Hello Spring

We welcomed the first day of spring just this past Friday. The weekend graced us with beautiful weather with the opportunity to picnic in the park and crank out a large amount of yard cleanup. Add swimming lessons and that was our Saturday.

Then Monday rolls around and in rolls Tornado's. I managed to leave work a few minutes early; just in time to hear the sirens sounding as I pulled into our driveway. The wall cloud was clearly visible and definitely heading our way. I was happy to be home!

We gathered flashlights and hunkered down in our family room and sent the kids to the adjacent play room (safest place to be). We were glued to the weather coverage to see it all play out. Okay, so there were a couple of times where we stepped outside to see what was really going on. The clouds, the lightening, the constant low rumbles were incredible. If it didn't create such damage, it would really be beautiful.

Thankfully, we were spared. But the outcome could have easily been different. The high winds and hail caused some damage just blocks to the west of us. Thankfully the tornado didn't touch down in the metro area. Other surrounding areas weren't as lucky and the stories are devastating.

The scary thing is that in our area this storm seemed to track similarly to the tornado's that did touch down last year. What will this tornado season have in store for us?

First Snow & Decorating

Recreating that lost post from a few weeks ago...

Our first snow came the weekend following Thanksgiving. That Sunday morning we woke to a thick blanket of snow. It was just enough to get excited about! After a long holiday weekend and the promise of finally decorating the Christmas tree, we opted to stay home that Sunday morning. The kids got all bundled up in their snow pants, boots, and winter gear and headed out to play in the snow. I'm glad they did because by the lunch hour it was all but a memory.

Later that morning we got around to finally decorating the Christmas tree. I say finally because the kids had been begging all weekend long. We had planned to decorate it earlier in the weekend but when we went to set it up it didn't go as smoothly as it should have. No big surprise really, I don't think it ever goes as smoothly as it seems it should. Our pre-lit tree had large sections of lights that didn't light up! This is the 4th time we've setup this tree and the first time the lights didn't work. So Carie set out to fix it. She did awesome and got it all working from top to bottom. It just took a little time and patience from the little people.

The actual tree decorating went a little more smoothly than it has in the past. As part of the preparation for this experience, Carie and I separated all of their special ornaments so they each had their own tray to focus on. That was much nicer than having 6 grabby hands digging in the big tub of decorations. Then after all of their very special and fragile ornaments were hung they dug into the delicate (but easily replaceable) family ornaments. They all stuck with it until every last ornament was on the tree.















Most of the outdoor lights were up prior to Thanksgiving. Everything on the roof gets put up close to Thanksgiving before the weather turns really cold for us. Thanksgiving night we turned them on for the first time, an exciting time for the kids and the kids at heart. Since putting them up a section of lights decided that working was optional. Thankfully it is the strand at the end by the chimney and not in the middle. Then more recently part of another strand at the other end went out. With temps at a -20, they'll just have to stay that way!

We did get lucky with a couple more nice days of weather and we put the finishing touches on the outdoor decorations. We ended up decorating more than we ever have on any given year. If it would have been colder, we would have likely just put out the last few items and called it good.













The weather has been wild, as usual with nice comfortable days mixed in with really cold days. A couple of weekends ago we had a nice Saturday with temps in the 40's followed by Sunday with a -44 degree temperature swing accompanied by strong winds and a bitter cold wind chill. I suspect that Saturday was our last nice day that we'll experience for a good long stretch. We literally begged the kids to go outside and play. Now they are begging to go outside and they can't.

Since that first snow fall we've had a couple more light flurries. It's been disappointing, really. The kids are so excited to see the snow falling but there hadn't been any accumulation. Mid last week we woke to snow and accumulation! Unfortunately it is too cold and too dangerous to play outside. I did finally stop and get our snow blower and shovels from storage. It was the first time we needed to clear the driveway and sidewalks.

The driveway and sidewalks were all clear until Thursday night when the sleet fell upon us leaving a huge layer of ice over everything. I managed to get the snow off, but the ice wasn't going anywhere. Then again on Saturday morning we woke to more snow. Unfortunately I didn't get to the driveway before it had been driven on several times. I figure now we'll have to wait until the temps get above the freezing mark before I'll attempt to clear it. Too bad we don't have ice skates. Or maybe ice skates are optional? It was warm enough for the kids to go out on Friday and they took full advantage of it. Abby ended up with a nice bruise to the cheek bone thanks to Ellie’s boot. Something about ice on the slide and accidents happen. All is good.

Snow Day

Let the Winter Break begin!!!

