The rest of the week and a short trip to Athens

Well, I think I probably spent too much time online last week following tornado coverage.  And not enough time helping.  Although, I feel kind of helpless since I don't have that much energy right now, someone would have to watch little miss, I don't have an up to date tetanus shot, and I'm not really supposed to be doing a lot of heavy lifting.  *sigh*  Excuses.

I did go over to Crossroads UMC on Wednesday and helped serve meals to people from 10-3.  Cecily got to go play with Lynelle and Addilynn while I was gone... I'm sure she had lots of fun- she woke up the next morning and wanted to go play with the kids.  Kathy said it was like having triplet girls.  hehe.  I mostly just ladled out chili and jambalaya with some Eureka sisters...  we served volunteers, insurance agents, health department (yes, we had to wear hair nets), and W-ton residents.  One lady came through with her kids...  her son told us he ate two doughnuts for breakfast; she said she told him, "buddy, you don't have a house, you can have another doughnut."  So sad.    

One morning I found little miss "reading" books to bear-bear.  Sans pants, of course.  

On Friday, I finally took Cecily to get her two year pictures taken.  She was not in the best mood and there were tons of people there getting Christmas pictures.  She just wanted to play with all the stuffed animals they use to get kids to smile and she did not want to smile.  Soooo....  it wasn't worth it, so we stopped and I got the one pose that she looked happy in.  woot woot.  We stopped by the church on the way home to see Grandpa and Grandma and most of the rest of the family.  It was crazy how full the parking lot was with trucks and trailers and equipment.  And the church was full of volunteers eating supper.  So we said hi to people, checked out the bottled water mountain, passed out pictures, and headed home.  
Saturday morning we packed up to go visit Susan in Athens.  Cecily was lots of help.

Or something.  I've got my blankies, my camel, and my shoes, can we go now?

She was pretty whiny on the way down.  Didn't like the sun in her eyes.  Didn't want her picture taken.  Didn't want a drink.  *sigh*  

It took us about 9 hours to get there and she pretty much bounced off the walls once she was out of the car seat.  We stayed at the guest house- right next to the church and right next to Sprout and Kalla's house.  It was nice to not be in a hotel and have a kitchen and two bedrooms.  Athough, we only used one because Bob insisted that Cecily needed to share the king  size bed with us.  *eye roll*  Somehow she spends more time "snuggling" up to me in the middle of the night than him... so I don't sleep well...  oh well.  She probably slept better that way, and every one is happier when she is not grumpy.  When it was time to go to bed she didn't want to lay down and went out into the hallway and asked for her coat and "home."  

Sunday we got to experience Athens Church for the first time.  Cecily loved it.  She made friends with the kids right away.  Sprout and Kalla took the little ones up front for a special number and she got to go too.  She didn't sing, but she smiled and looked really excited when they started singing Jesus Loves Me and Twinkle Stars.  Then Susan dragged me up to sing and Cecily came and stood with us and started dancing and tried to take her tights off....  *sigh*  Thank goodness they are very laid back.  And there were only 20ish people there... she got to go to Sunday school with Susan, which she loved.  We were both very ready for lunch by the end of second service;  we were treated to southern bbq at 306.  It was super yummy, although little miss ate one bite of beans and then wandered off to 'help' the waitresses.  She is something else.  She finally took a nap and I got to lose Settlers to Sprout and Kalla and two of the Edelman girls.

We didn't do much else while we were there since it was cold and rainy.  Susan made grilled cheese and tomato soup for supper, which Cecily loved.  Monday morning we visited the preschool with Susan.  Cecily joined right in...  sat down with them for lunch (not that she ate anything), danced along with their "exercise" video, but she drew the line at taking a nap.  We went out for a late lunch with Susan and then stopped in at a pet store.  Little miss fell asleep in the car on the way back and woke up crazier than ever.  
These are the only pictures I took the whole time... 

Playing with the tablet...

Sprout made us spaghetti for supper and we hung out for the rest of the evening.  We got up Tuesday morning and packed up to go home.  We stuck our heads in at the preschool and said good bye to Miss Susan, Miss Kalla, and the kids...  and then we spent another 9 hours in the car.  She was actually pretty good on the way home.  Thank goodness for the tablet!  We have a drawing app that she curled up and used for a long time when it got dark.  

She was so excited when we got home- "Tootsie's house!  Tootsie's house!" and she proceeded to make sure all her toys were still there....
And after 18 hours in Bob's two door car (our most reliable vehicle and best gas milage) it might be time for a van.  If only there was one cheap as free.... or just cheap...  
Anyway, it was a good weekend.
Blessings.

ooo... and Uncle Fred was quoted in the Chicago Tribune!

The Gales of November

Why yes, I have been neglecting my blog.  I doubt that anyone has missed it though.  *grin*  Except maybe Grandpa Beutel. 

Anyway, boring stuff (by comparison) first.  

We've been semi-busy.  We went to World Relief family night.  Supper at the farm last Sunday.  Little miss woke up grumpy, but cheered up and was absolutely wild by the end of the night. 

The latest in dish towel fashions:

This just makes me smile...

