I would love to blog about some "lazy dayz" of summer, but I just haven't been having any....yet. I just got home yesterday afternoon from a trip up to Iowa. woohoo!! I know what you're thinking, "Iowa?? Is she serious? What the heck is in Iowa?" Well, to answer your thoughts, my mom's whole family lives in Iowa. Believe it or not, I used to live in Iowa myself. It was when I was in elementary school, but I lived there for a couple years with my mom and step-dad. During that time, both of them were in school and/or teaching at the University of Iowa in Iowa City (where we lived).
My step-dad finished all his schooling while they were there and graduated with his PhD in 1998. My mom, however, was a little more delayed in the decision to even start on her PhD, or even more schooling for that matter. Nonetheless, she kept at it and she just now finished with her PhD in Writing and Literature (or something like that)!! YEAH MOM!!! So, I went to support her....what a good kid I am. Congratulations Mom!! We're SO proud of you....Dr. Mom!!
That wasn't the ONLY reason for my visit though. Like I said, my mom's whole family lives in Iowa so I wanted to see them too. :) My Grandpa, Jerry, was born and raised in South Dakota. After living in California and Oregon for a good portion of his life, he decided that it was time to head back to the midwest (that was sometime in the late 80's). My mom is the oldest of 3 children. She has two baby brothers; my uncle Clay and uncle Erik. My uncle Clay has lived most of his life in California, until about 12 years ago, when he moved to the midwest to help take care of my grandpa when he had a stroke. My uncle Erik actually lived in England for a good portion of his life. After serving in the Air Force he decided it was the place to be, I guess. Anyway, he's also been in Iowa for some time now. Not long after the majority of my mom's family was living in Iowa, my Grandma, Nancy, followed and lives about a mile away from my uncle Erik. Then, my mom moved to Mississippi!! What a punk!
So, her graduation was also a reason for a family gathering. My great aunt and great uncle from Alabama where there (my grandma Nancy's sister and husband), my mom drove from Mississippi with my step-dad, my sister (my mom's baby) and her baby, Charlie, my sister was in the US from Argentina where she lives, my brother flew from California, and of course Me and Cali were there. (that was the longest sentence in history!!!) They were all at the graduation, then we all took pictures, then we all went to dinner!! It was utter craziness, but fun.
Sunday was the best. We all just hung out at my uncle's house, ate, visited, played games, went for a walk, etc. I loved it!! I think Cali really had a good time too. She got so much attention that it just wore her out! She gave more kisses than I've ever seen her give and she smiled all day long, until it was time to eat or sleep. The downfall to having so much fun, was that I forgot to get my camera out. I only have a couple pictures from the actual graduation itself. My sisters, however, took many pictures so I'm hoping to get some when they get a chance to share, and I will definitely pass them on. :)
The craziest thing happened to us last weekend, and I totally forgot to blog about it...until now.
We were just running some errands, enjoying a saturday afternoon together. We were stopped at a stop light in the left hand lane and the right hand lane was open. Oncoming traffic was turning left in front of us, nothing too exciting. I kid you not, out of nowhere, a car came flying past us in the right hand lane and slammed into a car that was turning. They hit the back tire on the passenger's side, it made the car flip upside down and spin around!! The lady driving past us had to have been going about 45 mph and we didn't even see any brake lights!!! Before the car that was now upside down had stopped spinning, Marcus had put the car in park, unbuckled his seatbelt, and turned the flashers on...he was running across the intersection in no time. He went right over the the upside down car and pulled a woman out through the window. Seriously!! I just sat there staring (after calling 911) and Austin was rattling off questions: what happened? where's daddy? was it an accident or did they crash on purpose? where are the police? who did you call? why did she crash them? are they ok? are they wearing seatbelts? is daddy going to get crashed too? etc, etc, etc....those are just the ones I can remember right now. Thankfully, no one was hurt, just in shock. 
When I came back to reality, I climbed into the driver's seat and got out of the way. We left Marcus at the scene, just in case the cops needed his statement since he was a witness. He finally walked over to the parking lot where we were and asked for a minute alone. We went into the Starbucks nearby to get something cool to drink and waited for Marcus to chill out. His adrenaline was cranked up and he was shaking, so he needed a little time to himself. Poor guy.
He reacted without a second thought when others just kept on driving by. He pulled a woman from an upside down vehicle and had scratches on his knees and one of his ears from the glass, but didn't even notice until I began cleaning him up with a wet wipe. To top it off, he had even considered stopping at the red light in the right hand lane instead of the left, but something told him not to. He probably wouldn't have thought twice about the prompting, but it saved us. I am so thankful for such a selfless and obiedient husband. If he had ignored the simple prompting to stay in the left lane, we would have been the ones that were hit by that lady. What a small, simple and WONDERFUL miracle. Whoever says that miracles don't happen today aren't looking in the right place.
Looks like Austin got a hold of the camera.
What a smile!!
She cheered every time she heard the crowd cheer. She was having a blast!
A big wad of gum and a big smile.
Yes, that is a peanut in his nose....
We had such a good time at the game. We made it all the way to the 8th inning, but unfortunately, we missed an awesome ending that would have happened right in front of us. Oh well, Cali was ready to go, sorry Daddy. ;)