This, That, and a Tornado,

Hello out there in cyber land....I know it's been almost two weeks since my last post so there is lots to talk about. The boys play ball for the Curry Yellow Jackets. When they are older they have options for high school ~ Curry (where Skoot went to school), Walker (where Kim went to school) OR Carbon Hill (no loyalties there)

"Feel the Sting"
I had a wonderful birthday.
Nothing like a Magra sandwich!

Jakob and Topher
at the Opryland Hotel
where they participated in the
Lads to Leaders Convention
Brotherly LOVE

Lads to Leaders is a program that encourages young people to get involved in church activities. Our guys did Bible reading (each got a medal), song leading(Jakob made the top six), speech (Jakob made the top six and Topher got second place), and Good Samaritan (each got a medal).
We are very proud of them. . . .and aren't they cute??

This tree is across Sixth Avenue just down from the Sixth Avenue Church of Christ.
This is in downtown Jasper ~ there is a car UNDER this rubble!

We were very fortunate and only suffered the loss of electricity at our house. As you may have seen on the news towns like Tuscaloosa and Cordova were not as fortunate. Please continue to keeps these communities in your prayers. They have a long recover ahead of them. Our electricity came back on today. We tend to take such things for granted until we no longer have them. Thanks to all the people who have worked so hard these last few days and who will continue to work in areas harder hit than we were. I know I've seen power trucks from Louisiana and Illinois, and Lisa said she saw one from Florida today.

This was the line at a gas station.
Everyone was being polite and we
moved through as quickly as possible.
There was a $40 limit.
The day WalMart reopened looked like this.
They had no meat or frozen items due
to the power outage.

This pile used to be the office

at the Sipsey mine. . . .

parts of it can be seen all over this hill.

One of the strip mines where Buck works was hit by one of the tornadoes. Thankfully, the men followed safety rules and were IN the pit when it came over and no one was hurt.... their vehicles were not so lucky....they were all destroyed, equipment was overturned, ripped apart, and damaged. We spoke with a couple of the men today and one told us they could see a large tree swirling in the wind.

Today I picked up limbs and started mowing the grass. It isn't finished but it does look better on one side of the house :-)

I have NO idea how this happened!

Looks like I was stung by something
I picked up some rose bush limbs that got hold of me, could that be what caused this??

Peace! and to all a g'night!

P.S. I am going to Colorado next week HOORAH!!

The rains came

One of the ponds on Country Club

overflowing....

Last Friday, it rained....and rained....and rained. I kept an eye out for a large gathering of animals two by two while I waited for the DirecTV person to show up....they didn't. After a call from the DirecTV people saying the repair person wasn't coming, I ventured out to do some errands. I drove responsibly being careful not to plow through high water.

At the entrance to the Country Club

water was rushing across the road

(I turned and went the other way)

In a toe-tally unrelated story.... do you know what this is?? Anyone? Anyone? According to Buck, it is part of a chain from a dragline (appropriate, yes?) We have one of these on either side of the drive. Last week, Buck ran into this one and knocked it over and the fence askew. When I went out to mow, I decided to right it.....bad idea!

These things are HEAVY but I thought I could flip it upright with the weedeater ~ WRONG!

It went up and then over onto my foot. Isn't it lovely?? Just in time for flip flops!!

Baseball season

In case you've been living under a rock.... or don't have children or grandchildren that play ball - it is BASEBALL SEASON! The boys are far enough apart in age that they don't play on the same team. Last weekend was a Topher Tournament ~ all one day ~ Saturday. It was a great time ~ they won, they tied, they lost.

That's my Topher playing catcher.

He can shag those balls and throw a line drive to

wherever it needs to go. He is, if I do say so

myself ~ awesome!

Kim is not necessarily a "screamer"

but she does get "into" the game

and will occasionally

whoop it up.

You may be asking "what does the non playing brother do during the games?" Excellent question and I'm usually sitting there saying "do you know where your other child is??" Kim and Skoot know they are around somewhere usually with someone else's non playing brother.

Last Saturday, Jakob decided to go "spear fishing" in a ditch. Oops! His feet "slipped" into the water. That was cool, he thought, and proceeded to lie down in the water....he was SOAKED from the top of his head to the the bottom of his feet and everything in between.

Kim and Skoot were NOT amused!

After removing his shoes, socks, and cap

Jakob laid out on the cement to dry when he was done on one side,

we flipped him over so the

other side could dry.

It was a fun tournament, Jakob played last night and will again on Friday evening. Topher has another tournament on Saturday .... hope there's no large puddles, ditches, drain pipes, etc.

Kiss Kiss

April Birthdays

April Birthdays

Kent Nibler ~ April 1st

Tony Robinson ~ April 11th

Alicia Bailey ~ April 13th

Rick Stewart ~ April 15th

ME ~ April 25th

Uncle Paul ~ April 29th