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Friday, 02 May 2008

  • First Tornado of the Year

    Well, we survived last night. After I wrote the last blog entry, it seemed that things outside were calming down a bit...until around 1am. Then, it started to rain and get windy. Next, enter hail, lightning and thunder. It was really crazy. We live in a mobile home (for a little over two months now) and I don't know if it's just the way a mobile home is made or what, but the rain and hail were really loud! I went into the kids' bedroom to check on them to see if they were scared (I was). Isaiah was still asleep (he is so much like his Daddy), and Miriam stirred a little. I don't know if she was awake before I came in or after but I took her into our bedroom. David woke up because of the storm and got Isaiah. I was listening to all that hail and rain and was hoping that our roof would hold out. We need to get it re-done and had a man come over to give us a quote yesterday but we haven't gotten it done yet. The kids, David, and I were all in our bed, and at this point it was a little after 1am. I just was thinking that things seemed to be a little quieter outside when I heard the tornado sirens go off. Now, I've lived in Kansas all my life so you think I'd be used to tornado season and all that but when the tornado sirens go off, I morph into a completely different person. I get this surge of adrenaline and start to move really fast getting ready to head to the storm shelter, not really in an ordered fashion either. David on the other hand is calm and collected. Tornado season is entirely different now that I have children. If it was just David and me, it wouldn't be nearly as stressful. But, now that we have two young children who can't run as fast and are scared (and tired)...you get the picture.

    So, back to the events of the very early morning. David told the children to go get dressed very quickly and get their shoes on. Keeping in mind the fact that they were both tired and now were scared, they both did a great job of hurrying. Our tornado shelter is right across the street from our house, but the last thing I wanted to do was go outside in that weather, but I really had no desire to stay in a mobile home during a tornado either so out we went. It was pouring rain and the lightning was pretty impressive. David scooped both kids up in his arms and off we went. It took us maybe two minutes to get over there but it seemed like longer than that. There were already several cars pulled up to the shelter and we made it inside, soaked but safe. This was the first time I'd been in that particular shelter. It was fairly big and had a few benches along the walls and in the middle. There were a couple of "No Smoking" signs hung up but somebody blew that off as evidenced by the smell of cigarettes when we walked in. I don't know how long we were there but after a few minutes (maybe 10?) everybody started to leave. I am assuming that they knew something we didn't. Someone had a little TV and maybe the weatherman said it was all over. I don't know. David has his iPhone (it's REALLY cool) and was trying to look up our local weather on the internet. The connection was poor, though, so we didn't quite know what was up. We stayed in the shelter until about 2am because every time we went outside, we heard what sounded like a siren. After awhile, I realized that I had heard that noise before and maybe it was some sort of...something...I don't  know. David finally was able to check our local weather and everything was over so we headed home. It was still raining and there was still some lightning but nothing like it was earlier. Whew. The kids changed back into their pj's and headed back to bed. I laid down but was still wired. I think it was close to 3am before I finally got to sleep, only to wake up at 4am with a coughing fit (still trying to kick a nasty cold). I slept in today a little so was able to catch up on some much-needed sleep. Poor David, though, had to get up early for work. He will probably take a nap when he gets home.

    While we were in the shelter, I looked at my son who is 5. He was sitting quietly on a bench, shaking. I was transported back in time 24 years earlier to my childhood when I was 4 years old in the spring of 1984 . My mother was pregnant with my youngest sister, Laura, at that time. My older sister, Amber, was 5, and my other sister, April was 2. I remember one night, I think it was after 11pm, my mother came into our bedroom in a panic telling us we needed to get up because the tornado sirens were going off. We were pretty poor growing up, always had food on the table, but my folks had to work pretty hard for it, and our house at the time was in a low-income part of town next to a kind of run-down mobile home park and some railroad tracks. That night, I remember my mom and dad herding us out of the house because we didn't have an adequate storm shelter or basement. We were going to the hospital where my mom worked because there was a basement there. I remember the pajamas I was wearing that night, not in a whole lot of detail, but I do remember that Bugs Bunny was on the front and they were the pajamas that had the covered feet so I didn't wear shoes when we headed outside to the car. On the way to the hospital, I started to shake. I was cold and wet from the rain and I had splashed in a big puddle. I was also really scared and tired to boot. Before we had gotten very far, we reached the train tracks and lo and behold, we had to wait for a train! This only added to my fear and I still remember my dad praying in the front seat that the train would pass quickly, that we would be kept safe, etc. Thankfully, the train was short and we made it to the hospital safely. I remember sitting there in the hospital basement, shaking quietly. Some people my mom knew were there and she was chatting with them. Someone commented on my shaking and said that I was probably cold. That was true but not the only reason I was shaking. I don't know how much I understood at that time about tornadoes but I knew they were scary. I don't remember much after that, just that I was scared to go back to bed when we got home. My mom stayed up to watch the weather and she let me stay with her. After that night for the longest time, I was afraid of the wind. It would really make me sick to my stomach with fear, even on a perfectly sunny day. It's kind of funny that I remember all of that so well. I have been to basements and tornado shelters a multitude of times in my whole life. I couldn't even count them, partly because I don't remember them all, but that event obviously made a big impression on my little life at the time. It just makes me wonder if Isaiah will remember last night for years to come.

