And more

In addition to the cute graduation photos I got from Cameron and Lauren, I also got these adorable photos from the Wichita Wind Surge game that Colin and Spencer attended over the weekend!  I thought it was probably a little cold for baseball, but they look like they were having fun!  I am looking forward to seeing them soon!

The kids had a day off of school today.  Yea, I have absolutely no idea why.  There are about 16 days left (less if you are graduating).  I am not sure why they don't just wait until school is out for the summer to do the personal development days.  Mallory did have to go today, and she didn't seem to think it was all that productive.  I also had a bus safety meeting today, and it was literally a 7 minute meeting....could have been a text.  I guess he thought we would have questions about the backdoor evacuation drills we are doing tomorrow....except questions also could have been answered via text?  Oh well, I guess I did get paid for driving out there.  Seems a little crazy to me though.  I think monthly safety meetings are required or something. 

I did get a lot of things knocked off my list this afternoon, not the least of which was getting Quincy's car back from the shop.  She says it is running better....it just needed a few valve cover gaskets and a couple of other tweaks.  

I guess we are officially ready to get the week going and stop whining about the weekend ending.

 

Getting warmer

 

We had a good weekend.  Accomplished a lot, laughed a little, relaxed a bit, got sort of caught up, and had a little time to think of things that were not work and school related.  It would have been Quincy's senior prom weekend, but she did not want to go.  She covered for people at her job instead.  I might have been sad about it, except I was recalling last year, when prom started at 8:00 pm and she texted me at 8:08 and reported she was going to the movies because prom is verrrrryyyy boring.  I would much rather she just skipped it than to waste all the time, energy, money and effort to only stay there for 8 minutes.  

Cameron got a speeding ticket in the mail.  I spent a bunch of time staging photos of the ticket with people, animals and various other things and sending him  photos of the poses.  He was not amused about it!  I still had a good laugh.

Cameron and Lauren are a couple of weeks away from graduating with their master's degrees.  Quincy is a couple weeks away from graduating from high school.  Harper is a couple of weeks away from graduating from junior high.  Which means I am a couple of weeks away from going on vacation, and being released from bus duty and entering into my favorite thing - summer break!  Yea for summer break!

I am excited for all of these changes that are coming, but a bit sad about it as well.  Cameron and Lauren moving back makes me happy.  Lauren landing a dream job is amazing.  Them finishing their master's degrees in 2 years flat makes me so proud.  Them being old enough for life outside of college is a strange thought.  Thinking about Quincy graduating and moving out makes me sad.  For so many years, Quincy has been my go to kid when things were messy and gross and needed a good cleaning.  The girl is literally not grossed out by anything!  She is the kid who is amazingly strong and can make easy work of a lot of stuff that we have to do....things like barn cleaning and hay moving, feed unloading are nothing for her.  I am just never ready for my kids to be moving out.  It never gets easier.  Harper going to high school feels unreal to me.  I swear to you, she is 6 years old.  And don't even get me started on my baby going into junior high!  Or on Evie starting kindergarten! Time needs to slow the heck down!  Still, when I look at the things my big kids are accomplishing, and how far they have come in their short adulthoods, I am so proud and excited to see how things continue to progress.  Life is just in a season of continual weird for me.  Happy/sad/proud/missing people....I guess it goes with the territory. 

I know these are snapshots of photos that they had done, and the good copies will be available soon, but I just love them.  :)  I can never wait to share pictures when I get a chance!

Evelyn started softball practices yesterday.  Wrenley wore her cute sun hat!  When it was over, they came for Sunday dinner.  All that sunshine must have made them hungry!  I was happy to see them all!  I am afraid my time will be limited for hanging out with them this week! 

