Tornados part of life in Kansas

With all the tornados that have been happening the last few days it has really forced me to think about one of the scariest days of my life so far. My heart is breaking for those that have been affected by them, it's not an easy thing to come back from and they have a long road ahead of them as they start to rebuild.

My own run in with a tornado came on April 25th, 1991. I was just 7 years old sitting in the living room with my brothers who were 4 at the time. We were watching tv wile my mom and dad were making dinner and suddenly the weathermen cut into to the program that was on saying we were under a tornado warning and that we should start to take cover. Like many Kansasans my parent didn't think anything would happen but to be on the safe side my grandfather, who lived next door, came over and picked all of us, by this time it has started to hail. While we were waiting for him to come the tornado sirens started to go off. As soon as we got next door my grandmother quickly took my brothers and I downstairs letting us pick out one toy and took us under the stairs. My mom, dad and grandpa stayed out front to watch the storm.

As they stood there they were sure that it wouldn't come any where near us but it started to turn and head our direction. The next thing I knew I heard my mom come running down the stairs and told my grandma it was headed our way. My grandpa stoped to not only shut the back sliding door but to also answer the phone and talk to my aunt who was calling to tell them a tornado was heading our way. My grandpa and dad came stomping down the stairs and as soon as they got under the stair with us the lights went out and with in seconds the loudest noise I have ever heard went over the top of us. With in 30 seconds it was over and we started to make our way out.
We looked up to where the ceiling use to be and just saw blue sky. It's hard to explain the thoughts that can go through your mind as you look at the devestation. We all have seen pictures of what houses look like after a tornado rips through a town distroying everything in it's path. Quickly I started to help my grandparents find our horses so our vet could come get them, while my mom helped some of the older people who were unable to make it to safety.


My Grandparents house

The next few days were kind of a blur, my aunts came running across a feild to get to us right after it happened. The boys and I didn't really stay there long that night my aunt brought us over to her house where we "help" with the clean up. Not sure how much help we were! The happest part of it all for me was when my beloved doll, Melody was found. In the end we spent the next two month living with The Biggs befoe we found a house in town.


My house

That day will forever be with me and as we have had so many terrible storms the last few days it has brought up a lot of fears that I still have. Yesterday as I was in Winfield and the tornados were on the ground in Oklahoma and moving towards the boarder I called my mom freaking out a bit. I usually am not the one that freaks out about storms thats for my brothers to do. We were very luckly yesterday as we were not in a ton of danager. But I do feel for those that were.
My heart and prayers go out to everyone!

Until next time
Tegan

Brothers At War

Thanks to Netflix I watched an amazing documentary today that has really started me thinking, trust me I know how scary that is. I know that the reason most people make a documentary is because the person making it wants to shine a light on a topic that is near and dear to them. I'm not usually one to watch a documenary but this one hit very near to my heart.

Brothers At War was filimed by Jack Radmacher as he followed his brother Isaac, who is a captain with the Airborn Corps Long Range Surveillence Comany and Joe, who is a sargent and a sniper. The amazing thing about this film is that Jake was given unprecedented acces to not only U.S. but also Iraqi combat units. There is a point in the film where he is caught in a fire fight and if the film is slowed down you can see the bullets flying by the camera.

Jake not only focused on the combat aspect of the military life but also the human side. He showed how hard it was for his brothers to come home from an extended deployment and get back to a "normal" life. I can imagine that this isn't limited to just his brothers but that there are men and women who come home everyday who are dealing with the same issue. It showed me how important a supportive family can be.

But what I think I found most interesting was when he would ask the soliders why they were doing it and if they died would their sacrifice be worth it. There was one soliders who said he would do anything for America. And that got me to thinking about all those people who are currently serving or have served in our military, why do they do it? Is it because they have a love for our country? Is it to provided a better place for their sons/daughters/nieces/nephews to grow up? Is it to support their families in a time where we are fighting a recession? Or is it for the educational benifits?

Everyday men and women are putting their lives on the front lines to protect and the freedoms we take for grantie. I can not be more proud to say that I am the sister of an Air Force Reservest, the cousin of not one but two Navy doctors, and the grandaughter of an Army vetran of World War II and of an Air Force Master Sargent. But what about those who do not have the support of their famililes? Can we do something for them?

Mac and Andy, at Andy's wedding, just missing one of our other Navy doctor.

When Mac came home from his last deployment one of the most heart breaking things to see were those soliders who were walking off the plane and didn't have anyone there. In the additional scence of Brothers At War there is a home coming of a unit, and the only time I teared up while watching the movie was seeing those soliders who were walking around and standing to the side because they didn't have any one there. I really feel like every solider should know that there is someone who is there for them and appreciates what they have done for our country.

I'm not sure how many people know this, seeing as how I just found out about it while doing some research for this post, but May is Militay Appreciation Month. I really want to encourage everyone out there to reach out to one of the 1.5 million active service men/women or one of the 850,000 reservest memebers and thank them for protecting our country and the freedoms that we take for granite everyday. There are a ton of ways to get involved to show your support for our miitary. The best website I found to go to if you want more information is the DOD website, http://www.ourmilitary.mil/ and it can then link you to a ton of different programs. I really encourage everyone reading this to get envolved and thank a solider for their service! Also, if you want more information on Brothers At War the website is http://www.brotheratwarmovie.com/ it really is a must see.

