You Capture/Food

Nothing like summer cookout food and a sweet little girl to eat it with you. Check out the other food captures at Beth's.

EA Active 30 Day Challenge

The Sisterhood is starting a new challenge on Monday. It's the EA Active 30 Day Challenge. All you need is a Wii and the Ea Active. Lucky for me, I have both. I am in major need of this new challenge. I confess that I have pretty much been in slug mode since I started back to work. I know that I had big plans for my workout routine when school started, but it's been a little hairy around here lately. Remember that whole tornado thing? I kinda forgot about working out. That all changes Monday. It can change for you too, if you'd like to join us!

30 Day Challenge Profile
Name: Nancy
Age: 54
Hometown: Chesterton
Family: Married, 4 daughters, 3 sons-in-law, a someday to be son-in-law and 2 granddaughters
1) Complete the following sentence – “When I look in the mirror I see…someone who needs some work.
2) What exercise do you take? Mostly walking and stretching recently.
What’s your current level of fitness? Not awful, not great. Definitely better than a beginner.
3) How do you relax? Blogging or reading
4) Do you watch your weight? I sure try, but I don't always succeed.
5) What’s your favorite body part? my head
6) What’s your least favorite body part? the neck down
7) What’s your favorite way to workout? walking
Its time to work out, we’re most likely to find you decked out in? yoga pants and a t-shirt
9) You’re due to workout, but it’s pouring rain. What do you do? Hit the treadmill or shredding
10) What’s the one item you wouldn’t be without when working out? water
11) What do you hope to get from the 30 Day Challenge? more toned
12) What are you apprehensive about going in? being too sore to keep up with the kids at school
13) How will you reward yourself after the challenge? good question
14) Complete the following sentence – “I’m Active for …”ME!

Two Great Giveaways

Basement Bags Girl is having a 100th post giveaway. You can get her beautiful Basement Bags clutch with all the choices of fabric, monogram style and thread color up to you. Head over and enter. The drawing will be on August 28. Good luck to us all.

I have another great giveaway for you to enter. Keli at Twelve Paws is giving away two 11x14 prints. Your choice of her beautiful pictures. The giveaway ends Wednesday night at 10:00 EST. So, you better hurry. Her stuff is just lovely. I hope I win, but if I don't, I hope one of you does.

After Thoughts

1. It still ticks me off that I didn't have my camera
handy, but this is the picture from the front page
of the local newspaper.

2. I called my daughter and son-in-law after the tornado to make sure they were okay. My son-in-law answered the phone and said they were fine and why wouldn't they be? They live less than a mile away and had no idea what had happened.


3. My daughter, son-in-law and precious granddaughters came over as soon as it was over. I was so happy to see them. My daughter and the girls spent the night with us. She never actually said why, but I think sometimes when you are scared, you just need your parents.


4. It breaks my heart that none of my son-in-laws family has yet to call and ask if he is okay.


5. This is the link to a pretty impressive slide show from one of the local newspapers.
http://nwitimes.com/app/multimedia/slideshows/082009storms/
#29 and 34 thru 40 are of my friends damage. # 13,15,21,28,30, & 41 are all within blocks of our house. #22 is at the entrance to the school where I teach.

6. I am so impressed with the efforts of our little town in the clean up that is nothing short of daunting. There are people from all the surrounding counties that came to help. Unfortunately, there are also people who have come to try to rip people off and make a buck.

7. Mother Nature gave me a real wake up call on Wednesday night. She made me remember what is truly important in my life. There is absolutely nothing that is more important to me than my family. They are everything to me. I love them with all my heart. I thank God that He kept us all safe at a time when it could have all gone very differently. I also thank Him for letting my dad sit on my shoulder and help me to know what to do. I know my dad was with me. I could feel him. Thanks dad. I love you and miss you so much!

8. This the end of my tornado saga.

Here's what happened.....

