Girl's Day Out

Yesterday was lovely. I enjoyed a girl's day out. Maria and I went out of town to visit with my Mom, sister, aunt and cousin. We've been trying to make this trip for weeks but every time I had a day off, something came up. In fact, the last two times we scheduled this trip, we endured snowstorms instead. Anyway, it finally happened!

From the moment we arrived at Mom's house, Elise was ready for adventure.

She wanted to hug everyone and inspect everything. She was especially excited over Mom's cat and dog. They weren't so thrilled to see her but she didn't seem to take it personally.

She just kept on moving!

When my aunt, Michelle, and cousin, Anne Marie, arrived, Elise wanted to have time hugging everyone.



Unfortunately, Cordelia started feeling pretty sick. She remained sweet and adorable but we could all tell she wasn't her usual sparkly self. Anne Marie read books to the girls, which was
perfect for Cordy.






My daughter, Maria, gets a turn snuggling Cordelia. Throughout our visit, Cordy would ask different ones if they wanted a chance to snuggle with her. That was about all she had to give. Even sick, she was sweet as can be.

My sister, Tina, uses a motorized wheelchair. Usually, that is a disadvantage to her when it comes to little ones warming up to her. Not so with Elise! Elise loved it!

She even got Tina to take her for rides, sometimes even trying to "drive" it herself. Thankfully, Tina did not give up the controls. Cordelia, who has always been a bit worried about that wheelchair, decided to go for a ride as well.

She was polite but quickly said, "You can let me get down now."

I love all of these women and it was nice to spend time together. If you haven't already, go back to their names (Maria, Michelle, Anne Marie) and click to be magically taken to their personal blogs. Four out of five of us are bloggers! If my Mom is a blogger, she's still keeping it a secret.

Thanks for a fine day, ladies!

Prioritizing

I woke up at 4:30ish today. That is not unusual as a lot of days I need to be heading off to work before 5:30. Today, however, is my day off. I had planned on sleeping in. It is raining on our roof and that makes for a peaceful, sleepy sound. All was set up perfectly for a good rest, but I blew it. I started thinking about stuff.

First thing this morning I woke up thinking that I need better prioritizing in my life. I really am blessed. I have soooo much good in my life, but I feel a bit frustrated most of the time. Why is that? Well, I think I've got it figured out! That is one good thing about laying around in the wee hours, you have time to figure things out.

Here's the conclusion I came to. I have too much that is wonderful in my life! Poor me, huh? Yes, I have family and friends, home and yard, a satisfying profession, a room full of supplies for sewing, crocheting and other crafts, Bible Studies to attend, a great group of young people to teach in Sunday School, a computer that opens up an entire world of interesting things I'd like to learn...I even have an old clarinet available for me to learn on. Learning the clarinet, in fact, is on my bucket list. Completing a book I started is also on that list. I never seem time for those things, though.

My frustration comes in that I can't really do all I want to do and do it well. I hate that! Don't you?

Well, I've got to better prioritize my time. I do some of that already. I put my God and my family first most of the time. I will drop about anything to spend time with my husband, children or granddaughters. I don't want to change that. From there, though, I get a little tangled up in the smaller things and never get back to the bigger things. I sit down with my computer and check on Facebook, click on a link to watch a cute little girl getting surprised by her military Daddy coming home unexpectedly, I move on to read some medical news, look at cool animal photos... pretty soon I've used up an hour... ok, truthfully, I can use up several hours in the evening without even meaning to. That isn't so bad but it is time I could have used to be writing on my book or finishing up a special order crochet project. I enjoy a lot about the internet but I think I need to turn on a timer or something so that I'm using less time on it. I may even skip a day or two from posting on my blog at times.

How about you? What chips away at your time? What do you wish you were doing more of instead? What techniques do you use to stay on track?

The Clean Up Continues

I left for work yesterday about 5:30 a.m. I returned from work about 5:30 p.m. During that time I was plenty busy. I didn't hear from Mike and assumed he was at work also. As I approached our home, I had to blink; I couldn't believe my eyes!  Remember our "fort", the branches we were piling in our front yard Saturday and Sunday? This picture does not really show it all, but you get the idea.

