Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Good night prayers

I was tucking G into bed tonight, and he asked if he could say his night-night prayers one more time. He'd already prayed with his daddy a few moments before but apparently had a few more things he needed to talk to God about.

After thanking God for the wonderful day and asking for a good night of rest, I was surprised to hear my precious five-year-old boy speak these words: "God, thank you for my wonderful family and my BFF's."

He went on for another couple of minutes thanking the Almighty for just about everything a little boy can be thankful for (including his sisters, can you believe?? and finally said "Amen" and snuggled deeper under the blankets.

"G, what was that other thing you thanked God for after your wonderful family?" I asked.

"Oh, my BFF's," he casually replied.

"What are BFF's?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Oh, you know, Mom. There are friends and then there are BFF's which are friends you like a WHOLE LOT MORE than your other friends."

"Oh," I replied.

And then he melted my heart with this: "Mom ... If you weren't my momma, I'd let you be my BFF."

Awwwwwww.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

First Feis

S began studying Irish dance at the beginning of the school year, and this past weekend she competed in her first feis (a competition of Irish dancers and musicians; pronounced "fesh") in Branson. It was held at the absolutely gorgeous Chateau on the Lake. S had a blast and did very well, bringing home a medal for participating in her first feis and two first place medals for her performances.

We can't wait until the next feis in Little Rock in April!!

Our sweet dancer:



Applying the all-important sock glue to hold up the poodle socks:



Doing a jig:

Photos of campus

C and I ventured up to the university on Thursday morning to see how things were looking. Here's what we found:



On any other day, Old Main would be clearly visible from where we're standing.



A closer view of Old Main.



Just one week later, I couldn't believe the difference. Very spring-like weather brought out hundreds of volunteers, and nearly every stick of debris was removed from the campus. It was a neat sight watching so many people work together to accomplish the back-breaking work that needed to be done.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

What a week

I know this is old news now, but the ice storm last week deprived us of power for several days, then I discovered that my computer had died a painful death, we took off for a weekend in Branson, and in general, it's been like a thousand degrees of crazy around here.

So, pardon me while I relive the drama of our ice storm.

We live in an older neighborhood of homes that are 30-40 years old. We have lots of well-established big trees, and they were not happy under the weight of so much ice. The sleet started on Monday afternoon, and by the next day, it sounded like a war zone in my neighborhood. Even indoors, I could hear the trees groaning under the weight of so much ice before they gave up their limbs. It was the creepiest thing I've experienced in a long time. At one point, something VERY LARGE fell on the roof over the office, and I heard one of my daughters scream. I was just sure something had broken through into the house. Thank God, that wasn't the case.

One of our neighbors lost a particularly large section of tree right outside their garage.



We camped out two nights in front of the fireplace. This was the first night playing Scrabble by candlelight.



I ventured into the hospital at 5:45 a.m. on Wednesday since I couldn't work from home. This is a view of the fountain area where many hospital employees enjoy eating in prettier weather.



Since we couldn't cook on our electric stove, Jeff snagged a bottle of propane soon after the outage so we could grill. We had a "discussion" on Tuesday about whether it was okay to put Pyrex on the grill (I didn't recommend it; he disagreed). We successfully warmed up a casserole for Tuesday night's dinner, but on Wednesday night when he tried to cook enchiladas, this was the result:



He cooked a great breakfast for us on the grill Thursday morning. What a great way to celebrate his 39th birthday!