Tornado warning

Every Wednesday morning around 10 AM the city does a simple check of the tornado warning towers to make sure they work. I've never heard them because I was always at work by 10! Last week was my first hearing. It just sounds like a regular police siren that goes really high then really low. The test lasts about 20 seconds. Later that day I was watching TV while I ate lunch and I heard a siren. I thought it was the TV, nope. I thought it was the police, fire or ambulance, nope. It was a bonafide tornado warning siren! The sky was very overcast and the wind was picking up. I had no idea what to do so of course in my curiosity, I went outside to check it out. A neighbor was outside too and motioned for me to go back inside. I began to camp out in the bathroom across the hall but then figured it was nothing before I noticed that it was extremely dark outside. I got excited, grabbed the camera and took a couple pictures. It wasn't that windy but I've never seen the sky that dark in the middle of the day. Then it started to pour buckets. There were no sightings in town but apparently a few farms northeast of town were hit. No fatalities. The adventures in the midwest keep coming!!!

Mom's House

I just found this picture I took while we were on our honeymoon. We went to Costa Mesa where we always used to take family vacations and went to the beach at Balboa Point. Mom always loved this house on the corner so I took a picture of it in honor of her. Enjoy mom! :)

1 year older...and wiser too!

Happy 1 year anniversary to us! Kurtis and I made to a year of marriage on Sunday. We couldn't be happier. We have jobs (or did, and hopefully will continue to), we just put an offer on a house (after looking at about 30 houses), and are even more in love then when we got married. We have learned so much this year including how to share the bedcovers, think before you speak, do chores together and the list goes on! We are so grateful for each other and that we have included the Lord in our marriage. What a special Spirit we have in our home. We're excited for all the years to come. :)

Happy Independance Day!

We had a fun-filled day yesterday fo the 4th! Our ward had a flag-raising and pancake breakfast in the morning. Then we had our friends' family the Warners over to go fishing at our lake and cook hot dogs over the fire for lunch. They had 5 kids, the littlest being twins age 2. Whew! Good birth-control they said. What? Like nursery didn't do that? :) haha.. Then we had dinner with a whole bunch of other families and played a US trivia game. Julie killed everyone. (I think it was all those games of 'Know your America' with Andrew :) ) Then we went over to the Warner's house to watch the downtown fireworks show on their neighbors' roof. Yes, on the roof. It was so much fun! We are grateful to live in a free country and hope to do our part to give back to the community and the people who helped us along the way. Happy birthday America!

10 things I forgot about Girl's Camp

I was the camp director for my ward's group of girls and went with them to girl's camp this year. It was an exciting week! I'm grateful for the experience. I had a blast my own years at camp and was happy to go again. We had a baseball theme this year and our 'team' name was the Seekers! It was based off of D&C 88:63-64 with a Harry Potter twist. My camera died the first day I was there so I have no pictures. But I've put together a list of things I had forgotten (or learned) about camp though..

1. If the past winter and spring were wet, there will be LOTS of bugs. I don't know how many mosquito bites I had, but I had so many on my ankle that it swelled up like I had sprained it. True story. I'm like a giant strawberry to them! There was also something crawling on my nose one night...
2. Don't forget to bring tissues to the testimony meeting on the last night. I forgot and had to use my dirty hands. Oh well, it was worth it to hear the beautiful testimonies (and sometimes thank-you-monies) of those sweet girls.
3. Girls will be girls-caddy, sweet, loud, scared by bugs, dramatic, homesick, daughters of God.
4. Sleep is not an option at camp. Let's just say earplugs were a lifesaver along with an airmattress!
5. Everything (almost) can be burned in the fire. Glowsticks are especially fun to watch! I got the pyromaniac award one year at camp.. someone got that award this year. It also saves on trash.
6. Prayer works. On the last day it rained and many vans got stuck in the mud. Only after they said a prayer did they get unstuck.
7. Prepare for all contingencies-it always rains at camp. In past years, the camps here have had issues with tornado warnings and had to spend nights crammed into the bathrooms. Luckily this year we had great weather. However, I didn't bring raingear so the last morning we got soaked while we packed up camp in the pouring rain.
8. Camp gives you a reason to be you. No makeup, no shower, no boys, no worries! The girls had a great time just getting to know themselves, each other and their divine nature as a daughter of God.
9. Camp bathrooms, flusing toilets or not, are always gross. I always had latrines (tin can pit toilets) at my camp but these girls had flusing toilets. They were still gross. Luckily, they let the leaders in on some secret showers up the road. So while they went hiking..we showered in luxury.
10. Anything tastes good at camp. No matter how gross it looks or how burned it is, everything (almost) tastes good at camp. Especially smores.