Catch Up

Okay, I had to catch up on a few things that I missed, before we head out of town. Yes, the kids and I are taking off for 2 weeks. The day after tomorrow we are going to meet up with my dad and his family in beautiful Hawaii. We are all very excited. I'm a little nervous about the 10 hour trip, alone with the kids, but praying everything will go good. So, needless to say the past week has been very busy. It's been Caitlin's last week of 3rd grade, hair appointment, we've almost all fit in Dr. and Dental appointments(since our insurance will be up soon), got the cat neutered, and had the roof inspected, plus pack for a two week vacation. It's been a little crazy.

Well, we didn't get too much of a break from the weather...one day without crazy weather, out of the past 11. I'm SICK of it. It did make for some cool cloud pictures though.

Unfortunately we didn't make it out of the tornado storm as well as I thought. I figured since I couldn't see any damage on the roof, from the ground, that we were all good.(A lot of people had shingles missing.) After we had it looked at today, it does need to be replaced. I was bummed, since it was in excellent shape and only 8 years old. And we'll most likely get money to repaint. So, I guess it's better to have the insurance company pay for it, but I'm still not looking forward to that deductible.

A few weeks ago Caitlin did a presentation at school on Moscow. She did a great job.

My goofballs in their "boat."

A few weeks ago Nana and Papa also made a quick visit. Of course we all enjoyed their visit thoroughly.

Hanging out with Papa.

Playing on the trampoline with Nana.

Fun times.

So, my next post will include a bit of paradise. Can't wait!

What a week!

Well, this past week started on sunny note. The kids were really excited about doing a lemonade stand, during the community garage sale. We made treats and they had one heck of a stand. Unfortunately their patience didn't last long. Evidently they don't quite have the stamina for a lemonade stand, but hopefully they learned a lesson.

After that, the weather has taken a turn for the worse. The next day, we had our tornado come through. And since then, we've had 6 days of what they call "severe weather". I thought today was suppose to be the end of it, but now I hear it won't be normal again, until Monday. Oh my! We've been starting off with warm, sunny blue skies, then anywhere between noon and 3 we get anything from pouring rain, hail, major thunder and lightning to funnel clouds, or tornado warnings.

The kids always seem to make the most of it. Just a few hours before these pictures were taken, Caitlin was crouched in the hall, with the rest of her class for almost 30 minutes, as a tornado warning passed. Caleb and I were out doing errands when the skies opened up and POURED on us. We made it into Costco and it was like a ghost town and I kept hearing bits and pieces of people's conversations. I finally asked someone if something was going on and they said the tornado sirens had gone off a few miles away. On the bright side, it was a LOVELY shopping experience, but quite erie. I figured we were safer in there, than in our car though.

The kids had fun playing in all the rain water, after the storm moved out.

Now, I LOVE a good storm, but that tornado has given me a whole knew appreciation for the sky. There is definitely a hint of fear, now, when anything weather related happens. The other night I was taking a bath and I kept hearing loud noises, then heard the wind howling through the open window. I don't think I've ever hopped out of the tub so fast. I turned on the TV to see if there was a tornado warning and it was just severe thunderstorms. Then I went to the window to enjoy the show. Wow, was it impressive.

Tornado

Well, today started off with our usual sunny blue skies. I was finally getting ready to get out and sit in it when the clouds starting rolling in. When I went upstairs to change my clothes, I kept hearing sirens, that sounded different than regular sirens. Ryan says, "That sounds like a tornado siren." I quickly looked online and sure enough, we were under a tornado warning. By the time I turned everything off and got the kids in the basement, Ryan had already been out and spotted the funnel cloud. Being the storm freaks that we are, we had to snap a few pictures, before the lime sized hail started pelting down. (The kids were safely tucked away in the basement with treats and a movie on the battery DVD player.)

These are from our backyard.

From in the house.

I don't really know, what happened at this point. You can't really see the funnel, but you can see(if you double click) the debris going up into it. This is roughly where it should have been, when it touched down. I headed downstairs, when I started seeing stuff flying around, so, this is the last picture I got. It touched down, in an outdoor mall area, a little over a mile from our house. Miraculously no one was seriously injured. There was quiet a bit of damage in that area though. Parts of roofs missing, cars moved and flipped, a construction office trailer was thrown and decimated, windows blown out, light poles over, etc.

The Hail
Yes, my husband took it upon himself to go out INTO that mess and grab hail.




My poor car got struck once again. Thankfully Ryan was able to push stuff out of the way, in the garage, and squeeze most of the car in. It did suffer a few blows, in the few minutes it was out though.


The neighbor across the street has a baseball sized hole in his rear window though. So, I'm thankful it wasn't worse.

We had a few random things take a hit. This hole is in the trim around the sliding glass door.


The turtle dish got broke in two.

The outside toys won't stay quite as dry now.

This solar light met it's match.

I'm so very thankful that nobody was hurt and that our belongings didn't suffer any major damage. It's good to have reminders of how many things we have to be thankful for. I do hope that future tornadoes are a little farther away.

It's Official

Well, it's finally official, Ryan's restaurant is officially closing down. He got word today that they will be open until Tuesday(Yes, that's in 4 days!), he'll take a couple of weeks to pack the restaurant up, and then he'll be jobless. He's actually excited. He's been working WAY too hard the past few months and is glad to be getting out of there. Of course, I'm freaking out a little. Let's see, we'll be getting one more paycheck, a month of severance, then.....? Please pray that he will find a job quickly and easily. I'm not counting on that, in this economy, but it sure would be nice. I know we're suppose to be here for a reason. We can only hope and pray that the job transition will go smoothly.

Hanging Around the House~Part Two~

Yet another few days that we stuck close to home, because of the weather.

We went and browsed the outdoor mall that's a few miles away.

The kids had fun playing around the fountains, even though it was too cold to get wet.
Taking a snack break.

What goof balls!

Caleb was quite the window shopper/drooler.

I just like this picture of the kids in front of the mirrors.

Burning some energy

The boys were quite impressed with these speakers throughout the mall. They'd stop and listen, at most of them.
I think these raining umbrellas are cute.

We also went for a walk to the "park."

I think we ALL had a little fun, playing on the equipment.

I hope he's not sliding DOWN. Ouch!

None of us adults could quite master this thing. Caitlin makes it look effortless though.

Well, that's it, I'm FINALLY done going through and posting all of my pictures from our great visit. I wish the weather would have been more cooperative, but we still had a great visit. Thanks so much for coming, mom, dad, Stefanie, Danny, Ethan, and Emily! We sure enjoyed your company.