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.

Singing Along on Saturday with Tags and Awards

I had no problem with the song decision this week.  When I'm at work and have a "break", I can't stand for it to be quiet in my room, so I usually pop in a cd or turn on the radio.  I think it comes from being from a big family where there was always noise in the house!  Anyway, one day this week, I popped in a cd that I titled:  "country", not really remembering what songs were on it.  Turns out there were songs on it that OS & I listened to on our way to my in-laws after the tornado hit the town.  It was a good trip for us, all things considered.  This was one of the songs that we listened to:



Debby at Just Breathe gave me an award!  Here it is:

Thank you so much!  It came with conditions, though:
Accept and thank the person who gave it to you! List 10 things about yourself List 5 additional things you DON'T like Then pick ten people to give this lovely award to!

So, here it goes:
 ABOUT ME:
1.  I'm a mom of 3 boys young men.
2.  I'm a wife to my 'chubby hubby' (his words, not mine!).
3.  I'm the 8th child in a family of 10 children.
4.  I'm a 'cradle Catholic'.
5.  I've lived in 3 southern states.
6.  Last summer was the 1st time I traveled out of the country (excluding my Bahamas fiasco).
7.  I yell at ballgames...any ballgames...it doesn't matter if I know anything about the sport or not.
8.  I have 2 little dogs whom I adore.
9.  I love to read.
10.  I love my job.
DISLIKES:
1.  Rude people
2.  Black coffee
3.  Scary movies
4.  The dark
5.  Cleaning house


Now for the 10 friends whose turn it is to take the award:
It's really hard to decide who to give it to, especially since I don't know if the 10 I pick will be interesting in doing this.  So, I'm going to take a chance and extend the invitation to the following:

Rantings of a Southern Girl

Miss Teacher

View from a Hill

From This Side of the Pond

Easy Street

AuburnChick's Weblog

Sweet Tea

Tempo and Speed

If Necessary, Use Words

Karen's Korner

Half-Past Kissin' Time 

The Beverly Buzz


I'm also extending to them this tag after also receiving it from Debby at Just Breathe:
(If you don't want to participate, you won't hurt my feelings at all!)

Looks like I'm one of the lucky ones who are "it"!  Here's what you do:

1) Go to your photo files, select the 8th photo folder.

2) Select the 8th photo in that folder.

3) Post that photo along with the story behind it.

4) Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same!

Here's my picture:

  This is a picture of YS at a soccer game.  The band director is really into getting the kids playing at all sporting events.  YS plays baritone in the band, but he was given the opportunity to play the bass drum at MS' soccer game.  This was taken 04 May 2009.

Misc. Monday

Saturday night was a little rough around here.  There was a lot of rain, and, around 2:00 we had a pretty big storm.  There was a report of a tornado touching down in the south end of the county, luckily there were no deaths.  There was a report of a tree falling on the house of an elderly woman...her bedpost stopped the tree from crushing her.  I used to be very afraid of storms, but they really don't bother me that much anymore.  They still wake me up, but I usually go right back to sleep while it's still rumbling.  Believe me, I've said a whole bunch of "Hail Mary's" during storms when I was little!  I don't know if the police/fire sirens kept me awake on Sat. night (we don't have tornado sirens here), but I got up and turned on the weather channel.  We were under a tornado warning.  That's warning, not a watch.  We don't get a lot of tornadoes around here (not the weather kind, anyway...the high school my boys attend are the "Tornadoes"!), so when we have a warning, there's reason to take it seriously.  I debated whether or not to wake up my husband and go downstairs, but then the warning was lifted.  So, he had a night of uninterrupted sleep!
Yesterday was Mass, laundry, and dinner at my parents'.  One of my cousins from Tx. and her husband are in visiting friends who live nearby.  Every once in a while a cousin will have a reason to be up here, so it's usually a big deal when they're here.  Here's a picture I snapped:

There's always a lot of talking and catching up when we all get together.  Okay, okay...there's also a lot of BS that goes along with it, too:

And, today starts the last bus duty of the year for me!  HOORAY!  I have 3 mornings of torturing the young 'uns left!  And, not counting today, we only have 3 more Mondays!

Karen over at Still Magnolias had this amazing post yesterday:  The Power of the Pencil.  It's a copy of  her husband's sermon from yesterday.  Like I said, it's amazing.  When you read it, you can just feel the Spirit guiding him through it.  Y'all go have a look!

I'm still looking for opinions on whether to restain or paint our kitchen cabinets, as well as any backsplash ideas:

Have a Marvelous Monday!