Today was supposed to be the last day of school before a two week winter break. Mother Nature decided to drop some nasty weather on us and shortly after 9pm last night we got the call that school was cancelled for today. It was a good thing since we were just getting home from a friend's birthday party when we got the call. They were so excited that they stomped around in the snow a bit before coming inside for bed. It was so nice out (temp wise) that we couldn't hardly say no.

The kids are, of course, loving the snow day! It's not such a good deal for the older kids though. The last of their finals were scheduled for today. Now they'll have to finish them up after break.

The ice was so thick that I couldn't get my car door open this morning. And it seemed that the only way I was going to get the huge sheet of ice off my car was to melt it from the inside. I noticed that the neighbor across the street had gotten their car moved so I attempted my passenger door and finally got in.

After running the car for nearly an hour it was still covered with at least an inch of ice. It was a disappointing sight! I started chipping away at it and finally got to a soft layer that allowed me to peel chunks off the car... as well as my scraper.

Then as I was on my way to grab some lunch this afternoon the huge sheet of ice on the hood of my car came off in one chunk and flew over the roof of the car. It was weird to have this large chunk of ice and snow suddenly flying towards the windshield!

At least the kids are able to go outside and stomp in the snow! Hopefully that will add some excitement to their day.

Crazy Weekend Recap

What a weekend!

The vacation pictures have been printed and put into a photo book. I’d share them but man, where to start? There are roughly 380 pictures and we ended up printing 176. The kids are enjoying looking through them and sharing their memories with anyone who will look at it with them.

We had our sitter... again! She is so awesome... still! The plan was to meet up with some friends, which we did. But we got our sitter for earlier than we needed and we bummed around for a bit beforehand. It was all good. It was nice to go out with our friends, sans kids. We had a great evening, good food, great company, and great adult conversation.

It was a hot hot hot weekend for us and the trend continues for just another day or two before we see relief. But that's okay, this isn't "normal". The last time we saw these 100 degree temps (not to mention the heat indexes) was July 17th of last year... according to the weather man. I'm just hoping that we'll see some of our tomatoes finally turn red after some of this sun!

Speaking of gardening, a couple other things come to mind. At some point I need to explain Ellie's extreme fascination with the infomercial "Roll-n-Grow". I need to figure out which of our many DVR recordings has this infomercial on it and watch it myself. According to Carie, she has it down to a T. She doesn't do it front to back but rather shares tidbits with you at prime opportunities. I got the spiel Saturday morning while we were doing yard work. The other thought was Spencer's penis commentary. Incredibly hilarious but not all that publishable. He'll have enough embarrassing moments in his life; I’ll save him on this one.

Then the weekend takes a crazy twist and just as you think that some family situations can't possibly get any crazier, we were taken by surprise. Oh my goodness what a jaw dropping afternoon it was. Why do people keep subjecting themselves to this crap? We were mere (mostly) bystanders in this afternoons load of crap. But it still brings up my own issues and my own feelings. I’m tired of feeling so conflicted… “Family is important!” vs. “Why are we still dealing with this? Why are we still here?” We believe so strongly in both of those sentiments that it feels impossible to do anything different. Why does it have to be this way? Why does running away (with Carie and the kids, of course) seem like the only "solution"? This then leads us right back to banging our heads against the wall because family is a top priority. I just wish we could all play nice in the sandbox. Is that too much to ask?

Enough Already

Enough already with the weather!

We are really enjoying the cool temps that come with it and thankfully we've not had significant damage. We are all safe. We have a (leaky) roof over our heads. Our home and trees are still upright. Our vehicles are drivable. The only real downside for us is that we'll end up doing the bulk of the needed repairs out of pocket. Hopefully that will occur this week!

Ellie, our up and coming Meteorologist, even said a prayer of thanksgiving for our safety as she lit a candle during Church service Sunday morning. She's really been on top of the weather reports lately. Thankfully this has helped calm her fears a bit. Though listening to her tell Grandpa & Yia Yia about our leaky roof, you'd think that our entire roof was about to cave in.

But many others have not been so lucky and the damage has been intense.

We had been planning to attend an outdoor concert and firework show on Friday evening, but we knew bad weather was headed our way. We had been in touch with our friends throughout the day to talk about the status of the weather and what we should do. We toyed with the idea of putting blankets out as recommended by organizers and then stay away and under shelter until the storm had passed. But we also didn't want to deal with all the soggy blankets on top of tired kiddos at 11:00 at night. Logically, if the weather report was right, it made sense to stay clear from the park until after the storm had passed. It was supposed to hit our area between 4 and 6:00. The concert was to kick off at 6:00 with fireworks at 10:00. But it was just killing us to hold tight. It was an incredibly beautiful day! It was a top 10 day until the storm hit!