If ya don’t blow away, ya gotta finish the week

 

It has been a crazy week.  Tornados, it turns out, increase the workload at both the city and the township.  We have done our best to cover things, and we have landed safely on the weekend, which I feel was an accomplishment.  Last night, when I texted Jim to ask him if he had any idea what I should make for dinner, I followed it up with "I am thinking pina coladas?" and I wasn't really kidding.  Some weeks just need to end, and this was one of them.  For no real particular reason, it just needs put behind us!  We are more than ready!  Mallory took this photo on Wednesday and told me she thought it was weird how so much damage can be done one day, and the next the sky looks like nothing happened.  Life is weird like that.  

Yesterday, Madison had part of the day off.  I am not clear on why, but she took Evie to school, and I did not watch her.  It worked well for me, since I had to leave work at the office and drive kids to their track meet.  

I think it is hilarious that every time Madison takes her to school, Evie wants "first day photos!"  Luckily for her, she is growing up in an era of digital photography!  I do love first day photos, maybe she comes by it honestly?  She and Wrenley are growing up too fast!

Last night, they had a little campfire.  I think someone enjoyed the ice cream a little too much!

Thursday, Quincy texted me to tell me she would be late, because she had volunteered with a group of high school kids who were going to the preschool to read to the little kids.  Evie was so excited she could hardly function.  I had her make a little video and we sent it to Quincy - in it she asked "but Aunt Quincy, can you even read?"  It completely cracked me up!  Sometimes I like to encourage her to be rotten ornery!  It doesn't take much encouragement!

In addition to our normal stuff, the extra work from the tornado stuff, the end of the school year insanity stuff, we also threw in ball practices- yes!  Let's add in summer stuff!  Good plan right?  Saige is back on a team with coach Emily.  She loved this team last summer, and is excited to play again.  Emily is working with them on their stance during batting, and using your hips to get more power.  Did I mention that we really like Emily?  Anyway, they were not supposed to lift their feet at all.  Saige was hitting, but kept lifting her foot, so the assistant coach helped her out!  This might look awkward, but it worked!  

It is a good coaching staff!  This man  - the one helping Saige hold her foot down, is a grandfather to one of the girls on the team.  He is a very encouraging man, and did a lot of pulling money out of his pocket last summer for things like "if everyone gets a hit in the game, I will buy you whatever you want at the concession stand after the game" sort of stuff.  The man believed in all the girls, and was very good to them.  He also happens to have one leg - and has a titanium metal rod.  So when they were discussing team names, and his granddaughter suggested "the peg legs" I thought OHH NOOOOO!  He paused only a moment, with look of surprise, and then said "you will want to be the peg legs when I pull this thing off and kick you in the behind with it!"  Needless to say, he vetoed that team name!

Harper was also supposed to start practices this week, but Thursday, we had storms again.  Luckily, they were just wind and a bunch of rain rather than a repeat of the earlier tornadic junk!

Yesterday, as I was driving the bus, the sunrise was absolutely amazing - the camera did not do it justice - the clouds were bright purple.  I send a photo to Jim and told him God is definitely a KSU fan today!  Later in the day, I heard from Preston, and he had landed a full-time summer job in Manhattan, that will allow him to be part time in the fall, found an apartment for the summer, and an apartment for next fall, and had even kept track of his birth certificate and social security card I gave him, and taken care of the paperwork.  He then sighed and told me adulthood isn't really that fun!  Huh!  Who knew?  

As a matter of fact, I knew.  Jim also said he knew.  I think he knew it even more when he got home, and I had started a fire on one of his piles, and was sitting outside with my pina colada!  He helped me stack the wood a little higher, and sat out there with me.  Saige spent the night at a friend's house.  Quincy and Harper soon realized that mom might be serious about the pina colada dinner, and they came inside and cooked for us.  We let the fire burn out, had a nice dinner made by the girls, and started a series that we have talked about watching.  It was glorious.  Too bad the rest of the weekend is looking like a less relaxing train wreck.  Jim was up early and off to city wide clean-up day.  Quincy is off to work.  I have been up feeding baby goats, washing laundry and cleaning house before I have to pick up Saige, fix lunch, put dinner in the crock pot, and head into work at the liquor store.  Tomorrow, we have ball practices, a load of hay being delivered, yard work to do, and Sunday dinner.  I am glad I took a moment to enjoy Friday evening!  There really is no rest for the wicked!

