Life around these parts...(in pics)

This is where I was today.  Hell, living (mostly) hell.

All of the houses have a spray painted X on the front door.  If there is no door (which there is not on most) it is on a tree or a piece of wood.

 See the X in the pic above?  It has a number on top, that is the number of people said to be living in the house.  The right and left are to notify if they have been given water or if they are in need of oxygen.  The bottom is the number of dead found.  I saw too many that didn't say 0.  If a person has been found there is a red flag staked out front.  I saw too many of those.

 Look at the trees, if they aren't snapped they are bent at a permanent 90 degree angle

 That red flag is proof, proof that there is a body under that orange sleeping bag.  A body that was pulled from the tree a few feet away.

I don't want to overload you, I just want you to know that I could hardly hold my stomach acid in.  I want you to know that there are bodies covered by sleeping bags and speared by tree limbs, still in the trees.  I want you to know that there are dogs, dogs trained to find bodies, "cadaver dogs" roaming the streets.  Along with all of these people, just smelling the smells, looking for their belongings, realizing how bad it is.  

 Can you imagine a force strong enough to do this to STEEL POWER POLES?  It is air, it is what we breath, it is ridiculous.  (sorry i had to tag all the photos cause they have been stolen all over twitter)

 Seen too many times today were the empty baby strollers, cribs, and abandoned children's toys scattered about.  Yeah, that is a double stroller below...I want to know those babies are o.k.

 You see a house undamaged on one street, and this on the next.  You can see for miles in a neighborhood that was totally covered by trees.

Please guys, please.  Donate what you can.  Money, food, your time.  Get with an organization and help.  The National Guard is restricting ANY access areas to these places as they HAVE to run the dogs through without distractions so PLEASE don't just try to go here to see these things.  Go here with certified people to help.  We physically had to have a police escort in today.  That is not the good "VIP" feeling either.  Take care folks, hug your babies a little tighter, kiss your husbands a little longer (& momma's & daddy's.)  Cause after all, it is not about "how lucky we are"  it is about how saddening it is to see this.  I know I am lucky, I knew that last week, now I know how quickly things can change.  In an instant ya'll, literally an instant.  

American Red Cross

Pleasant Grove Relief Facebook Page

Toomers for Tuscaloosa

Prayers Needed

For those of you that aren't aware, we had some killer weather here in Alabama the past couple of days.  We made it out just fine but the entire road that comes to our neighborhood is pretty bad.  Trees and power lines cover the roads and many houses are completely demolished from the winds that came through.  We tried to take my parents a bag of ice yesterday before the next round of storms hit and it took us 2.5hrs to get about 2 miles.  My parents had to walk about a mile out of their neighborhood to meet us because of all the power lines.  They are shredded and snapped.  It looks like someone came through with chainsaws and cut them.  Literally just snapped.  Directly across highway 280 (from our house) is impassable.  It looks like a war zone.  We didn't even have a tornado, it was all from wind.  As for the places that had tornadoes, they are WRECKED.  So many people need your prayers right now.  All of our family (that we know of) in Tuscaloosa is safe.  We don't know anything about the damage yet because John's parents were in Birmingham when the mile wide tornado passed through.  (Thank God!)  Please just take a few minutes and lift up all of the people hurt, killed, lost, scared, and harmed by these storms.  The pics with the trees broken are about a mile from our house.  The ones that look like a war zone are from my friend in Pleasant Grove.

Happy Easter

So yeah we have been MIA but we have been having such a time it is worth it!  We had the WHOLE fam here for Easter.  A beautiful day with the focus on our 2 beautiful girls.  My sweet niece and little Scarlet had so much fun.  Scarlet is obsessed with Emma and wants to do everything she does (although she can't quite walk!)  So it made for a great time.  Scarlet had a blast on her new "car" as she calls it.  It is a Disney ride on toy that her sweet "Hunny" brought her.  She learned how to mount this thing ALONE within a day, yikes.  Here are a few pics of her and Hunny, Emma hijacking the Car, me trying to open some books for Scarlet, and Her POUNDING a peep!  A blue peep.  Yeah she may have ruined her Easter dress!

