Tornadoes

If you know me, you know that I am absolutely terrified of tornadoes. I'm not a big fan of storms in general, but give me a nice summer pop up thunderstorm and I'm golden. Throw in some wind and hail and rotation and I'm an absolute basketcase. And not just during the storm. Nope. DAYS ahead of the bad weather, I fret and worry about it. Having been through a tornado once 13 years ago was enough and remembering that horrible night in 1998 is enough to make me dread every siren's wail.

Last night we were "under the gun" (as the weathermen LOVE to say again and again - I guess they run out of phrases pretty quickly during a 7 hour newscast of just the weather) with several hours of bad weather. Thankfully, we escaped unscathed (we barely got rain). Unfortunately, many people did not, including Nick's dad whose cars were totaled by trees and house sustained minor damage as well. Many to the south of us had extreme damage to homes, and even loss of life. I'm so thankful that everyone I know is safe, and I pray for those who are dealing with the aftermath. I remember it well, and it makes me sick to my stomach.

I hope this violent spring weather is over. If not, you can find me here:

Today's agenda

Read and revise 51 8-page papers written by 7th and 8th graders who are still learning HOW to do a research paper. It takes me about 20 minutes to read through and make comments on 1 paper, so I'm looking at about 17 hours here. But since I'm stuck in the house without a car (it's in the shop), I guess that is what I have to do!!

So, instead of writing about it, I guess I'd better head in the other room and get started!! :(

I give up

This was obviously not a good idea and I can no longer read books with "wife" in the title. I'm skipping the 4th one and moving on to something better! :P

Wife book #2

Mercifully, this was a fast read. I have nothing very nice to say about this book except that I am done reading it. I'm coming to a swift conclusion that books with "wife" in the title are NOT good. Let's hope the next one proves me wrong.

Books about wives

Somehow, on my shelf of books to read, I ended up with four books that have the word "wife" in the title. Their covers, too are similar - women with no faces. Random. I decided to read them all in a row so I can compare (though the stories are not alike).

I finished A Lost Wife's Tale last night. Truly a dud of a book. I hope the other three make me not regret this plan. I read a review on Goodreads about A Lost Wife's Tale where someone said that at the end of the book, it was like the author just got tired of writing about the characters and stopped typing. I agree 100% with this assessment. And worse, I didn't care one bit that she stopped. Not a winner.

A Reliable Wife is next; I'll post a review when I'm done.

I believe American Wife is a fictionalized book about Laura Bush. We'll see if that is the case; I've heard people I trust tell me that they liked this one, so I'm hopeful. And I love the cover.


The 19th Wife is, not surprisingly, about a Mormon family. I think it is also a mystery. Interesting combo.



I really don't know how I ended up with these books; just heard about them here or there, I guess, and got them from Paperback Swap.

Shopping champions

This week is Spring Break

(motto: YYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!)

and Emily and I decided to take advantage of the week off and beautiful weather to go shopping. Our little tag-along Alexa had to come too, and she was a trouper. I think she complained less than I did. At lunch, she told the waitress that she wanted "Sprite and Chinese", her treat for being so good.

Happy 90th birthday, Bigmama!

Today is my grandmother's 90th birthday. This weekend the whole family got together to celebrate her life.

Her special hat:

Dressing up in her new neck shawl:


Party folk:It was nice to be with family and celebrate her 90 years.

It's April 1

We all know what that means...