Blessings, Trials and Tornados

Well folks, we're alive! I don't know exactly how long it's been since I've written, but it's been a while. We went to Denver Friday the 10th to visit my parents while my sister Jen and her boys were in town from Idaho. We spent time with them in between running errands all over to get things that are either unattainable in Norton, or just too expensive. So we went to Jared to have my ring inspected (needs it every 6 months for the insurance), Target, Walmart, King Soopers, Costco, the dollar store, an Asian market, Kid-to-Kid, Savers,...I think that's it, but I may be missing something. Our trips to Denver are always disgustingly expensive, but satisfyingly productive. And we always have to console ourselves that even though we spent a lot, we were saving ourselves money. I was in desperate need for powdered sugar at Costco and it was perfect timing to run so low right before going to Denver.

When we got back from Denver Sunday night, we noticed a lot of furniture and other things out on our neighbors' curb. So at 11:00 when we noticed the front door open, we ventured over to introduce ourselves and ask about the curb gear. Turns out that in April the wife had left and now the husband was packing up what he wanted in his truck and putting the rest out on the curb. He was leaving Monday morning to move back to Colorado. He said we could have whatever we wanted. We honestly didn't know if we wanted any of it, but we couldn't see stuff like that get picked up by the garbage truck in the morning. The guy and his friend helped us haul a table and 3 chairs, love seat, and boxes and bags of toys, clothes and decorations over to our garage. In the morning the guys brought over a king size bed. So we've been filling up our house with the things that we decided to keep. There was a family in the ward who was needing furniture, but we found out they are no longer in need, so we decided to keep it all. We bought all our bedding gear for the KING SIZE BED for $30. That's cheap even for a smaller size bed! We also inherited a nice rocking chair from another neighbor. Ashley bought it for $5 at an auction and said that the fit just didn't suit her. Could be her 8.5 month belly in the way, but she has another one that works for her anyway. So she told us to take it if we wanted it. Then a lady in our ward brought over her glider for us that she wanted to get out of her house, and we were glad to help her out with that.

I had a VERY successful weekend with garage sales this past weekend! I got a set of 4 kitchen canisters (flour, sugar, etc) for $3. Yep. They even have rubber seals on the lids. Soooo nice! I also made off with about 20 pieces of tupperware (the real stuff) for $2. Tons of Christmas decorations and a coffee table. We spent a lot of time on Saturday arranging all our new furniture (bringing in stuff from the garage) and putting our house together. We are really loving the way everything is coming together so nicely and all looking beautiful together. We really feel blessed with as much stuff as we've received.On Monday Tommy and I enjoyed some really nice overcast weather in the morning. We played outside while waiting for the garbage truck to come by. Tommy was just entranced by this huge truck! It was funny. Around 1:00 I thought it'd be nice to go for a walk down to the grocery store to get some more good veggies on the last day of the sale. Tommy thought otherwise and asked for a nap. I quickly realized that the wind we were having was blowing in a storm. An hour later I realized that this was going to be a heck of a BIG storm. I don't normally listen to the radio, but when Tommy woke up from his nap, I moved his CD player from his dresser to the floor so that he could play with it while I worked on cleaning up and organizing his room. He hit some buttons and turned on the radio. Changed a couple stations and I heard, "Save your lives--get in your basement or shelter immediately!" I quickly unplugged everything and went to the basement with Tommy. Returned upstairs to get him a snack and water, water bottle for myself, radio, computer and phone charger. Then I called Shad. He asked if we were in our basement because he was about 15 miles south of town and saw this:


I made sure they were okay, then called his mom to make sure that she and the kids were in the basement. That actually took a couple minutes of convincing her that it was necessary because our tornado sirens had yet to go off. She finally took my word for it and then I called to make sure the missionaries were okay. They were already in the hospital basement because one of the Young Women had told them to take shelter. Our sirens went off a couple minutes later. Sirens only go off here when a tornado has formed and been sighted. It's not a frequent occurrence, but you know it's serious business when it happens. All the danger was over and passed by 3:00 and everything in Norton was safe. I don't think our town sustained any damage. However, Calvert is just 8 miles northeast of us, and Almena is 2 miles north of that. Fencing and roofs got torn up in Calvert, and a less active family in our ward in Almena lost the home they were renting.

We spent all day Wednesday in Almena helping with clean up. The David family already had a new place to rent, as well as tons of furniture, appliances, clothing, etc. donated or salvaged from the wreckage. I helped go through piles of boxes and laundry baskets of donations, or their clothes that had been pulled from trees and corn fields and washed by people in the town. It took me several hours with the help of one of the visiting teachers for this sister. But we finally did find their living room and dining room floor and table. While I did that, Shad worked with a crew from our ward cleaning up a corn field for the community. These poor farmers can't even tend their crops until all the debris is cleaned out of their fields for the machinery to get through. There are a couple of field sprinklers that are twisted up. Half is right side up, half is upside down. Trees are ripped to shreds and twisted like you'd wring out a towel.

We finally went to the wreckage of the Davids' home to help search for a few specific things: namely, Katrina's purse with all of their birth certificates and social security cards; and three months worth of Preston's $3oo/month medication. Shad found the purse and someone else found a month case of the medicine. They were thrilled! This is what was left after the storm:

Here is the foundation...and over there is the house wreckage.


The house wreckage we sifted through.


Their Suburban was in a tree before it landed here.


