Stuck on the Hodgepodge

 Head over to Joyce's to add your post and see how everyone else answered this week's questions.

 1. Besides the flag, tell us about something red, something white and something blue from your weekend. 

My amaryllis is blooming. My Daddy gave me some bulbs & I thought I killed them!

Don't mind the weeds.

White: I'm completely stuck on this one. I wore white pants to Mass on Sunday, but that's the only thing I can think of!

Blue: CH & I took a trip to Lowe's. This picture was from last year, but again this year they had a parking spot with a Memorial Day Observance. I just didn't take a picture of it. 

2. June is here and it's National Give A Bunch of Balloons Month. Who would you give a bunch to if you could? Tell us why. 

My friend Michelle, who is the convention chairperson for our Diocesan Council of Catholic Women (CCW) Convention coming up next week. She envisioned balloons at the hotel & on-site. I think she's able to get some but not as many as she wanted due to the budget.

3. What are three adjectives you associate with the month of June? Something you're looking forward to this month?

Hot, reading, lazy. While CH & I aren't going on the vacation we thought we would, we are going to spend a week camping. We're going to 1 place we've never been, 1 place we've been to (with amazing views!), and we're ending the week at some friends' house.

4. Tell us about a time (besides the obvious Corona answer) when you felt stuck in second gear.

Every Fall with work. I always feel like I'm in second gear that time of year. Somehow, though, things always seem to get done.

5. Sum up your May in fifteen words or less.

Unbelievably anxiety-ridden, but it's over now and I can enjoy the summer.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

For the first time ever, we're having trouble with a pest in our grill. YUCK. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm pretty convinced it's of the mouse persuasion. I cleaned it really well over the weekend and it appeared to be all good until Tuesday. I have a bird feeder next to the porch, so maybe if I move that it will help. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Pause

Memorial Day

Please take a few minutes today to remember our fallen heroes and their families.

Remembering the 8

It seems like the tornado event in CH's hometown was an eternity ago.  The severe weather we had yesterday was a brutal reminder of what a witch Mother Nature can be.

It's hard to believe that just 4 years ago, a tornado took the lives of 8 people, with 6 of those people being young men and women who had just begun to live.  A school is suppose to be a safe place; the 6 who died were seeking refuge in the "third hall".  There were reports of angry parents wanting to know why school wasn't let out early because of the warning of bad weather.  Honestly, if the kids had been sent home, I think there would have been many more lives lost that day.  We all know how kids are:  they would have gone to a friend's house (that may not have been standing after the tornado) and played video games, or have been at the local hangout.

Life has gotten back to normal in that town, a "new normal", if you will.  Life has gone on...different from before, but it has continued.  And the town has thrived.   And they have not forgotten.  If you've never been to the town, upon first glance you wouldn't notice anything.  My MIL has a "new and improved" biergarten, a new house next door and across the street, and my MIL's plants are growing.  But if you really look, the evidence is still there.  Little reminders of what happened 4 years ago.

Below is a video from the first day of school in August.  That was the first day that any of the students had a school to call their own:  they had been going to school at the jr. college in town.  Take special notice of the Wildcat on the floor in the foyer; it's the same one that was in the old school.  Just in case you can't make out what the retired teacher is saying, she says that "no one walks on the wildcat".  When President Bush visited the school after the tornado, the president of the SGA grabbed his elbow as he was about to walk on it, and told him, "nobody walks on the wildcat."




My heart goes out to those families who lost loved ones. Please remember them today as you go through your daily routine.

For last year's post on this, please go here.

EHS 8 Memorial

My posts will rarely be this serious (except for Fridays during Lent), but I really wanted to post about the "EHS 8".


On 1 March, 2007, my husband's hometown experienced a terrible tragedy. An F-4 tornado whipped through the town, destroying the high school and an elementary school, as well as many lives. The high school took the brunt of the tornado: 8 students lost their lives. My mother-in-law was at home (less than a mile from the high school), and, while their house had quite a bit of damage, she came out unharmed. The house next door and a couple of houses across the street were destroyed.


What was amazing after the tornado were the stories that came out of that tragedy. One of the students who was killed lifted a beam off of another student so she could get free, only to have the beam fall on him. A very pregnant teacher shielded a student from getting hurt. Not only did the town come together to put their lives back, but it seemed as though the whole state, if not much of the Southeastern United States, came to their aid.


The landscape of the town changed after that. Where there were trees, there are now fields. Where there were houses, there are just slabs of concrete or nothing at all.


The high school students are going to school at the town's junior college: only the senior class knows high school life in the high school building. Another high school is being built on the other side of town. The football field (which had a lot of damage) will also be relocated. This town (as many southern towns are) is a big football town; they just finished their last season in that stadium. My husband and brother-in-law have a lot of good memories of that field, as well as the high school.


A lot of "what ifs" went through my mind after the tornado: What if we had moved to my husband's town instead of mine? My boys could have been in that building; one of them could have been in the hall that was hit the hardest. The pictures and stories of parents frantically searching for their children could have been us. As a mom, I don't think you can help but think about those things. I know I hugged my boys a little tighter after that day.


A few weeks after the tornado, Oldest Son & I went down to do what we could to help. I thought I was ready to see the damage, but I wasn't. I n my mind I can still see the blue tarps on the houses and smell the pine trees that were blown down by the winds. What was amazing was that on the other side of town, things looked "normal". The people just picked up, got to work, and moved on.


The families of the 8 students have formed a memorial scholarship, which will continue until the children who were in Kindergarten in March, 2007 graduate from EHS. Please keep the families of the 8 in your prayers. It's been 3 years since the tornado, but I'm sure it feels like yesterday to them. They have experienced the unimaginable.


I would like to thank the families for allowing me to use the "EHS 8 Memorial" logo which was put on t-shirts this year. The t-shirts were sold to benefit the scholarship. If you would like to give a donation, the address is below:


Enterprise City Schools
220 Hutchinson Street
Enterprise, Alabama 36330

(Designate that your gift is for the EHS 8 Memorial Scholarship Fund.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.