Day Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Three

The Silly Wabbit

 

We may not live on a hundred acres, but this girl and her daddy certainly don't let that stop them from feeding the wildlife in our neighborhood. Mimi mostly loves preparing "Wabbit" food for all the nocturnal bunnies around here. Yesterday's specialty was carefully toddler-hand-shredded lettuce. And fact: we saw a wabbit feeding on it last night! 

Day Nineteen Hundred and Fifty-Four

The Mommy-Auntie is Exhausted

 

Ribbon. 

 

Flip!

Dirt.  

Ants. 

 

 

Walk. 

 

Splat. 

Day Nineteen Hundred and Fifty

The Love of a Friend

 

Gymnastics!

 

Family!

 

Library!

 

Jesus!

 

Besties!

 

Love. 

Day Nineteen Hundred and Forty-Six

The Park Perks

  

 

 

We'd play ALL day and never rest if you'd let us!

Day Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-Five

The Freedom of Youth

Party every day at the slide.
Amelia and Landon would spend their entire days right there if you let them. Up and down and up and down, smiles radiating from ear to ear. Being a kid is so much fun. I sure miss it sometimes.

Day Eighteen Hundred Ninety-Seven

The Parked Car

While the babes played shirtless at the park (we mommies vastly overestimated how cold it was outside),

our red car was on its way to the car hospital. For like, the 82nd time since we purchased it last offseason. Imagine my eyes rolled all the way back in my head right now. Uhhhhh. So frustrating. But after they resuscitate this money pit with a new engine and an installed air conditioner, we'll FINALLY have a second car that runs, that doesn't stink, and that doesn't cause my husband to sweat 5 pounds of expensive flesh from his body every time he drives it. Gah! We were considering purchasing a suburban this offseason, but decided that though the car needs an entirely new engine, it would at least be cheaper than an entirely new car. So, hurry up and be well, my pain in the bank account, rotten child. We need you back so mama and Mimi aren't stuck in the house all morning every day of the week!!

Day Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-Eight

The Driveway Sale

Because "garage" sale is not the norm down here. Regardless, any kind of sale that helps me rid our lives of unnecessary and unwanted items is a welcome sale to me! And actually, because we were so eager to make sure it all left our possession, we put the price tag "free" on everything and sure enough, by the end of the day, all that remained were five books, a painted vase, and a toothbrush holder. Not bad!! Especially when we started off with five rugs, a giant bean bag, three bed frames, two desk chairs, three suitcases, two complete bedding sets, a dresser, a storage cube, two suitcases of clothes, five lamps, shoes, a router, and random items too many to name. Relief! Our garage - and home - now have less clutter and more space, which is cause for huge Conley smiles! We're grateful for many of the items our previous owner so graciously left for us to use until we could replace them with our own things, and now that we have, we've paid the kindness forward to someone else who can use them as well. 

Adam is especially thankful for the "purge," as his garage workspace has significantly increased. Amelia is mostly just thankful for friends to share sunny driveway sale days with. 

And she's even more thankful for the box of Jupiter Donuts we brought home to share with the neighbors. Yesterday, it was a good day. 

Day Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-Seven

The Things Dada makes Better

Slides are fun.

But they're much more fun when your gigantic Dada rides down the one next to you!

Pushups are not fun.

But they're much less not fun alongside your strong Dada!

Acorns are neat.

They're neat regardless if your Dada is cool, or fun, or buff, or cute. 

Day Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-Two

The Damage

Two feet. 

Two feet and yesterday would've been completely different.

But, our tree - our beautiful purple-blooming Hong Kong Orchid - fell just two feet from the screen of our pool, sparing us a headache stronger than maybe I'm capable of handling right now. Thank you Jesus for Your continued protection. Now to decide what to do with the tree. To cut or to re-plant? That is the question.

Thankfully, the tree we planted in March took the storm with the strength of ten palm trees! It neither lost a leaf or a branch and it perfectly stands as tall as ever! Love you Baby Tree!

After assessing the damage of our own home, we manually opened the garage (because we were without power until 3PM), hopped into the truck, and cruised our little neighborhood greeting neighbors and checking for damage. We were shocked to find that our builders left pieces of material, instruments, wood, tiles, and plenty of other items unsecured or tied down during a Category 4 hurricane. Needless to say, our neighbors were none too happy with this negligence and we're taking it up with our HOA. 

Also, this is what the beginning stages of a South Florida build looks like. We're all concrete and cement here!

