He got the job!

After only two months since he parted ways with Home Depot, John has another job. We actually found out he had the job last week, but I wanted to wait and post about it because we didn't know any of the details, such as start date and salary. We still don't know the exact start date, but we do know that he'll have a normal schedule with weekends off and everything, so I'm happy. It is always great to see answered prayers! :)

Happy Memorial Day!

Sunday, May 29

Jack loves to blow kisses. He'll do it when saying bye, but he'll also do it randomly, such as when climbing up stairs.

Monday, May 30

We celebrated Memorial Day with my family. Jack loved playing with his ATV while the girls went swimming. Mara showed me that she can now jump into the pool without holding on (and I took a series of pictures to prove it). Mara and Lani then took a couple of minutes to dry off before we left.

Happy Birthday to Gracie & Me!

While my birthday was yesterday, Gracie and I had a joint birthday celebration today at Gatti Town. Before we went there, we watched Lori and Lani participate in a skating competition, and Mara and Lani posed for pictures between the two events. Jack missed Lani skating because he passed out.

We had a lot of fun at Gatti Town, eating pizza and playing games, and then we went to Diane's for brownies, cookies, and presents. The kids pooled all of their tickets together to get me a birthday present, including a snow globe light, a barrel of monkeys, and a miniature bowling set.

Field Day

Mara participated in field day at her school today. I helped out at the bean bag toss while John and Jack went around with Mara and watched. The kids played a bunch of different games before heading inside for lunch. We stayed and ate lunch with Mara outside of her classroom.

End-of-Year Celebrations

Monday, May 23

Jack discovered a new toy – the laundry basket. He loves to climb in and out of it. John even said that he took his nap in it today.

Tuesday, May 24

We had a lot of storms roll through tonight that produced several tornadoes around the area. A lot of the storms went around, causing some odd colors in the sky.

Wednesday, May 25

Jack had a cookie for dessert tonight. He opened it up and ate the cream filling before eating the cookie.

Thursday, May 26

We hosted the end-of-year ceremony for our Daisy troop tonight. We had one girl bridge to Brownies, and all of the girls received various awards, including their incentives for selling Girl Scout cookies and their 1-year membership star. I even received a special certificate and gift for being an assistant troop leader this year.

A little too close to home

We were out today, and when we got home, my sister called me to tell me of a tornado that hit Joplin earlier that evening. This is the town my dad is from, and we still have family living up there. Thankfully, they were all north of the tornado's path and are all fine, but I know it will take a long time to recover from this.

You can see a map of the tornado's path here. The houses where my dad grew up, including the one my grandparents lived for almost 40 years (until my grandma died in 1982), as well as all of the old houses of relatives were in the path.

I am so proud of my cousin Tracy, who was supposed to have her graduation ceremony for her nursing degree this Thursday. She immediately went out and started providing aid to those who needed it.

While John might have left Home Depot on not-so-good terms (at least with one guy), the store has been a big part of our lives these past eight years. One of the first reports we heard was that the store in Joplin was gone along with the Walmart. We couldn't believe that because of how big the stores were. We visited that Walmart several times when we went up to Joplin for a family reunion a couple of years ago.

Their signature orange accents are about the only way to tell where Home Depot was. Here are some pictures that people took of The Home Depot, Walmart, Academy, and the hospital.

This site has a lot of before and after pictures that give you an idea of the utter devastation.