So, Mom and Dad, we no longer have that king size guest bed that we told you we had for you to sleep on when you come visit because we felt the Davids needed it more than we do. We'll borrow an air mattress instead. And if they still need it come Saturday, we'll be giving them the love seat, too. Tuesday was Shad's last day of work. We found out a week ago that he was being let go because the company decided that they really needed someone with a better working knowledge of the truck Shad was supposed to start driving. They wanted to feel comfortable sending someone out on the road knowing that they could fix the truck if it broke down. Shad just didn't have those skills, they knew that when they hired him and told him it wasn't a problem and they'd give him all the training he needed. Well, they decided they just didn't have the funds to train him as promised. But you know, we know that everything is going to work out the way it's supposed to and that we'll be taken care of. We have little things in life that give us reason to smile and look forward to a new day. I'm 18 weeks pregnant today, and my diploma arrived in the mail finally. We went to the city appraiser and got the house information that everyone has been asking me: 2200 sq ft, built in 1909, 56x129 lot size. And then of course, there's this little creature:

He loves the chocolate chip banana muffins I make.

He has these gorgeous, big, blue eyes that you just can't say no to.


He looks good in a cowboy hat. 4/09/11


He makes a really cute goat in his goat coat from Germany:) 12/21/11


He is our Superman. 10/23/10


Yes, that's right. I am just now putting out pictures of Tommy's contest winning Halloween costume.


AND we just had a delightful walk to the park this evening where we rubbed marijuana leaves on ourselves after learning from some frisbee golfers that it's a natural mosquito repellent. And there was a berry bush next to the marijuana, so we enjoyed a really juicy, sweet snack that stained my fingers purple. Then we tossed a football around, with Tommy smiling and laughing. We gave him turns to hold the football and toss it out of his stroller. He got so excited every time it was his turn. It makes me happy that we can have these enjoyable family outings and activities with Tommy included and he's not even one yet.

Storms and...well that's mostly it.

I meant to blog a week ago on Sunday and I didn't. Then we had a big thunderstorm with lots of lightning Tuesday night. My wireless router must have got a surge from one of the lightning strikes because it fizzled and died. That was the same day that we finally got our papers to sign for the house. The bank has yet to send someone to collect the for sale sign and the lock box on the front door knob. If you ever get the chance to do business with Wells Fargo, I highly recommend that you don't. I'm trying to find someone with bolt cutters.

Because our router died, we ordered a new one. It was kind of okay, because the router only worked with Shad's computer, not mine. We ordered a new one after I took the router into the store and told them what happened and they said I needed a new one. They didn't even look at it. Yesterday the internet wasn't working for the ethernet cable we were using. Turns out it was my fault because I had unplugged it during the windstorm on Monday. Anyway, it turned out to be a good thing because I played dumb on the phone and got technicians sent to the house. And they fixed the router! I was so shocked and it was such a quick thing that I didn't really have time to tell them to fix it to work with my computer. I think I'll call again and have them come back. I mean, I spent an hour and a half on the phone with someone the day before the router died. We tried everything in his book to get my computer to connect with the internet. No dice. I've never had this problem with any of the many routers I've used at other people's houses.

Well, my brain is getting fried, so I better hurry and wrap up. Tommy had a fever and runny nose several days last week. Couple that with sleeping a lot and being cranky when he wasn't sleeping=teething. Yet still no teeth to show for it. He finally got back to being himself yesterday. He was soooo much fun! Saturday we went to the temple in Omaha. Left home at 5 am to make the 10 am session. Then we had a quick lunch in the parking lot and went back in for the youth baptism session. We called my cousin Brian afterwards, who is in Omaha installing alarm systems for the summer. He met us after the session and we checked out the Mormon cemetery together, then went got pizza and ate lunch in the park. His wife Kristen and daughter Parker were in town from Cincinnati visiting him that weekend. It was nice to catch up with Kristen a little and meet Parker. She's a cutie just a month older than Tommy. She sure loves being the center of attention and showing off her big smiles and walking skills. We went to Walmart for a few things and then went home...getting home just after 9. We were exhausted.There's a new young couple in our ward that are fresh out of BYU and expecting a girl in September. We made quick friends with them because they live in Phillipsburg, which is just 30 miles away as opposed to the other new couple we'd like to be better friends with...but have trouble getting over the 80 mile obstacle. We brought lunch to their house after church a week and a half ago. They taught in China together in the same city as me the semester after I was there. They were at a different school though, but it was the same company. Pretty cool stuff. We had a lot to talk about with that.

Okay, last storm to mention is the hail and rainstorm that hit yesterday. Poor Shad was in a hole when it hit and he got pelted with golf ball sized hail. Not fun. I had talked to our insurance company on Thursday to come look at the house to give us an estimate. Since we had signed our contract on Tuesday, they said they'd come asap. I had to go in again today and tell them to get their butts up here. They did. Three big storms since we signed our contract? I want insurance!

Pictures now, and then we're done:

It's upside down, but it says "Congratulations Treva on losing 18 pounds!" Shad's boss ordered it for his wife.
This is what Tommy does when he sees the camera--sits down and looks cute...even if what I wanted was the picture of his bare bottom crawling away because he wouldn't let me put a clean diaper on:)


Court of Honor cake and cupcakes


Bedtime snack eating the crackers he threw on the floor during lunch that Momma was too busy to pick up.

We tried my glasses on him for the first time today because he wouldn't leave them alone on my face. He thought it was pretty cool:)


Me and my little buddy. He let me have my glasses back so I could see.