Little House

We call this the little house.   John's used it for a shed since we moved in, but it was really built to be a playhouse.  For the past few weekends, John has been organizing the garage to make room for the contents of the little house so that Ben and Mollie could have a cool playhouse.  Notice that it has electricity.  There is an extension cord that runs from our back porch to the little house.

 We moved the kitchen and pretend food to the little house.  Mollie had so much fun.  Ben's friends from down the street came to play.  They checked out the playhouse and then got shovels and hoes and dug holes in the garden.

 Serving me cake.

 John cleaning the windows.  He's worked really hard getting this cleared out and cleaned up.  He and Ben plan to repaint the trim outside soon.

 Mollie took this picture of me.  We were eating pretend supper.

 One set of shelves John built in the garage.

Smaller shelves along the other side.

First Soccer Game

Today was Ben's first soccer game.  You can imagine how horrified I was when I realized that I had forgotten my camera.  I quickly called Nana and Grandaddy (who were coming) to see if they had their camera.  They had forgotten it.  Thankfully, we had arrived early for pictures so I HURRIED home and was back just as the game was starting.

What direction is your team's goal?

Ben is #4.

Throwing the ball in after it went out of bounds.  The ball went out of bounds a lot and Ben's coach was very good about having everyone take turns throwing it back in.

 Lots of running in soccer.  There are eight players on his team, but only four play at a time.  The game consisted of four 15 minute quarters.  Each player played two quarters.

 That's Ben going the wrong way.  He wasn't always sure where the ball was.  They've only had two practices and had never practiced with just one ball on the field.  He learned a lot about the game today.

 Good job from Daddy.

Doesn't Mollie looked excited?

 Cheering section.

 A happy Ben taking a break before going back in to play the last quarter.  He got kicked in the knee during the last quarter and limped around for a while.  He was brave and didn't stop, though.

 Good job.  Good job.  Good job.

 Team cheer!

Japanese steakhouse lunch with Nana and Grandaddy.

Magnolia BC

On Sunday we attended church with MawMaw Wilma and PawPaw Sherman.  They knew we were coming.  Mama was playing the piano for them.  MawMaw leads the singing.  We were a little late arriving and they were already singing when we arrived.  MawMaw was so excited when we got there that she lost track of what she was singing, had to stop the song, and start over.  Then she threw everyone off by singing the third verse (for some reason Baptists always sing the first, second, and last verses of songs).  PawPaw gave the announcements.  He mentioned that me, Ben, and Mollie were his special visitors.  When we got in the car afterwards Ben said, "That was really cool that we were the special visitors."

Soccer Practice

Ben had his second soccer practice today.  It got rained out last week.  It nearly did today, too.  I wish I had gotten John to take a picture of Mollie and I sitting under the umbrella watching practice.  It wasn't raining hard, but I didn't want Mollie to get wet and cold.

Ben loved soccer practice again today.  He has his first game this Saturday.

Today they practiced kicking the ball into the goal for the first time.

Happy Birthday Emalee

Today is Emalee's 8th birthday.  We celebrated her birthday Saturday with a skating party.

Ben's first time on roller skates.  I was impressed that the skating rink had these cool Fisher Price skates for younger children that were easy to skate on.

Emalee talking to PawPaw and Uncle Zac.  She fell down lots of times, but she was skating much better by the end of the party.

Ben and Rylee.  We think Rylee thought you were supposed to fall down.  She would go a few feet and then fall down over and over and over.

Cara, Aubrey, and Ella Kate

A big hug for Mollie from Aubrey.

Cara helping Olivia.  Olivia's new baby sister came home from the hospital Saturday so Aunt Connie brought her to the party.

Danielle pushing Emalee.  My only picture of Pam (Danielle's mom) on skates turned out blurry.  She gets the coolest grandmother at the party award for skating.

I thought Mollie would just run around but she wanted to skate too.  Turns out she's really good at it.  She didn't have any problems skating with the Fisher Price skates.

Happy Valentine's Day

Ben had big plans for Valentine's Day. He wanted to take flowers to all the ladies at a local assisted living.  We bought a wagon-load of flowers, invited a few friends to join us, and delivered flowers and "Happy Valentine's Day" greetings to about 50 ladies.  

 Posing with our friends Sam, Allie, Harris, and Mary Neal.

 Getting a special treat of sugar free gum from Marion for being so sweet while delivering the flowers.

Clean Up

Ben wanted to do something to help out neighbors so on Wednesday morning when the rain finally stopped, we took our wagon and a garbage bag and walked down our street picking up the debris that had been dropped by the tornado, mainly insulation and roofing felt.

Damage

 (John borrowed this picture from WDAM.  The cross is the broken remains of their fence.)

Daylight showed that the neighborhood next to us did receive some major damage from the tornado.  This is the worst damaged house in the neighborhood.

These are houses that you can see from the end of our street.  We ride our bicycles in this neighborhood all the time.  We really felt blessed when we saw how close the tornado came to us and how much damage it caused.

 Another picture from the nearby neighborhood.  This is a picture of the backyards.  These houses had privacy fences and the nearest house had a shed in the backyard.

 This is the only damage at our house.  The playground canvas was already torn but now it's totally mangled. We can easily put the roof back on the playhouse.  It wasn't attached.

 Today I took some pictures around Petal from my car window as I ran an errand.  There are pockets of damage and then stretches where there is no evidence of the tornado.

It rained and rained Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday was the first day that the kids and I were able to get out and look around at the damage.  It was not until I saw this Samaritan's Purse Disaster Response truck parked at local church that I realized that we were really part of a disaster.

 The Red Cross is here too.

 On Main St.

 This used to be the Ace Hardware on Main St.  It got hit the hardest.

 These are the new ballfields that were completed the last weekend of baseball season last spring.  Everyone was looking forward to playing here this spring.  The fences are all twisted and I hear there is damage to the building.

 Lots of trees down.

This is a Missionary Baptist Church near Wal-Mart.  The steeple is in the parking lot.