This Week in Our Family

OK On May 8th, my Mom's birthday -HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! That afternoon a storm came across S. IL and took out many trees. The weather guys are calling it an inland hurricane. We had 106 mph winds and no tornadoes. Yes driving through the towns you would think a bomb went off. There are so many trees that are down. We lost power and began the adventure of the Kelly House Camp Out. Yes I even have a name for it. We tried to keep things calm and peaceful. But I can tell you I could see the stress on my kids faces. On Kristofer's even more. He has a routine and it was thrown to the wind from Friday till Tuesday night at 10:31pm. In fact when the power came back on and the lights came on he screamed, "Thank you Jesus!" He was so excited. He was the only child up when it came on but Wed. morning, Sara came and pulled my eye open and said, "Mommy look the lights work again!" Eli came in and said to me, "Something strange is going on....the computer is on!" So funny they were.
There were so many things God has shown me the last few days without power...

#1. POWER IS A GREAT THING!
#2. Technology can be done without, BUT IT SURE IS GREAT TO HAVE!!!
#3. Cooking out gets really old!
#4. HOT coffee is the best thing in the whole world!

Ok seriously, God has shown me a lot and I plan to expand on what God has been showing me in our adventures this week with no power and the fishing trips we have taken but I plan to post them on my other blog, Broken Potterie. I want to keep this blog more about my kids, family and the adventure's we partake in with autism.
After playing a variety of board games way too many times...Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, Scrabble, Pet Shop Monopoly, and Clue...then came the card games and Uno. I have to tell you I am as Jaron said..."Boarded OUT" He said he knew why they call them board games...."The make you bored if you play them too many times!"

On Monday afternoon we headed to Wal-Mart...the one store that had power, naturally! But we headed to town for supplies; ice, batteries, food that didn't need to be refrigerated (we lost approx. $200 worth of food due to the extended power outage) and FISHING poles. The damage we saw to so many homes and businesses is just saddening. It truly looks like a hurricane went through here. Yes I know what it looks like when one goes through, I have witnessed too many of them when we lived in Florida! I will post a few pictures at the end of this post of the damaged trees. I never had my camera when we were going through the neighborhoods...kept forgetting it. Sara was so excited she put her own worms on the hooks. That day was so great! I was able to get some much needed sun for these white legs! I am ashamed to call myself a born and raised Floridian with how white I am right now. While there Jaron was looking through some weeds along the shore line and found what we thought was a nut...nope not a nut! A baby musk turtle. He is so small, never seen a turtle that small before, and so cute! He is no bigger than a quarter.

Anyhow, we headed home for dinner and then took Sean back with us and by the first night they all caught a fish except for Kristofer. Then on Tuesday we headed out again, all but Kris caught a fish. Poor guy, he so desperately wanted to catch a fish, he didn't even tell me he wasn't feeling well. It wasn't till after their baths (thankfully we had hot water) that I realized that something was not right with him. He never complains when it comes to not feeling well unless he is in severe pain. Took his temp and was surprised that it said 102.8 I about flipped. So we headed to the doc on Wed morning. Poor little guy has double ear infections and strep. So now he has meds. on board and hopefully he will start feeling better. Since they did not have school today we headed out to go fishing (which we release all fish). Naturally when Kris is sick he wants to be with me and Sean had to get his sleep, he is working the over night shifts and he has to sleep, so despite my plea for him to stay with daddy he came with us. Guess who caught a fish! KRISTOFER! He caught the first one with his hands and was freaking out. He was pacing back and forth and was so excited! Then he got smart and would sit on the side of the boat ramp and was so patient when he was trying to catch the fish. Then....BAM! He caught another fish. I have never seen him react like that in my life. He was SO FUNNY! Being gentle and talking to it, explaining that he would let it live and he released him.

Eli's First Catch!

Jaron's First Catch!

Sara's First Catch!

Unfortunately I did not have the camera with me to get a picture of Kristofer's first catch....frown! But I will take the time to get pictures this weekend I am sure. The kids are hooked on fishing...lol no pun intended...lol ok maybe a little bit.

Ok So I could make this a short post but I just want to get it done. So here are a few pictures of the tree damage. Many were up rooted due to how saturated the ground has been but even so many just snapped in the 106 mph winds. Brings back many memories of the hurricanes of 2004.

The picture below is of an old oak tree. This tree is so beautiful in the fall. Sadly the trunk just snapped under the ferocity of the the winds last Friday afternoon.

These are a few pictures of the playground in Marion we go to frequently. It is such a beautiful shaded park. Now more than 75% of the trees have either fallen or have had to be cut down. The picture below is of the train that Kristofer loves! It was covered with two large trees that were cut away. So far it looks like the train survived but that is yet to be determined.