We hosted potluck here on Thursday, so on Wednesday instead of cleaning the house I cleaned out Cecily's closet.  I was putting away her summer clothes and she insisted on wearing her swimsuit... and then she put on her boots.  Quite the little fashionista.  Or something.

I did get the house cleaned and potluck was a success. 

Cecily came with me to my Dr. appointment Friday... it's a good thing people think she's cute, because really, she's a terror sometimes.  She did make friends with an older lady who was waiting for the a doctor in the practice next to mine.

Saturday we raked leaves.  Cecily had a great time "helping."  Bob tossed her into the town leaf pile and she sank... and disappeared.  She was a little unsure about that, but laughed because Bob and I did.  After one of our loads she had a great time playing in the pile with a little boy there with his dad.  We finished just before it started raining.  I headed to Washington for my cousin Kirk's testimony that evening.

We went to Washington church on Sunday for baptisms...  yeah...  we started hearing the weather alerts at the end of the service and then the sirens during the last prayer.  And they just kept praying and still did the announcements and I kept getting more and more nervous. I hate storms, especially tornadoes.  My mom had taken Cecily out and they were in the lunch room, I ended going directly from the sanctuary to the Sunday school rooms so we ended up in different rooms when they said there was a tornado on the ground.

It was pretty scary, plus my lack of emotional control (stupid hormones) made it even worse.  The power went off and we were all huddled on the ground, and some brother started praying.  I was pretty weepy, holding the hand of some poor visitor girl who didn't have any family in the room and was also crying, and it got really still and then we heard the wind and debris hitting the side of the church.  The tornado passed about 1/4- 1/2 mile from the church, which is waaay to close for my comfort.

They let us get up then and somebody took me to the room where Mom and Cecily were.  They said she did really well for being in the dark and being contained, but she was getting a little whiny for mommy.  There were still storm cells in the area so they had us all go over to the basement of the church condos until everything was past.  The parking lot was a mess of sticks and tin and pieces of siding and wet insulation.  We found Bob over there and waited in the dark, hot basement for a while before they gave the all clear.  Cecily was getting hot and was tired of the dark. 

Sooo.... we finally ate lunch in the dark and then headed over to Eureka Church for the baptisms. They didn't have power either; however, their church was built before the dark loving 70's so they have lots of windows and they had plenty of water. 

Crazy day.   Anyway, I'm thankful we're all safe and the church wasn't damaged (minus some siding damage and a wrenched open door).  Two church family's homes were destroyed and some others were damaged.  The pictures are incredible.  It's so weird when it's streets you've been on and people you know and not some far away place. 

I will not be sad if I am never that close to a tornado again.
Blessings.

Those High Soprano Notes

How is it November already?  I still have things I want to do outside...  *sigh*  Oh well.  Bring on grey and dreary. 

This past weekend most of the family was in town for Grandpa and Grandma Wyss's Christmas present.  We all recorded a CD for them with old family favorites...  (see Dad's blog for some of the specifics, which Shelly and I think should be included in the liner notes- powers that be, take note)

Friday evening I left little miss with Grace and Eden and headed out into the wilds of Carlock.  Seriously, I love google maps and I much prefer a map to GPS, but it's kind of difficult to navigate the middle of nowhere when the road signs don't match what the map says and it's dark and rainy.  I did eventually find it and was only slightly late.  It was much easier to find on Saturday morning.  Bob stayed home with Cecily and helped his Dad work on his new shed. 

I thought it was a lot of fun.  Lots of singing.  Shelly and I and Joy even got to do three descants.  Hopefully they didn't sound too bad- I'm really only a marginal soprano at best and I was pretty stuffed up plus my rapidly diminishing lung capacity makes holding out notes difficult.  I'm not sure how the final product is going to sound- the Virklers can do amazing things in the mixing process so hopefully they will make us sound better than we are...  Grandpa and Grandma were there listening and they liked it, so that's all that really matters. 

We all ate pizza at Grandma and Grandpa's that night and introduced Aaron to the craziness that is the Wyss family, and Kacie.  Who said she had her 'filter' on for the evening.  *grin*  Good times.

Little miss and I went to W-ton for church on Sunday.  Between all of the babysitting and going places and the time change she did not have the best day, and consequently I didn't either.  Plus I didn't feel good.  Oh well. 

Then Monday morning Cecily got to play with Grandma Koch while I went to sing at the funeral.  I would much rather sing than make food...  although the family did pick a lot of high and unfamiliar songs.  *grin*  Everyone said the singing was lovely though.  (Do they ever say anything different??)  I think I would prefer men's quartet to the full choir... Bob, Cecily, take note. Anyway, funerals are always a blessing and I'm always glad for the chance to sing. 

Little miss is quite the kid.  We're creatures of habit over here and we have our "spots" on the couch and at the table... she thinks it's so funny to sit in some one else's spot and say "My spot" with an impish grin on her face.  We also sing a lot of "Twinkle Stars."  And she still refuses to wear anything but a diaper on her bottom half.  Occasionally she'll ask me to turn a blanket into a skirt for a few minutes.  Or want to wear her 'bundies' (underwear) over top of her diaper. 

Blessings.