Days of Thanksgiving Day #9

I am grateful

For the Beauty of the Earth

(especially Georgia)

Love, love, love this season here! And yes these pictures are all pictures I took in my own neighborhood (well around our town at least). Imagine what a real photographer could show you. But I get to see the real thing in all it's glory everyday. I don't mind running errands right now. I do have a hard time focusing on the road though with so many bright and beautiful colors catching my eye. I'm begging the trees to preserve some of these beautiful leaves to show my brother when he comes for Thanksgiving. But if not, maybe I can trick his kids into raking up some leaves for me :o)

The colors and variety are just amazing!

I'm also grateful for the beauty of the other seasons. These flowers were on a tree in my yard this summer.

In the spring, everything is so beautiful after it rains. The grass is so green and everything just looks so fresh and bright. I use to love turning onto our street after the rain (in our old neighborhood) and seeing this. Whenever I miss my family or anything Vegas related I look at pics like this to convince myself that I love this beautiful area!

Jamie is grateful for "a wife who is easy on the eyes"

Emma is grateful for church

Weston is grateful for balls

Andrew is grateful for Jesus

(Emma was upset to hear the baby one-up her. She had been so pleased with her excellent answer and was kicking herself for not coming up with this one first. It's all about coming up with the most impressive answer- for Emma anyway. As you can see that is not the case for the rest of us)

The Rains Came Down, and the Floods Came Up

Sorry I tried to post this Sunday but the video wouldn't post but it's not that great a video anyway so here's the post (keep in mind today= Sunday, yesterday=Saturday, and so forth):

Last Sunday we had a severe rainstorm here after having rain all week. We had 9 1/2 inches Sunday night alone. A lot of basements and homes flooded, roads eroded and had to be shut down, roots of trees were saturated and fell down, water pipes were damaged and the water got contaminated. Some people didn't have water for a week and those who did couldn't drink it.
We were very fortunate. By the time we woke up Monday morning our power was on, our home was dry, and our water was running (although pressure was low so we couldn't shower or flush). We've been drinking our food storage water (thank goodness we had that) and boiling water to do dishes and cleaning. I got a call today from the water authority saying the water is drinkable again. Yeah! Jamie went to work Monday but Tuesday the freeway was flooded by the Chattahoochie River and he had to work from home a couple days. Emma has been home from school all week. With the contaminated water creating a health concern and road closures making bus routes a mess, they had their work cut out figuring out how to get the school's running again. Our RS broadcast and dinner was canceled last night when it started pouring again. Today several stakes got their priesthood together to do some major clean-up in an area down by Sweetwater Creek that was hit hard. These people had 7 ft of water in their basements and everything was a mess! Jamie went down to help out. Our cultural hall at church had a mountain of water bottle cases and each family was sent home with a filter water bottle. It took us an extra 30 min to get to church as we navigated around closed roads. Crazy stuff!
Interesting sidenote: When we celebrated Weston's 2nd birthday (just after moving here) we had to take the party down to the basement because there was a storm and the sirens went off. This week's rainstorm happened the day after Andrew's 2nd birthday. Coincidence?....yeah. Anyway, I thought I'd show some pictures and a video of how our neighborhood was affected (you can see the more dramatic ones on the news or internet).

[Insert video of river running through our front yard and another one down the driveway to the gutter- just glad it was leaving]

The lake across the street is not very pretty anymore

On the other side of that lake just next to the entrance to our development is this.

(I stole this and the next picture from my friend's blog who lives in my neighborhood)

This is about a mile from our house on a road we use a lot, including our route to church.

Tried to use an alternate route when I hit the other road block and ran into this.

flying, crawling, and slithering

Georgia looks different from Las Vegas. There are trees growing wildly everywhere and it is just so GREEN! We're both desert rats so this is so new for us. We were so excited when spring came and the trees got their leaves and blossoms! We've also enjoyed the wildlife, most of which we can view right in our backyard. We've seen blue jays, cardinals, hawks, tons of robins, big bushy squirrels, chipmunks, big furry bumble bees, fuzzy caterpillars, and various other creatures I can't even name. The birds and squirrels graze in our yard and we love watching the squirells hopping across the lawn and leaping from tree to tree. We were thrilled when a mother bird chose our drain pipe for her nest. We eagerly awaited the arrival of her babies and enjoyed showing our kids nature up close and personal. One morning while driving through our friends neighborhood three deer ran in front of our car. They were just hanging out in someone's lawn and we frightened them (unintentionally).

Some of these critters have not been so fun to encounter. I found this big spider in the basement when moving furniture. Jamie caught him in this baby wipes case (to give you an idea of the size here). Another one showed up in the kitchen later that week. We now own an industrial-sized bottle of bug spray. While showing the kids our tomato plants a big blackwidow crawled out of the planter (out came the bug spray again).

One evening last week I went out back to put the kiddy pool in the shed and found Mr. Snake here trying to eat this rat for dinner. He's not poisonous, but I don't like snakes! Emma however went out the next morning searching the yard hoping to find the snake.

We get these reddish-brown wasps that sometimes come in our laundry room to die. Yesterday morning Emma found one that had died in her room so I went in to dispose of it. Turns out he wasn't dead after all and had saved one last sting for my finger. It stung like crazy and my finger swelled right up. I don't like those wasps! He's in my vacuum now. You can also find about 15 bug bites on my legs at any given time and I itch like crazy. Those bugs love my sweet city blood! Jamie's only had a couple. Punk.

