Happy Birthday Kaitlin!

Well, despite the fact that I am no where near old enough to have a 12-year old, Kaitlin turned 12 yesterday. It makes me look a little promiscuous, since I'm only 21, but there it is anyway. Maybe I'll have to admit to being 29 now, just so it looks a little better.





I think she had a good day. The bulk of her birthday presents will come Saturday, since for her birthday she gets a day of shopping with me to pick them out, and gets to have her ears pierced. She got to have a couple of friends over for cake and ice cream, and they giggled like only girls can. Both of them are either only children or the last child at home alone, so being in a house full of little kids, and boys and that, was a fairly novel thing for them. They sure enjoyed themselves. Anyway, she had a great day and is looking forward to our day of shopping together on Saturday. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

This video is from her talent show concert a couple of weeks ago. She tried out for one of the solo spots and really did a nice job. Her solo is just at the first of this video. Sorry it's so tiny, I didn't zoom in far enough and couldn't zoom in any more once I started recording. I can't believe how much she has grown. She truly is a beautiful young woman.

Random Picture

I've been tagged. Here are the rules:

1. Go to your documents/pictures.
2. Go to your 6th file.
3. Go to your 6th picture.
4. Post it, and blog about it.
5. Tag 6 people to do the same.
6. Name your picture.

I guess the name of this would be Kitchen Before. I just painted the walls a pale yellow, and am trying to get up the guts to sand all the cupboards and paint them white. That involves taking off hinges and a lot of sanding, so I haven't started yet, but it's on the agenda.

I will I tag Sonia, Kathy M., Tiffany B., Janine C., Megan C., and Crystal C.

Wind and Rain and Hail, Oh My!

On Monday we had our first tornado watch of the season. It was pretty warm, in the 70's, and the watch was going on all day. We had been having wind advisories, too, all day, with winds around 30-40 mph, and gusts up into the 50's. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, the lightening and thunder started, and with it came the rain, and boy did it come down. And then it turned to hail. I was getting extremely nervous about this time as I watched and heard up to one inch hail pound my house and yard. The street turned into two little rivers, as you can see in the video. It was almost time to get the kids from school, but I didn't dare drive my car for fear of the damage the hail would do to it, plus I was pretty sure they wouldn't release the kids until the storm had passed. Fortunately, the hail didn't last long, turned back into rain, and had almost stopped again by the time I left to pick up kids. It was truly frightening for a while there. I wasn't ready to have to deal with tornadoes yet, so I was glad that they never materialized.


I have never seen hail this big, so this was a first for me. The dark object in the center of this picture is a penny. I couldn't find a quarter for the life of me to get a better scale on size.


This hail stone was much bigger than a marble. I was trying to find something to put beside it for comparison, but again I came up empty. You might have to imagine a good sized one inch steelie to get a good idea of how big this one was.


Also, I'm pretty sure this was done by one of the hail stones. Shane isn't sure, but I don't remember seeing broken siding here before, and I sit here everyday it's warm to watch the little boys play. I'm just glad the damage wasn't worse.


This video isn't very long, but you'll get the idea.

Did you Notice?

I woke up to rain on Saturday night, so I went out early on Sunday morning to see how much rain we'd really gotten. Shane got me this handy dandy Pioneer rain gauge, so I can see how much it rained when it rains cats and dogs here. Just after I had checked the gauge and was heading back in, my neighbor called out and said, "Did you notice what I've got up the pole there?" As I looked up the electric pole that is in the corner of the yard, I noticed this little guy.



My neighbor has two springer spaniels that love to chase squirrels up the trees in his yard. Well, it turns out they treed something a little bigger than a squirrel that night. The poor raccoon had probably been up there a while, and was not looking like he'd get down anytime soon. The neighbor put them in a kennel, where the raccoon would be safe when he decided to come down. By the time we got back from church, he was gone. I never thought I'd have to worry about raccoons again since moving away from Aberdeen. I'll have to keep a better eye out now that I know we still have some around.

