At this time one year ago

It was about 4 a.m. in Ethiopia. Patrick was sound asleep in his bed in the guesthouse. Jason and I were tossing and turning, both of us nervous and excited for the next day.

Six hours later, we met Melkamu. And life changed in so many wonderful ways...

Apples to Apples, or Atlanta?

Golf ball-sized hail...it's not just in the game anymore. Actually, we were lucky in the tornado warnings and severe storms that we had yesterday. There were pictures on the news of people in the area who had baseball-sized hail. And 9 tornadoes touched down in Georgia. In retrospect, golf ball-sized hail wasn't too bad.

Kamu and I got home just as it started to hail. There were little pea-sized pieces coming down as we were getting out of the car. I grabbed him up, ran inside, and immediately called Jason (who had just gotten to Patrick's school to pick him up). By the time Jason answered, there were pieces coming down that were probably nickle-sized. Within a few minutes, it sounded like someone was lobbing buckets of golf balls at our windows. It was a terrifying sound. Poor Kamu just looked around like "What's going on?" We sat on the stairs with the dogs and cuddled, listening to the radio and hoping not to hear the tornado sirens go off.

It tapered off in about 10 or 15 minutes and the sky cleared for a little while. I went out to get the groceries out of the car and took some pictures of the hail:

This is our front porch. Our covered front porch. Hearing enormous pieces of hail coming down at an angle and hard enough to whack against our front door was frightening.

Our front yard after the hail.

Here's a piece in my hand.

And here's another one.

But luckily, this is who was inside waiting when I came back in!

Oh the weather outside was frightful, but now it's so delightful

And since we've got flowers to grow,

Go cold, go

Go cold, go

Go cold, go.

It was 16 degrees on Wednesday, with a windchill of about 0. In Atlanta. It reminded me of why I left New York, and made me consider moving to Rio.

Today, Friday, it was about 23 when I left for work. It almost felt balmy. I was inside all day and when I came out--IT WAS 63!!! And the forecast shows it being sunny and warm for the next 5 days. I may survive winter yet.

I did promise pictures, didn't I?

Here is the new carrier that I made for Melkamu, since my old one was lost when my diaper bag got lost. I LOVE it. It's so pretty, but not so girly that I feel weird carrying a boy around in it. Jason said it looks like designer jeans, which is exactly what I was going for. And it works perfectly. I can carry my 30+ pound toddler in it so comfortably. It's so much fun to pull it out, because he giggles and shrieks and can't wait to be in it.

Um, that wasn't the kind of picture you wanted? Huh.

Is this better?

What about this?

Oh fine, I'll give you a video to tide you over until next time. And now that my camera seems to be recharging properly, I can take more than 5 pictures this month!