never again...

I hope I never again see devastation like I witnessed today. I headed for Pilger this morning. Once I checked in with the Red Cross, we were all bussed into town. The pictures I'd seen didn't do the damage justice, I wasn't prepared for the reality. I think I assumed when a tornado hit your house, it picked up everything and hauled it off, but really it just rips everything apart and drops it. There wasn't really much of anything to be "found", there was just trash, wood and metal to be sorted and hauled off.

On the way into town, you could see the path of the tornado, one side of a field would look just like before the storm and the other side would be raw dirt covered in debris. There was a HUGE feedlot that was empty. There are usually a couple thousand cows there. They lost about 300, I'm not sure where they hauled the rest. My first stop once I got to main street was the bank, my friend Gene is the President there. Yesterday he made the very selfless decision to lock all of his staff in the bank vault and try and ride out the storm in a little cellar. Thank God it worked. The bank was destroyed, but the vault and thankfully the cellar were spared. I wanted to see him in person, hug him and let him know what a wonderful person I thought he was.

After that I headed down the street to find somebody who needed help. There were plenty of options. There is a co-op that divides the town right down the middle. ALL of the grain bins at the co-op are gone and their is corn (and sheet metal) EVERYWHERE for miles.

This was an insurance adjuster. Seemed a little unnecessary!

The woman who lives in this house is probably 80 years old. She doesn't
have a basement so she just stayed in her living room. The houses across the street are destroyed,
but hers is still standing.

See the piles of corn...

I was helping this family when someone came down the street with
their missing cat. It was awesome to watch the reunion.

At 2:30pm they were reporting that 1000 volunteers had checked in. Everyone, volunteers and home owners alike, were in really good spirits. Complete strangers were working together like they did it every day and the best was coming out in people everywhere. I'm glad I went. There is SO much work to be done, they will be cleaning up for weeks...maybe months, but they have support. (And water, holy buckets do they have water, there are pallets full of it all over town and more was being unloaded all day.)

This picture doesn't show the dirt. I had a dirt tan, cemented on
with sunscreen.

I had socks and tennis shoes on (duh!) and my feet still
got this dirty! Gross.

Photo catch up....

It's been a busy few days. Hoping these pictures will catch most of the big stuff :)

 

Gracie used her own money for the first time to buy Elsa and Anna dolls. She was
SO excited. She was totally amazed she got change back :)

Maggie was tracking Uncle Jeff's bike ride across Nebraska.

 Thursday evening the girls and I headed for Omaha...

We tried out a new craft studio place, Maggie painted a softball frame and Gracie painted
a backpack.

Saturday was Anna York's wedding. The girls and I went to the wedding and Arnie joined us for the reception.

pre-wedding selfie

When I sent Maggie to get her dress shoes, she came back with these boots. I said, "I sent you for dress
shoes?" She said, "these don't have any horse poop on them!"

Gracie took Great-Grandma's walker for a stroll down the isle!

 

"Wanna trade?"

Gracie found a dance partner.

Then she threw them on the ground :)

Maggie and Uncle Deem did a little line dancing.

Gotta dance with Daddy!

Maggie even talked Grandpa into dancing (I don't think that's EVER happened!)

 

 

Spinning with Grandma

We spent Father's Day morning and afternoon in Omaha playing and swimming, then headed to Lincoln for a BBQ with Pops and Papa.

Daddy and his girls!

Grandpa and his girls!

Maggie asked to have a picture with Great-Grandma, I'm so glad
she did!

Papa said he doesn't smile for pictures anymore....how can you not
smile at that face???

Carly was a good sport and blew up lots of water balloons.

Last night we gave Arnie a Fathers Day present we'd left at home....it doesn't get better then the Daddle :) I'm not sure Arnie feels that was, but I sure got lots of laughs out of it!

This morning Gracie went to Pre-school camp at church. I didn't get a picture :( she had a great time and was really glad she went. Maggie started Jr Golf today too.

This afternoon we made our first trip of the summer to the pool. It was a great day to be there. There were probably 50 kids in the pool, but Maggie and Kiki were the only 2 holding up the slide line with their flippers :) silly girls!

Life doesn't slow down yet. Either tomorrow night or Thursday Morning we're headed for O'Brien family camping. I'm sure it will be a great weekend, I just hope I don't forget to pack anything!

WHOA!

It was bound to happen, sooner or later...and today was the day. Maggie fell off of her horse. She was having a great lesson and got to really running fast and she just lost her balance. She tried to grab Chevy around his neck, but lost her grip and somersaulted right off the front. LeAnn and I saw it happening but couldn't do anything about it. She had the wind knocked out of her and was pretty scared, but she was ok. Chevy stopped right away, thank God, or he'd of stepped on her.

Once she got her breath back and stopped crying, she was ready to get back on. One of the older girls, who Maggie loves, was there she came in and told Maggie about the first time she fell off....I think Maggie was pretty proud to be a part of the cowgirl club :)

Don't worry, she had a helmet on when she fell, we just took
it off for a couple minutes while she recovered.

She was worried that Chevy would think she was hurt, so she hugged and kissed him first. Then she walked and trotted around the arena several times, she never got all the way back up to a lope, but she will.

 

It was a scary moment for all of us, but I'm really proud of how she handled it. She'll be sore tomorrow but she can say her loyalty to the sport was tested and she passed with flying colors!

 Aren't these guys cute???