Tornado Tuesday

 

Let's do something different and I will provide you a timeline of events that took place today (and last night because it seems relevant now).

7:00 pm (Monday night) I drove Quincy over to drop off her car at the mechanic.  There was a rainbow, but no rain.  It struck me as odd, but I took half a minute and took a picture.  The weather felt weird, and the humidity had my hair looking like the cowardly lion.

8:00 pm - I get rapid fire texts from Mallory worrying about tomorrow's morning weather, saying we were going to be in a tornado watch and maybe have horrible weather just as we were supposed to be getting to school.  I sort of laughed at her, and told her that morning storms are rarely tornadic, and I was sure it wouldn't happen, everything would be fine.

9:00 pm - after not sleeping the night before, I tell Jim I am doing something I never do in April, and turned on the air conditioning.  The house was sticky, hot and the attic fan was not helping.  The attic fan was also annoying me because it was causing the doors to rattle around.  Usually, I am not overly bothered by this, however because I had not slept well the night before, I think everything was annoying.  Or perhaps it was the weather...??? 

10:30 pm - I let the dogs (and baby goats) out one last time to go potty, and note that it is thundering and lightening, and tell Jim I am thankful for the a/c so I don't have to worry about getting up in the night to shut the windows.  I go to bed and crash out until the alarm rings at 5:00 am.  I am told there were storms in the night, but I heard nothing!

5:00 am - alarm rings.  I let the goats and dogs out, and notice it is raining, lightening is bouncing, but my thoughts go to other important things - like showering and taking care of my in the house creatures.  Blitz refuses to go out with the dogs and goats, and is clinging to my leg.  I know she hates storms, and I feel bad, but ignore her as I have a very tight morning routine.

5:45 - I wake up Harper and Saige to help with outside chores.  I start the bus, and the 3 of us march out bravely into the rain.  I notice the lightening is really bouncing around and is extremely bright, but that is mostly because at this time of the day, it is pitch black outside.  We get chores done in record time.  Blitz does go out with us, but is super clingy and annoying and I trip at least 3 times on her.  She beats it back into the house, refusing to go potty, and I tell the girls to just leave the baby goats inside because I take pity on them not being left outside in the rain.  

6:05 am - Mallory starts rapid fire texting that Osage county is in a tornado warning.  I turn on the tv to see that there is a storm down by Lyndon (25 minutes south of here).  I don't worry too much, and continue to get ready to go.  I leave the house normally at 6:15.  

6:10 - I get a text from my bus boss saying not to leave home until the tornado warning is lifted.  I text my early riders and tell them I will be late.  I brush my teeth, and wake up Jim- telling him we are in a tornado warning and he should probably get up and dressed so he won't be the naked guy on the news. I wake up Quincy and watch the coverage on tv.  

6:15 - weather man clearly says "rotation is now over, I think this will just be a lot of rain and wind at this point, and that they will let the tornado warning expire for Osage county." I once again text my early riders saying I am heading out, and to watch for me, as I don't know the road conditions and may still be a few minutes later.

6:20 - I am headed down the road, and get a call from a co-worker, I am not far from my house, and have no kids picked up yet, normally I wouldn't answer, but her husband is one of my bosses.  She is freaking out saying Hey - there is a tornado right where I know you drive, I wasn't sure you knew, and I am worried about you.  I said Oh? I thought the danger was over?  She said, well they let it expire and immediately re-issued it.  I thank her, hang up, and immediately hear the radio say "if you are in Overbrook or Richland, you should be seeking shelter" followed by the bus boss texting to say 1 hour delay on school starting today.  Now if you are unaware, we live between Overbrook and Richland.   I waste no time turning around and heading back to my house.  I am about 2 -3 miles from home.  I drive faster than I normally would, but I am completely freaking out because every time there is lightening, the whole sky is bright orange.  A color I have never seen before, even after a lifetime of living here.  It felt like doomsday, and I was not excited about being out in a bus.

