had a beautiful day today and when I asked her if she wanted to go outside I got a nod. Tonight when I asked her if she was ready to go to bed I got a shake. I asked three times to make sure and it was a shake each time. It was so cute. I just can't believe how big she is getting already.

Sensitive boys

This evening Rion watched "Bolt". I wanted to watch it with him, but between Torii and Cordelia there was no way that was going to happen. I heard Rion laugh out loud quite a few times and he didn't move from the couch which is unusual for him. He really was enjoying the movie. Towards the end of the movie I sat down and watched with Rion. There is a scene at the end where the girl is trapped in a building that is on fire. Rion was really concerned and his eyes started to tear up. He told me something about what was going on and his voice was shaky. This is a Disney movie so everything turned out fine and Rion said he liked it. When I asked him about the movie he said, "I almost cried." It was the first time I have ever seen him get emotional over a movie. It was cute.

A couple of weekends ago we went out to my parent's and after visiting for awhile we noticed the boys hadn't said anything about their cat, Winnie, who they had put down earlier in the week. We didn't say anything since the kids didn't seem to notice. Then last weekend Torii asked if we could go to Grandpa and Grandma's, but I told him they were out of town. So he asked if we could go out there anyway and play with Maggie and Winnie. I explained to him that Winnie wasn't there and when he asked why, I told him Winnie had died and was in heaven. He didn't say much and I thought that was that. On Sunday, at the dinner table, I can't remember what exactly we were talking about, but out of the blue Torii announced that Winnie is dead. Rion looked at me in surprise and said "what?!" At dinner that night we had a long conversation about dying and heaven. We've talked about it some before, but not into much depth. Now that the boys are getting older they have a lot more questions. It's been almost a week and this subject is coming up a lot especially with Torii. He is concerned about when we are going to die, who's going to die first, and whether or not we come back after we go to heaven. And he also asked me if there were video games in heaven. At times he really doesn't like the idea of heaven at all, but when I told him he would have video games in heaven he seemed ok about it. At other times he wants to go to heaven so he can see Winnie again. Rion has been talking about it some, but not like Torii. Torii must be thinking about it a lot because he talks about it randomly throughout the day. We can be in the car, having dinner, getting ready for bed, or just about anything else and he'll just suddenly start talking about it. At least he doesn't seem so bothered by it that it's keeping him up at night or that he cries when we talk about dying. We are actually having good conversations about it.

River pictures

This is the bridge that is just inside the entrance at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. The explosive blast was done in this area of the river. There are still huge ice chunks, but I guess the water is moving now. The park is closed right now and the campground is currently under water.
Today most of the kids seemed to be back in school. As one mother told me she wanted her child back in school just to get some of the normalcy back. She also had pictures of their place and the water surrounding it. They live in a trailer court and don't have flood insurance because they were told they would never need it when they bought the place. Maybe she should show the pictures to whoever told them that. We haven't talked to the boys much about the flood, but we are lucky in that we haven't been affected by it much. When I picked Rion up from school yesterday and his teacher told me about putting stuff higher up, Rion started talking about tornadoes. He said they are really scary and once he had to go to the basement. I thought this would bring on a lot of concern about the flood or weather in general, but so far it hasn't. I worked another half day today and saw lots of pictures and heard some interesting stories. Overall today was a good day. Roads are opening back up and people are going back to their homes. Now we are looking at the Red River and wondering what will happen there.

Crazy week

Flooding continues to be a concern here. I didn't go to work yesterday and today only worked a few hours. I went in after Rion was dropped off at school so I could take the Blazer to work. Then about 1:00 my boss told me to get home. They were going to set off explosions on the Missouri so they wanted me to go. As I was getting back into Mandan, they were closing off Hwy 1806 so it was good that I left so I could get home. There are a few schools in Bismarck that closed because of the flooding, but Rion's school is not one of them. There are a lot of families at our school that are being affected by the flooding which was evident when I went to pick him up. The school was so quiet. It was eerie. Rion's teacher said only six kids showed up in his class today. The school was also taking some precautions in case the worse happens and were getting things off the floor and lower shelves. Rion's teacher said the kids helped and they were very good helpers. Kirkwood was also closed today as a lot of businesses were. It's been a crazy couple of days. After '97 I didn't think I would ever see anything like that again. Especially here. If anywhere I thought Fargo would be the one to get it. But I don't think they are out of the woods yet either. I heard this year the Red River may crest higher than it did in '97. That is amazing to me. Kelly and Laurie- you would be amazed at what Bismarck looks like right now. I've never seen it like this. There are many roads closed. Businesses closed. Schools closed. People out of their homes. It's all been so surreal. The community is rallying to help everyone that needs the help which is awesome. It sounds like the explosions on the river helped to break up some of the ice jam so hopefully things will start to turn around for the better.