Well, when I returned home last night, it was gone. It turns out, a neighbor loaned a pick-up and a trailer to Mike. It took Mike from about 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., and he can barely walk now, but he got it done.

All we have left is some work in the back yard! I was so grateful to Mike! Looking at our front yard today, it doesn't even look as though we had so much snow and destruction...unless you look upward. There is a lot more sky showing through the trees!

I am amazed at the difference that has occurred in just a few days. Under all that, we still had a pretty green lawn, even a few flowers in the flower bed. Remember, this is what it looked like in our front yard on Friday!

Mike was telling me about all the people out in their yards, people we usually don't see. I really love that people were helping each other so much. I've heard of some folks asking outrageous prices to help with the broken trees all over the town, but mostly I've heard of people reaching out to those in need. While I hope to never again see a storm this damaging, there really has brought out the best in a lot of folks.

Tissue Anyone?

This is what happened... Mike was snapping his fingers or pointing or something, wanting me to do something about Elise. So I did! I grabbed my camera!

Lars and the Real Girl and Laura and the Little Girl

OK, I'm getting rather sick of talking about all the amputated tree parts we're all dealing with. I want totalk a bit more about the fun part of the storm...the time spent with family and friends.

We found out that a friend of our's, Laura, was without power and COLD! Laura is almost family to us; we've known her since she was a young girl.  Laura joined us Saturday afternoon. She's easy company to have, well, because she is like family.

Saturday evening Laura and I watched Lars and the Real Girl. Have you seen it? It stars Ryan Gosling playing an interesting role. The movie is several years old and although I'd seen it before, it had been awhile. It is a WONDERFUL movie. It is about a guy who buys a blow-up doll. I know, that sounds horrible. Really, though, it is a sweet and tender movie about the love of family, mental health, kindness of a small community and romance. To top it off, it is really funny. I realize I am asking you to take a big leap of faith here, but I loved that movie! I think Laura did as well.
Here, just watch the trailer...  If you've not seen it and have access to Netflix or Amazon Prime or something, give it a try. I do not think you will regret it.

Besides watching a great movie, we enjoyed time with Maria and Eric and the girls. Cordelia was pretty wound up and she LOVES Laura! She really preferred to play with her without the rest of us interrupting. Laura was such a great sport about it. No wonder Cordy loves her so much!

I do not know why Cordy was drooling in that last photo. Try not to notice, ok?

And last, just in case he checks in on my blog, Happy Birthday to my big brother, Mike. Have a delightful day!

It's Good to Have Friends With Chainsaws

So, in case you missed it, click here to see how our yard looked Friday. It was awful and we were pretty overwhelmed! Saturday we sent Sam to help Maria and Eric (by then they had power back) with the damage at their home while Mike and I started in at our  house. It was hard, hard work. On the other hand, we don't usually spend that much time together, it was a bright and sunny day, and we had less damage than some people in town.

This is how things looked on Saturday...

The sun was melting that 14+ inches of snow very quickly!

Yesterday a friend from church came by with a chainsaw and a little trailer. He looked at all that Mike had hand-sawed and was amazed! Well, Mike had spent hours and hours and hours sawing while I lopped smaller branches. We both hauled about a forest worth of limbs out to the front of our house. Our friend cut up the biggest limbs lying in our back yard. He didn't have too much time to give but it was still so helpful! It raised our spirits to have him cut up those big branches into sizes we could handle. We're still pretty worn out and sore, but we can manage it. We also loaded up his trailer twice, for runs to one of the city's newly designated limb drop off areas. That didn't make much of a dent out of our pile but still, we've made a lot of progress just to get everything cut! That's Sam, hauling loads from the downed branches in the back yard.

We still have lots and lots of loads to be hauled, but our chaos is now more organized.

When we look up, we see we still have some problems. Can you see the broken branches dangling up there? We have several more of those. Will a good wind bring them down? Maybe, but we'd rather then didn't fall on a person or the house.