Mimi cruising our little neighborhood in her pjs. 

She liked sitting in the backseat with Christian and Marissa and feeling the breeze on her pretty face.

We're all good here in Florida.

Minimal damage, power restored, and a night we won't soon forget. 

Thank you for all your payers, words, and thoughts. We feel so loved and cared for. 

Day Eighteen Hundred and Fifty

The Final Preparations

Amelia and I tackled our accordion shutters as a duo yesterday while Adam was out and about in the neighborhood hanging shutters for those needing help. Two teams of several men took on the neighborhood and knocked down roughly 25 houses in 8 hours. We have such an incredible community surrounding us and we are so grateful. 

We're also grateful for the previous owners of our home. They built this house as their retirement home and because storm shutters are such a difficult and cumbersome task to complete, they made upgrades that have truly blessed us and others around us. They installed accordion shutters that take maybe 1 minute each to close. In comparison, each window on other homes without these shutters takes roughly 10 minutes - if not more - to install. 

They also installed a storm door that covers the entire inside of our patio, making clean up and storage so much easier. So easy, a toddler could help! Amelia and I cleaned the entire pool area and with sweat beads dotting her nose, she jumped into the pool - shoes and all - once we were finished. 

(Update: we have since moved the bin, the hose, and the tarp into the garage and under the remote door. The baby remains inside)

We then walked around our house and took photos of everything...just in case. The branches were picked up and removed, so as much as we know, the outside of our home is prepared. 

All day, daddy was gone and Amelia felt it. She begged for him multiple times and finally, he arrived to the last house on the list: our next door neighbor! I took her over there and she was SO happy! Dada! Dada!! She has only the smallest idea of how good a man her Dada really is. 

Sweat on sweat. Sunburns. Calloused hands. Parched throats. But HUGE hearts. These guys are such a blessing to our neighborhood. 

Putting the last shutters up! Thank goodness!

Finally, we were able to come inside - after a prepared dinner from our neighbors - take showers, and turn on the news. As of last night, these were the hurricane wind probabilities impacting our area. We live about 10 miles south of Port St. Lucie. 

This is the probability of us experiencing the tropical storm. 

So yeah, we're directly in the path of Hurricane Matthew. I'm afraid of the unknown, but this I do know: our God is greater than this storm. In the past two weeks, we've seen Him work in ways we've never witnessed before and we're riding that truth right into this storm. We trust His plans for our lives and know that whatever happens, He will use this storm to bring people and glory to His name. This we know. This we believe. 

We've decided to stay and see this storm through within the walls of the home God blessed us with. This home was built in 2011 with all the new hurricane standard upgrades and constructed to withstand 170 MPH winds. Our inspection from last year showed that everything was in great condition and with the previous upgrades I've already shared, we are as confident as we can be in the integrity of our home.  We will absolutely be losing power and depending on how long we'll be out of it, we will make the decision after the storm as to if we'll be staying or leaving. We have prepared food, water, ice, ice bags (pictured above), propane, flashlights, and most everything we've been able to learn we'll need in the upcoming hours and days. We are not in a flood zone and we are not in an evacuation zone, which gives me a slight relief, however, I am still weary of what lies ahead. 

At least we'll have each other. And cookies!

Be in prayer for us, for our neighbors, our state, and the other countries already affected by this massive storm. This may be my last post for a while because of the potential loss of power/internet, so until next time...love to you all! 

We serve a mighty God, my friends. 

Day Sixteen Hundred and Fifty-Seven

The Hunt

We attempted our neighborhood egg hunt yesterday. I wasn't sure how Amelia would do after the fall and goose egg from the day before. We tried. But by the end, well, see for yourself. At least the start was innocent and cute and everything sweet. 

And then: nap time and out-of-the-sun time. She was done. Done done. But at least she found a few eggs. Clearly, however, she wasn't impressed when Channing tried swiping them from her basket. 

A huge thank you goes out to our neighbors who put this event together. We absolutely love where we live and are so grateful for such generous and sweet people surrounding us. Thank you Jesus for such a gift!

Yesterday was also filled with this. 

Eleven of our neighbors came to rescue our unused hot tub from our back patio. It was a gesture we paid handsomely for as we desperately desired more space by our pool. Amelia made sure everyone got their cookies and beer - such a lovely hostess already! 

And then Dada took a torch to the fire ants that bit my poor child ten times on the back of her leg. I don't believe in karma, but you deserved the torch for harming my baby, you jerks. Die.