Moving In

I used to think moving to a new home was exciting. Now, it just seems like a lot of work. Maybe I'm getting old. Maybe we have too much stuff! We managed to clean 2 homes and move all of our stuff in less than 2 weeks. Not bad for a couple of old people and 2 young children. :)

Our new home needs a little TLC. We have been scrubbing and weeding and when we return from vacation we will be caulking and painting. Hopefully we will be here next summer so we can try planting things in the garden spot and flower beds.

Morgan and Zane are loving being able to play outside! They catch bugs, ride their bikes down the hill, and watch the geese land on the... pond.

They also love having their own rooms. It was time! It was kinda sad to see the bunkbeds come apart. My favorite time of day is bedtime. The kids would lay in their beds and say good night to each other. Sometimes they would talk for a minute and then I would hear a sweet little "I love you" from each of them. It always made the day good, no matter what else had happened. I was afraid that ritual would end being in their own rooms. Then, last night, with a wall seperating them, they said their good nights and I love yous. Melted my heart.

Unpacking is like putting together a puzzle. It takes time to make it all fit right. So here are some pictures of this work-in-process.

Zane's own messy room.

Morgan's own messy room. (She still helps Zane clean his at the end of the day.)



A wood stove that reminds me of the one my grandpa had. (We do love good, old fashioned wood heat.)

A cool phone mounted on the wall by the front door. Zane thinks it's a cell phone.
They have had SO much fun pretending to call friends and family on this phone.

And one organized corner in the kitchen. It didn't stay that way long. The mixer wouldn't fit on the other counter so things had to be rearranged. (The puzzle pieces were mixed up.)

And yes, painting the kitchen is at the top of my list.

My favorite... it is SO quiet! No trains. No dogs barking. No motorcycle races around the house. We don't even hear the traffic on the road.

And...We're Off!

Living in Nebraska, in a manufactured home, has been a little nerve-racking at times. When a "real" house opened up across from the feedlot, Scott didn't hesitate to request a transfer. It's an older house but bigger and definitely more sturdy.

So. Here we go again. (I really hope we don't make moving a summer tradition.) Thankfully it's just the home location that is changing this time. And thankfully the kids are a little older and a little more help. Morgan packed two boxes of food from the pantry. Scott could barely lift them but she was so pleased with herself.

Morgan & Zane are excited to be moving into a bigger house. Their bedrooms are right next to each other so they will be "neighbors." They were actually glad to see the bunk beds come apart.

On the wall at the new house is an old, yellow phone. It's a push button dial but it's still old. (Probably the first push button phone invented.) The kids have had fun pretending to call all their family and friends on that phone. (Yes Brit, you have been called from the yellow phone.) Last night Zane said, "I can't believe we have a cell phone on the wall of our new house, that doesn't even work!" He seems to think all phones are cell phones.

I spent last week cleaning and doing a little painting. Saturday we moved a load of stuff over and Scott is anxious for me to pack more boxes for him to move. If only we could put LIFE on hold while we are packing. Unfortunately, there is still laundry, and dishes, and grocery shopping, and all the necessities of living that must be done as well. And it's the end of the 2nd quarter so I have more work to do. (Payroll reports must be filed before my office can be moved.)

We have to get everything moved so we can go on vacation to Grandma's house. Sometimes it helps to have a deadline and a reward to motivate you.

The Bike Ride

Last month, I told Zane I would get him a bigger bike if he could learn to ride without training wheels. He wanted a Spiderman bike. We took the training wheels off but after 5 minutes he wanted them back on.

Monday, Zane announced that he was ready to try again. With training wheels off, we went to the fitness trail to try riding on a smooth, flat surface. Morgan was bored as she zipped around us. Finally, I let her ride on ahead while Zane kept practicing. After an hour we were all hot, tired, and thirsty. Zane was frustrated. "I can't do it! Never mind about the Spiderman bike," he said as we climbed into the car. But I wasn't giving up.

Yesterday, Zane sadly told me he wanted to ride but just couldn't do it. When the day cooled off, I convinced him to try again. He was struggling with starting off and was leaning on me when I was beside him. I asked Morgan to show him how she starts. (She was thrilled to be the expert.) Zane watched carefully, tried a few times, then took off riding his bike.



Best day EVER!

Chair Re-cover

Chasing tornados is not the only thing we've been doing... I finally recovered my rocking chair cushions. I found this fabric at Hobby Lobby a while ago and fell in love with it. I've been waiting to find foam but decided I didn't want to wait any more.

I added a little black piping to the front of the seat cushion. It's kinda hard to see in the picture but I like the way it looks.

Zane had to test it for me. Yep. It still works. And it looks so nice with the black leather couch. Now for the pillows.

Tornado Warning

(The pictures are completely backwards from the order they were taken but my computer is having issues these days and it was too much work to try and fix them.)

We had been at the park earlier and watched the black clouds roll by just north of us. The angry sky grumbled the entire time we were there. When everyone started leaving, I decided to follow.

I was giving Zane a bath, getting things ready for Sunday, not really thinking about the weather. I had checked earlier and the report was for scattered thunderstorms all evening, which is to be expected. No mention of a tornado so I was not too worried.

Scott had gone out to give the dog water and quickly came back in and yelled for me to come look at these clouds. I turned on the radio. Yep. Tornado Warning was in affect until 8pm. The man said "get into your basements now and if you are in a mobile home, leave immediately."

Scott grabbed the keys, I pulled Zane out of the tub, and we jumped in the car. Scott was a little annoyed that I made him stop so I could take pictures. The clouds are just so fascinating to me.

We first went to the feedlot, south of town. Scott parked the car and we looked up. The storm was almost directly over us. We left. I called some friends in town who have a basement and we headed there. It was more fun to watch the clouds and the hail with friends anyway.

When the threat had passed, we returned home to find some large dents in the pickup and no power in our house. We brushed our teeth by candle light using a water bottle. Then we read scriptures with a flashlight and crawled into bed. (Almost felt like camping.)

The storm passing over town.

One of the larger hail stones. Glad they weren't all this big!

There is awesome power in these clouds! So incredible! Not like anything we have experienced before. The hail came down with so much force!
We are ready to move back to Oregon.

Tornado Watch

Yesterday we had a tornado watch... so we watched for the tornado. (I felt like a tourist standing in front of my house.) One of Scott's co-workers lives about 5 miles down the highway from us. They spotted a small twister on the ground near his house. Fortunately for us, the storm went more north than east and most of the bad stuff missed us. We had some pretty wild thunderstorms all night. Is this summer?

Here are some pictures I took from in front of our house:

These were all taken just a few minutes apart.

Then we drove around the corner and got this last picture. We kept driving south until this scary looking cloud was gone. Last week we had golf ball size hail that did a lot of damage all over town. Wow! This has been a very EXCITING summer.

{ Happy Father's Day }

With the storms yesterday, we turned off all electronic devices. We had thunderstorms from sun up to sun down, and beyond!

My two favorite DADS...

my own dad

and dad to my children

Father's Day wouldn't be complete without an ugly tie. :)

Scott wanted lots of presents so we counted the ways we love him. He got nuts for his NUTTY sense of humor, chapstick for his soft KISSES, and a Mr. Goodbar for being a GOOD guy.

I cooked him a nice dinner with strawberry crepes for dessert.

We love our DADS! Happy Father's Day!