You simply could not imagine what this city looks like! There is destruction everywhere. It is really quite heartbreaking. Everywhere I drove, there were trees down. Streets are lined with piles and piles of the tree carcasses. It almost looks like big hedges as they are all still green.  There is so much work to be done and so many people with bigger problems than our's. Although we uncovered Sam's car and it looks pretty good, not everyone's vehicle was so lucky. It is the strangest thing to see our town so injured.

On a happier note, though, we've also seen neighbors helping neighbors. We've seen strangers stopping to help someone with a mess in their yard. Thousands were without power but we all worked together to help each other find warm beds. We were all in this together and we knew it. That's something good that came of this white tornado.

Angels and Little Ones

Matthew 18:10  

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. 

For I tell you that in heaven their angels 

always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

photos by E.K. Wimmer

Crack, Snap and BOOM!

Well, what a day we've had!

I got up at 3:30 a.m. and stood by our front window to survey the snow that was accumulating, as well as the limbs that had fallen. While standing there I was frightened by a crack, snap and boom as a branch broke and part of it landed on the roof just up from the window where I stood. This photo was taken hours later as it was still dark when that occurred, but you get the idea. It was startling at 3:30 a.m!

I knew I needed to get up by 5:00 so I went back to bed and tried to calm down and get some more rest. I tried, I really did, but I kept hearing distant cracks, snacks and booms. Then, I heard one that was not-so-distant. In fact, it was right over our heads. That window is our bedroom and our bed is right under the window. Again, this photo was taken hours later. It wasn't that bad but usually that branch is way, way up in the sky.

I tried to go to work but I didn't make it very far. I was dodging around tree limbs down in the road but after going under two very low power lines I started getting nervous and went back home.

As the sun came up, we saw more and more damage.

We also found our garage covered in limbs.

Sam's car had taken some hits. 

And our yard pretty much looked like a snow bomb had exploded. 

 Every time I went outside I heard more cracks and snaps and booms.

 It sounded so eery out there!

This tree in our front yard usually turns so bright gold that it seems to light up our living room. I've always loved that! This year, though, it didn't even get a chance to change colors. Much of it is on the ground. Also, a lot of broken limbs are caught on other branches still, waiting to crash down.

Mike got up on the garage to relieve some of the weight before it went through the roof. It made me rather nervous but he was careful. He'd saw off bits and throw them down. I'd gather them, lop off some of the smaller limbs and move them aside.  The whole time we'd keep hearing more cracks and booms from our trees as well as those of our neighbors.

Maria and Eric and their girls came over for the day as they did not have power. It gets cold quickly! Eric helped get started on some of the clean up, including climbing on our roof to push off some of the big limbs up there. Thanks, Eric! Click here to see what's going on at their place.

We actually had a rather enjoyable day, despite mourning the damage done to our trees. Maria and the girls helped make it less sad. Our yard is just one of hundreds that are such a mess. It will be a long time before we get all the rubble cleared out but we kept our power, have no holes through our roof and no one fell off the roof! That is the most important part of this day. 

Eric also picked up my camera and took a bunch of photos of the little girls that turned out really well. I will share them, maybe tomorrow. I just don't want them posted with all of these pictures of destruction. It just doesn't go well. You get that, don't you?

Today was one for the record books in this town. Mike Seidel, of The Weather Channel, broadcast from just a mile or two from our house. That really isn't a good thing, is it? Nevertheless, it was our claim to fame on this sadly memorable day.

Stay warm and dry everyone!

Is It Me?

Mike teased me last night that I have been involved in a lot of weird situations lately. He rudely suggested that I might be bad luck, that I was the common element in a rash of odd events.

One such situation began as an innocent lunch. I was sitting at a picnic table outside the surgical center when a guy backed out of a parking spot and into a young woman who had just backed out of her parking spot. Those of us having lunch saw them get out and speak to each other a bit but they did not seem to exchange numbers. Soon, the young woman drove just across the street to a daycare and the guy drove off. Later, we saw out the window that the young woman was back in the parking lot and speaking to a police officer. One of the nurses I work with went out (not sure why) and found out the young woman claimed it was a hit-and-run. Well, eventually I was asked to go out as I'd seen it all. By then, the young woman was crying and admitting that she'd lied. Apparently the man had convinced her it wasn't worth turning into insurance but after speaking to her friends, she'd changed her mind. They'd advised her to get a police report and tell them it was a hit and run. She wasn't counting on an eye witness. That was a weird day.

