Busy Two Weeks!

For the next couple of weeks, I may not be posting much--if at all. Here's a run-down of all the things we are doing:

-Tonight: Get together for young couples in our community
-Tomorrow: Possible tooth extraction (eek!) and Joe is playing in a golf tourney for his shift at work.
-Tuesday: My sister-in-law's birthday party (Joe works)
-Wednesday: Our 3rd anniversary
-Thursday: My mom's 4th of July party
-Friday: 4th of July (Joe works)
-Saturday-Tuesday: Going to South Dakota

Woo! I should have a lot of new pictures to add to my slideshow, though!

Have a great (and safe) holiday, everyone!

So Proud!

You might know that I've been concerned with Nora's talking--or lack thereof. She's ahead physically, but she just wasn't talking. She'd babble at you all day and *think* that she was talking...but she didn't actually say more than maybe 10 words. (Daddy being her favorite!) Last night, my fears were eased.

I was talking on the phone with my mom, and Nora was doing her usual babbling on and on, so I wasn't paying too much attention to what she was "saying". She kept saying the same thing over and over, so I stopped to see what it was. We had ordered Pizza Hut for dinner, and she was looking at the box and pointing. She would point to a letter and say the name of the letter!! She was only doing vowels, but I'll take it! We spell things to her and she likes to watch Sesame Street (they are forever saying letters and numbers), but I didn't expect her to come out and know it like that.

Then, I got her ready for her bath and asked her if she wanted a bubble bath. She got excited, so I knew that she did. As we were watching the tub fill up, she exclaimed, "Bubbles!" I couldn't believe it. I sang her the ABC's and she watched me like it was the best thing ever. I asked her if she wanted me to sing it again, and she said, "Yeah!"

I'm so proud!

A Good Day

We had a nice day together as a family. It seems like that hasn't happened in quite some time with storms, overtime, meetings, etc.

We went for a walk and came across a garage sale. We bought Nora some books to take on vacation with us (and to enjoy otherwise!), a purse, a couple of Matchbox cars, and an automatic ice cream maker. Joe thinks that will be a big hit with the guys on his crew. We saw a sign for another garage sale, so we drove over to see what they had. Nora spotted an Elmo doll, and it was marked for $1, so we bought it for her. It's one of those Elmos that roll around on the floor when you "tickle" him. Nora isn't too fond of it when it does that. She kept pointing with big eyes and saying, "UH OH!" We'll keep him turned off for now. She loves him otherwise.

We went to the little grocery store here in town this afternoon, too. They have miniature shopping carts for kids to push around. We let Nora do it for the first time, and she was thrilled. She thinks she's a big girl, though, so she didn't want Momma helping her steer. She did pretty good, so I didn't have to be pushed away too many times. :) She had a huge fit when we had to leave it behind, though. It sure makes shopping easier when she is distracted! She likes the cars on the fronts of the shopping carts at Dillion's, too. I wish Wal-Mart had something like that! Anyway, I thought it was so cute that I had to take pictures with Joe's camera phone. Here are a couple for you:

A Slight Detour

After getting all fired up about starting school at Ft. Hays, I remembered that I have a few prerequisites that I need to meet before being accepted into the teaching program. I thought that I had better look into some community colleges for those, rather than rack up a huge tuition bill for them. I was going to go through Hutchinson Community College, since that is where I got my associates degree from. I need 3 classes and thought about taking them all in one semester to get them out of the way--but two are math classes, and that is not my forte. Joe suggested that I look at Cloud County Community College to see if they had any summer sessions that hadn't started yet. (Hutch's were already underway). I was pleasantly surprised. CCCC offers "open enrollment" classes, which means that I can enroll at any time and complete the course on my watch. I can complete it quicker than normal or take more time, as needed. I'll be able to begin just as soon as my financial aid comes through. (It would have already, had I not had to amend it and add CCCC to my list of schools to receive my information.)

I'm Going Back to School!

I was talking to my best friend tonight about going back to school. She is going to start again this fall. We decided that we probably both need someone to be accountable to (other than just our teachers), so I signed up, too! I've been planning on going back, I just needed the motivation to do it. I'll be going to Ft. Hays, but through their Virtual College. I'll be majoring in Elementary Education. I haven't been in college for 3 1/2 years, so this is kind of scary, but exciting at the same time. I'll be enrolled part-time.

One good thing about going back later is that I'm now a "non-traditional" student. Come on grants!

Just One More

A friend emailed me this picture of the tornado that hit Chapman, KS. I thought it was amazing and terrifying.

Hopefully I'll have something more positive to talk about than tornadoes soon!

Update:

I have been informed that this was not actually the Chapman tornado. It was actually in Iowa, and the tornado hadn't touched down yet--so this is just a lowering wall-cloud.

