Biggest hail stones I have ever seen!

This afternoon (well, I guess, yesterday afternoon) we had this tremendous hail storm. Joseph and I were practicing piano and heard this roar outside. We rushed to the front door and saw hail starting to fall. It got louder and louder and I went to get my camera, then went to the back porch to video it.
Oh my gosh, it was SO crazy!!! I have never seen anything like that at all! It was thundering and lightning and pretty scary.
We had been home only about 15 minutes and, wow, was I glad we weren't on the road anymore. I can't imagine that there weren't a bunch of wrecks because of this. I feel really sorry for anyone who had their car parked outside.
As soon as I got back inside, I called Ben. I had been really worried he was on his way home (it was around 5:30 I think). Thankfully he was still at the office and I told him not to leave until he was SURE any severe weather was over.



Mosey was really excited! Not quite scared enough, though, since he ran out into it for a few seconds before he realized he was getting pelted in the head and his mom was screaming for him to get back under the porch.



Not snow, piles of hail stones.



They are about the same size as golf balls, and look like them, too!



Can you imagine one of these falling thousands of feet from the sky and landing on your car?



A lot of them shattered on impact, and you could see the layers of ice formation.



Look at this one compared to the size of a quarter!

Huge hail storm!!

Fast forward to about 1:30 to the end to see the craziest part.

hand controls and MS accessories

I had my driving evaluation for getting hand controls for my van today. I'm now approved and scheduled for 8 lessons, although the instructor said she didn't think it would take that many. Then I go get tested at DPS (TX version of DMV), and get a new license and I'm good to go!
The evaluation consisted of a pretty extensive eye exam testing far vision, peripheral vision, night vision, etc. There were also some cognitive tests, but the evaluator cut those off after only 2 because I'm just so dang smart. :-)
Then I had about an hour behind the wheel in their training car. It's pretty bizarre driving without using my feet at all. The control lever is on the left, just below the turn signal. You push in to brake, and pull down to accelerate. The first few minutes felt like learning to drive all over again, and I did not think I would be able to do it!
But I got the hang of it after a while and she took me out on some busy roads (Lamar, Airport Blvd, etc. for you Austinites). It's very strange having to think consciously about braking and accelerating now, after 16 years of driving the regular way. I suppose with time it will become second nature.
The controls will work well; they do not get in the way of the pedals at all, for when Ben wants to drive the van the normal way.
I'm hoping I might be able to get DPS approved before our big trip at the end of April. We shall see!
Also, here is a picture of me with my stylin' forearm crutches. I upgraded from my cane a few months ago, and they are much better for my walking, although a whole lot uglier. I can't really glue fake jewels on these. But they are better than a walker (almost anything is better than a walker). Also I'm getting some wicked arm muscles. I wish I could go back to my junior high presidential fitness testing, I bet I could whip out those pull-ups and dips with no problem now!
I also got a small little wheelchair to use around the house during the day so I don't get so exhausted, but I don't have a picture of that, sorry.

Picture courtesy of Joseph while we were at the church parking lot today riding bikes (well, the boys were riding bikes, I was sitting in the van watching them).

St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is my favorite meaningless holiday. I mean, it's meaningful to Irish-Catholics, but since we're neither Irish nor Catholic, it's pretty irrelevant to us. But green is my favorite color, so I've always liked the day. I don't believe I have EVER missed a St. Patrick's Day wearing green (at least, not since before I started school).
We didn't celebrate too much, aside from wearing green. I made Irish soda bread with raisins for dinner (which the boys totally devoured), plus green-dyed scrambled eggs, and that was the extent of it. Still, it was fun.

I have tried to take pictures of my kids every St. Patrick's Day. So here we go, starting with St. Patrick's Day 2009 (Mosey was even prepared with his green light saber):


2008:


I'm missing 2007 because I was in the hospital over that St. Patrick's Day. No fun.


Here's 2006. Not my best picture, what can I say.


