Random Updates & Thoughts

1. A lot has happened. Remember that thunderstorm I posted about last week? Two days later, we had seven, yes SEVEN, tornado warnings. It was much worse than the previous storm - three times as many trees were down around my building and several fell on cars and homes throughout the city. Two tornadoes were confirmed and there were several injuries. The family and I spent most of the evening at a friends house, doing laundry while she was on vacation.



It text message and email warnings got to be comical, especially since the weather outside her house was still very nice. It was pretty late so we decided to go home to the apartment. I was driving and everything was fine until we were about a half mile away. As I was driving past the mall, all the lights flickered everywhere and then went off. The wind picked up and we could feel the car start shaking in the wind. The rain was pounding side ways and I couldn't see where I was driving. We crept slowly along with other cars, my hands gripped tightly to the steering wheel. Nicklas was freaking out in the back seat and I was calmly telling him that everything was just fine. Ha! Good thing he believed me. We finally made it home, falling into the apartment with our soaked clothes. I was still shaking. We had no electricity so we decided to have a sleepover downstairs in the living room. I figured if a tornado came, I could quickly get the boys into the bathroom. I HATE NOT HAVING A BASEMENT! We ended up being about a mile away from where one of the tornados hit. Storms don't usually make me nervous, bring it on, I say, but I FREAKED out with this one. It was too close to home. Here are some photos of the damage at the building I work in on campus.

2. We had a great time at the lake last weekend although another thunderstorm hit while we were there. Nine of us had taken the pontoon across the late to visit with my aunt and uncle who made us dinner. As we were eating outside, the sky was getting darker and darker. We covered the pontoon just as the thunderstorm hit. Everyone hung out inside and it passed quickly and without any damage, or so we though. When we returned to the other side of the lake (the Indiana side, we had been visiting the Michigan side) we discovered we had no power. The power stayed out for 18 hours. Luckily we didn't see any other damage, although Battle Creek, a city about an hour away, was hit with a devastating straight line winds.

3. The lack of electricity didn't damper weekend through. The Polack and I went wine tasting one day, we had some yummy food (Uncle John's ribs were awesome!), and we had multiple rides on the sea doo (another shoutout to Uncle John who very graciously lets us use the sea doo as much as we want.) Earlier this year, I talked my dad in to letting me help him clean up his sail boat with the hope of getting it in the water. It's an Inland Cat that he bought in 1984. It's been parked on a trailer behind the back garage for about 15 years. Inland Cats aren't the best sailboats - they tip over easily - but they are popular on Lake George, home of the Inland Cat Class Sailing Association. On Saturday, my dad brought over his power washer and the Polack and I took turns over the weekend cleaning first the underside, then the inside. After it was power washed, I went in a scooped out all the excess water that was filled with broken down styrofoam (which was falling out of the top of the boat from years of chipmunks making their home in the boat) and pine needles. It was a nasty job but the result was nice clean boat. On our last day at the lake, my dad came over again and while the boat was still in the back yard, we put it together. First the mast, then the boom, then the sail. We were left trying to figure out the mainsheet/job sheet (rope and pully). We finally went to the neighbor, Stan, and asked him. He had an Inland Cat at one time so we hoped he could help us. It took several suggestions and tries and we finally figured it out. The sailboat was all put together!



While talking wtih Stan, I found out that there were only about 300 and some Inland Cats and most were made in the 1950's. Each boat is numbered in order of creation. Our boat is 208. Stan had one that was number 7. My dad bought the boat from a work colleague in 1984. The friend lived on Clear Lake which is about 10 miles award from Lake George.


Here is a picture of my dad. Look out how long his hair is!


It's still set up in the back yard and we're hoping to put it in the lake when we're there on Sunday. I feel like putting it together was the easy part. Now I actually have to learn to sail it. I've asked my dad several times about what to do if it tips over. He has experience - he's tipped it a few times!

4. After several delays in the house, I contacted our contractor to ask if he's still confident we'll be able to move in by June 30. He didn't sound as sure but went over the timeline with me:

June 1 – drywall
June 2 – prime the walls
June 3-6 – fit the trim for walls
June 7 paint
June 8-10 – do hard flooring like wood, tile, etc.
June 13 – plumbing, heating and air
June 14 – cleaning
June 14-15 drywall touch up
June 16-17 – second coat of paint
June 20-21 – carpet
June 22 – trim guy will do door knobs and other stuff
June 23 – hang mirrors and shelving
June 24 – clean windows

There are several things not in here, like finishing the deck and putting in the sinks and toilets. And this timeline works for us IF everything goes like it's supposed to. BUT everything always seems to get pushed back a day or two and that throws the whole schedule off so we are't holding our breaths about the move in date. We are SO ready to be out of that apartment. But you knew that, didn't you?

5. The boys have three days of school next week and then they're on summer vacation. They are both looking forward to it. I let the school know that we'd be submitting a transfer request since our new house will be out of their current school district. Nicklas will still go to his current school but Seeger is technically supposed to go another school within the corporation. We'd like them to both be at the same school, especially since it's such a great school. Anyway, I received a voice mail from the Principal who let me know that they will not be approving a transfer for Seeger, just because we want Seeger at the same school that Nicklas goes to. I called her back and kindly left a message that there are multiple reasons why we are requesting a transfer and I was still planning on filling out the form.

Thankyouverymuch.

I have let the PTO community know that if the transfer isn't approved, I will be taking my volunteering hours to the school Seeger will be forced to go to. I'm supposed to chair three committees next year and they'd hate to see me decline so we'll see what happens - I'm playing hardball and I don't think I'll win but I'll try everything I can think to do.

6. I really love that both boys are having a good time in Tae Kwon Do. It's great for them too. They get exercise, the class times work well for us, and they're in the same class so we don't have to do too much driving around for them. Of course, when they move to the advanced class, they'll be going from 6-6:45 every day which is the worst time ever. When are we supposed to eat dinner?

7. Baseball isn't going as well this year. Both have lost most of their games. Nicklas is having an okay time but Seeger doesn't really like playing. He's a good hitter but he has no clue what to do when he's playing defense. The other day, he told us that he doesn't like playing baseball because he doesn't like getting yelled at all the time. Awwwww....

8. My cousin is getting married tomorrow and the Polack and I are looking forward to the wedding. It will be nice to see my mom's side of the family. It's adult only so the boys are going to spend the night with my dad. They've never done that before. They're looking forward to it. My mom and I made a beautiful quilt for my cousin. She requested a lot of white with a little bit of purple. I thought it would be boring but it turned out really, really well. She LOVED it. You can see a picture of it on my quilting blog.

9. My friend Christy suggested I read the Hunger Games. I ordered the trilogy off of half.com and I'm super excited about it. Sure it's young adult but I've heard really good things about it. Plus they're making it in to a movie so I always like watching movies adapted from books.

10. Speaking of, Something Borrowed is finally out in the theaters only it's getting really bad reviews. This makes me very sad because I really liked the book.