6:25 I park the bus and fly into the basement with Jim and the girls.  We cannot get the tv downstairs to work, and I will be honest, I am not one who generally goes to the basement for storms, but I cannot see what is going on because it was still dark, and the orange lightening was freaking me out.  We sit downstairs for a while, and Mallory and Madison are both texting that the tornado sirens are blaring in town.  

6:35 am - I decide I have had enough basement time, and come up to see they are moving the warning off to the north of us.  I am watching the news as I wait to leave on the bus again.

7:00 am  - they call off school saying that there are power lines down everywhere and that people around have damage from the storms.

7:30 - Jim and I head to town for our day jobs.  Harper groans and tells me we literally got up before dawn, got wet in the rain, could have been struck by lightening,  and could have slept in.  Touche' kid - I realize this.  

8:00 am - I start getting calls and texts from my township boys telling me where they are closing roads due to power lines/power poles being down.  I have so many people stopping in my office to tell me where friends and family members have been hit, and have damage.  I start piecing together that a tornado has made a pretty long path just 1 mile west of town, and has also hit one mile west of our house, we know people who have pretty significant damage to their property.  We have not heard that anyone is seriously injured or dead, so we are thankful for that. 

12:30 pm - I get off work, and start to head home for lunch.  I notice that as usual, the brightest blue skies always occur after a big storm.  I find myself being thankful that things were not much worse, and that the town was spared a direct hit. 

The storm clouds clearing off in the distance - sort of an interesting sight.  

The good news is that nobody was seriously hurt.  The other good news is that the kids got a day off school, but don't have to make the time up, because I guess the governor forgave a couple of the snow days and we had already made them up, so it was a free day!  I heard on the evening news that this was one of 5 tornadoes ever recorded in the 6-7 am hour.  It was also the longest path of a tornado ever recorded at that time of the day.  It was an EF1 tornado, and most of the damage is roofs, barns, and trees.  We have a lot to be thankful for tonight!

Fun weekend

I had so much fun yesterday,  it was almost ridiculous!  We went to Clay Center.  Twice a year (I think) they have an exotics auction that goes on for 2 days.  I have to work today, so Dusty and I decided to go yesterday.  They have different things that they sell each day.  It is so much fun!  I love seeing all the rare, weird, exotic animals, and the stuff that really isn't exotic, but they sell for exotic prices.  I love watching the people.  I love bidding on random stuff and occasionally getting a great deal.  I just love going to the auction.  Any auction really.  I know Jim probably cringes every time I decide to go, because he never knows what I will come home with, and although I am tight, and never spend a lot of money, it usually ends up with him having to help me build some sort of pen, or set up some sort of something.  He is a good man, though.  He never complains about it, he never gets mad, he just helps me, and occasionally asks me what my thought process was. (The day of the accidental purchase of 3 pot belly pigs I could tell he thought I had clearly lost my mind).  Yesterday, I told him Dusty wanted to get a few baby chickens, but that I was just going to watch.  He told me he knew that would never happen, but he laughed about it.  I was sort of half joking about the water buffalo, but if the price had been right....