Just this past Sunday Mike and I were returning to our home after a long day. We were stopped by an accident up ahead of us. Some emergency vehicles were there already, with more arriving. We turned around, along with a line of other people, and headed off, winding through a quiet neighborhood. Mike braked when two little puppies ran in front of us. They wouldn't get out of the street and cars were backing up behind us. I got out and one of them ran under our vehicle. Finally, I was able to call them into a yard and up to the door of a house, which luckily was their's. That wasn't a very exciting story but it was a weirdly difficult time to get to our home that night.

On Wednesday evening I was taking a patient to his car, pushing his wheelchair to the parking lot. I saw two young men buzzing down the street on two little motorized scooters. They were the kind that you stand on, holding on to a handle. They were going surprisingly fast...too fast. One started wobbling and when a vehicle came out of a parking garage he turned to avoid it and he wiped out, skidding along the road. I was trying to figure out how to help him without abandoning my patient but the guy got up, shook himself off and rode off. I bet he was sore later!

So, at lunch yesterday I was telling these things to Maria and told her that Mike/Dad was blaming them on me. After lunch, I rode home with Maria. As she waited in a left turn lane, someone rear-ended us! No, I am not kidding...right after I'd been telling Maria all of this! Not only that, but the driver took off! We got the license plates and description but as we got out to inspect her vehicle, we could see no damage. This isn't a very exciting story either, thank goodness. It was just weird that it happened right after I told her about those other events.

So, what do you think? Is it me? Do you think I am a danger to others?

Get Over Yourself?

I was reading from 2 Corinthians Chapter 5 this morning. What I read was something that didn't sound like it quite jived with what we are taught in our society. That is, we are supposed to be striving to please Christ, not ourselves. I think all Christians know this on some level, but it is really hard for us to put it into practice.

This is hard enough for Christians to understand. How strange this must seem to non-Christians who are trying to understand our motives. Why would we want to do that? Why would we not want to please ourselves? In our society we learn that we deserve certain privileges. We learn we need to look out for ourselves, take care of #1. We need to follow our own desires and be true to ourselves...go for the gold!

All of those things aren't exactly wrong. For example, we are to take care of ourselves. Our bodies are a gift and we are to feed, water and exercise them to keep them healthy. We are to get enough rest to maintain our own health. The thing is, though, we are to do all of this to please our God, not ourselves.

Mike is an example of what it looks like to deny self to please God. If Mike had his way, he would have stayed on the family farm in Northern Montana. Mike is an introvert and it was a good life there for an introvert. If he had chosen to please himself, he would still be there, spending much of his winter hours writing songs. That wouldn't have been a bad thing; the world would have been blessed with a lot more songs of substance. But, God had a different plan for Mike. Mike fought it a bit but once convinced, he put his faith into action and followed that call. He left the life he enjoyed. It was one of the hardest things he has ever done, a big sacrifice. He did it to please God, not himself. He went against who he thought he was to be who God wanted him to be.

When I read chapters like 2nd Corinthians Chapter 5 that term "get over yourself" comes to mind. I'm not saying that things such as confidence and self-respect are wrong. I'm thinking, though, that we maybe need to be reminded that such attributes come from God and are to be used to advance his work. What do you think?

In the Toy Box

Last night we had the little girls over for a few hours while their parents went out on a date. We came up with a way to reduce clean up time later. Usually we end up with toys all over. This time, Mike had another idea.
He just let Elise play right IN the toy box. Clever, huh?

Then, Cordelia wanted to join her little sister.

And finally, Bode wanted to join in.

Clean up was a breeze.

OK, for the record, Maria and Eric always clean up with their

girls and never leave the mess for us anyway.

Cute Lessons