Tornado?

(Dateline Oklahoma City) Two days after our first "major weather event" in Oklahoma, we're in OKC to find decent food, entertainment, and air conditioning. The local news guys have a pretty good synopsis here. Be sure to watch the video linked in the story!

The weather folks said it probably wasn't a tornado since there wasn't rotation, just strong micro-bursts and straight-line winds. That's almost as believable as USAF folks saying "it's just a weather balloon or swamp gas." We came through ok, just still without power.

More to come later, here's a shot of us hunkering down in our inside hallway. Keep in mind, it was completely dark as the power was out -- the flash lit things pretty well. Claire slept through the whole thing (she's under the red blanket...you can see her toes), Maddie liked the idea of camping out and then surveying the damage!

Our Very Hungry Caterpillar

I was checking out our lovely HUGE tomato plants yesterday when I discovered a yucky tomato worm. Eeeeek! My first impulse was to squash the darned thing for eating my tomato plants, but then I had a vivid childhood memory:

Picture Grandma Strong and my mom at the farm, picking tomatoes. Suddenly one of them would let out a huge shriek and I knew to go running because some poor tomato worm was going to get squashed into oblivion. After much coaxing we'd get to put him into a jar and watch him make a cocoon and turn into a great big sphinx moth. So much fun!

Back to now: I look over at Claire and Maddie and just know that they'd love to watch a caterpillar turn into a moth (or butterfly-who-flies-at-night, as I explained to Claire). One of their favorite books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Darn. Looks like it's this worm's lucky day.

He is now enjoying the comfort of our air-conditioned home. He has a very healthy appetite, so it's a good thing my tomato plants are big. If I find any others, though, I think they're going to get squashed. Can't have them spreading the word that my garden is some sort of sanctuary. I'll just have to remember not to let out a shriek that will bring my kids running.

Feelin' Hot Hot HOT

It has officially reached "Ridiculously Hot" here in Altus. The extended forecast doesn't show anything below 100 degrees. Coping with the heat takes a bit of creativity since there are no shopping malls, museums, or other air-conditioned places within a reasonable distance. Fortunately, we've found a few ways to have fun:

Swimming!

Popsicles (or a combination of the two)!

We don't have photos of the base pool yet (keep forgetting the camera), but it's loads of fun. Lots of water slides and a great toddler pool.

Memorial Day

I thought this was pretty cool.

Here's a couple of old shots from when we lived in Germany and visited the American Cemetery in Luxembourg on Memorial Day weekend, 2002.

(Click to see it bigger)

More Wildlife

Our house and neighborhood in Washington was pretty new. Well, it was extremely new as we were the first folks in the house and the subdivision wasn't even finished when we moved in. We saw interesting wildlife, but nothing like what we've got here in an established community and with a couple of nice old trees in our yard!

Our rabbit mom stayed around and we figured that there were about six bunnies in the brood. They've since moved on, but one young bunny was clever enough to figure that the garden has some good eatin', so he's still around.

The squirrels are a lazy sort, too!

Graduation!

Claire did it! She made it through a grueling half-year of 3 year-old preschool! She had a pajama party and graduation ceremony on Thursday. She was a HUGE fan of her teacher, Ms Rochelle.

Prayers

I really don't know quite what to write. It seems wrong to go right back to blogging about the little things going on around here when something so terrible has happened. Please keep my cousin Nick's family in your prayers. We will miss him.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to our moms, grandmas, and everyone out there called "Mom"!

Here are two recent pics of the girls who made me a mom:

Wildlife

I took the girls outside to play in the backyard this morning. Claire and I gathered up the sticks that our sycamore tree dropped last night during the wind, and while gathering we came upon this:

Our little rabbit friend we've seen the past two days in the backyard! Claire chased the poor thing off, then I found this:

I thought it might have been a bird's nest or perhaps a decomposed critter, but after pushing the fluff back with my shoe I found a little tiny baby rabbit, who looked rather disappointed to see me instead of his mama. Uh oh. Guess our rabbit friend is actually a mama rabbit. I'm not going to question her parenting skills on Mother's Day, so we're just going to assume that she didn't notice the 3.5 year-old and 1.5 year-old little girls that stomp all around the backyard. Or the dog. Sure he's slow, but he's still a DOG! Looks like I'll have to watch the girls when we go outside so they don't step in the rabbit burrow and Bailey's going out on a leash for his "business".

And the other day we found this guy in our front yard:

He's not as cute as the bunnies, but my mom says he eats bugs. Hope he sticks around!

BAM!

So, I had the girls in the tub and was getting their PJs ready for the evening. Maddie and Claire were playing nicely - Maddie was playing with a fish and Claire was playing with a washcloth. As I came back into the bathroom I noticed Claire was cleaning the sides of the tub with the washcloth. As she scrubbed she said, "BAM! ...and the dirt is gone!"

Guess she pays attention to the TV!

Making the best of OK

We've been working hard in the yard and garden trying to make the best of our little brick house. We've got a fence so Bailey (and the girls) can run. Things have greened up quite nicely and Katie keeps the weeds down in our garden (which is growing nicely!!!), and I've filled some of the dirt patches in the yards with new grass. Thought you might like to see the fruits of our labor.

Before:

After:

Click for some more!

Here's a look around our backyard, too.

Click for biggie!

Altus Air Show

There was an air show on base today, so of course we had to go check it out. We knew there were shuttles running every so often, so we threw the girls in the stroller and headed out to the designated area. Got there just as a bus pulled up. Can't beat that! After a very short drive we were there. It was pretty neat and the girls had a great time. I think Maddie may be our future pilot. Every time an airplane would zoom by she would turn around to us and say, "I 'unt wheeeee," which is Maddie-speak for, "I want more airplanes!" (airplane is wheeeee, generally spoken with a hand-airplane flying a loop-de-loop).

We checked out several of the static displays, including a German C-160. Claire practiced her German, telling the pilot, "Tschuss!" as we left the airplane. Then she exclaimed loudly at the C-130, "That's just like my daddy's airplane, only tiny!" right in front of its crew. Way to stick it to 'em, Claire!

We ran into Claire's good friend Maria, so we hung out with her for quite awhile. They bounced out their energy in the bouncy castle before we called it a day and caught the shuttle back to housing. Here's a photo from the day (click on it for more!):