Anyway, early in the day, they auctioned off equipment.  I have been looking for some more rabbit cages, and they had a few that were pretty nice.  I bid on a 3 hole cage, and as I am bidding, I am extremely confident it will absolutely fit inside the Nissan, and so, when I won at $10, I was elated.  And then Dusty and I carried the cage to the car.  Let's just say my spatial concepts were a little bit off.  We got it in the car, but had to lay down every seat except the driver's seat.  We howled with laughter and Dusty said she would sit in the back seat, cross legged and it would be fine.  We then went on to the animal portion, where we bid on a lot of stuff, but won nothing!  I was even a "good girl" and did not bid on the extremely cute, very tiny, sweetest baby piglets I have ever seen.  It was tempting however.  I bid on some rabbits, but with rabbits, I have a definite price limit because buying at auction, you just don't know what you are getting.  Could be old, could be sick, could be a lot of things.  They have to be quarantined from your other stock, and they can have birth defects from inbreeding that you won't know about until you can put your hands on them.  I am willing to take small gambles on them, particularly if they come out with a color we are looking for, but the people yesterday were insane.  They went for double and triple my price limit and I saw a Flemish bring over $100!  That is a rabbit folks - they are not rare, they are not hard to come by, and they certainly are not worth that price!  I still say I would make the trip just to watch the insanity!  

I did jokingly send this photo of a hedge hog and her babies to Quincy - and ask if I should buy her!  Quincy's hedgehog was the one pet that when it passed away, we were all happy!  They are the smelliest, grossest animals we have ever had, and they have to be warm all the time, so you literally are keeping a heat lamp over a smelling, gross mess and I think it makes the smell worse!  It did not smell bad for lack of cleaning or care, they just stink.  I swear I could smell them when I walked in yesterday!  

Dusty did sit all cramped in the back of my car!  We laughed and laughed about how we always manage to get ourselves into these ridiculous situations!  I had a master plan however....you see Clay Center is not far from Manhattan.  So I called my (much taller than me) son, and offered to buy him and Sunny dinner.  They are easily lured out by the promise of food!  After I had them out of their dorm rooms, I also begged a favor - tying down the cages on the luggage rack of my car!  I had to buy some straps and rope, so I also threw in the promise of buying them a few groceries.  College kids work cheap!  :)  

All joking aside, I was happy to see Preston and Sunny.  We had fun visiting with them over a nice dinner, and I always love to see my kids any chance I get!  I love that Preston is loving college, and enjoying living in Manhappiness.  It brings back good memories, and I do love it there too!  

Preston was extremely helpful (why the heck are ratchet straps so hard for me to figure out?), and he got the cage tightened down where he guaranteed it would not fly off my car onto I70.  (He was correct....it did not fly off).  He had to help a lot because Dusty and I are simply not tall enough to thread the antenna that is on the top of my car through the rabbit cages so we didn't smash or break it!  He did a great job and I was so thankful for his help!   Dusty was thankful too, because we found out he hard way we are much too old to sit cross legged, kinked over in the back seat!  The only problem was that Preston ran the ropes inside of the car, and we shut the doors.  This caused a terrible vibration so the car howled with horrible noise all the way home!  Dusty and I howled back at it with laughter - because everything we do is a hot mess!  It didn't stop us from visiting and laughing all the way home!  When I got home, Jim was shocked that the only project he had to do was help me undo the ratchet straps (seriously why are they so hard to use?) and get the cage over the antenna.  I think he was actually relieved, but he didn't express it!  I did not mention to him that these are hanging cages and his wife is short - so there is a minor project involved for him!  :)  Considering that new, these cages are over $400, I figure saving him $390 he will be so happy, he will gladly help his short wife out!  Plus, I brought him half of my extremely good sandwich, so he basically owes me!  (only joking).  

And now, I am going back through the enormous number of texts I received yesterday, because our free weekends, our free time, and our relaxed schedule are being bombarded with summer stuff.  Softball practice schedules, ball uniform meetings, ball equipment upgrades needed, drown in ball season has started.  Added to the end of the year school needs, field trips, graduation practices, graduation class parties, field days, end of the year celebrations, reward days, and who knows what else, one of our drivers has a health issue, so I find myself being dragged into bus driving for track meets.  I am not opposed to helping out, but when I get done writing down the stuff we have going on, I find myself a little bit insane the next few weeks!   When school ends, we are taking a small trip to see Cameron and Lauren graduate, and I am thinking if I survive until then, I hope I still have enough cognitive mind left to enjoy the trip!  :)