Here's a separate one of Brigham, just so you can see his cute 4-year-old face:



2005:


2004: (Mosey was 2 months old and NOT happy)


2003 (the twins were too fast this year to get a picture together!):



And their very first St. Patrick's Day, 2002!!

Joseph's first encounter with the police

We went to Lowe's this afternoon to get some new handles for our kitchen cabinets. Lowes is not Joseph's favorite store and he wanted to stay in the car. It was a cool, cloudy afternoon, and Joseph is a good boy, so we let him.
After about 15 minutes in the store, we hear on the intercom, "Will the owner of the 2004 Astrovan, license plate___ please come to customer service." Ben and I just looked at each other and said, "Joseph." Ben went up to the front, saw police there, but was more worried about Joseph and so went straight outside. There were 3 police cars surrounding the van.
It turns out someone saw Joseph alone in the van and called the police. They told the police they thought a 4 year old child was alone in the car. Joseph was pretty offended that they thought he was 4!
Texas law says that children 7 and older can stay unaccompanied in the car, so everything was fine, and the police apologized for scaring Joseph (he was in tears). Joseph did a good job and wouldn't open the car door until the policemen actually showed him their badge. I told him if it ever happens again (and hopefully it won't, but in this world of busybodies, you never know), he doesn't even have to open the door for the police. He can just tell them he has to wait for his mom or dad.
So Joseph came back in the store with Ben and a handful of police badge stickers and temporary tattoos. And now he knows I'm not kidding when I tell Mosey *he* can't stay in the car because the police will come and take me to jail!
I have very mixed feelings about people who call the police for this kind of thing. Joseph is 7 1/2, obviously not 4. It was about 50 degrees outside, and cloudy. No chance at all of overheating (plus Joseph is certainly capable of getting out of the car if he needs to). He was in a locked van in a very safe community. Was it really necessary to call the police?
I've never been a helicopter mom in any sense of the word. I believe in giving my kids the opportunity to be responsible for themselves and to live up to my expectations, and they do. I leave them at home frequently for short periods of time, with strict instructions, and they follow through to the letter and feel good about themselves for it. I know that I can trust them, but I also know that I can't necessarily trust other people, and I always encourage them to come with me for that reason. But they have to learn responsibility some time, and the only way they will do so is if they are given opportunities to be responsible for themselves.
I felt like leaving a note on the other people's car (they had parked next to our van), saying that our child was old enough to stay in the car by himself, and they wasted the police's time and traumatized my son. But I didn't.

Bizkit the dreaming dog

Have you seen this video yet? My boys and I watched it over and over again. I'm sorry, it's just SOOOOO funny. Especially if you have a dog. Dogs are so weird.

Baby doll surgery

I bought this baby doll when I was pregnant with Mosey, hoping to show the twins how to be gentle with a baby. Yeah, right. It became a 4-limbed projectile almost immediately.
I've kept it around since we do *occasionally* have little girls over to play.
The boys found it and decided to do a little surgery. Actually, Joseph and Mosey conspired to cut off its arms, and then Brigham was worried I'd be mad, so he tried to reattach the arms. He cut little holes in the belly and farther down the arms, and strung yarn through these holes and tied the yarn.
I really appreciated his efforts, and praised his ingenuity. Then gently suggested that next time he could come to me and I'd show him how to use a needle and thread.
I did manage to sew up all the little holes and get the arms reattached. I'm not sure why I bothered... I guess to show the boys that our toys are not disposable.
Maybe it's a good thing I never had that last baby I wanted so much. :-)

South Padre Island

A couple of weekends ago we went to South Padre Island. One of Ben's employees had a wedding reception in Brownsville, about 40 minutes away.
It was cool and cloudy, not the best weather for a weekend at the beach, but the boys didn't care.
We drove out Thursday night (it's about a 6 hour drive, WAAAAY down at the very southern tip of Texas), and spent Friday on the beach and in the resort hot tub. The boys and Ben had fun on the beach (even got sunburned, despite the clouds), but I huddled under towels on my beach chair; I thought it was cold!!


