Happy Birthday America!

I love the Forth of July.

The craft project I had the boys do today was a yummy one.

No fighting or complaining on this project.

Enjoy your day

Enjoy your freedom



Mother Nature Said SLOW Down

This is how our town, and many others, have looked since last Friday

June 29, 2012 around 4:00 p.m.

 Normally I kind of enjoy sitting by the window and watching our big storms, but this storm was different.  In other words, this storm kind of scared me.  When we could no longer see out the window because of dust and debris and it started to sound like a freight train, Layne ushered all of us to the basement.

After it was over I went to check on some neighbors and take a peek in town.  I couldn't get very far into town because the roads were all closed because of fallen trees.  It is so sad to see great big, old trees snapped off and splintered.  Power poles were ripped out of the ground or broken in two.

Josie was in Lima and there was no cell service for a long while and so we were anxious to hear from her.  She held out inside a Texas Roadhouse. 

Remember how I said June went too quickly?  I guess Mother Nature decided to help take things down a notch (or two).  Our town has 95% of the electricity back on as of last night. (four days later) Most of the stores were closed for days because of no power and/or cash only.  Bigger cities still have a lot of people in the dark.  Can I just say that I L.O.V.E. our generator that Layne was able to just plug into an outlet and I could happily take a warm shower and not worry about the food in my fridge or freezer.  It isn't fun to go through a yucky situation like this, but it is good to see in what areas we are lacking (or doing well) in our emergency preparation.

The poor courthouse didn't fair as well.  The clock tower is damaged and it will take at least three months to get it down to fix.  They've had to move all of the courthouse comings and goings to other buildings in town.  What a pain.  The most often worry/complaint I've heard has been from people that do genealogy work and there are lots of documents and stuff like that in that building.  They are worried about getting access for the next few months.  Glad to know that work goes on strong in Logan County. 

But these guys are all safe and even the dumb dog made it though.  Our trees are still small so they fared well and the house stood strong and kept us safe.  That is all that matters.

Is it just me

or was June the fastest month ever?

It was filled with baseball and swimming lessons.  The one extra great thing in June was when I met up with Jason & Geri in North Carolina. 

http://www.meandhimblog.com/

I hadn't seen them for one whole year, so I was extra excited to spend a week together.

I hadn't been to North Carolina before (love it) and I really, really had never driven to North Carolina before.  I would have remembered.  After getting over the Appalachian Pass (pronounced   a-puh-"LATCH"-uhn  ~ we had a sister missionary here once that was from North Carolina that made sure us dumb Northerners knew our verbal mistake), I must admit I was pretty car sick, but I bounced back after a coke and a sandwich.  I made it to the Raleigh-Durham airport with 30 minutes to wait for my companions to arrive.


It wasn't the sightseeing type of vacation, unless you think beautiful old buildings at an old university, namely Duke University, is beautiful.  Let me tell you, it really is.  I wasn't very smart and I forgot my camera so you'll just have to believe me when I say that Duke is lovely as are the people that work at the hospital & clinic.  Geri has more details if you'd like to know more about that adventure.

We got really good at sitting and waiting.  And once again here we are waiting .....  Jason needs some lungs, like now.  And Duke really wants him, but there are some technical difficulties at the moment so they are doing some more waiting to get things figured out. 

Go Team Jason

One funny moment was at the end of the first night (the nicest family let us use their home while they were away on vacation) Geri & I kicked off our shoes and propped our feet up on the ottoman, next to each other, and we had to same color toe nails.  Ha!  A beautiful aqua blue color.  We picked the same summer toe nail color. 
We are such sisters.