Devon's Bridal Shower

Eli made his first road trip over the weekend.  He and I took a 36 hour trip to Omaha for Devon's shower.  (Ella-I would've taken you too if I didn't think that it was just too much riding for a 2 year old to handle.)  Here are the highlights of our trip:

Ride up there:

Due to extreme flooding in Iowa, I-29 was shut down.  This made for an EXTREMELY stressful ride up there as we had to arrive by the time the shower started at 1.  The whole trip was for a 2 hour bridal shower, so being a half hour late meant missing 1/4 of the shower.  We took turns that we thought were for sure the wrong way, but we didn't have an option.  After hours of traveling down 2 lane roads through corn fields, Council Bluffs appeared out of nowhere.  We arrived to the shower at 1:30. :(  Here are some pictures we took of the flooding when we actually did make a wrong turn.  Someone had actually drove their john boat to town, but of course we didn't get a picture of that!  I feel so sorry for these people, but I can't help but feel happy that it didn't hit St. Louis this time.  Thank you Army Corps for breaking their levies!




Shower: We enjoyed talking to Aunt June, Penny, Aunt Jeanette, Grandma Mealey, Aunt Nancy, and Devon for a little while at least.  I showed of Eli, who was all smiles now that he was finally out of his car seat. 

Afterwards: We checked into a very nice hotel that we got a super discount on using priceline.  None of us had ever used it and were very happy with the results.  Sadly, this was the nicest hotel mom's EVER stayed at.  I mean, it was nice, but definitely not THE nicest I've ever been in.

Next, we ran to Grandma Revenaugh's and switched out old family pictures for new great-grandchildren pictures.  Seriously, this was almost a Mission Impossible task.  We had only 15 minutes to spare and did not want to visit with her because we thought our appearance without dad would only make her confused and nervous.  Luckily she was at dinner when we made our sneaky moves. 

Then we met up with Grandma Mealey, Aunt Nancy, and Uncle Mike at Red Lobster for dinner.  (It was Devon's bachelorette party and Michael "wasn't feeling" Red Lobster.)  Here we really got to visit with everyone.  We stayed for a few hours talking, then went back to the hotel to go to bed early.

Journey home:
After breakfast the next day, we picked up Grandma Mealey and came home.  She'll stay with mom and dad for 4 weeks or so.  Mom is so excited.

I was SICKENED on 435 when a silver convertible blew past me doing at least 80 and cut off the car in front of me.  I had just said, "Driving like that is SO stupid!  What are they thinking?"  The guy in the backseat had his hands in the air like he was riding a roller coaster as the driver jerked the wheel quickly left and right, left and right.  They lost control, spinning out across 3 lanes of traffic, hitting the concrete barrier on the other side, then coming back toward us.  Everyone, including me, threw on our brakes.  I was very scared they would hit us and I wanted to be at a stop if it did happen.  Luckily, only parts of their car hit us.  Kristin called 911 as I called highway patrol and we navigated around the accident.  I can only hope that no one was killed or seriously injured.  I pray that my children never drive this way or ride in a car with someone that does.  It scares me that those kids THOUGHT they were just having a good time and in a second their whole lives could've changed.  I would describe seeing the accident as horrific and thinking about it, just terrifying.

The trip was overall a good one, even if it was a whirlwind.  I missed Ella like crazy though and was glad to be home.  There's no place like home. <3

Is God sending the plagues on my house, or just playing a cruel prank?

In the last 5 days:

• 5 wasps INSIDE the house (all dead now)
• a mouse in the garage (MIA)
• an approximately 2 ft. long snake (despite Nick being armed with a shovel, it evaded him by hiding behind our siding)

You'd think the snake would eat the mouse, but it must be doing a crummy job or something.  Now I can't even put up a pool for Ella in the back yard for fear of it chasing us off!

"I'm Ella Rae Johnson, the cowgirl!"

Most parents would probably just choose one of these photos to post....I cannot do that because they are all too stinkin' cute!!!

Hallelujah! Photos Restored!!

Hooray!  Thanks Heaven that the love of my life is also tech-savvy!  He was able to somehow find my deleted pictures.  Here are the updated photos of Eli as promised (dated 7/8/11-7/12/11):

Here's Captain Adorable out on Memaw and Papa's boat.
(I swear he wore a life jacket for the ride.  We took it off for just sitting still in water.)