It's Wednesday evening about 5:40. After the first day of school, myself and two coworkers decide to head to the local pub for half price appetizers. We share some appetizers and a cocktail and head back home. I got home about 7:20. Hubby had just gotten home from golf and my daughter and son-in-l;aw were over. They were all out in the pole barn which is affectionately known as "manland". It started to rain really hard. I called the house phone from my cell to have my daughter who was in the house to close the windows. Hubby didn't here me do this and runs to the house to close them. It is at this point that the tv screen goes gray and a tornado warning comes on. It is approximately 7:30. I walk over to the overhead door and can't believe my eyes. I hear my daughter say "oh shit" and I see why. Right over the clearing of trees above the house across the street is a massive funnel cloud that is sucking up everything in it's path. I could have stood and watched it forever. It was that cool. But, terror kicked in and the three of us ran for the house with the patio table and umbrella (now blown straight up and inside out) falling over on us as we go by. Son-in-law shoved it back up and we made it to the door. I expected to find hubby and daughter in the kitchen waiting for us, but neither of them was there. I start screaming for them. Hubby finally appears and tells me to stop yelling at him. I keep yelling and tell him to get his ass in the basement because there is a tornado outside. I'm still screaming for the daughter who has yet to appear in the kitchen. I'm running to the back of the house and she finally appears. We are all finally running down the basement stairs when the power goes out. Did you ever try to get five adults down the stairs in the dark? Brave soul at the back of the line (ME!) heads to the back of the kitchen for the flashlight. I get back to the stairs, turn it on and get down two steps and it's perfectly quiet. It's over! I know this probably sounds like it was ten minutes long, but it really only took a couple minutes at best. We stand there for a couple seconds to be sure and head back upstairs.
We had a tree down on the fence in the backyard. Part of a tree down in the front yard and debris all over the yard. The patio umbrella was toast. That made me sad because it took me a long time to find that umbrella and I loved it. We didn't have power. We would get that back about 10:00 the next morning. I looked down the street because my brother lives a block away from us. There was a huge tree that had fallen across the road and it looked like it was on his house. I took off running. Happily, I found him outside his house drinking a beer. The tree had fallen just across the street. It missed him by probably 20 feet.
Now, if you go down one more block, the destruction was massive. Hundred year old trees lifted up by their roots and turned over onto houses and garages. Blown out windows and siding peeled off the houses. It looked like a war zone. This missed us by two blocks! If you go two blocks north, the entire roof was lifted off the townhouses that my sister lived in before she bought her house.
One of the girls I was out with wasn't so lucky. She got home just in time too. They had so much damage. They lost two vehicles, a barn, the kids playscape and their new pool. Not to mention the shingles off the roof.
The amazing thing about this is that nobody anywhere was injured. If you see the news footage and newspaper pictures, you would think that loss of life would have been high. But, nobody was hurt. Hubby, son-in-law and I went for a walk around town Thursday. You can't believe how things looked. I know I posted pictures, but they don't do this tornado justice. There were houses with trees everywhere around them, but nothing actually hurt the house. There were massive trees that fell between houses, but not on them. If I ever needed proof that God is truly good, this was certainly it.
Lastly, four things......
1. If we had stayed for one more cocktail like we talked about, we wouldn't have been home when the tornado hit.
2. Hubby was in the bathroom when I was screaming for him.
3. When my daughter was closing the window in my room, the tree came down outside that window. Instinctively, she just hit the floor. She didn't get up until she heard me screaming her name.
4. The tornado siren never went off. We had absolutely no warning for a F2 tornado.

Holy Tornado Batman!/Part 2

Normally on Thursdays, I take part in You Capture. This weeks assignment was peace. As you can see by the pictures, we have no peace in our town today. We had a tornado last night. I saw the funnel cloud. It was awesome and terrifying all at the same time. It was massive and you could see it sucking debris up into it. I wanted to stay and watch it, but reality sunk in (via my daughter and son-in-law) and we ran for the house and the safety of my basement. It was so loud and the winds were tremendous. By the time we made it into the basement, it was over. The aftermath was sometihng I will never forget.

The first two pictures are of the tree that came down on our fence. We had part of a tree come down in the front yard and a lot of debris from trees all over the yard. We had no power. We were all safe. The house was fine. So were the cars and the pole barn. The pool is still standing. Thank God, all was well with us. Nothing we couldn't handle.

The rest of the pictures are of the town close to our house. Most of them are within a two block radius of our house. We were so lucky. I'm pretty sure that my dad was an angel sitting on my shoulder last night taking care of us. Thanks dad!!

When it all sinks in, I'll tell you the long story of how when we got in the house I was screaming for my husband and other daughter who weren't answering at first. Talk about panic. I'll tell you about other people who didn't fair as well as us and how I almost wasn't home when it hit. Like I said, another post.

Go to Beth's and check out the real peaceful posts. That's where I am going to calm myself and bring down my blood pressure.

Holy Tornado Batman!!/Part 1

So, a little excitement at my house last night. I freakin saw my first (and hopefully last) tornado.
These are just a few pictures to see now. I'm heading out on foot to take pictures and I'll post more later with the whole story. It was the coolest, scariest thing I have ever seen! We are all fine, by the way!! Thank you, Lord!!!
In the meantime, check out my daughter's blog. She has some pictures posted too.

