Storms, storms and more storms

I'd like to think we live in a safe place, and never have I felt scared at all. I have heard the tornado sirens more in the last two weeks than I have my whole life! The last one Kyle and I stood on the back porch watching the rotation and wall clouds move just to the north of us. Pretty stupid actually since a tornado could drop from those things at any moment, and there we are in all our glory on the back porch watching! Got some good pics though...

 This was the wall cloud moving over us but mostly moving to our north. Scaaarrrryyyy. But cool.

Taken from our back porch. This is mom and dads house and all the storm behind it.

I have never seen such a thing.

On to a lighter note...

Allie had her shower last weekend for their wedding. She had a GREAT turn out. I think probably 50-60 people there and she got a lot of good things. I was so excited for her. Here are all of the bridesmaids and bride.

Kyle is in Nebraska turkey hunting. They have done well so far, and I think are moving down to Kansas in the morning. I find it odd that you would travel so far to kill something you can kill right here. But, I don't complain. Because I like to do things that he thinks are weird and he has no problem with it. So I guess we are even. I do miss him though, my house needs the daily sweeping it gets when he's here!

One last comment, I went to see Water for Elephants with Kristen last night. Had a GREAT time and the movie is fantastic. I recommend.

Birthday Girl

April 15 was Kinley's birthday. And, oh was she cute. Charity had her party and The Jump Place. 

...and this one is my favorite!  Cute little girl with a cute little personality!

Fun Fact: I don't function well when I'm scared

*see comment at bottom, and my apology for the orientation of this picture :)*

I've been the busiest yet since Christmas working on these Easter buckets. I have to admit they are really cute! I think I want to make TOMS my next project. I've painted a couple but I've got another pair lined up to paint HOGS on them...after Easter is over of course.

We had a storm, well, I think it was a tornado, come through last Thursday. There were confirmed tornados in our county but it didn't say which town. Pretty sure it was here. I will say I have never been more scared in my life. Mom texted me and told us to either go to their house or get somewhere safe because it was coming. We turn on the tv and watch the radar. It was mostly west of us. Then it started to hail. Of course Kyle was intrigued by this unusual occurrence (as always) and has me running all over the house to "look at the hail!" At this point, it was getting loud. He told me to call my parents and see if it was too late to get off our hill. My phone did not go through so I started freaking out a little, while Kyle was admiring the hail. Our ceiling fan was shaking so much so that I was afraid it was going to fall out of the ceiling. I finally said (or maybe screamed), "I'M SCARED AND YOU ARE NOT HELPING!!"Well, then he grabbed some blankets and pulled me into the bathroom. Oh yes, our power went out by this time. It was so loud for about 30 seconds that I couldn't hear Kyle talking to me and he was right next to me. Then it was silent...and I said, "Oh no, it's coming...we are gonna die!" Then it was over I guess because when it was quiet it was quiet for good, other than the occasional thunder. I was praying so hard my stomach was hurting when we finally settled down. Kyle said, calmly, "Dear, you don't function well when you are scared!" Uh, no, apparently I don't! Never been that scared!

Here's some damage we discovered once it calmed down enough for us to check it out...

 The dog pin was over the concrete slab. Picked it up and moved it over, poor Oscar P. He was so scared!

The back of dad's barn behind the house

This was not a support beam for the barn...it was just stuck like that after the storm

The view from the bottom of the hill


Then we moved right on into prom. Audrey's senior prom, and she went with her friend Brian, who is adorable. Here are some pics:

I do apologize for the sideways photos. I imported them and rotated them but when I added them on here...no rotation...grrrr... You can turn your computer sideways or turn your head until I figure it out. :-)

Black Tie Affairs

I just really can't wrap my head around this (especially after researching the Planned Pregnancy thing that's going on now): Why does our government assist families that are not fit to be parents and not assist those that would be great parents but have difficulty with conceiving? It really just does not make sense. To me, it would be worth spending a little bit helping those get pregnant that cannot on their own and then they raise the child (not live off the government) than for the government to fork out money for 18 years to those who a) do not care about raising a family and b) cannot take care of their family. The only reason they have more kids is to get more money. And this is a true statement (I know not in all cases, but most). I have actually heard two different people say in conversation, "You want to qualify for more money? Have more kids!"INSANE!! I am not complaining because we are lucky and have good insurance coverage, but it does have a cap on it, so when that's gone we are on our own. But what about those in our situation who cannot afford to go to a fertility clinic to have a child or who don't have the insurance coverage? Job security for me I guess for those that keep having kids that are malnourished or neglected but, oh so sad...

Off of my soapbox.

Allie and I spent the morning together trying on her wedding dress. She is wearing mom's (that mamaw made for her). We just made a couple changes to modernize it a little bit! Her colors are dark purple and mint green. The dress isn't completely finished but here is a peek:

She is going to fix a few things, and we still have to get it pressed. I think it's so simple and elegant. Very Allie.

Funny, though. She was pulling the dress on and a seam ripped. Yikes- I said no eating for you!! But what it was, was the inside lining that the seamstress put in after she tried on the dress initially. So it is fine. We hope. Then we go to eat Mexican to help us fill out the dress a little more. :) Oh, how I love this girl.

Spring

Spring cleaning at our house today! I asked Kyle if I could pay someone to come clean. He said, Alana, we are young and have no kids, we can clean our own house! I said, Ok, then you are helping me! So we tag teamed it and it smells yummy in here. Glad we got it done.

Oh, and I think you have been to the doctor too many times when you look at your blue heeler, and say, "Hey! His black spots on his back look like my follicles on the ultrasounds!" Geez...

A verse that helped me out today, very fitting:

"But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Matthew 6:33-34

TGIF

Thank you, thank you, thank you....it's Friday.

I do love my job but I love weekends even more :)

More doctor's appointments this week. Still praying all goes well, and it has thus far.

We are house hunting. And I would love to be car hunting. I know exactly what I want. I just want to wait until I'm not driving all over the universe to get it! Which I realize is a while. But I can still be hopeful. Back to the house thing. We love our house now. Has been and is a great house. With baby planning, though, I will need more room. Kyle has his own "deer room" with, oh...lots of antlers and heads and guns.  And I have my art room/spare bedroom. And we are out of room. So...Kyle thinks it would be a great idea if we were to have a boy, have his deer room to be the nursery. Absolutely not. So instead, unless we find a house we like or some land to build what we want, when the time comes I'm moving my art room and it will be the "art/deer room" and we will do away with a spare bedroom and turn into a nursery. Hopefully we'll have something bigger by then. If not, no big deal. We are not in a panic to find something.

Here is a fun picture of me, Allie and Audrey from spring break. Boy, do I want to go back...