Weekend Wrap-up

Caption Contest Winner!! This week it's Tom who's back in the winner's seat with his, "Gene Simmons' mom- The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
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NetFlix Movie of the Weekend: "The Upside on Anger" Wasn't worth sitting on my DVD for the last four months. The acting seemed stilted, wasn't really feeling any chemistry from anyone. The last 15 minutes explained the movie. Eh.....
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Cinema Movie of the Weekend: "WALL-E" Took Jenna to this while mom had Mallory (after she woke up from sleeping for 15 hours. Yes, you read that right.). Perhaps a bit too dark for a 4yo as Jenna was sitting in each of our laps. I'm not sure it was worth all the hype, though it was a good movie. WALL-E has many endearing qualities, but I really liked M-O. The Pixar short, "Presto" was incredibly funny. Alec Azam....that's genious.
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Weight Watcher's Update: Yet another stellar week for me; dropped another 3# bring my 5 week total to 16.5# gone. Less than 10# before I reach my first goal of 10% lost. My treat for myself? Probably new clothes, especially *ahem* the "unmentionables." Still wearing nursing bras. Not that you needed to know that little bit of information about me.....WHEEE!!!
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What a great weekend this was! Severe weather to our west and south Friday night took all the heat and humidity with it leaving us with a GOREOUS 80* Saturday and no humidity. I opened the house up early Saturday morning and within 2h the inside temp dropped from 78 to 73. After the movie Jenna was taking a nap and Mal was still at mom's taking a nap, so Steve and I hung out in the hanging chairs not doing a darned thing for over an hour. It was pretty nice. Especially to not have any kids around for a spell. We didn't even talk to each other; just hung out and enjoyed a highly unusual July afternoon.

Yesterday it was a bit warmer but still dry and had the house open most of the day. Today the heat and humidity return. But it's the mid-July. Hopefully I can explain this well enough....because it was such a mild spring (albeit incredibly violent) it's made the summer seem not so long. Typically summer starts in May and doesn't end until the first of September. Summer really hasn't gotten a good foothold yet (though our time has come) and here it is; July 14 already. Heck, some schools start back up in a mere four weeks.

Why couldn't have I been pregnant THIS year?

Finished up a couple more landscaping projects as the weather was so accomodating. Grilled Saturday (flat iron steaks) and Sunday (stuffed chicken breasts) with grilled veggies both nights.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow as I have a couple of CDs to review. Knowing my luck I'm behind the 8Ball with this music but I have to share anyway.

Caption Contest!!

The week after a short holiday week always feel just that much longer...why izzit?

Not much on the books for thsi weekend. Then again, then never is but I manage to pack a whole lot of crap into one and never really get the chance to enjoy it peacefully. Perhaps I should practice with my husband with sitting on the couch and watching TV.....nah.....

This week's contest is CAPTION. Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday!!

BULLSEYE!!

It's been quite a while since I've posted a Jenna-ism, and boy! I shant disappoint!

Steve and I have been talking to Jenna about "stranger danger" and "private parts" and all those wonderful things that in an ideal and idyllic world would not have to be discussed. Alas, such is not the case, hence the discussions.

One thing I remember from elementary school about private parts is that where ever your arms cross on your body (chest, pelvis, hiney) are areas that no one should touch. Pretty basic, right?

Either Jenna wasn't paying attention or just didn't comprehend the term "private parts" but she has her own term.

This past weekend she was talking about "private parts" and the term that she used made Steve and I try our hardest to NOT bust out laughing. The ironic thing is is that her term is so incredibly dead-on it's not funny.

Nay, it's hilarious.

Instead of "private parts," Jenna calls them "profit parts."

Weekend Wrap-up

Weight Watchers Update: This week's weigh-in concludes the first month. I'm pleasantly surprised to report a total of 13.5# lost in the first month. Steve is down 10#. Saturday night we completley blew the plan as it was our neighborhood block party complete with fire truck for the kids and a live band!!

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And also nice to report; no bad weather!! Had the house open for most of last week but the humidity crept up during the weekend and the typical July temps returned. But around here to not be running your AC in July is highly unusual, but a welcom change. Don't need the violent weather to obtain said mild temps, however....

So here are a few photos of the block party from Saturday night. Here, Jenna is helping Aunt Joni and Grammy make ice cream. Ain't nuthin' finer than hand-cranked ice cream!

A few pictures of Jenna in the fire truck....

The band.....didn't catch their name, but not a bad cover band.

Mallory diligently untying daddy's shoes.

Jenna and her new friend, Stella, covered in tattoos.
Apparently I didn't feed Mallory enough so she resorted to chewing on her toes.

A good time was had by all and thus wrapped up a pretty decent Holiday Weekend.

Storm Damage

Here are some photos I took yesterday driving around town, being one of those "damned rubberneckers" of the tree damage from Friday's storm. Another thing to consider is the trees that may have been damaged but not broken, and therefore, unseen. Upcoming high winds/thunderstorms/heavy snows may continue to bring these weakened branches down and knocking out power again or damaging houses and vehicles.