The view from our 11th floor hotel room.



It was windy and Mosey spent a lot of his time on the beach flying a kite.






Ben made this Sandman head and Mosey thought it was pretty hilarious.



Joseph walked back and forth from the shore, collecting dead Portuguese Man-o-Wars.



Helping with the sand-castle-building.






Brigham spent ALL his time building sand castles.



His giant pyramid.






The other fun activity was getting to watch TV in our hotel room (no TV at our house). They got their fill of dumb cartoons!



Joseph hates, hates, hates getting his picture taken. I have to sneak them where I can.



Couch potato.



Saturday morning it was pouring rain, so we went to a Sea Turtle rescue place. It was really interesting.


This one was HUGE.



These are really remarkable animals.

Afterwards, we drove up to the end of the island and the boys and Ben got out and played in the sand dunes in the rain and got SOAKED.
Then we drove to Brownsville, tried to watch a movie, but it was sold out. Apparently the mall is THE place to be on Saturday afternoons in Brownsville. So we went to our hotel in Brownsville and watched Rambo and ate vending machine snacks until the reception started. The boys were good and made a showing at the reception in their suits and ties before we let them go back to the room.
We drove back Sunday morning, so it was a quick trip, but a nice getaway.

Another lesson on safe driving

On Wednesday as we were coming home from horseback riding lessons, driving down the freeway, about 1/4 mile before our exit, something weird happened with the car in front of us. I saw this big black thing fly up in the air, flip around a few times, and then land on the road in front of me. At first I thought it was a big cardboard box that the other car had driven over, and the wind caused it to blow up in the air, y0u know how that happens sometimes.
Because I always leave a LOT of room between my car and the car ahead of me (you know, the slow reflexes and everything), I was able to easily get into the next lane and go around the object. As we passed it, I saw that it was a big piece of metal something. Then I saw that the car in front of me had pulled over to the side. As we passed him, we saw that the HOOD OF HIS CAR HAD BLOWN OFF!!
Isn't that bizarre?!!

I had a moment realizing that if I had been following more closely, that metal hood would have gone straight through my windshield.

As we drove the rest of the way home, I had another conversation with the boys on safe driving. I told them that was a good example of why you should never follow too closely. You just never know what the car in front of you might do.
In this case, I was glad of my disability. If I had been driving "normally," we could have been in serious trouble.
That being said, I am still getting hand controls for the van. My driving evaluation is scheduled at the St. David's rehab center on March 23. But even after that, I think I will keep up my new ultra-defensive driving habits.

Springtime in Austin

I love Austin's springs. Austin has enough of a winter that I start to miss the color. But the leaves don't finish falling until December, and the grass stays green about as long (not to mention the millions of live oaks around here which stay green all winter). Toward the end of February, buds start opening up on the deciduous trees, and now at the beginning of March, all the leaves are starting to unfurl.
3 months is pretty tolerable for winter, especially when the days rarely fall below 50 degrees and there are plenty of 70 and 80 degree days thrown in!
Florida was beautiful and green and colorful all year round, but almost too much so. You don't appreciate beauty as much when it's surrounding you all the time.
It's pretty hard for me to get around and take pictures the way I'd like, but I was able to capture some of my favorites. I just pull the van up to the side of the road and lean out and take the picture. Or in the case of the daffodils, pulled up as close as I could, got out and got down on the grass. The pictures are even sweeter to me because they were not easy to get!



There were bees swarming all around this tree. If I'd have had my macro lens with me, I could have gotten a cool shot of a bee.


I LOVE the bright, shiny green of brand-new leaves.


The Presbyterian church around the corner from our house has several beds of daffodils. In a couple of weeks, the bluebonnets will start appearing!


I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but it is gorgeous. These huge blossoms are really amazing. They don't last long, though. Only 5 or 6 days at the most. So pretty!