Basement Birthday

Weston had his birthday party yesterday. We had our friends the Barkers and the neighbor girls over for a very informal party -not like the big family extravaganzas we used to throw :( . Thirty minutes into the party the neighbor came to pick up her daughter because a storm was coming, then the sirens went off. So we locked our guests in the basement with us for an hour while we listened to the news on the Storm Tracker (thanks mom, good idea). We set up our inflatable couch and portable tv to entertain the kids and had cupcakes and opened presents. Nothing happened outside our house (although Atlanta got damaged) but it was a good reminder to get better prepared for next time.

Weston coulda cared less, he had chocolate and tv (and presents are a great bonus)!

Weston is a big Kobie fan and Kobie is very patient with him.

We did have enough time after to make the kids cars (no games though). By the way, Emma is not short, Kobie's just a tall kid.

Welcome to the South

Well, I waited until the last minute to do my shopping for Weston's birthday tommorrow. I was looking online at what the stores had and then calling the stores to see if they had the items in stock (because when you shop the day before you can't wait for shipping). Anyway, most the people didn't have accents but we still had communication issues. This particular salesperson did and this is our conversation:
Me: Yes, what are your cross-streets
Lady: [insert southern drawl]What?
Me: What are your cross-streets?
Lady: Cross-what?
Me: For the store. What are the cross-streets?
Lady: Hold on, lemme get someone.
Lady #2: [insert heavier accent] How can I hep you?
Me: Yes, what are your cross-streets?
Lady#2: scuse me?
Me: What streets is your store on?
Lady #2: umm (sheepish giggle-turns and asks) Wer on Debon an Hospal Drive.
Me: On what?
Lady #2: Febon an Hospal Drive, behin Checkers
Me: Febon?
Lady #2: No, Febon, F-A-I-R-B-U-R-N
Me: Oh, okay, and what was the other one?
Lady #2: Hospal (Oh, Hospital)
Me: Okay, Thank you

Man, and I told Jamie we couldn't move to Germany because I wouldn't be able to talk to people.

Georgia Aquarium

My brother Nate visited us last weekend. He's working in Alpharetta this week so he came out early to spend some time with his favorite sister (sorry you had to find out this way Brooke). He told me he needed to throw the kids around to maintain his favorite uncle status. I'm not sure how successful he was with Weston calling him Cameron all weekend, but Emma was screaming for Nate all day, so not all is lost. We took him to the Georgia Aquarium Saturday. It was very cool!

I'm sure this is very unsanitary, but cute. Weston just wanted to be as close to the action as possible

They had really cool exhibits we enjoyed! This huge tank curved overhead and had a tunnel through the middle

Ooh, look at all the fishies.

Nate got a new camera for Christmas and was learning how to use it. Wiggly kids and strange aquarium lighting is a perfect practice ground. He got some really good pics. I wish you could see those instead

Emma in the tank, well sorta

10 Things I Love About Our House

Well after being here a few weeks I'm finally posting some pictures of our house. Here's some things I'm really liking about this place:

1.My Husband- We're so happy to have our Daddy back!

2.The Basement- It's so nice to have a playroom for the kids. Now Emma can continue playing when Weston takes his nap (instead of getting kicked out of the room with the toys) and we have a bunch of storage space. Yeah!

3.Backyard- We have our own backyard right outside our back door for the kids to run in. And we get to watch robins, blue jays, cardinals, hawks, squirrels, and other wildlife play in our backyard. It's fun watching out the window at our kitchen table.

4.Kitchen- I'm lovin the countertops and lots of cabinets.

5. Baby's Room- His room's just cute, clean, and simple. I get warm fuzzies looking at it. You should come sit in it some time.

6.Family Room- Perfect size: big enough to have room, but not so big that I feel I need more furniture. Love having our beanbag back- Thanks Brent & Shay

7.Dining Area- plenty of room for a high chair and 2 boosters and book shelves, and great new frame my mom got me. And a vaulted ceiling so flying food won't stick to the ceiling.

8.Carport-It's not a garage but it's so good to be able to take the groceries straight from the car to the kitchen without paths or stairs. I also appreciate having a garbage can right by our door to get rid of offensive diapers and having our strollers handy and covered.

9.Kids Bathroom- Not the prettiest room in the house, but it's got lots of storage and countertop space and a bathtub. Jamie and I finally get our bathroom to ourselves! Good thing too, I was getting tired of toys falling on me while I showered and having 5 towels hanging in our bathroom.

10. Neighborhood- We have a clean, quiet little neighborhood with little traffic but we're still close to everything we need. It still trips me out to see woods in the middle of our neighborhood when we go on walks. So many big trees, it's pretty cool. I'm not in Vegas anymore.

This is my web album for anyone who wants to see more pics of the house and such:
http://picasaweb.google.com/littlerockqueen/GeorgiaHome

A Beautiful Day

After last week's cold and rainy weather, the sun shone down on Douglasville for the Steed children to enjoy a day of backyard exploring!

They discovered the pile of leaves in the corner and enjoyed tromping through them.

Emma was obseesed with the fallen branches. "Look mom, a stick, pull me up."