What has happened since Sunday?

On Sunday it was a stay at home day.  Akvila had been helping momma around the house the evening before and so I thought I would try this opportunity to see if she would help outside in the yard.  I wanted to mow down the "onions" growing in the yard and pick up all of the branches and leaves that was in the front yard.  Akvila wasn't too interested in this; she picked up 2 sticks and just watched the rest of the time.  So since Peg had to go to the grocery store, I told them to go while I finished the front yard.  They went to Publix (not a very crowded store) and picked up some food.  Peggy never told me if she "oh and awed" about the size, but she tell me she was well behaved.  When they came home I was finished in the front (out of gas) and we hung out in the basement.  Peggy's friend Michele came over and we played until about dinner time.  Akvila has been trying to learn her ABC's and Michele caught this video with her phone.

On Monday we had to go to the Doctor.  It is required to visit a Doctor who specializes in Adoptions after a child is brought home.  Thank goodness there is a Doctor at Vanderbilt Medical Center.  She was well behaved (at first), but started to get antsy.  A little fact... Akvila weighs 60 pounds and I missed how tall she is.  The Doctor wanted to have some blood drawn to check for center things.  Since she was from another country, they wanted to check for lead and a couple other diseases not associated with America.  She is also going to want a stool sample.  I just looked at Peg and smiled.  Because Akvila won't let me get close to her while she is in the bathroom, that means momma will have to do it.  Once the Doctor was done, another nurse came in to do the TB (tuberculosis) test.  Since we will be taking Akvila to a Primary Doctor later this week, they will be able to read the test.  We then proceeded down to the lab so she could get blood drawn.  Peggy said she did a very good job.  The only time she winced in pain was when they put on the rubber band; and watched the whole time as they drew like 8 vials of blood.  Once done with that, we were done at the Hospital.

As most local people know, Monday it stormed pretty bad here.  When we left the Doctor we went to look for a couch for the basement.  When we got out of our vehicle, Akvila wanted to play in the rain.  She thought it was so much fun having the rain hit her face and the running through puddles to get to the building and back to the vehicle once we were done inside.  While driving home she would watch the drops as they rolled down the side of the window; the laughter as I hit a puddle and the water came splashing up.  She was having a great time watching this.  I however was not.  The sky was green and me and Peggy knew exactly what that meant; Tornado weather.  While traveling back, the rain would come down very hard (which again Akvila loved) but I had a difficult time trying to see.  At one point I hit a down lines from a pole (just the line that had snapped, not a pole) and the closer I got to home, the more signal lights that were out.  As we got closer to home, there was more down power lines and poles.  One pole in particular was a metal one and it was bent in half, this freaked me and Peggy because at this location we were only about 3 miles from home.  Driving down the road to our house, we could see some roof damage (shingles only) and blown down trees.  No one in our community had any major structure damage; just some sheds and carports severly damaged.  As I start to pull into the driveway we see that one of our trees has uprooted and fell across our driveway.  I tell them all to sit tight and I did a quick look around to see if there was any damage done to the house; none, whew.  So I parked in my neighbors driveway and we went into our basement and stayed there until the Tornado warning had passed.  Here are some pictures I took that day.

As you can see I was going to have some fun!  Akvila's excitement kind of went away, she was in "ohhhhh" mode now.  She still wanted to play in the rain, but the storm was still around and didn't want her out in it.

Tuesday, cleanup begins!  I will just say right now, it is hard for me to type.  My forearms are so sore from handling the chainsaw and "man handling" all of the wood.  No it is not completely done, but you can now drive into the driveway safely.  Akvila helped a lot more on this day.  Of course she was fascinated by the chainsaw, but it was windy and didn't want sawdust to get into her eyes, so I had her stay with momma at a distance.  She helped momma clean off the lower driveway so we wouldn't run over alot of sticks and branches.  After a little while I brought out the camera to take pictures of my progress.  Instead Akvila took all of the pictures, I didn't get to take any.  But I think she has some talent; here is what she took.

 
I was outside until about 5pm and very sore.  I suggested to Peg about getting in the hot tub and having pizza for dinner.  This was Akvila's first time having pizza.  At first she said "ne" she didn't like, but it was so funny watching her 2 fist the pizza and the cheesy bread.  At one point she tried holding the 2 together and eating, but that didn't work to well.  After a little bit Peggy took Akvila out to the hot tub to see if she wanted to get in, and of course "YES!"  20 minutes in the hot tub she was all giddy again.  To me it felt great.  As I said my arms are very sore, along with my back.  Once inside it was time to wind down.  Peggy and Akvila video chatted with family in Ohio and we got ready for bed.

Akvila is still sleeping in our bed, but after last night I think she will be making the transition to hers.  She kept kicking me in the back all night.  My back already hurts, now I got a 6 year old kicking me there.  That is one of the reasons I am up so early this morning. 

I hope you all enjoy this update!