Close Encounter with a Tornado

As we were leaving for swim practice today we saw THIS. We were not lucky enough to be as far away as the photographer of these shots was!

Adding in some new photos someone was kind enough to share (for reference, those flags in the pic are 1/2 mile from my house exactly)....








It was right in front of us, maybe a mile away. I don't remember the last time I was so physically scared. I didn't even know what I was seeing at first, I swear it looked like a jet had just flown through the clouds and separated them, like a cartoon; there was this clear path through the clouds. I followed the path, thinking wow what a weird jet line, noticing the path turned grayish below the cloud. Then I noticed the curvature of it...then I realized...holy shit...that's a tornado. One of my nightmares come true. Seriously, my nightmares are all tornadoes, alligators, and suddenly being back in school taking a test realizing I haven't come to class all year because well honestly I haven't been in school for years LOL. I told the kids what I saw, probably in some scary non-swear expletive form, u-turned, and sped back down the road. We were flying, like 50mph on our little 15mph street. Some lady gave me a dirty look. Obviously she hadn't looked down the road yet!! I had no idea what way it was going and I certainly didn't want to be in the car if it was headed at us! The kids were scared, they were asking if tornadoes pick things up and tear of roofs...I wasn't really sure how to answer, because I didn't want to scare them with the truth nor did I want to lie to them, either. I just told them when we got to the house to get out of the car as fast as they could. I had them close the bedroom doors while I grabbed the weather radio and a comfortor (I couldn't have fit the recommended mattress in the bathroom lol) and we huddled in the shower. We were really, really scared. We listened to the NOAA weather warnings about the water spout heading to land in Key West, and I was really wishing I had a map in the bathroom because Key West sits at a funny angle and I wasn't 100% sure where it was according to what they said. The said it was headed south, which I was fairly certain meant it was going away from us, thank G-d. Every thunder rumble made me nervous. I've always heard a tornado sounds like a train, but I wasn't really sure if that meant it was like thunder too LOL. After about 10 or 15 minutes they lifted the warning. The spout hit land at the Coast Guard station and dissipated as it crossed land, as you can see in the pictures.

I just ordered one of those weather radios with alarms. I used to have one when we lived in Vero, but it disappeared sometime in the past 3 years. I want to know an alarm will warn us if this ever happens again!!!! We obviously would have been fine this time even if we hadn't seen it, but if it had been going the opposite direction it would have come right through the base.

Weeeeeee!!

Singing in the Rain

Well, not exactly singing...but playing football and cheering! Today was the first day the girls FINALLY had full uniforms, and boy did they look cute! And Lilli finally remembered to look forward during cheers after critiquing herself in the videos I uploaded yesterday. :) The game started off great, Gators leading the Seminoles. It POURED for most of the game. Lots of wet children (and Mickade crying at one point). It was 22-16, then 30-16, with literally seconds to go. Awesome, a big win, finally!!! Wrong. That all changed in the last 60 seconds of the 4th quarter...it was tied 28...then we scored, missing the conversion, making it 34-28. The Noles (yes, the SEMINOLES, can you believe it? On my birthday???) tied it again, and with 9 seconds on the clock, got their 2 point conversion. The Gators gave it their all and managed 2 more plays those last 9 seconds, but gave the Seminoles their first win of the season, 34-36. :(



FYI for this and other videos on my blog: If you click on the actual picture when it starts, it will bring you to the regular YouTube site and you can then click to watch the video in high quality! :)

Then the UF Gators lost to Ole Miss. OLE MISS for crying out loud!!!! IN THE SWAMP!!!! What kind of birthday is this, anyway??????

Allergies :(

I've come to the suspicion that Lucy might have some food allergies. :( While we were in Disney, a couple different things happened. She played on one of those rubberized playground surfaces and while still playing there developed a dry, scaly rash on both of her knees. Also, she ate canteloupe for the first time and developed a similar rash on her bottom. Sadly, those play surfaces can contain latex, and canteloupe is actually a related allergy. I'm afraid she might have some kind of latex allergy, and an allergy to the related foods along with it. I was hoping I was wrong. Monday she ate some pear (not from me...her sister dropped it on the floor!). She seemed find at first, so I was hopeful. You see, pears are also part of the same family (raw potatoes, pears, apples, melon, canteloupe, pineapple, mango, kiwi, strawberries, papaya, peach, and mango) so I would not have given that to her on purpose. Wednesday she seemed ok, so I gave her a little bit more. That evening I noticed a horrible rash on her legs. :( She has not eaten any other foods, nor have I seen this on her body before. I'm still hopeful it's some kind of coincidence, but I just don't know. I've since given up the foods on the list above too since she is breastfeeding (and will be of course for another couple years). I had also noticed she was not sleeping well once we moved to our new house...which is when we got our fancy blender and started having smoothies daily....which would be when I started having bananas and strawberries daily. *sigh* My mom has always had problems with many of the fruits above, and I looked up her reactions, and they are anaphylactic...so we have a family history. I also learned recently I'm allergic to kiwis. My poor baby. What the heck is she going to eat?

Go Gators!!!

No, not UF. I mean, it's not like we don't still LOVE the Florida Gators but we have our own mini-Gators now! Mickade is playing flag football with the Key West Junior Football League, and Lilli is cheering...both for the Gators! They are both so cute. Mickade is #65 and plays the offensive line, and does a pretty good job knocking kids down. ;) He's learning a lot about the game and getting better and better. In fact, at practice one day they were doing some passing and he got quite a few "wow's" when they saw his arm! Lillian is the youngest on her team and pretty impressive if I can say so myself. :) But of course I'm her mom. Her biggest problem at games is that she wants to look at her favorite big girl cheerleaders in the back line on her team instead of the audience. She's such a little munchkin out there!





The cheer squad's dance routine, first time with poms.

First Tooth

Yep, Lucy got her first tooth (finally, it seems, after months of apparent teething) on Saturday the 13th.

I love it here

I mean, really. This is the view of the moon rising from our dock.....sheer perfection.

Children's Clothing &Chemical Burns

So have you heard the latest yet? Those tagless clothing we all thought was an awesome idea....wasn't. That plasticky ink contains chemicals, and is causing rashes, burns, oozing blisters...the works. Nice, eh? Makes an itchy tag sound like a walk in the park! The best is these things are happening on BABIES. The biggest culprit at the moment seems to be Carter's clothing, specifically their Fall 07 line with a larger label. If you call Carter's, they are actually sending parents prepaid boxes to ship the clothing back to them for a full refund. They are not, however, "officially" recalling yet. Gotta keep hush-hush on these things, you know? There are a number of blogs recording the data, and it isn't pretty. And it may not be just Carter's. Gap insists their labels are pthalate and pvc free, which is good. BTW, did you know many of those plasticky inks contain pthalates, which were just banned from childrens' toys by Congress? It's probably a good thing to have sitting their skin 24-7 then, huh? I hate fricking corporations. I liked Carter's clothes too, they are soft. But of course now that I look at the label, it says, naturally, MADE IN CHINA. Why is this not surprising? Maybe bc China has poisoned our pets, their own babies...it's sickening, really. Carter's Burns Info

So, last year I became a nut about the toys we bring into our home, purged anything questionable, and thought we were good. I'm very picky about any toys allowed into our home, especially for they baby. Nothing from China. Mostly wood. Now it seems I have to get crazy about our clothes. So please, no tagless labels here this holiday season. No plastic toys (except Legos, they are made in Canada and Europe and have been cleared by Mama). In fact, if you could get us organic or anything that is made anywhere but China, I'd be very appreciative. It's quite possible anything else will end up at goodwill.