Trip to the Zoo

Ever since we moved here, I have wanted to go to the zoo in Omaha. I have heard great things about it, it's open all year, and most of the exhibits are in buildings, so not a lot of time needs to be spent outside. This works well when it's winter and really cold, or summer and really humid. Well, Shane was able to take a day off during the kids' 2 day spring break, and we got to go to the zoo. It was a blast. Shane and I really enjoyed it, and the kids did, too. We brought the wagon, so little boys would only have to walk if they wanted to. This meant Mom and Dad didn't have to carry anyone, either. It worked out very well. We brought a picnic lunch and made it a day.

The zoo had a ton of exhibits, and the first one we went to scared Luke and Tanner almost to the point of having to leave early. It was called Kindgoms of the Night, and was almost in total darkness. They had a swamp with alligators, and a wooden bridge that took you between "pens." We kept hearing this funny noise and tried to figure out what it was. Turns out it was a beaver snacking on the bridge. Luke was so scared that he started freaking out that they bridge was going to collapse and the alligators would get us. We had to calm him down quite a bit before he'd keep going with us. Tanner just didn't like the dark, even though they had quite a few bugs, snakes, lizards, and the swamp things. Needless to say, our journey though that exhibit was cut a little short. Here is a picture of us in the swamp, and the nefarious beaver who was trying to make us alligator meat.

One of the exhibits that I like best was the aquarium. They had a glass tunnel, not very big, but still impressive, that you could walk through and watch the sharks, stingrays, and other fish swim around and through. Parker really liked it, too. They saw octupuses and starfish, which we had to convince at least one of the kids were real.



Then there was the kids favorite place, the gorilla and orangutan exhibits. There was a huge gorilla, well, several huge gorillas, that kept banging on the glass bubbles where people were looking at them and pounding their chests in an impressive show of dominance.

The other fun exhibit was the orangutans. There was a HUGE old beast, swinging from the vines. He has great big folds of skin on his face and belly, which you can see in the picture. The kids' favorite one was the orangutan who kept licking the windows. Turns out that he likes the taste of the window cleaner the workers use, and licks it all the time.


One of my other favorites was the giraffe exhibit. They had them in an enclosed building for the winter, and it was neat to be able to see them up close. Boy, could they stretch their necks! It was fun to see.



We had a really fun time at the zoo, but by 3:00, the kids were beat and just wanting to swim in the pool we promised they would have at the hotel. We went to the hotel, went swimming, ate dinner, and put some tired kids to bed. Their parents were a little tired, too, after walking around and encouraging kids all day. So it was to our great dismay that we were woken up at midnight with booming thunder so close that car alarms were going off in the parking lot of our hotel. It went off and on, 4-5 thunders at a time, for one and a half hours. Fortunately the kids slept through it all, but Shane and I heard every thunder, saw every lightening, heard Tanner and Parker cry out in their sleep, and heard Kaitlin talk in her sleep at least twice, all night long. It was a long night. But overall, we had a wonderful time and would love to go see the zoo again. So, if any of you would like to come and visit us, and want something fun to see, we'll take you to the zoo. It won't disappoint.

Playin' with Play-dough

The day after Thanksgiving I got a bucket of play-dough and various toys to go with it on sale, but I have had it in my closet waiting for a good time to pull it out. Well, thanks to my sisters, who reminded me that I had it and ought to use it, the kids had a great time. Of course, they did the "unforgiveable," which was to mix the colors. Deep breaths, Casey, deep breaths. I can't stand having the colors mixed. It drives me crazy, and I actually tried to start peeling the colors apart, but then realized I was fighting a losing battle and gave up. I just told them to clean up when they were done and I didn't even look until the end, when I realized that now we have gray, gray, and gray instead of several different colors. But that's OK, they will still like playing with it, and I will just continue to take deep breaths.