A little rain, A little hail and a broken windshield! Plus a trip to the McDonalds Freezer!

What an interesting week! It all started on Thursday when we headed into the big town of O'Neill. As we pulled into town it started raining, not bad, but steady. We went to the library and did our thing only to come out to a down pour. Was that enough to deture our plan of action though? No! So off to the Alco we went. As we are going into the store a siren goes off, well being as we are new to town we are not sure of their siren system. This could have been a signal for a tornado or it could be calling the fire department because of a fire started by all that lightening we just don't know so we look around and ask a passer by if we are all ok or should we take cover. None of the locals are concerned so onward with our shopping we go. Keep in mind we are not the only people out and about so we don't really see a need for concern. While at McDonalds we just sit down to enjoy our $.99 heart attacks and the manager comes out to the lobby area and asks everyone to please leave their stuff and go to the back of the resturant and get in the freezer because the situation is getting worse. So off we go through the kitchen, cleaner then I would have thought with all those stupid teenagers working there, and into their large freezer. There was another couple there with their three children so we all had a good time. The folks there at McDonalds brought all the kids coats and we found a frozen bun that the kids had fun playing with :>) After 10 minutes or so the manager told us that if we were comfortable with the situation we could come out. Well we came out of the freezer only to hang out in the resturant for another 1/2 hours due to the weather out side. It was really hard to tell if it was still raining or if the wind was just blowing all the rain that was on the ground. I am not sure how much they got it O'Neill that night but it was enough to flood the streets and cause getting out of town to be a pain. By the time we got home we had a wopping "0" inches of rain. Our weather hit later that night around 3:00am so needless to say I was up for a good portion of the night with my trusty laptop. Within about An hour and a half we got 2 inches of rain, strong enough wind that it blew part of the shop's door off it's track and some noisy hail. But we came through it unscathed.

Saturday we headed to a local fair and went to a Mark Wills concert. The kids had a great time and I realized that I am old and you can never go back again. Some of Brad and I's fondest memories from when we were dating are the Chris Ledoux concerts evey year at the state fair. These were a time when you got to leave your parents watchful eyes and pretend to be grown up for a little while. It was a time when you could just relax and enjoy the music and each other. Fast forward 10 years and NOW Brad and I can not even sit by each other because we have to tag team the where abouts of our three off spring. I start singing along with the music only to have my son put his hand over my mouth and tell me to be quiet! And now instead of worring about drunk cowboys bumping into each other and causing problems we have to worry about who our children are kicking in the back of the head. Or about the poor unsuspecting gentlemen that had the misfourtune of sitting behind our "fishing" son who kept sticking his tape measure key chain out into the crowd to see what he could catch. I know what you are thinking why did we not just take his key chain away, well I did but softy daddy always seemed to get it back for him...that boy has his father whipped! We all had a good time though. On the way there is when our windshield got broke. I don't know why Brad and I thought we could get away with a non-cracked windshield, we have never had a vehicle that had one. As we were driving down the highway a mini-van flung a rock and cracked our window. You want to talk about getting the crap scared out of you, try driving 65 (ok 75, this is Nebraska after all) and having glass from your window come flying out at you. It got our juices flowing that is for sure.

Well I have talked you eyes off and I still did not get to the Birthday party, oh well next time maybe. I do want to let everyone know that we will be staying put. After a very emotionally filled week of decisions and indecisions we have decided that it is not right to leave these brothers up that creek. They spent thousands to get us here and we are not in a position to pay them back, plus it just isn't right. So for all of you who were looking forward to us being closer to you, sorry :>( Eventually I am sure we will end up back in the chosen state just not sure when that will be.

Jayla and Cole (Chris's son) with Pepper