birthday

it's been a busy couple of weeks, so i am playing catch-up on my blog today. i've been working more hours lately, which means this space has been a bit neglected, and my free time is spent with my family instead. i actually worked six days in a row earlier this month, which is the most time i have spent out of the house (sans kids) since january of 2008 -before malcolm was born. no complaints here :) i do often wonder though, how full-time working mothers get everything done? i only work part-time, and on those days i feel like our house is a wreck, and that i won't ever catch up on what needs to be done. how in the world do you ladies juggle it all?!

anyway, so remember when i posted that it was my husbands birthday on the 8th? well on the 9th it was my turn, and i turned thirty-one! our birthdays are a day apart, so each year we get to celebrate them together. it's pretty great. a few days before the big day, i received this large package in the mail: 

my sister sent me this bike basket that i asked for from cb2. thanks again natalie!

on the morning of my actual birthday we all headed out to danny's parents house, where we dropped off the kids so that danny and i could go on a date. we had a delicious lunch at one of our favorite local restaurants in durham. we saw a movie at the carolina theater, and then danny treated me to some shopping at the mall. what a sweet husband i have, he waited patiently while i tried stuff on at victoria's secret (coffee kept him company, ha!) and then again in urban outfitters. i love you husbandito.    

this is how we found malcolm when we got back. wiped out. he and grandpa dan played hard.

vicky made us a wonderful meal

(here is malcolm's opposite shot)

and then we had cake!

danny surprised me with this cake from blue moon bakery. it was sooo good, one of the best cakes i've had in a long time. reminded me of why they are so expensive.

danny gave me these beautiful day lilies (my favorite!) from whole foods, and the kids made me a cute card.

debbi and the girls at work gave me this gerber daisy 

my mom and dad sent us each a card with some spending money, which was well spent. danny picked up a couple new records while we were out on our date. and i bought my very first pair of toms! i love them. thanks guys!

malcolm took this photo. he is an aspiring photographer :)

i don't mind getting older, i actually love being in my thirties. and i sure do love this family of mine.

happy easter bunny day!

this was taken on our second visit to see the easter bunny at the mall... the first one was tragic, and malcolm has asked me not to mention it again. this time he got his "big flash" with the bunny! after multiple attempts at a photo, each time pulling a different funny face and making the entire photo staff (and danny and i) laugh and laugh, we finally got a great shot. that little malcolm sure is silly. and alanna sure is a good sport for posing with him... even if she did complain a little. she was definitely bigger than the bunny was, ha! :)

tornado?! in raleigh!?!

on saturday afternoon our area was hit with severe weather. we knew it was supposed to be a bad storm, but we never could have imagined that we would be hit by a tornado. the news said that there hasn't been a storm like this in north carolina since the mid 80's, so this was a very rare freak occurrence. 62 tornados ripped through nc, and there were multiple areas where twisters touched down right here in raleigh. one spot that was badly damaged, less than two miles from our house, was on yonkers rd where danny's screen printing shop is located. 

i left work at 3 pm and when i got in my car to head home, the radio was blaring emergency info about seeking shelter immediately. the short drive home was crazy, lots of downed tree limbs, heavy rain, out traffic signals, and flashing police lights. danny had been dropping alanna off at a friend's birthday party, so he and malcolm were also on their way home. malcolm and i were safe inside when the really serious weather hit. the storm brought heavy rain, and made the power flicker on and off. danny had left to meet a friend to see a movie, but chose to turn around in fear that his windshield would be shattered by hail. on his way back to our house he saw a car sitting in water up to the bottoms of it's windows. then just as quickly as it had arrived, the storm was gone. blue skies and birds chirping. we are so lucky that our house and yard did not suffer any damage. we did have a tree branch puncture the roof of our tuff shed and knock it off of it's foundation, but danny and i were able to move it back into place, and he bent the metal roof back the best he could. 

alanna's friends house lost power for about 30 minutes, but the girls were all safe and busy having fun while the storm passed. driving out to pick her up was so strange. large stretches of what is normally a very busy road had lost all power, so it was like driving through a black out. pretty eerie. at 11 o'clock i wanted to watch the local news to see what the extent of the damage was in our area. that's when i heard them say that yonkers rd had been hit hard, i told danny and he left to check it out. the power was out there too, but when he got home he said it was like driving through a scene from independence day. we drove over sunday morning to check it out in the daylight. here are the photos i took while in the car on the drive to his shop.

this used to be a highway entrance sign, and a large billboard

the destroyed front entrance to a self storage complex

the sun washed this photo out, but this building was completely leveled :(

wrecked stretch of businesses. this complex is most likely a complete loss.

box truck on it's side.

there were tons of people out collecting large chunks of metal to sell as scrap. one guy even had his entire mini van filled, and was attempting to tie a street lamp to the roof! craziness!

large pieces of metal that landed in the shop parking lot. 