Boy, is my face red.

Storm Shots

I didn't take any of these pictures. They were found on KSAL, The Manhattan Mercury or The Salina Journal. I made the names of the locations that I found the pictures links back, so that you can see more. The devastation is unimaginable and humbling. We used to live in Riley and work/go to school in Manhattan. We looked at houses in Chapman. We used to live in Salina and Joe still works there. Any of these could have been us. My heart goes out to the people that are dealing with losses of their homes, businesses, and loved ones.

Salina:




Chapman:


Manhattan:

Two Lost, Many Homes Destroyed

The small town of Chapman, KS took a direct hit with a half-mile wide tornado last night. The paper is reporting that 60 homes have been completely destroyed, two people were killed, and "dozens and dozens" sustained some sort of injury.

Also, Manhattan, KS suffered from the storm. KSAL is reporting that 30 homes were leveled and dozens of buildings in town and at Kansas State University are damaged or destroyed. The Wind Erosion Lab is gone, and one of the frat houses was heavily damaged.

One of the SFD retired firefighter's homes was hit pretty hard. I'm sure we'll be working as a department and auxiliary to help them as much as possible.

I don't have any new pictures to post (strangely), but I will as soon as I can get them.

Tornadoes

We've had some wild weather in our area tonight. We spent about an hour in the basement with a couple of tornadoes touching down outside of our town. We were lucky, though, and received no damage. I think that a few trees were blown over, but none of ours were.

Joe was called into Salina for over-time, because they were directly hit with a tornado on the south side. Crestwood Cabinets was hit and lost part of their roof and most of their windows and doors. A trailer house was tossed around in the storm, as well. (Pictured) The fire department is being FLOODED with calls currently.

They just said on the scanner that the tiny town of Chapman was hit badly, and that several people may have lost their lives. SFD is sending crews in that direction to help pick through the rubble and hopefully save some people. We looked at houses in Chapman a few years ago. I'm so thankful that things worked out the way they did and ended up in Minneapolis, rather than there.

I'll post updates and more pictures as they become available.

Blog Changes

You may have noticed that I changed the format of my blog. This probably won't be the last time. LOL.

Also, I've added a slideshow for my scrapbook pages and also a slideshow for other pictures. Maybe then I won't have a blog entry about nothing but my pictures. :D

Singing Again and Neighbors

Last night was Relay for Life in the town that we live in. I was asked to sing for the luminary ceremony. They also needed me to sing another song. I was a little bit reluctant, but went ahead and did it. The first song that I sang (during general "entertainment") was, "I Run for Life," by Melissa Etheridge. I didn't get a chance to rehearse with the sound system, so I was a little bit shaky. People didn't seem to notice, though, so that was good! The second song that I sang was during the actual luminary ceremony. I chose, "Angel," by Sarah Mclauchlan for that portion. I was a lot more confident during that song, so I felt a lot better about it. I got a lot of positive feedback, so I felt pretty proud of myself for going ahead and doing it. I haven't sung in front of an audience in 2 years, so it was kind of hard to get back up there and do it. I'm glad that I did, though. One of the gals that goes to our church insisted that I start to sing in church, so we'll see. Hopefully the more times I get up in front of people, the easier it will be! I really enjoy it, I just need to get over my stage fright!

Also, I met a few of my neighbors last night. The ones that live directly across the street from us told me that she likes to watch our TV. Ah, lovely. She also said that she just LOVES Nora and often times sees her peeking through the window or looking out the front door. Another lady that lives down the street told me that she walks by our house every day and looks at our limestone rock with our name on it. She practices spelling it every day. HA! Oh, the joys of a little town. At least we know that if someone was doing something sketchy around our house, we would know about it right away.

New Scrapbook Pages and Reading

First, here are two new scrapbook pages that I've done. I've decided that I'm going to show off my work on this blog, because--well, I need validation. (Don't we all). The first is a page that I did as a challenge on www.scrapadilly.com. The second I did for Joe's Father's Day gift from Nora. I've redone it about 10 times, but I think I'm finally satisfied!

Secondly, I am excited about reading 2 new books. I haven't really read anything since Nora was born, so I'm fighting myself between doing scrapbooking stuff and reading. I can't decide which is more enjoyable. Anyway, I'm reading, "Between the Bridge and the River," by Craig Ferguson and, "The Fireman's Wife," by Susan Farren. They are two extremely different books, but I am enjoying them immensely. (Joe wants to know how I can read to books at the same time...lol). I chose the book by Craig Ferguson, because I adore him. I'm a big fan of his show and him in general. (See my list of men below). The second book is for obvious reasons. I could have written it thus far!! I can't believe how similar the experiences were for the lady and her husband as they have been for Joe and I.