That precious girl in pink is my niece.  Yes I am well aware she is adorable.  Ya'll my baby girl looks up to her so much it is hilarious.  When she leaves, Scarlet does EVERYTHING Emma did while she was here!  (with the exception of walk)  She has been collecting eggs, hugging the teddy bear, and riding the car.  Just like Emma.  I love it!  I love this cousin love.  Anyhow we have a huge couple weeks coming up.  Cinco de Mayo is the biggest day at the restaurant for us but even bigger (and before) that would be that our baby is turning ONE!  Damn how did that happen?  May 3rd we will have a 1 year old?  Party deets to come :)  Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

We are still here

Omg I have not blogged in so long. We have been busy busy! For whatever reason we are hosting Easter dinner, then my childs 1st birthday party, then my sisters "baby sprinkle" all within 2 weeks. Yikes y'all! And by hosting I mean AT MY HOUSE! My old, unfinished, dog peed floors, creaky house! I am excited though really. I have been waiting on my turn to host things and well, my turn is here! Baby girl is doing great. I seriously can't believe she will be one in 2 weeks. Girls if you are a new mom, believe me! It goes by fast! (more on that later:)) work has been crazy busy with caters as well as in store business which is awesome! I have a post coming about babes Easter basket (cause I made it!) and about our Easter deco so stay tuned :) happy Thursday y'all and here's a couple sillys!



She loves her old tub!


Yes that is a rib bone in each hand...

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SWEET!!!

I just saw this on Shutterfly.com and I am pumped!  Little bits birthday is coming quick and I could definitely use some Thank You cards to go out for all the sweet gifts she gets!  Ya'll I have used Shutterfly several times before and made books & Christmas cards.  They do it right and at the right price!  Anyway I just wanted to share this awesome deal with ya'll.  Imagine this face on a Thank You note...

(Thank you so much for coming to my party!)

Berry good weekend

We went to Tuscaloosa Saturday for Johns birthday.  We had an absolute blast!  We all played hard and got to see all of John's fam which is always cool.  I am being serious ya'll.  They are the in-laws that you actually like being around.  Matter o' fact, LOVE being around.  Fun, carefree, sweet, & AWESOME cooks!  We had ribs, chicken, cole slaw, potato salad, deviled eggs, dorito chicken, fruit, and A LOT of beer.  (is this not standerd in my posts?)  Although we didn't take any posed photos, I got some great ones of baby girl.  Who by the way got baby sat by a piece of (seedless) watermelon for 45 minutes and didn't so much as look up.  Yes I was watching her :) Sorry for the picture dump but my kid demolishing strawberries and watermelon is A-DAMN-DORABLE.  These outfits are so cute ya'll!  A good friends mom made these sweet things for her!  She also made Emma a matching skirt and shirt and has some things cooking for baby H.M.E!  

All of the below are baby girl mowing some berries except the one in her new fisherman pants!  They finally cam (from Thailand) and are sooooo cute.  Thanks MIL for hemming em'!

And last but NOT least this child sat in the grass for no less than 45 minutes and sucked on watermelon.  She ate rind, seeds, and maybe a bit of the actual fruit!  

We had a blast and most of all, her daddy had a happy, happy birthday!  Love you Poppa!

WTf

Where have I been?  Not that you care, but my sister has been in town for a WEEK with her squishy face sweet baby girl and the last thing on my mind has been blogging!  We have had quite the eventful week.  Scarlet is obsessed with Emma, Emma is not obsessed with her.  We played hard while sister was here and she got the magical City Select baby jogger (for 2!!) cause she is expecting HME in June.  Johns birthday was Saturday so we had a party at his parents house.  We grilled out and drank all day.  It was awesome.  Sunday we went to the ball park for "Softball Sunday" and we had a blast!  The sun wears this girl (and baby) out so it make for a great nap.  I covered baby in sunscreen and I am glad I did cause I am fried.  We came home and me and baby napped for 2 hours while John hung out with the girls!  Here is some evidence of our fun!  

These are Emma's size 7 Elmo slippers that she refused to let go of...to bad she left em' at my house.

 This is my child's neck.  She leaned up on Wednesday and I saw this.  Totally scabbed over.  Looked like a giant animal clawed the back of her neck.  I went through every article of clothing she wore the past week and can't find any blood or evidence of what caused this.  It hurts me to see something like this because obvi it is my BABY and I would know if this happened in my care but I don't know.  So it sucks to have that feeling.

This is sissy's new stroller that is B.A.M.F and that got a screw in the tire the day after she got it...

So thats it ya'll.  We have been lazy, full, laughing, happy, sleepy, fat & totally loving family time!! What have you been doing?