Still here

Well, its fitting the only posts I had in August were our anniversary weekend and Benjamin turning 4 months. Those were pretty much my favorite things about the month. The week after our anniversary Michael was gone overnight for work and there was a huge storm. During the night our house was struck by lightening. I saw on the news later there were 6 lightening strikes every second for 15 minutes in our area. So besides our house getting struck it was a crazy loud storm. Anyway, I am beyond thankful my mom had been able to spend the night with us and was there when this happened. Isabella is really scared of storms, even prior to this happening. She had started calling out for me when the storm got really loud. Not long after I got to her the house was hit. It sounded like glass breaking and I was pretty sure and window had been broken open and rain was pouring it.  We could smell electrical fire smoke, the alarm started going off, some of the lights wouldn't come on, Benjamin woke up and started crying, Isabella was crying and shaking...it was crazy. I called the alarm company and they had to tell me how to disconnect the alarm. Like really disconnect it- "get a screw driver and open the gray box. Then pull the black wire from the red wire..." I was totally Jack Bauer for a few minutes, minus the whole threat to "American soil". A little while later we discovered the air conditioner had been fried and was no longer running. Then the garage doors wouldn't open. Long story short, it was a crazy night, the kids were freaked out, and in the days to come we found our speakers, garage full size freezer, printer, internet, garage doors, and sprinkler system were ruined.We didn't have air conditioning for several days, but gratefully it was cooler than usual- by August in Oklahoma standards. What a mess!

My heart broke in August for someone I love dearly. Some stories are just not ours to tell...but I have cried my heart out and wrestled with the fact that there are some things in life that just don't make sense. And sometimes God answers our prayers in ways that we don't like or understand and may never understand in this life. And that is just hard.
 
Isabella got super sick in August with some mystery virus. And since then we have been to the dr. for sick visits more than I think in her whole life total. As sick as she was we were home for all of a week and a good part of another. Which worked out with having people out to the house to do all kinds of repairs from the storm.

Things have felt a little in survival mode with these things going on and Michael having a of couple out of town trips. Turns out staying at home and caring for a sick child around the clock and being concerned about their health, has been stressful. Michael has also been working really hard late into the night to meet his book deadline coming up. Benjamin has been waking up more at night, Isabella's sleep has been off and she has been up a lot several nights, and tired seems to be coming the new normal- even more than the regular having-a-baby-tired can be. I've been trying to catch naps any time I can and just be OK with letting some things go and loving iced coffee.

Here is a phone picture update from last month:

So grateful for these two!!

 I ran in my first 5K race since having Benjamin. I have enjoyed getting back to running over the past couple of months.

 Love his sweet hand on mine.

 Waiting for the elephant show with Aunt Flower. We've never been able to see it because we have always been headed home for nap in years past. As I was taking this picture Izzy said, "Its going to be a scary, scary elephant show! RARRRR!" We laughed and laughed about that.

Poor sick Izzy :(  (With crumbs on her face...that wasn't part of the virus. Haha!)

A drastic change from her usual active self

Happy Benjamin

Playing with cousin Carper at Johnnies in El Reno

4 Month Birthday!

While not my favorite month this year, I was impacted by these experiences and they are part of the story of our family.  I already knew it, but I've been reminded so many times how blessed we are with loving, supportive family on both sides that do so much to help with our kids, offer air conditioned places for us to say, come to Dr appointments, or anything else we need help with. I've been a little down about some things, and trying to see more of my blessings...and there are so many, each and every day.

****This song has been playing in my head on repeat for the past few weeks :