Happy Friday, my friends. This week is a total whirlwind – maybe a tornado is a better description, sadly enough.
Between heading home from New York & NSS, all the tornado destruction and cleanup, and also the last few days of school for Jude, we are wiped out here. We’re continuing to expect bad weather, and flash flooding has been happening. Simon leaves on Monday (whoah – Memorial Day, how did you sneak up on us?!) to go w/ my parents up to Mayo Clinic for the week, and I’m hoping that we won’t have anymore tornadoes.
I kept calling Simon while I was in New York to check on where he and Jude were and what was going on when all the bad weather was happening. At one point on Sunday when I called, I was like, where are you guys? And Simon nonchalantly replies, “Oh, you know, sitting in the hidey hole closet.” That kind of alarmed me, to say the least – when there’s a storm bad enough that you have to get in the closet in the middle of the house (the safest place to be if you don’t have a storm shelter or basement), there’s definitely cause for alarm. He said there was a significant branch down out of our tree in the backyard, but that otherwise they were fine. This is what the tree did in the backyard — and check out Jude there in the corner for scale.
Not the end of the world, by any means. The bar where all the swings hang is snapped in 2 like a cleanly broken bone. So that’ll need to be fixed.
Lots of you have messaged me to ask about our family. We live in north Oklahoma City; Moore is about 20 minutes south of us here in the metro. And while we had no specific damage from the actual tornado, there are so many who have. Everything completely lost, lives and homes. My aunt’s house was in a neighborhood that got completely creamed. Her house lost all the windows and they have no electricity indefinitely. Three doors down? Everything is wiped away – down to the foundation. It’s just nuts.
There are tons of ways you can help – I thought that Hollywood Housewife and Whoorl (Oklahomans, both of them!) did great posts. As for me, I partnered with Paper Concierge and donated the illustration I whipped up in NYC while waiting to board my plane at La Guardia to do a special collection of phone cases to benefit the Red Cross. It feels so silly and simple, but it’s a small thing I could do to help.
Like I mentioned, this was also the last week of school for Jude. All I can say is wow – that went by in the blink of an eye. Last night we sat down and made a list of all the things that he wants to do this summer. Then I pulled out my big Russell & Hazel calendar notepad and filled in all the stuff we already have planned. Funny how the days are already somewhat filled up. But it’s the empty ones that make me nervous – I want to be intentional about our summer and have some sense of structure so we don’t end up laying on the couch eating bonbons and watching Phineas & Ferb all day for 2 months straight. You other moms know what I’m talkin’ about.
Precious kid – he just cracks me up. He’s big into fixing his hair “cool” these days.
Case in point:
I am dying, you guys. Just DYING. He is so crazy marvelous, this kid of mine.
Otherwise, we’re trying to move forward with continuing our house fixup. I’ve decided to have the island in the kitchen painted – wait for it – a gorgeous rich navy blue. You guys, it is SICK. Crazy gorgeous color. And now I’m on the hunt for some new hardware as well as the tile backsplash. It’s just one thing after another, but the finished product is going to be oh-so-fab.
Speaking of home decor — when I was stuck in Dallas on my seven hour layover (OMG), I ponied up $50 to go take advantage of the Admirals Club in the DFW airport. I’ve always been somewhat mystified by those places – like it’s some kind of mythical place that the rich& famous get to use. But for $50, you can stay there as long as you need to. They have all kinds of food & drinks (many are free – more serious meals cost a little money), a gym, showers, quiet rooms (cell-free zones), TV rooms, lounges for the kiddos, meeting spaces, free computers, free wifi — it’s like a spa, almost, without the massages. Additionally it was kind of a welcome relief from all the craziness of the airport (which was having awful storms, hence my 7-hour delay). Anyway, the design of the lounge was really awesome, and I immediately plunked down in one of the Eames chairs they had scattered about. I couldn’t believe how comfy it was – I mean it was definitely a knockoff and not the real deal, but holy comfort & style, Batman!
Ok, friends. Stay safe this weekend and do something fun for me, okay? Because it looks like the pool will definitely be out of the question for us, unfortunately.
Much love to all!
xoxo -
Rachel
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