and an uprooted tree. this was the extent of the damage to the business park where danny has his warehouse space. compared to the destruction on either side of it, we are very, very lucky that it did not sustain any major damage. very lucky. 

the roof of the shop was damaged a little, we could see cracks of light near the brick wall, but hopefully that should be a quick fix. they had men up there today working on it already. we are so very thankful that the building is intact. it is hard to imagine what we would do if his shop had been wrecked like his neighbor's were. pretty unsettling to even think about. 

the plumbing supply company next door was very badly damaged. it's hard to see the actual mess in these photos.

that twisted mess up top is part of the inside of their structure. this photo was taken from the dock door of danny's shop. that is how close it came to it. 

and this business is on the other side of the shop. both corners of their brick building looked like they had exploded. it's insane that virtually every building on the street was damaged (some destroyed), except for the building that danny's shop is in! did i mention already how lucky and thankful we are for that!? because we are.

debris from the buildings that had been blown up against the fence that runs along the highway. what a mess.

danny went to work today to get some things done that could be accomplished without electricity. he and a friend walked around the area and took more photos of the destruction with his phone, so i will post a few more later. the cleanup is gonna be a doozy.

happy birthday to you

today my wonderful husband turns thirty seven! yesterday morning i made him a secret vegan cherry cheesecake, it is one of his favorites and i don't make it very often. i hid it in the fridge behind some leftovers and a few loaves of bread, and then surprised him with it after dinner. once the kids had gone to bed, we both enjoyed a slice and watched the office together on dvd. then we discussed how close he is to turning forty, and how insane that seems since most of the time he still acts like a child, haha. 

danny, i hope you know how much the kids and i love you. you mean the world to us, and we are lucky to have you. no, you do not look forty, and honestly, i hope you never act it either. i love you just the way you are (baby weight and all), and i am looking forward to getting old and wrinkly with you... uh, if we survive life with these kids of ours. yikes! hap, hap, happiest birthday to you! :)   

let's go fly a kite

this weekend sure was windy! on saturday danny thought it would be fun to go fly kites. we picked up a couple of new ones at target and then headed to duke gardens in durham. on the drive there i thought our car might get blown off the highway, the wind gusts were so strong. but once we finally got to our destination, and found a nice open area to play, the wind was nowhere to be found? danny and alanna got their kites up a few times, but then the gusts would send them crashing to the ground. while they fought it out, malcolm and i went exploring. it was a beautiful day, a bit chilly, but it felt so good to spend time outside.

after leaving the gardens, we enjoyed some delicious mexican food at our favorite local dive, cosmic cantina. when we arrived back home in raleigh it was still windy, so danny sent his kite back up, and wouldn't you know it, that thing went up, up, up... and stayed up! haha! we drove all that way, he spent half the day trying to get it in the air, and then in the comfort of our own yard, he was able to let out all of the string! pretty funny. i'm just glad our day didn't end like it did on our kite flying day last year, found here :)

marbles & BUZZ DAY!!

last wednesday was a busy day for malcolm. at noon we took a little trip to marbles to play until it was time to pick alanna up from school. then the three of us headed to the mall so that alanna could spend the money dan & vicky had given her. while we were there we stopped in the disney store to get malcolm some new pj's. no more footie pajama's, since he is using the potty now. i let him chose the designs, and of course he chose a woody pair, and a buzz pair. that boy sure does love toy story! 

a marbles employee asked malcolm if he would like to go out into the garden and help plant a little lettuce plant. he did such a great job! i can't wait until we can start our own little garden this year. i know he will love helping alanna and i take care of it. 

we discovered a brand new play section while at marbles. this area used to have a pretend post office and shipping truck, which have now been replaced by a new "pet vet" play area. very nice! 

after danny got home from work we had dinner and then went to target. we've been working on getting malcolm to stay in his own bed at night. for many months he's been getting up in the night and climbing into our bed. at first we didn't mind (i think we both secretly liked having him close by), but then he started coming in earlier and earlier, which meant less and less quality sleep for danny and i. some nights i would put him back in his own bed, but most of the time i was too tired. our queen size bed just isn't big enough for the three of us... plus lucky dog, who takes up 90% of it already. not to mention that the frame is badly broken and is slowly caving in on one side. 

danny had mentioned malcolm's sleep habits to another dad at the park, who had been having the same problem at home, and he gave us a great idea. he suggested that we use a calendar, a set date, and a little bribery, to help show malcolm how long he needed to sleep in his own bed before he would earn a reward. we chose one week, and malcolm chose a buzz lightyear doll (he's been asking for one ever since his birthday, to go with his woody doll). i printed out a calendar page for the fridge, and each morning after he had stayed in bed all night, he got to put a sticker on the calendar. he did a really good job all week, and was so excited for buzz day!  

buzz meeting woody :)

one of his best days ever!