Life in Nebraska

One of the coolest things for me about moving here has been seeing the lightning bugs at night. It took me a couple of seconds the first time I saw them to realize what I was seeing. This is what they look like during the day.



And this grainy video is kind of what they look like at night. I know that it doesn't do the scene justice. It is so magical to see this little blips of light floating around your bushes, and over grass. It makes me feel like a kid to watch it.



I also love the rain here. I thought I knew what rain was until I saw it rain this spring and summer. I know I've posted video before, bit I have to do it again. This happened 2 nights ago. We had a big storm come through; no tornadoes but lots of thunder, lightening, and rain. The kids love to play in it, because it is usually so warm. It was in the lower 90's when it started to rain, and the water running in the gutters was warm. You could hear the thunder, and occasionally see bursts of lightening, and I was debating about how safe it was to play in the street, in the water, in a thunderstorm, but the kids' joy won out. They had a ball. I had forgotten to check the gutters, something I'm not used to here, to see if they were plugged with leaves, seeds from the oak trees, etc..., so they were overflowing a bit. After the rain, the kids held the ladder while I cleaned out the "gook." That should fix the problem the kids were having next time.

Sleeping Cutie

Awwww!! Isn't that cute? Just 10 minutes ago I was downstairs, cleaning out the older boys drawers. I told him that he had 5 minutes before having to go lay down for a nap. I came upstairs, and 5 minutes later started calling him to come up. But no response. So I had to go downstairs and see why he wasn't coming. This was it.

Lego Luke

Every day Luke has Legos in his hands, and is becoming quite the builder. When I build, I am very 2-dimensional, even though I'm building with 3-D blocks. Luke, on the other hand, has captured the essence of Legos and Lego building. He amazes me with what he can build. Here are his latest ships and robots. The picture of Tanner is thrown in just because he has been carrying around this key all day and wanted me to take a picture of it.

What a Couple of Weeks!!

I had great intentions this summer of posting at least once a week, but as you can tell, intentions didn't translate into action. We have been busy trying to keep the kids "unbored" for the summer, and the pool seems to be our biggest hit. Tanner asks me everyday, "Are we goin' to the swimmin' poo?" He can't say pool very well yet, but we get the idea. He is swimming like a dolphin, better than Josh and Luke at this point, but can't keep it up for very long. His lungs just don't have the capacity to hold his breath for very long. He jumps off the edge of the pool in the 4 ft deep area, plunges to the bottom, kicks off, breaks the surface of the water, takes a breath, then ducks his head under and swims for the edge. His swimming looks a little like floundering, but he does have some forward momentum to get him to a person or the edge to hang on to when he runs out of breath. He has no fear, still, and loves to just swim his little heart out.

Parker loves to go swimming, too, and is learning to hold his breath when he takes a header into the water. He likes to walk by himself, and is getting steadier all the time, but still tips over occasionally and goes under. He doesn't understand yet that some water is over his head, so when he trips in water that is almost as deep as he is tall, he drowns. But it hasn't deterred him yet, and he still sputters as he catches his breath and wants to go again. The pool has a little turtle slide for the young ones, and he discovered it last time we were there. He wanted to spend all of his time going up and down, and cried so pitifully when I had to go watch the older boys swim. The next time Shane can come with us, we will take a couple of videos to post. Words just don't do the fun justice.

The kids also discovered lightening bugs, or fireflys, this past week. What a fun time they had that night! We tried to get a video of that, too, but couldn't find the camera. Tanner likes to take it and go away secretly to take pictures of himself, or something, and then we find it in weird places. Anyway, Kaitlin, Josh and Luke caught probably 40-50 of them in a jar, and then let them go. It is really neat to see the little spots of light all over the yard, in the trees and bushes, and in the roads. The really neat part is driving past fields at night, and seeing hundreds of them blinking in the dark. It has been a fun experience, and one I hope we get to have for quite a while still.

Let's see, what else has been going on? Oh yeah, the boys have been involved at the summer reading program at the library, doing activities that have to do with bugs, and part of their prizes have been free treats from area restaurants, which means when they get to go get a treat, we all do. Tanner loves this because he gets ice cream cones, which he really loves.



We also got the kids some goggles for the pool, and of course, Tanner had to have some, too. He calls them is "oggles", wears them all around the house, and as you can see from the picture, we now call him frog boy.



Parker has discovered slippers and plums. He wears the slippers every time he sees them, and eats plums whenever we will give them to him.





Kaitlin has been babysitting every day for a friend of mine, and is getting more confidence all the time. She has started her own blog, as many of you know who were invited. It is invitation only, so if you want to view her blog and haven't been invited, send Shane or I an email and we will add you to the list.

Josh and Luke got to rent the Indiana Jones Wii game this week, so I haven't seen as much of them as normal. They think they might want it for a birthday, or Christmas, but we'll see. Those puppies get to be expensive. What have we gotten ourselves into?

Anyway, I think that's it in a nutshell. We are looking forward to fireworks tonight and tomorrow (different days in different towns), but we'll see how many Shane is up to going to see. I may take the older three tonight to our ones here, and then the whole family may go tomorrow to some in a town about 30 miles away. They are supposed to have a great show. Maybe we'll see.

Also, before I forget and need to be reminded by Josh, he wanted you all to see his penguin that he made in school this past year. It sits on my piano all the time, because if he were to "disappear" like many school projects do, I would never hear the end of it.