It is a ill wind

I have to start this post noting, that I have never been at home when bad weather strikes.The two tornadoes that passed within blocks of our house, I was safely away.  The same this time when straight line winds clocked at 89 miles an hour hit Haysville on June 27th.  I like to think this is a blessing since I don't have to experience the fear that goes along with being in these storms.  But there is this tiny part of me that hates having missed it all.

As a result, I have other stories to tell.  This time, Nicole and her family had come over for a swim, just as Ray was leaving for a meeting and I was going to a closing not far away.  It was overcast, but not stormy.  I didn't think much about the storm that blew in a bit later, it was windy and the power went out.  I did the signing by flashlight.  That was enough adventure for me.  Nicole called me part way through and asked if I was safe.  Of course I was, she said it was like a tornado outside.  I said we were OK and hung up.  I finished my closing and came home,  it took me three different tries to get to the house.  Trees were down blocking streets everywhere. 

Once I got home, it looked like a tornado had gone through, except the houses were still there.  Branches and trees all over the place.  Our back yard was hit worse than the front, because that is where our big trees are.  The grand kids came running out more excited than I had ever seen them.  This was the scariest thing they had ever lived through.

Their story told by their parents was that everyone was swimming when they notice a cloud coming in from the north.  Suddenly there was dust in the air, so everyone hurried out of the pool to go inside.  Before they could go the fifteen feet from the pool to the house, the wind hit.  My grand son Wyatt was banging on the patio door,  yelling "Let me in, we are all going to die."  The children went downstairs to the storm shelter.  Nicole and Nick stayed upstairs looking out the patio door.  Then the branches started coming down, making the loudest cracks and crashes.  I heard some of this after I got home, so I can imagine how frightening it was.  Just a matter of minutes and it was gone.

Our pool is destroyed, the patio cover has to be replaced and a corner of the roof of the house has to be repaired.  We are waiting for the insurance company to get back to us on what we will have to work with.

Nick, Ray and Andrew worked on cleaning up here and over at the Blomberg's house from Friday through Sunday.  We were lucky, a lady over by Nick and Nicole's had a huge tree come uprooted and fall on her house.  It will be interesting to see how that is repaired.  However, when it comes down to straight line wind or a tornado, I will take the wind.

Nicole's Birthday and the year of the amazing cake

Nicole turned 31 on May 9th.  We always hover between doing something fancy and just going home made.  This year the cake made everything great.  Nick had  been looking around for a nice bakery cake, but ran out of time to order one.   He saw a cake decorating book at Lowe's and decided that he could do this.  He arranged with Theresa to make a cake and he decorated it himself.  The base of the shoe is a cupcake.  Nick did all the decorating himself.  I assume Theresa coached as necessary.  The end result was this great cake. 

Graduation Cards

I made some graduation cards this year.  A friend asked me to make some for her along with the two graduates I had to acknowledge myself.  All of the cards except the one on the bottom used a step card design and cuts from my Silhouette Cameo.  I really like the flexibility that using designs from the Silhouette library offered me.  The step cards give you a real opportunity to have dimension and depth to the design.  The red cards used card stock and Konnichwa paper.  The other cards used gray and white card stock and a variety of the graduation paper available this year.  I am not certain why black and silver are the primary colors, but it looks good.  All of the cards except the swivel middle card have gift card holders which also provide space to sign the card.

The Princess

Andi likes to dress up like a princess.  I have to give her credit, unlike her brother who believed he WAS Spiderman for a couple of years, it is all make believe.  There are criticisms going around about little girls buying into the princess mystique.  I don't know that it is all that bad.  At Andi's age, I think I wanted to be a horse.  You tell me who dresses better.   Nicole made Andrea a new princess gown and got her a new tiara.  Now I know I am biased, but I think she is the cutest thing going.  She looks so much like her mother at the same age. 
There are times the Princess image goes against the Destructicon image.  She is just as likely to break the tiara as to keep it in good condition.  But then she is just a little girl, things will change.  I want to remember the times like this.

Picnic in the Park

Wednesday May 22nd was Wyatt's last day of school.  He will be going to the second grade next year but that is the last thing on his mind right now.  Wyatt, Andrea and Nicole came over the the house after picking him up from school.  Andrea prommptly informed me that we were going to have a picnic and that the food would be "borrowed from me".  Nicole and Andrea went to the store to pick up a few things while I made tuna salad sandwiches.  Everything was put in the old Radio Flyer and off to the park we went.  I love living across from the park, it makes it easy to do activities like this.  Once we got there, we spread the quilt on the ground.  This was another edict from Princess Andrea and Papa was not amused .  He would have preferred a table.  Everyone ate, Papa left to run an errand and Wyatt and Andrea went to play. Nicole and I relaxed on the quilt, keeping an eye out for wild frisbies. The day was beautiful and everyone had a great time.  I appreciate the fact that Andrea's idea made Wyatt's last day of school special.

Squirrels

We have a lot of squirrels around here.  Our neighbor has a huge cottonwood tree that I am convinced is the larges squirrel condo around here.  We feed them in the winter in a failed attempt to keep them away from the bird feeders.  We don't feed them in the summer and they attempt to mooch off the hummingbird feeder, usually successfully.  However, we find them to be amusing, so their attempts to control the yard do not bother us that much.
This year was the first time we had seen a mother squirrel out showing her children the world.  The family spent several days, education time is short is the squirrel world, walking along our fence and getting to know the neighborhood.  The young ones are now on their own and doing their own thing.  I caught one relaxing on a bench in the back yard a couple of days ago.
It won't be long before I will have them barking at me for disturbing their activities when I go into the yard.  At least the squirrels don't throw things at me like some of their ancestors did at our cats.

Spring Flowers

I have been slacking about posting.  I have no intention of abandoning my blog, but life does get in the way it seems.  First of, here are some flower photos along with a mandatory photo of Andrea.  The white flowers are Grecian Wind Flowers.  These come up every spring in out back yard.  The original bulbs were put in the ground about thirty years ago, and over time they have truly spread.  They bloom for about a week, then they are gone.  They bloom before the grass gets going and so when they are finished blooming, Ray mows the grass. 
I always wanted crocuses.  My mother used to have some outside her patio door planted so it would spell Hello.  I wanted to do that, but I could not get crocuses to survive.  This is my substitute.