Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th everyone!  What are you doing today?  We are going to relax, enjoy our unseasonably cool weather and hang out with some friends.  Two of my favorite things in Omaha: we can shoot off fireworks and I mean the really cool kind that shoot up into the sky and chasing lightening bugs.  And we get to both of those things tonight!  There is some apple pie to eat too.  Very American I think.

We hope that everyone has a fabulous day spending time with your families.  Go eat, drink, be merry and be safe!  Happy 4th of July!!  

A few more pix

I felt like posting a few more photos from our trip today.  Jeff and I never get to be in the same picture so this is a rare event that we have more than one picture with both of us in it!

This photo here is of our last dinner on the island.  Jeff, being the wonderful research guy he is, found us a fabulous restaurant right on the water.  The food was fantastic!  This is where I tried the raw fish.  I had a ceviche with Wahoo (sort of like Mahi Mahi) and a seared yellow tune with ginger sesame sauce...yum!  My dad had lobster and shrimp that was drowning in cream and I had some mango shrimp and some veggies.  Why am I writing about food?  Because you all have had one meal in your life that was just to die for and this was that meal.  

And here are some pix of all of us and the three siblings.  Not the best photo in the world but we don't get together all that often so any picture of the three of us is a good one!

We're Home Mon!

We're home from the Cayman Islands!  Didn't know we were going?  Ooops, we sort of got busy and I think I forgot to mention it.  But here we are home at last and fairly well rested.

Kirbi, Jnet, Gigi, Jamie and Pa

It was  a great trip!  I mean how many times do you get to watch one of your beautiful nieces get her white coat from medical school.  We are so extremely proud of her.  We are so extremely proud of all of them.  All the girls went, except for Ashli who got to see Chelsi a few weeks back while she and Shelby were on a cruise.  Oh and by the way, I am going to be a great aunt....Ashli and Shelby are pregnant!!  If you are wondering, which one is Ashli?  second oldest and Chelsi is the third oldest.  Quick catch up...Britt - the oldest - is managing the garden department at Home Depot in Fresno, she loves the plants.  I think I will have her come out and do some landscaping.  Ashli is next and married Shelby last May and is now going through pharmacy school and two months pregnant.  Chelsi is in the Grand Caymans finishing up medical school and will do her rotations back her in the states this fall.  Next is Kinsi who is a sophomore this fall at ASU and will go into dentistry school when she graduates.  Last but not least are the triplets who are going to be juniors this fall in high school.  Got it?  Good, now back to my trip....

(From left to right: Kirbi, Courtni, Kinsi, Britt, Chelsi and Abbi)

The trip was wonderful, just Jeff and I.  We haven't been away since our honeymoon almost seven years ago.  We went snorkeling, yep I did - and some of you know I am afraid of the ocean.  I ate sushi, yep I did, again afraid of the sushi.  We seemed to eat a lot actually and spent a lot of time at the beach outside of our hotel.  While snorkeling I saw a SHARK!!  It was so cool.  I thought it was normal and it didn't bother me until my sister said that's not NORMAL!  Oh well, I still have my legs.  We also went to sting ray bay.  My niece, Chelsi, who was a wonderful tour guide, hooked us up with this woman who owned her own boat tour company.  We were able to put all of us on one boat and didn't have to share!  We went out late in the afternoon and by the time we got to the bay all the tour boats were gone for the day.  So, not only did we have a boat to ourselves we have the rays to ourselves as well.  They were so awesome!  After a little squealing and nervousness, everyone got into the water and played with the gentle animals.  After that we took a quick ride over to a reef and did some snorkeling. Captain Charlie then gave us a real treat and put up the sails on the boat and gave us a sunset sail.  Such a great day!  Probably one of the best days of my life, I am still smiling.

Sting Ray Bay and snorkeling on the reef

Not only did we have a great time, but my wonderful husband bought me a completely waterproof camera for my birthday and we used it constantly.  I have some fabulous photos to boot!   

Tired

This weekend was the Omaha Relay for Life event.  It was nonstop action from Thursday night until yesterday when I finally woke up at 1:30pm.  The event here is not 24 hours like it was in California.  So that makes a big difference in the sleep schedule and catching up I think.  We spent all Friday afternoon setting up and then went about our normal Saturday activities.  Around noon on Saturday we went to set up our own camp and get ready to roll. 

