Thankful

We encountered a pretty big weather event Sunday afternoon.  We had known all week that Sunday was going to be wrought with rough weather; no one anticipated it would be this devastating.  In southern Tippecanoe county an EF-3 tornado touched down and ripped havoc on Mintonye Elementary and Southwestern Middle School.  Mintonye is where our good friend Natalie works as the ever-popular lunch lady.  Natalie and her family live less than five miles from where the tornado touched down, so we feel so thankful that her family and farm animals were able to stay safe.  I wanted to share a snippet of an email she sent to family and friends along with some pictures.

Well, we're happy to say everyone is safe and we might only have a couple of trees down in the woods. It could have been a LOT worse, and the way it sounded from our hideout under the stairs, I would've expected a lot worse. I knew it was about to hit the fan when the alpacas all crammed into the barn and Amelia tried climbing the walls in the closet (literally). Animals and their sixth sense....

I'm attaching a few pics from school that our custodian took this morning. We, along with the kitchen staff at Southwestern MS, meet with our supervisor in the morning. We may get reassigned to other schools temporarily to help with the increase from the displaced students. The best I can hope for is that the kids and I will all be in the same building. We could get split up between three, for a fun logistical shuffle every day...

We had a small waste water treatment facility behind our building, and it was completely obliterated. The Superintendent has said that will be one of the biggest obstacles to overcome--walls and the roof-- can be fixed quickly, but dealing with the septic and water issues now are a problem. That also prevents them from putting temporary trailer/classes in the parking lot.

The white door is the kitchen door, where the kids and I go in every day. The tall wooden boards on the right are covering J's classroom. 

 Our former water treatment facility.

Area on far west side of the building (also facing the middle school), where the kindergarten classes are.

And so because of the heavy damage the storm left behind throughout the county, including many homes and traffic lights without power, all of TSC was cancelled yesterday.  I suspect TSC brought in a team of structural engineers to evaluate all of the buildings for damage.  Amy and I quickly headed into 'divide and conquer' mode- I took the morning shift, her father-in-law took the lunch hour, and Amy covered the afternoon.  

It was a banner day for Kari and Nolan.  I took them over to the Union for a little bowling before the most popular class on campus started- yes, bowling! (at least 7 sections a semester with 30 students each.  Kevin and I are both alums of this course; Kevin x2!)  

After bowling we had an early lunch at Pappy's Sweet Shop, topping it off with a milkshake for two.  So cute!  In the afternoon, Amy took them over to Hobby Lobby and to Starbucks for hot chocolate.

Future Occupations

It's far too early to tell what occupations our children will one day choose. Kari has mentioned being a dentist and most recently a cupcake maker. Bryce, well, he doesn't really want to do anything related to work.

However, if we had to guess at this point a potential laborious future for Bryce it will likely include a large vehicle. Options at this point include fireman, trash truck operator, bus driver or farmer. And after today's memorable trip to Morehouse Farms, there's a good chance Farmer Bryce might be coming to a farm near you in the coming years.

Earlier this summer we won a silent auction prize of a "combine ride" at a farm near our house. After a few unsuccessful attempts to schedule the ride, thanks to Mother Nature and a hectic home schedule, we were finally able to connect with Doug Morehouse.

While we had not met Doug before, we arrived at his farm knowing many people who were friends with him. He farms nearly 2,000 acres and was down to his final few days of bringing down the corn before he can call 2013 complete.

Thankfully we were able to get Kari and Bryce into his 3-year old John Deere today. The kids climbed up the ladder and sat in amazement at being in such a large machine. Little did they  know how loud and wild it would get.

Doug took the kids on four "swipes" the length of a couple football fields. At one point, he even let Bryce, or his fancy GPS system, drive the lengthy route. Afterwards we got a brief tutorial on how the corn is harvested. Frankly, the parents could have stayed for a while longer just to learn more about Doug and his livelihood.

In the end, Bryce left with a bright green JD hat and a huge smile. Kari said it was lots of bouncing and a noisy ride, but one she really enjoyed, too. Who knows, maybe one day years from now we'll see if Bryce really does drive a combine by himself.

A Batty 2013 Halloween

I can officially say that I'll take a rainy Halloween night any time!  What a splendid way to curb the intake of candy and keep the candy inventory low in the house.  On the downside, our hand-out bowl looks like it was hardly touched.  That will be heading to the College of Pharmacy candy jar first thing Monday morning!

As usual, we had a neighborhood pizza party prior to trick-or-treating.  It's great to visit with the neighbors, see everyone's costumes and then head out in a monster sized posse.

Kari and Bryce's costumes were once again homemade, but with the help of one of my favorite bloggers.  I made my own bat pattern and the kids got to pick out the satin of their choice.

 Posing with our favorite high school neighbor, Maggie!

We had the added treat of one of my former co-workers and good friend, Tiffany, come to town for a quick overnight visit.  Tiffany lives in AZ now but was back in Indy for a conference.  She made the drive up and spent the night with us.  Kari's piano that she received for her birthday two years ago came from Tiffany.  It was really special to have them sit down and play a couple songs together.  I joked when Tiffany sat down to play a little Journey from memory that the piano was secretly saying, "Thank you!" for playing more than one note at a time :)