Dancing Diva & a bit of Disaster

Where to begin?... Ashlyn's imagination has been running quite wild lately. Her imaginary friends are her actual friends who show up to play at random times. They often come grocery shopping with us, and most recently Ashlyn's been throwing them birthday parties a lot. She loves to dance, turns into animals, turns us into animals with her magic wand, dresses us up as "pince" & "pincesses", tells stories of dragons and dinosaurs at the dinner table, plants flowers in the carpet, and when she knows she shouldn't be getting into something - she "pretends" that she is and that seems to satisfy the curiosity.

Here she is "Ice Skating" with the dog bowls across the kitchen floor...

"Look, Mom. I look like you. We look same!" She proudly proclaimed. Thanks, I think? How pretty! What a big girl you are putting mommy's makeup on all by yourself!

The child proof knob is now secure on our bathroom door.

I've talked about them before, but during the summer we get these monsoons and dust storms, called Haboobs... yes, seriously. August 18 proved to be a crazy day in our area. It was around 5:00 pm, Derek was on his way home from work and I was supposed to be going out for some Relief Society stuff. I had literally just watched the news and they were showing a live overhead view of this awesome dust storm moving across northern Pinal County. Then I went to do a couple things in the office. I looked out the front window and sure enough, there came that beautiful, huge, dust storm headed directly for our neighborhood. It was fast & strong & before I knew it, I could barely see to the next street over. Objects were flying around the streets and hail balls started pelletting the house. Ashlyn, the dogs, & I huddled together in the kitchen where we could watch out the patio doors and away from the front of the house & oncoming winds. Prayerfully & thankfully, Derek soon made it home. We found out later that it was just in time 'cause he barely missed the 5-6 phone poles that snapped in half & struck traffic along the highway just outside of our subdivision. There were three Microbursts of strong winds & rain - a bit of what I imagine it would be like in a hurricane. We were very lucky & blessed that we only lost a tree in the back yard. There was quite a bit of devistation, trees & branches down everywhere, and many of our friends & neighbors had roof tiles flying off, cinderblock walls cracking, & much more damage. We're just out of some shading in the back yard and a chunk of change to have the tree cut down & hauled away. Not happy about it, but it could have been much worse. These pics don't quite capture the severity, but you can see our tree uprooted & leaning on the patio cover & wall.