The event was a great success but much different than I was used to.  First off, many of the teams left after midnight.  By Sunday morning there were only about 150 people left - we started with over 1300.  Very weird to me.  We raised a tremendous amount of money even with the bad economy, $335,000.  Pretty darn good I would say.

Today though I am hurting.  I am crabby, tired and way behind on my homework.  The kids are grating on my nerves and the in-laws (who are here to watch the kids while we go to the Cayman's) are trying their best to keep the kids out of my hair!  I stayed all night at the event and some friends stayed with me - because Jeff went home and went to bed.  I got home around 8am, took a shower, listened to a freak storm hit and finally fell asleep after 9am.  Around 1:30pm, Dad decided it was time for me to get up and wish him a Happy Father's Day.

Not exactly a relaxing weekend but great just the same.  I think I am getting too old to stay up for 24 hours though.  My "party like a rock star days" are over....well tomorrow is my 35th birthday so that pretty much says it all.

The tornado

Hello again.  Here is a photo of the twister that hit the Boy Scout camp last night.  If you remember from my earlier blog - or did I write this - there were storm chasers out last night from Discovery Channel taking photos and videos.  The photo is magnificent, the result is horrible.  The camp was completely destroyed.

Again...

Once again we are OK.  This storm was worse but we were fortunate there was no tornado that touched down in our area this time.  We did finally hear about the last tornado and the EF1 that touched down was 1/2 mile from the house...I knew that wind sounded bad.

Last night the sirens went off for over an hour while we waited with baited breath to see if something would happen.  The wind was never really bad but the hail and rain were. We actually saw the clouds rotating above us and watched from the front porch as a wall cloud passed to the north of us.  It was absolutely stunning and scary at the same time.

We are very fortunate that everyone was home at the time and we were eating dinner. If you haven't heard about the boy scouts, there was a tornado 21 miles from here that hit a camp.  Four boys - three from Omaha - were killed and at least 50 are at local hospitals for injuries.  There was a Discovery Channel storm catcher team out last night in an armored vehicle and the reporter said the winds were at least 150mph.  I believe that would have made the twister at least an EF3; major damage.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those families today and with those that have more damage to clean up again today.  Maybe Mother Nature will leave us alone for a few days so our grounds can dry up and our roofs can be patched. 

2:30 in the morning

There is nothing like being woken up at 2:30 in the morning by winds that sound like they are going to rip your roof off.  

We had severe thunderstorms earlier in the evening but the tornado watch had been canceled around midnight.  Jeff and I both woke up with the thunder and lightening booming around us and shinning in every window and the winds were pretty nasty.  Jeff opened up the laptop to check on the status and just as I was saying "these winds are way too strong for just a thunderstorm" the sirens went off.  Grab the kids, the blankets, pillows and the dog and run downstairs.  

Now for those fellow Nebraskans who are reading this last night didn't seem like such a big deal at first - in fact our neighbor across the street never even heard the sirens. But for us Californians who are not used to winds averaging between 60-100m.p.h. this was a REALLY BIG deal.  About 45 minutes later we had the kids tucked back into bed and Jeff and I were watching the news to survey the damage and if there would be another storm.  We took a quick survey of the house and figured no major damage had been done, must have just been some strong wind and rains.

Well, if you have seen the news today, we had an EF2 touch down and make a path 1/2 mile wide through the middle of town.  There is some significant damage done, but we were not in its path thank goodness.  The majority of the damage was done in the middle of Omaha where mostly businesses are located.  There is damage to personal property and homes - one family said their neighbors roof ripped off and landed in their master bedroom.  Around our neighborhood we have trees and fences down and some damage to signs, light posts and rain gutters on homes.  

Scary thought what some wind can do, then add the frightening sound of booming thunder and it is quite a show.  Terrible but beautiful at the same time.  I just wanted to let you all know we are fine and dandy, just a little soaked and tired today.

P.S.  I am just now reading the articles and looking at the photos.  I am so thankful our house was not hit and pray for those who have lost so much.  Here are some photos, check out the link and look at the World-Herald photo gallery .