We did hold out and I'm so glad we did. The storm came in fast and hard at 4:30ish and hit the north side of town (where I work and where the park is) really hard. They claim it wasn't a tornado, "just" straight-line winds. I've learned more about straight-line winds this season than ever before.

Trees - large large trees - are down all over the place. The ground is so saturated that these huge 100 year old trees have been totally uprooted from the ground. And this time, the heavy storm path went through our older part of town. People have intense hail damage where the hail was launched like bullets from a gun. At work, water was streaming through the top of our closed fire door. I was on the phone with Carie just as it hit us and we could no longer hear what each other was saying... except, stay put! Once it moved on, the few of us remaining headed to our vehicles and headed home. A mid-sized tree had fallen but thankfully it missed the vehicles in our lot, if only barely. Down the street, co-workers weren't as lucky. Before we could actually go anywhere we had to uncover our vehicles from the piles of leaves plastered to every possible surface. I removed the bulk of the leaves before heading home, but even after driving on the interstate I still had a significant amount of leaves remaining on my car. Leaves were lodged in places that required us to pull them out piece by piece.

Needless to say, all events were cancelled.

Suddenly it was a stay at home night and we found ourselves starting our big project for the weekend. No rest for the weary, I guess!

Nothing Like A Good Rain

Better & Worse

Because I seem to be full of the good, the bad, and the ugly these days.

Let's start with the bad and ugly this time, shall we. We had major major storms last night. I don't know if the national weather service was making up for the lack of notice and lack of sirens from Sunday morning or not, but the sirens literally went off from 7:00pm through 9:00pm. If someone missed them, they've got other issues. The kids had a slumber party in the basement. Before they laid down I asked them if they wanted to stay there or go to their own beds later. They wanted to stay, and so they did. I was happy about that given the uncertainty of what was still ahead of us.

We had Flash Flood Warnings and Tornado Warnings. Thank goodness our basement isn't flooding (thanks to our sump pump) and we had a safe place to go. Our yard was a different story. I'm sure other folks were greatly affected by both. Just how does one seek shelter in the lower level of their home if they are up to their eyeballs in water?

The storm was incredible. The clouds were incredible. It brought stillness, sudden cool weather, winds, tons of rain (that has nowhere to go), and tons of hail. We do have noticeable hail damage. Thank goodness our neighborhood and immediate surrounding areas didn't experience more tornado damage. Unfortunately, other areas weren't spared and the devastation is incredible... physically and emotionally. There were many areas hit by the storm, but this area is understandably getting the most attention. My heart just breaks for these families.

The good... if it is at all possible to follow up with good after that. The kids all seem to be rebounding nicely. I don't know if they didn't experience a "bad" outbreak of HFM or if other stories I've heard were a bit dramatic. In any event, it has been quite manageable and it felt like we had all new kids this morning. I'm ready to see more of those smiles, hear more of those laughs, and get back to our usual silly selves. May the cycle end here, please.

You've Got To Be Kidding Me

What a weekend!

We had some really great moments! Going into the weekend we knew it was going to be a busy one, but a fun kind of busy. We celebrated the girls' birthday, spent some great time - with some incredible weather - at the zoo, went to our first (and probably last for a while ;)) swim competition and watched Olympic athletes compete, saw the theatre production of The Wizard Of Oz with some friends and then had a great dinner with them, and capped the weekend off with Grandpa, Grandma, Great Grandma and my mom’s cousin coming to our house and spending the day with us.

And now (of course) moving on to the not so great moments…

The kids are sick - again. We are all so tired of being sick. It feels like that is all we talk about anymore. Turn on the broken record... "How are the kids doing?"... "Oh, they are sick with (insert anything)".

This one I think we've linked back to their visit at the Children's Museum last Wednesday... exactly 3 wonderful days of incubation, which seems to be our usual timeline. Where else would we have picked up Hand, Foot & Mouth!?!? Saturday morning both Abby & Ellie were running fevers. By Sunday morning they mentioned that their throats hurt. Abby had mentioned the night before that she had a headache. We looked in their mouths and it didn't look pretty... swollen and irritated tonsils were the most prominent. So Carie took them into our (after hours) Urgent Care on Sunday afternoon. We tried Sunday morning only to realize that they didn't open until noon. The girls' weren't complaining much at all, they rarely do. We thought maybe... oh, I don't know... at worse it would be Strep Throat. HA! When Carie called me to tell me what was going on I was having a hard time hearing her. I was leaving a noisy grocery store, the reception wasn't that great, and my ears seem to be failing me lately. I swear I heard her say they had cancer of the mouth. Imagine my relief when it was just Hand, Foot & Mouth. Let's just hope that it didn't get passed onto any of our visitors we had on Sunday!

