Very Thankful............

They are calling it the Historic April 16th Storms. Big storms with tornado's caused catastrophic damage to multiple states. They had been saying for several days there were severe storms headed our way for Saturday April 16th. Mom and I even discussed the safest place for Abby and I to go in our new home should the need arise. Of course the "It will never happen here" attitude was present during this discussion (on my part anyway). These storms were due to hit late in the afternoon and boy did they. Our county (Gloucester) was hit by a EF-3 tornado around 7:00 PMish that night. Abby and I were at my brothers around 630 PM when the severe thunderstorm warning sounded on the TV. My brother and sister-n-law had been listening to multiple severe Tstorm and tornado warnings for the last hour or so. None had been in our immediate area but as my brother said they were all around us. Then at 645 PM A Tornado warning for Gloucester was issued. We continued to watch the TV as our local news weather people were doing a continuous live broadcast on the severe weather in our area and the rapidly changing conditions. My sister-n-law and I went out on the back deck to search the sky. It was windy and stormy with lots of lightning. The clouds were really freaky stretching out and down like fingers but we didn't see any funnels. So what did we do? Take cover? Nope we continued to watch the news. At 700PM we lost power. Still we sat talking while taking turns checking the sky. The warning was due to epire at 730PM. We had lots of rain/ wind and lightning but no tornado's. After 730 things lightened up a bit and we figured we were in the clear. Then my brothers cell phone rang. It was his neighbor calling to tell him a tornado had just hit down the road and it was bad. Power was out in all of Gloucester for the rest of the evening so we had no idea how bad and how close it had been. Below shows the tornado's path through our county. A direct hit about 10 miles down the road from where we were at my brothers and about 15 minutes away from my house... We were lucky and I keep thinking and wondering if the people it got were like us. Just sitting and not taking cover. It will never happen here..

We stayed at my Moms that night as they had a generator. The next morning I learned it had been very bad. 3 people were killed and a lot of people were hurt. A middle school had been partially gutted with the roof torn away.

Debris field next to the school.

Homes were badly damaged. Some people lost everything...

It's amazing how a Tornado picks and chooses. We and all of our family are fine. None of us had any damage. I am so thankful. My heart and prayers go out to those in our community that were not as lucky. (posted pictures taken from the Wav*y TV 10 news web page and also from google)

Spring at last :)

Finally some consistent warm weather. We have put away and gotten back out our winter coats several times so far. Looks like we are finally in the clear. We have had some 70 plus days and on this particular night we were home earlier after work and Abba had some play time before dinner. (Excuse the swing set that is in dire need of a makeover). I promise the camera shot angle makes this one above look a little scarier then it really was :)

Still trying to figure out the art of action sites on my Nikon. Yep blurry :)

We ate dinner outside after that. Abby thought this was a fabulous idea. It was fun until the flying beetles (I hate them!) chased us inside. We will do that again but need a bug light or something first. Nothing worse then a beetle tangled in your hair :(

After dinner we had an impromptu photo shoot :)

Loving life with my sweet one :) And feeling very thankful in many ways.

Random (mostly blurry) photos.

She loves to dress up :) High up the bouncy house. Still loves her leapster :)

At the living museum with cousin Josh and buddy Devin.

Pretty girl wore her coat in China. I think this will be the last year she will be able to wear it and that makes me sad :(

My ABBA :)

Using up all of our expensive printer ink ;(

A girl of many talents :)

Sporting her green for ST Patricks day :)

Cassie loves to sleep with my girl :)

Remembering our sweet baby Emma Rose on what would have been her second birthday.

Still sleeping in Mommas bed :)

My Hula girl!

Wow just can't seem to stay with this but am back to try again. My laptop died a while back and I lost all of my pictures that I have taken of Abby since we got back from China. Thankfully the China pictures were saved to a disk but I'm pretty sad about the loss of the others... So I went back to the beginning of my blog and copied and saved all the pictures from there. There are a lot and up until the last 6 months of last year I had done a fairly good job of documenting my girls experiences :) Between this blog and my face book pictures most of the pictures will be preserved for our memories. I need to get back to it as the scrap booking I planned to do will likely never happen. I do plan to print each year out in book form at some point :) So where are we now? Busy surviving and living life :) Nothing real exciting lately. We have been in our house a little over a year. I love the house, the neighborhood, we have the best neighbors and lots of kids that Abby has been getting to know now that the long winter is slowly easing up. Unfortunately financially things have been rough. So far we are hanging in there but we are the definition of house poor right now. It stinks but all the pluses for Abby here are wonderful and she is thriving. So that's all I have to say about that... Abby's teacher told me she thinks Abby is kindergarten ready now. She has only been in the Pre K class since January. They said she has mastered the social and learning that she needs. I am just amazed at how bright she is. She loves to learn and just soaks everything up lately. Unfortunately in our state you have to be 5 by September 1st to start Kindergarten. Abby wont be 5 until November 13. So she will repeat Pre K. Her teachers said they mix it up differently each year so she should be okay. They did point out though that most of the kids that she is developmentally caught up with right now will start Kindergarten in the fall. They hope she wont be bored. .... I feel guilty but I can't afford to pay for a private Kindergarten so..... hopefully it all works out in the end. We are excited because Abby's China sister and her Mama are coming to visit and stay with us this July! We can't wait to see them again and have the two Abby's together again. As for me just work, sleep and Abby/ house hold responsibility's right now. I really need to work on some me time... So am figuring out how to make that happen too. The no money thing has been pretty depressing and the pounds have piled on. I need to get back in shape for my girl so I can keep up with her. The couch to 5K is now loaded on my IPOD and I hope to start this weekend. Finally! China OPEN again to singles??? yes there are restrictions and I have said all a long that I am done unless Mr Right comes along. Lets not even talk about the financial aspect... That said though and how come my heart skipped and leaped when I found out? I have been feeling drawn to adopt again just not sure how. China says the youngest child at home has to be 6 so that gives me a couple years to see what happens. I would love for Abby to have a sibling so I have been checking out the special needs lists lately. Hey a girl can dream right :) And now I give you my Abba working her hula hoop. She has her own style :) She looks so much older and taller in these shots :( The top is actually a 2T dress and the Capri's are 3T.) Also ignore the bad haircut. We are growing out the bad bang job Mommy gave her hence the extra long pieces here and there (We usually keep them pinned up to the side). Oh and she is sporting stickers on her dimples :)

PJ encore :)