Sweet Summertime

There are so many tastes and smells and memories that come to mind when I think of summertime. I would say the first thought is of the hot, sticky, muggy weather. In my opinion, that is about the worst thing about summer. I remember as a kid my grandpa taking me and my brother to the pool, movie matinee in a cold theater and going to play arcade games in the mall. I also remember riding around on my bike in the neighborhood and waiting for the front porch light to come on, letting us know it was time to go in. As a teenager I remember hanging out at Sonic, with some of my best friends and talking about the future. Wanting to be roommates together and where we were going to go to college. We would also go to the park at dusk and play on the swings or go out to the country and stare up at the stars. As an adult and a parent, my summertime is spent very differently. I avoid being outside too long because of bug bites and sunburns. Its about playing in the water with Adriana or blowing bubbles in the front yard and dancing around, not caring that the cars passing by might think I'm crazy. Summertime is juicy watermelon, sweet strawberries, fresh blackberries pies, and yummy BBQ. I love the smells of summer, the fresh cut grass, the smell of the pool and sunscreen, the smell of blooming flowers and the smell of rain on a summer night. There are so many things I love about summer. I also love the town we live in, Ozark. Its just a small town between Branson and Springfield. I went to a Farmers Market (also something I remember doing as a kid with my grandpa) on the town square yesterday and got some fresh produce there. They had a couple of people playing fiddles and guitars, fresh baked goods, homemade candles and bird feeders, canned veggies and jams and jellies. I just love the feel of a small town and buying things from local people to help them out and give back to the community. While I was shopping there I remembered why I love the summer and all the good things that come with it.

Growing Girl

Well last Thursday Adriana turned 16 months old. It seems within the last week she has changed so much. She all of a sudden got 3 big molars coming through and her poor little gums are so swollen. It also seems like she is "talking"more. Most of the time she just rambles on, but it seems like within the last few days when we ask her if she wants something, she answers "yeah". At first we thought it was just us, but she has done it a few times since then. Her reach as also grown. She can now get things off the kitchen counter, I'm amazed how far she can reach. Another sign that she is growing, is that she is taking only one nap a day, which is sad for me. She use to take a 2 hour nap in the morning and then a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon, but within the last week, she has only taken an afternoon nap. I am not ready for her to be out of the morning naps yet. She still is pretty tired, where she needs to take a nap, but fights it so much, that she doesn't sleep.

I don't know if its just me, but it seems like they go from being a baby straight to being a toddler, who is all over the place, and trying to break all the rules. I miss my little snuggle bug, who would let me rock her to sleep or just hold her for longer than 30 seconds. I know there will be a time when I miss these days, but right now, I just miss my little baby. They grow so fast, and it just takes a little adjusting all the new "adventures" of a busy toddler.

Adriana with morning hair and wearing my shirt.

Guess who showed her how to do this?

Daddy teaches her so many new things!

Chit Chat

Here is a little video of Adriana "talking" on the phone. Sorry for the poor shooting quality, the child doesn't hold still for 2 seconds, so its hard to get good footage of her. In this short clip, she is talking on the phone, but minutes before, she was laughing and carrying on, it was so funny, unfortantly we didn't have the camera out for that one, but here's a taste of her talking on the phone.