We've known about this disease but we've never experienced it firsthand. The girls managed to make it to 6 before having their first experience with it. Spencer now seems to be affected by it as well. We've had our share of illnesses in the past, but in this past school year we've come down with illnesses that the kids had never had before. We can be done expanding our disease repertoire, thank you very much.

Then the major event we had this weekend was the touchdown of an EF2 Tornado... with no warning... in the middle of the night... literally blocks from us.

I remember waking to use the restroom at 2:11, which is unusual for me to do in the middle of the night. I heard some storm activity, but it didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. At 2:28 I hear what I thought were the sirens. Both Carie and I bolted up and confirmed that we were hearing the same thing. On a normal night, I'm absolutely positive that I wouldn't have heard them... at all. I think Carie was grateful that she didn't have to wake me! We immediately try to figure out what is going on... and there was no coverage!

"... Without warning, in the dark of night, the first tornado to cause what may be the most significant damage in Omaha since the deadly, infamous tornado of 1975 landed in the metro area Sunday. It spun a nearly six-mile path of destruction, stripping fences in Chalco, ripping off roofs in Millard and downing trees and terrifying families across the city..."

The sirens ended up going off two times in our area. Unfortunately the tornado had already touched down, done its damage, and had moved on by the time the first siren had sounded. We did get the kids to the basement and they didn't even wake... on the way down or back up. Ellie says she did recall me asking her if they wanted to just sleep downstairs or go back to their beds. Around 4am we did a quick look around the exterior of our house and everything seemed to be okay so we called it a night. We got some nice phone calls early the next morning from folks who were worried about us. The most surprising call came from a parent of an old pre-school friend. They are such awesome people and it was so nice of them to think about us!

I still can't believe how close the severe damage is located to our home. It is incredible to witness the damage. While we’ve tried to be in touch with what is going on around us, we’ve also tried to limit the exposure to the kids. They are already freaked out and worried about the storms as it is.

Some of the local coverage can be found... here, here & here.

And It Continues

This weather is nasty. The sky looks crazy. The wind is a bit much. It rains huge drops, and then stops. It looks like the clouds are duking it out!

I know we get crazy weather, but this is just not normal. It looks like we might be in for another fun night.

Carie asked me to buy some more flashlights. That sounded like a reasonable idea to me!

Midwest = Severe Weather

As we were watching and evaluating the storms tonight I got to thinking... I wonder how many people (who don't live in the Midwest) know the difference between a "Tornado Watch" and a "Tornado Warning". To me, anything with Tornado in front of it doesn't sound good!

Tonight we went from everything being honky dory to sirens just as we were about to tuck the kids into bed. Wouldn't ya know it; we were actually all on top of the bedtime tonight!

So instead of climbing into bed, let's all go down to the play room! Spencer pretty much went with the flow. He was interested in what all was going on, but he did what he needed to do and didn't get all freaked out. Abby and especially Ellie was a bit on the nervous side. We explained what the sirens were all about and why we were going to the play room (the safest area of the house). They were worried about flooding, at which point I taught them all about sump pumps! Meanwhile Carie was in charge of checking the news reports (in the adjacent family room). At one point Carie checked on the kids and Ellie instructed her to go back to watching the weather. That was Mommy's job and Ellie needed her to be doing it! Oddly, they sounded the sirens way early and the storm heading straight for us was still about 45 minutes away. The storm was moving incredibly slow and doing a lot of damage.

With the storm being so far out we decided to have a little sleep party in the play room! It was better than getting all ramped up again.

The kids helped me setup the big air mattress and we collected all of their important things... blankets, pillows, and their Webkinz! I finished reading to them and turned out the light. We didn't have high expectations of anyone actually falling asleep, but at least we'd be resting. After all, they were surrounded by toys! We figured we'd keep an eye on the storm, listen for more sirens, and move to the back when it was time.













Amazingly enough, both Ellie & Spencer fell asleep! They both just fell asleep. Wow! Abby came out and checked on us a couple of times before we decided we were all clear and moved everyone back up to their own beds. Spencer, half asleep, talked to me all the way upstairs to ensure that I had all of his important things. Ellie never woke during the transition. I think Abby is still a bit nervous and she is needing some extra cuddling to get to sleep.

I don't think we ended up with any damage from the first storm. We'll take a look in the morning. We do plan to call and have the roof looked at... hoping that the hail we had did some (or just enough) damage to the roof. Hey, we need a new roof!

Hopefully we are done for the night!