Three Days in a Haze...

Friday:

The morning began with a nice play date with my friend Laura, and kids, over at my house. I have been wanting for Haleah to get to know and play with kids more her own age, so that she can learn to progress, rather than regress. I was so happy that she and four-year-old Morgan actually played so well together and enjoyed each other's company. Laura and I will aim to do this more often.




I prepared a nice lasagna dinner for the family, but it turned out to be somewhat of a disaster. None of us ate together due to scheduling conflicts, and for those who did, it was chaos. Haleah smeared sauce on the window. In reaction, David flopped his plate down, which caused the sauce on his plate to spatter up into my face and into my eye. The acid from the sauce stung my eye, ridiculously, and it was painful.


After dinner, Kaelah decided to drag her outdoor fold-up chair into the kitchen while I was feeding Bekah her rice cereal. Kaelah tripped on the rug and fell onto her chair, collapsing it and crushing at least 8 fingers. As I was turning to get her, her Aunt Missy ran across the kitchen and swooped her up. In the process, baby food was knocked out of my hand and all over my legs, feet and the rug. Poor Kaelah was is terrible pain, and it took us basically the rest of the night to determine if her fingers were broken or not. Luckily, they were not.


When the older girls were down for bed, Grandmama came over and spent some time with Bekah. We got this cute, adorable video of Bekah laughing. There is no joy like it!

Saturday:


We ventured out to Cora's volleyball tournament. It was at a really, upscale high school a few towns over, but I was not thrilled with the spectator options. We had to watch the game from balcony bleachers, high above the court. It was ridiculous. I had never watched a game like that before and found it difficult to follow. But Cora did well and has begun to realize that tourneys are hard, because you have to pace yourself both mentally and physically, and you are usually exhausted by the end.


We took a little break with the kids between matches in the high school courtyard. We took these cute videos of them.

On the way home from the tourney, we "ran into" the Trail of Tears motorcycle ride. It's an annual ride with thousands upon thousands of riders. They travel through our town each year in remembrance of the Trail of Tears and for the suffering of the Native Americans. You can't break this line of motorcycles as they travel through, and each year since I've lived in Alabama, I seem to get myself stuck and unable to manuever until they pass. This year was no exception. We had to drive the LONG, LONG way home. And luckily David was driving and knew where we were going among the corn fields, etc.


We got home for nap time and I discovered that I pulled a muscle pretty badly in my chest and under my left arm. It was so severe, that I could hardly lift the baby. That evening, we ordered pizza and ate it at my mother-in-laws. And the final highlight of the day was when Haleah decided to quietly cut her own hair. She chopped her bangs, and now her hairdo is hacked! I don't know how I can rectify it. I did this too, to myself, as a kid. Live and learn! The funny part was when we took a picture of the clump of hair she cut off. It looks like it's in the shape of a heart. How apropo.
Sunday:


After our Sunday morning church service and nap obligations, we headed out to our cousin's ten year Birthday celebration. It was a cookout for a LARGE crowd, and it was a stereotypical Alabama party all the way! There were so many kids and people in one house, that even I was afraid to mingle... or nurse Bekah! I saw things I've never seen or done at a party before. It wasn't wild or anything, just funny. Some of the highlights included cousin Lilly showing the girls their hamster, Bear. They were fascinated, for a while.




Then we watched our cousin, David, use a strange tree climbing device to scale a tree in his back yard and hoist up his bow and arrows, and shoot at a target down below. The pics I took of him were pretty cool though. He looked like a silhouette in the sky. It would have been a peaceful scene, except for the arrows being quite dangerous.



Next, the CHILDREN were riding the quads and four wheelers in the front yard and on the street. I took a picture of my nieces "psyched out"to be riding them (of course). But I thought to myself that I wouldn't let my kids ride those in a million years. Maybe it's just me...


Then we played some volleyball in the front yard, which I participated in, while eyeing my kids to make sure they weren't going to get hit by some moving apparatus. And my David tossed a football and almost took out a tree (with his body, not the ball). And a group of 10-year-olds at the party found a lost puppy and wrapped him up in a blanket and put him in a shopping cart and wheeled him around the neighborhood to see if they could find his owners. And finally, someone called the cops on the party for child endangerment for riding the quads in the yard and in the street. But all in all, it was fun, and we had an enjoyable time seeing our family, and we made it out safe, happy and alive!