The Perfect Storm

Well, we have had our share of storms lately. It stormed at least 3 times here yesterday and one was pretty bad. It was around 3:30pm or so and I had been watching the weather all afternoon, as a big storm was slowly making its way towards us. I wasn't too worried about it until they were saying that Ozark (the town we live in) was going to see the worse of the storms. They even advised people not to be in Wal-Mart (which is 1 mile from our house) because of the potential of a tornado. They gave us about a 20 minute warning, saying that a little after 4pm the storm was going to reach Ozark. I looked out our back door and watched as the sky grew angry and dark. The closer it got, the wind picked up and the thunder rolled across the sky. I started freaking out when they were talking about Ozark getting it about 5 miles from where we are now. The sirens started going off and we were told to seek shelter immediately. I quickly gathered a radio, a portable TV, flash lights, the usual storm emergency supplies. I gathered Adriana out of her bed (luckily she had just woke up, so I didn't have to wake her) and I grabbed Zoe. We headed for the hall bathroom and I tried to tune in the TV to see what was coming this way. I couldn't see any picture really, but I was just trying to listen. As I frantically try to hear what they are saying as the storm was upon us, I hear Zoe hissing and growling at Adriana and Adriana laughing because she thinks its funny when Zoe does that. I tried to tell them to be quite, as I fear the worse. I only hear bits and pieces, and all I could hear then was them saying "if you are by the Wal-mart and Goodwill (both within a mile) then you are getting the brunt of the storm". I hate not being able to see outside to see what its doing. I was scared. Between my anxiety, Zoe's hissing, and Adriana torturing the poor cat, it was a perfect storm in our little bathroom. Luckily, we didn't get anything real bad. I'm not a big fan of storms, never have been, but when you're a mom and you know you have to try to protect someone other than yourself, its a scary feeling. Adriana managed to pull everything out of the cabinets (which was all baby medicine), and make a huge mess, but I didn't mind, as long as we were okay.

As the storm approched, view from our deck.


The aftermath of the storm in our bathroom, thanks to a smaller and cuter tornado.

Hail Storm

Sunday afternoon a big hail storm blew through. It was so loud it scared both Adriana and Zoe. The hail kept bouncing off the windows, I was afraid it was going to shatter them, it was hitting the windows so hard. Anyway, here are some pictures of the storm.

Hello? Is anyone there?

Adriana loves imitating her mama by pretending she's talking on the phone. She walks around with a phone to her ear and just babbles and will just stand there "listening" while her eyes move back and forth, as if someone is telling her lots of juicy gossip. Now granted, there's no one there, but she still acts like she is busy solving the worlds problems with the person on the other end.

Flower Child

Ryan took Adriana up the hill a few weeks ago and they came back with some wild flowers. Adriana loved holding them and smelling them, even though they didn't smell good. Here are some pictures from that little adventure.

Nothing new..

Ryan reminded me last night, I'm slacking on my Blog. There hasn't been too much going on with us, not enough to write about. I'm still scared to put anything on our computer, thinking that I might be overloading it.
Ryan is still working hard (when its not raining), and complaining to me every minute how hot he is outside. Adriana also tells me how hot it is. With a little gruff voice, she says "hot, hot" waving her hand (as if to cool it down). She didn't want to go outside the other day with me to get the mail, because it was "hot,hot". She is her daddy's girl when it comes to complaining about the weather. We want to get Adriana a little pool, but they were sold out last week at wal-mart when I went to get one. My parents just bought a 15' pool and we are anxious to go and swim.
I just got finished reading an article on the internet, that said that Missouri has the lowest gas prices in the nation. Go Missouri! Its sad that $3.79 is the cheapest.
Well I guess that's all the rambling on that I'll do. I will try to post some pictures in a few days, I need to clean off the ones that I have on the computer, before downloading more.

We're still here

Just so people don't think we have fallen off the face of the earth, we're still alive and kickin'!
I'm hesitant to post anything on our computer lately because it has been acting up so much and I'm afraid its going to crash any day. I don't want to load anymore pictures on the computer because of this. I just want to get all my pictures that are on my computer off successfully, before it goes out. We had a great memorial day weekend and am still trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm going to start watching some boys today and will be watching them throughout the summer. They are good kids, they are twins and just got done with the 3rd grade. They are my friend Emily's sons (Emily use to watch Adriana when I was working), I love their family and am glad to help them out. Anyway, I say all that, to say that I'll be a lot more busy now, so I'll still try to post as much as I can. Well, I better go clean my house, its a never ending job!