    Spring is always sort of "exciting" in Kansas. Every town I've lived in (except this one), there has always been some reason why a tornado would never come through that particular town. In one, it was because it was situated in a valley so it was protected by the hills. In another, it was because it was situated between two rivers and that was somehow supposed to keep it safe. But really, though, God is in control of all that. He can do whatsoever he pleases, but it is comforting to know that whatsoever he is pleased to do is good and right, and it is good and right because he is pleased to do them. It was kind of nice in the shelter last night when it was just the four of us there. We were singing psalms and I was just very thankful that God was in control of even a tornado, which seems really big and scary, but not to God. If I am fearful of a tornado, how much more so should I fear Him who is the creator of it? I've thought about that a lot of times before. It's something that's so easy to forget sometimes when I'm caught up with the daily life of a mother and wife. But God is faithful even when his children are not, and that is a blessed promise indeed!

    It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22, 23

  • New Website

    David set me up with a new website. I have not been consistent in posting on Xanga though so we'll see how this one turns out. It is http://www.lisa.darkroastwebs.com. It has been fun setting it up. Drop by and leave a comment sometime.

    In other exciting news, I am helping David design webs. And in other other exciting news, we are under a tornado watch right now and there is quite a bit of lightening outside, so I better call it quits for now. Have a good night everyone!

Monday, 31 March 2008

  • It's been so long since I posted that Xanga sent me an email about it...

    I have cookies in the oven and have some blog ideas running around in my head that I hope to post later. Maybe this time it won't be 4 months until I post them!

Thursday, 01 November 2007

  • Updates

    It is almost 10:30 p.m. I am due to wake David up from his "nap" in about 10 minutes. He told me to give him an hour and a half and I have direct instructions to "push (him) off the couch" at that time. He has a few things to do still before bed. It has definitely been a stressful week around these here parts. Last Friday, the new Mac operating system, Leopard, was released. David had pre-ordered his and had it delivered to him at work the very day it was released. He was so excited about it and brought his computer to work with him to install it there in the background while he did other stuff. Well, he tried to install it and...it froze. So, he turned it off (not exactly a good thing to do during an installation, especially of an operating system, but there weren't any other options at that point). The same thing happened again, and again, and again, and...did you know that Macs have a blue screen of death like a Windows machine? It isn't the same color blue, more like a turquoise or a greenish-blue color. But it just stayed like that with a little spinning ball (akin to the hourglass on a PC that shows up when your computer is busy) on the screen. On top of all of that, David had a huge business plan due for his class Monday and was unable to access it at all to work on it. He didn't seem too stressed out but I sure was. He decided to install the old operating system back on to try and access his files again and back them up. After many hours of doing that, he started over from scratch, having cleared the hard drive and was then able to install the new OS. He found out Monday that his teacher was kind enough to give him an extension! The Lord is gracious! So, he was able to get it turned in yesterday. That's part of the reason why he's so tired today, catching up from lack of sleep and all.

    I am so looking forward to our Thanksgiving break. The plan is to be in Colorado for about 10 days or so. We haven't taken a vacation like that in awhile. Life has been so busy. Last week, we had Thursday and Friday off and I had this really long list of things I was going to accomplish during that time. It turned out that I got maybe a third of it done. At least that's better than nothing though, right? Oh well. Se la vie. I sure didn't realize how much time I actually had before school started. Work has been busier lately too. It's been hard for me to be content with my job. We are working toward the goal of me not having to work (yay!) but we unfortunately aren't there yet. So, maybe someday soon.

    In exciting news, I am only 7.5 pounds away from what I was when I got pregnant with Miriam! It sure makes it easier to keep going when I see the results. In fact, right now I'm all decked out in my workout garb and need to go get my "glow" on  so better do that before it's too late. Good night.

Friday, 17 August 2007

  • Ramblings on a Work Day

    I'm sitting at my desk right now and am in between transcription reports so thought I'd write a blog entry finally. Life has been pretty busy as usual, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Keeps me out of trouble! The homeschooling has officially begun. Miriam's first day of kindergarten was Monday. That's been a fun adventure so far. She LOVES it and is disappointed when I run out of schoolwork for her. I would love it if she kept her enthusiasm but I'm not counting on it. It's kind of like her love of cleaning. She gets so excited when she helps me dust or sweep the floor or even put laundry away. I wish I had that kind of enthusiasm when I cleaned! My house would be spotless all the time.

    This summer really has flown by. I can't believe it's mid August already. Thankfully, I have been able to keep up my workout routine. In fact, David has even joined me on a couple of occasions. We recently bought Turbo Jam, the 5-DVD set, and it is pretty intense. I like it though. David wishes the women would wear more clothes. A few ladies from church also come over every weekday morning to work out with me as long as something else isn't going on that morning. It's been fun and so much easier with other people there.

    In other exciting news, today is Friday! That always makes me happy because that means it's almost the weekend. I don't have anything particularly exciting going on this weekend except for braving the grocery stores on a Saturday. That's always fun (note sarcasm). At least I'm not going to Walmart. That's enough to make me pull my hair out on any given day, but especially Saturday.

    My stepmom and little sister (she's 4) came to visit from Colorado this past week. It was very brief but we enjoyed it. They stayed all afternoon and evening on Tuesday and I got to take the day off. We had a nice time of visiting. A few weeks ago, David's sister, Abby, came up from Austin for a visit and then David's stepdad also came up to get Abby and to visit for a few days. We had a nice time. We ended up going to the Kansas History Museum one day. I have lived in Topeka for 4 years now and that's the first time I went. It wasn't that big but it was nice. I like museums. They also have an area for the kids to play which is free. That would be a nice rainy day outing.

    I better wrap this up for now.     I hope everyone has a good weekend.

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lisa_michelle_e

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    • Name: Lisa
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About Me

  • I am a wife of 8 years and a mother. I have two children and most of the time, I enjoy staying home with them. I am also a medical transcriptionist but only work part time - keeping up with my children is hard enough! :)

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