This first one is at a church right across the street from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Notice how it just snapped in relation to the other pines next to it. These next few are at ElmwoodPark, adjacent to UNO. This park sustained heavy damage in 1997 from the ice storm. Though it's difficult to determine, these are large arteries of the trees; some are 12" in diameter.

This one is at the bottom of the block in the old neighborhood where Steve, Jenna, and I used to live. This is about 4 blocks from Elmwood Park.

This is at the intersection of Saddle Creek and Poppleton. These trees used to be cottonwood, and monsters at that. I'm wagering they're at least 30" in diameter and the better part of 60' tall.

This is at Joslyn Castle, very close to where i work. Steve and I were married here in 1997. These trees previously survived the 1913 Easter Sunday Tornado that hit the castle so many of these tree are over 100 years old. That's the sad thing about this storm; you can "replace" a historic building but not the history behind it. But with trees this old, it'll take another 100 years. These are monuments to the city and they can never be replaced.

This is at Memorial Park on my way into work.

Now I realize that most of you have no idea where these are taken (nor care) and there's no way you can appreciate the magnitude of the destruction and just how huge these tree were. There hasn't been a street yet I've seen that doesn't have some sort of tree debris piled on the curb. One of the drop-off sites (out of 11) for debris is Tranquility Park, a huge soccer/baseball complex in NW Omaha. There were over 7 THOUSAND trucks waiting to get in to dump debris.

Seven. Thousand.

Still around 6 thousand people without power.

I find it ironic for any severe storm that passes, beit tornado, blizzard, or hurricane. Ever noticed that after the storm has passed and people are surveying the damage that it's sunny with puffy clouds and singing birds? You almost wish it to be cloudy and gloomy for at least a day to match the moods of those affected.

Rarely is it; it's usually sunny and happy looking.

Is it a cruel joke, or a glimmer of hope?

How's Your Vocabulary?

Your Vocabulary Score: B+

You have a zealous love for the English language, and many find your vocabulary edifying. Don't fret that you didn't get every word right, your vocabulary can be easily ameliorated!

How's Your Vocabulary?

Weekend Wrap-up

Caption Contest Winner! This week's winner is Tanya with her, "Ron Jeremy IS the hardest working man in the industry!!" To mirror Holy's response, after reading Tanya's caption, I, too, spit my coffee out!
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Weight Watcher's Update: Well, just as I suspected, my body figured out what was going on and decided to stage a mutiny. After having lost nearly 10# in two weeks, I was only able to lose half-a-pound. But, it's still a loss so I'll take it.

Start: 258
Current: 247.5
10%: 233
Goal: 220-ish
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Yet another wild weather weekend, and frankly, I'm getting tired of the violent weather. The wonderfully cool temperatures and low humidty is great. But what we experienced Friday I don't ever have to experience again.

We were going to Des Moines for the weekend and there was a 60% of rain during the day and into the evening. I watched the clouds slowly build throughout the afternoon. And watched them get increasingly darker.

At last word the storm was traveling around 60 mph. We figured once we got on the road we'd out-run in. But after my mom called me twice in less than two minutes with a panicky message of, "The storm is moving at over 80 mph. Get off the road now! You'll get blow off!"

I watched the storm in my rear-view mirrors get closer and change from dark grey to sickly mint-green. Steve found a you-scrub-it car wash with some empty bays and we dove in about 5 minutes before the brunt of the storm hit. I called my mom to let her know we were off the road and described the white front of the storm as it rotated due to the massive wind sheer. Then

WHAM!

The wind hit full-force and I scrambled back into the car as the back end got pelted with pea-sized hail for almost 2 minutes. If there was ever a time that you could have a complete white-out due to rain, this was it. No lie. There were some trees about 60' in front of us that just disappeared. This was more than mere sheets of rain. Visibility was maybe 20'.

We hunkered down to wait it out for 20 minutes. Kudos to Steve for scouting out the car wash. Normally when we go to DSM we take 680 North instead of I-80 through Council Bluffs; much less traffic. However, we picked the girls up from daycare on our way out so we took 80 through CB. Had we been on 680 we would have had no cover, no protection. So I thanked God things worked out as they did.

However, not everyone was so lucky. We later learned of two teens from CB that were instantly killed when a tree fell onto their car. The pictures showed that the tree pretty much cut the car in two. If you have the time check out our local online news station with stories, video, and pictures of the storm.

Our house didn't sustain any damage, just some plant damage. But on the other side of the block where I grew up a 40' blue spruce just toppled over in the wind. My mom saw it happen. The ground is so saturated that the roots have nothing to hang on to.

132K people were without power after Friday's storm. As of this morning 32K still had no power and some may not get it back until this weekend. The last storm that knocked out this much of the city was in 1997 with the October Snow Storm. I have to drive through one of the older neighborhoods to get to daycare and work and the trees are HUGE; 70' tall, well-established monsters. Many of them completely uprooted or with major limb damage. The offical wind speed was 115 mph and has been classified as stright-line winds. This is similar to tornadoes as far as wind speed but there is no rotation and the path is much wider whereas tornadoes have a very narrow path of destruction.