I Love Surprises

Today was the first day that I had to be at work. It was the dreaded staff meeting. Being I work in the preschool, so much of what is discussed doesn't apply to us, so basicly it's really boring. I might even say mind numbing. I muddled through it. I did get the best surprise when I got home though. These two beautiful, sweet, smiling girls were waiting for their grammy. It was the best part of my day. I love them so much. How can you not feel wonderful when you see these faces?

Poppa's Helper

After you get done playing in the pool and have a shower, what do you do next? If you are our granddaughter, you help poppa water the garden. She and poppa are the best of friends and she loves to help him, no matter what he's doing.

You Capture/Motion

We have slow motion. Poor baby sister is cutting three top teeth at once and wasn't having a very good day at all. My baby chilled out in a tube and the cousins took some time to relax in their cool borrowed shades,

Then we have the true motion. These kids had a great time Sunday when it was hot and they could spend hours in the water and chasing each other around the yard.

Now it's time for you to head over to Beth's and see all the other great motion captures.
p.s. Don't ask me why the print is all funky down the side at the end. I've tried to fix it twice and it keeps coming up like this. Of course, now that I've typed this, it will probably fix itself this time.

21 Days/Weigh In

I'm lost. I don't know what happened to my weight chart, so I don't know if if I'm up or down. I need my Christy to be keeping track of that for me like during the Biggest Loser challenge. I'm trying to get ready for a garage sale this weekend and my house is in total chaos. I'm not going to worry about it now. I have to leave for registration for school soon. I'm reasonably certain there was no major loss. I think I'd be happy with staying the same, whatever it was.

I think I gave a wrong impression last week when I posted. I gave some of the suggestions from the Sisterhood for changes to make. I didn't plan to try all those at once. I don't have that kind of willpower. What I have been faithful to this past week is the 30 minutes or more of exercise and taking my vitamin daily. I found that if I take it after dinner, it doesn't upset my stomach. You'd think at my age I could have figured that out years ago.

I start going back to work part time now and then full time on the 19th. I'm really looking forward to going back. Like I've said before, I do much better when I have a schedule and routine. I know how much time I have and when I have it. It just works so much better for me.

So that's the scoop for this week. We start a new challenge on September 1 and I'm ready. Hope everyone else is doing well and up for the new challenge.

Snapfish Giveaway

Beth has a great giveaway going through Snapfish. They sponsored her for Blogher and also sponsored this giveaway. $35.00 to spend there. I use them all the time, so I would really love to win this. Being the nice person that I am, I'm telling you about it too. Go over and check it out.

Back To School Giveaway

The Monogram Chick has a great back to school giveaway. She is giving her monogramed backpack and lunch bag to a lucky winner. They are so cute. Anyone would love to go back to school in style and this would be the way. Everyone go and enter because the person who sends the most people over also wins. Make sure you say I sent you in your comment. Here's hoping we have some good luck!

Who Wouldn't Be Happy?

I know that I have told you before that it hasn't been the best summer. There has been a lot of stuff going on. Some sad, some trying and some every day crap. Still, I need to see the big picture.
There are some very good things in my life. I have a wonderful family who mean more to me than anything. I have great friends that make me smile. I have a job I love to go to. I have my health and so does my family. Look at the picture of my mom with me and my sisters. Would you ever guess that she is rapidly approaching 84 years of age? I should be so lucky to look that good now. She is amazing.
So, here's my point. God has blessed me in so
many ways. I just need to keep that in mind and
remember that all things shall pass and things will
get better. In the meantime, look at what I have to
keep me happy! I am truly blessed!!

You Capture/ You Part 2

Okay, just got the haircut and I'm back as promised. It will look much better with makeup, but I think you'll get the idea. My daughter does amazing work and her kids are pretty cute too. I like it. How about you? Back to Beth's so you see this.

You Capture/You

So, can I just say that this was the hardest assignment yet? I hate having my picture taken and certainly do an awful job of taking them myself. As you can see, I tried several times. I really don't like any of them. Of course, I'm getting my hair cut differently tomorrow. Maybe that would have made a difference. I think seeing these pictures made me decide to get it cut. Maybe I'll post another one tonight after the cut. Enough of my complaining.

Now, it's time to head over to Beth's and see how everyone else did. I bet there are some great ones. Hopefully, next weeks assignment will be easier.