 LOOK AT HIS CHEEKS!

Smiling for mommy

Holy Pest Control Batman!

In the last 24 hours, we have killed 3 wasps in our main living area.  Every wasp seems disoriented or hurt by not flying normally or just being still on the ground....not sure what the heck is going on here.

Later, I was leaving with the kids to do more preschool tours and swimming.  Ella walked into the garage and I put up the door.  Suddenly, my heart started racing as I saw a mouse darting our way.  Trying NOT to sound frantic, I calmly asked Ella to "Hurry, hurry, hurry, Ella!  Get back in the house!  ELLA, GET BACK IN THE HOUSE!"  "But I want to see the mouse Mommy!"  Great so 1.) she already saw it and 2.) she connected my terror to a tiny field mouse....awesome.  She was already ducking under Nick's new truck to try and see where it went.  "Is it still under there?" I asked meekly.  "Nope, I can't find it."  "Good, then RUN! GET INTO THE CAR!!!"  as I dashed past her with Eli.  What a good mom....

In other news, Ella has a new pet.  A cow, named Butterscotch.  Here is a picture of my girl and her cow:

Yes, what a wonderful imagination.  After explaining to me that Scout was really "Butterscotch, the cow," she then started terrorizing the poor dog, chasing her and yelling, "BUTTERSCOTCH! GET BACK HERE!"  Eli-Ella really needs you to grow up and run around and give poor Scout a break.

Lastly, I've come to a shocking conclusion today.  It doesn't matter how graceful one attempts to be.....climbing onto a raft in a pool or lake only results in onself looking like a beached whale.  I'm sure you can relate.

One month pictures

These pics are from a few weeks ago, but Danielle emailed them to me, so I can still access these at least.

These aren't his FIRST smiles, but they are pretty close.  These pictures were taken on 6/22, so almost 1 month old.  His first awake smiles were to Nick on 6/23 and then later to me a few days later.

no, No, NO!

My phone (not JUST a phone, but what I use to take most of my pictures) has been acting up lately.  Today it froze up in what was later described to me as "incomplete start up." After an hour in near desperation, I took it to the Verizon store and asked for help.  All they could do to get it to work again was to reset it and take it back to the factory set up.  Brian (who was so nice and helpful) said that my pictures SHOULD be saved to the memory card and I could get them back.  However, right now, I can't find them. :(

I had such good pictures on there from our vacation at Mark Twain to Eli with Dr. Puckett.  Maybe Nick can help me find these pictures, but I don't think so....I'm so sad right now!

Lindsay told me to put a new picture of Eli on the blog.  He's 7 weeks old today and looks so different!  I attempted to take a new picture and upload it.  Although I took a picture and transferred it to my computer, this is what it looks like when I upload it:

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

In any case, today, we had a great day at the pool with Julie and Averie Marling.  After that, we went to Memaw Revenaugh's house and had lunch and played for awhile.  Then began another hunt for the pefect preschool.  We visited 3 places.  (Researching them online is practically a waste of time I've decided!)

Tomorrow, we'll hit another preschool and hopefully have a playdate at Memaw's pool again tomorrow.  We'll see.  I'll try to get 1.) my phone working (although there's little hope of that since Brian decided that mine is awful and ordered me a new one) and 2.) the blog to upload pictures successfully tomorrow.

Until next time....

What happened to summer?

I am going back to work in just 3 short weeks, leaving Eli alone for the very first time.  (I'm sure that more will follow on this topic later.  For now, I'll attempt denying this fact.) 

Now that our annual week-long vacation at Mark Twain is over, I am suddenly overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have to do vs. the amount of time I have left.  I've already returned to my endless list-making in an attempt to make order out of the chaos of my life.

Amanda asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding.  I am very surprised, but honored to do it.  I can't wait to help plan it! :)

Tomorrow, Ella is going to her first dentist appointment.  I'm nervous about how it will all go.  I'll try to put in pictures chronicling this event. 

I wanted to be sure to update the blog, as I have been informed that I'm slacking off (thanks Linz :D).  Really though, I don't even have anymore time to write.  It's 9:30 and I haven't even started baths yet!  Ack!  Until next time.....