Thank you to every person who is or has served our country, and thank you to their famillies who have to put up with them being gone for extended periods of time. If it weren't for you we would not be living in a country with so many freedoms.

Good Night for now!

He's Almost Here!!!

There is something very cool about going to a baby shower but I think there is somethin even better when you get the honor to throw the shower. The shower to me always seems like the begining of the end. By the time the shower rolls around the baby is getting close to being here and who isn't excited about getting to meet the baby for the first time?

On Sunday I got the pleasure of helping to host my cousins Greta's babyshower along side my cousin Rachel. It is always fun to host a shower. I have done it a few times for my friends and I always have a lot of fun thinking of themes, the colors, making the food but I think the best part is seeing all the different people come together to celebrate the mom to be and the baby that will soon be here.

The birth of a child represents what is still pure in our world and with all the bad things that continue to happen around us it is special to be able to come together for something that is so positive. We are able to take a few hours out of our extremely busy lives to come together and show love and support to someone who is about to take a huge step in their lives and probably start the most important job of their lives.

I know that our family is so excited for Henry to get here. It will be so much fun to have two little boys around here for a while. If Herny is anything like Liam, and since they will be cousins I know he will, he is going to be one really cute and pretty darn smart little boy. The sad thing is going to be saying good by to him when he and his mommy and daddy have to move out East. So I guess we will just have to spoil him for the few months that he will be here in Kansas.

So congrats to Andy and Greta, I can't wait to meet Henry!!!

Good Night for now!

Oh Kansas City it is never boring!

So I'm sitting here on my couch watching How I Met Your Mother as my photos from Kansas City upload on to Focaebook. It is always really iteresting to go through all the pictures from the night before when there are a few drinks involved. Ok... You caught me... Maybe there were more than a few involved. Anyway, it was a great night and a ton of fun!

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Aladdin, now before you ask, NO there were not magic carpet rides! I know, I mean how can you name a hotel Aladdin and not have magic carpet rides ;) It did however have a room genie and a pillow menue which was interesting. What was great about the hotel is that it is within walking distance to the Power and Lights Distric, which is where we were going to go to dinner and the concert. And from our 13th floor hotel room we had a great view of some cool old buildings in downtown KC!



We started out night at the Flying Saucer for dinner which is a really cool place with an old english pub feel that has a ton of beer on tap and some what good food. Usually I have no clue what kind of beer to get so to keep myself from going to my fall backs I just hand the menu over to Kammie and she tells me what I want. Well last night ever beer that we wanted they were out of, which got a tad frustrating and caused me to go end up with my fall back one. I guess Stone IPA, no real clue who that is but they are suppose to be really good, released some new beers that day and apprently by 6 on a Wednesday night they were out of them. Yeah that seems weird to me too!

After dinner we headed over to the concert. We knew that we were going to see Adeltias Way, which we have seen twice, Framing Hanley, which we have seen once and LOVE, and then Sick Puppie, which we haven't seen. But to our surprise there was a fourth band, Madam Adam, and they were so very good. It was hard to actually hear them since the sound mixing was a little off, but we did buy their CD and we love them now! We also got the chance to meet them afterwards and they are some of the nicest guys!



The rest of the night was a ton of fun. Complete with making friends with two 18 year old boys that were standing behind of us, getting to know that bartender that by the end of the night was calling us by name and high fived us at we left, getting kicked in the head as people crowd surfed, meeting a girl who looked just like a girl I went to high school with and one of us having a huge fall and the other standing on the corner laughing and not offering a bit of help. All the band were amazing and put on one heck of a show. I was very impressed with Sick Puppies, who lead singer looks like Chad Michael Murray but with an accent! We ended out night at the Frans, a yummy 24 hour diner but with a modern twist and a bar attache to it, eating the best biscuts and gravy I've had in a long time! We then took a short walk back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

The alarm went off what seemed to be pretty early this morning and found both of us hurting a bit, one more than the other. Slowly we got ready, packed up and headed out to lunch. No trip to KC would be complete wihout a trip to the Cheesecake Factory. We ate a very yummy lunch and headed for home. I'm pretty tired tonight and can't wait to go bed. All in all it was a great night!

Good Night For Now!

You've Got To Be Kidding Me!

So I think that I am the last person in the world to figure this out and I just can't seem to get over it! In the process of trying to find my couch I stalked Craigslist like it was going out of style. I was actually enjoying it, trying to come up with other things that I was sure I needed and find them on there. (Which just so you know I can't think of anything at this moment that I need)

Well one night I was hanging out with Andrea and after we both got done hunting for a couch we were a tad bit bored and started looking at some of the personal ads. Why you ask? Well I think it might have partly been that we were bored and the other part of us were a little bit curious as to what was really on there. But seriously this stuff is nuts! Haven't people figured out after the whole Craigslist Killer a few years ago that maybe the personal ads on Craiglist weren't the best thing. I mean come on they even made a Lifetime movie about it? Not to mention there is an investigation going on right now into what might be another one on the East Coast. Any way I'm getting off topic.

So I start reading some of the post on there and a few weren't all that bad. Some were looking for a date for this or that, some people were just looking for someone to hang out with or single people looking to hook up. Which I guess is a to each their own kind of thing. Just not something that I would do. However, there were some seriously wrong ones. Several of the people on their were looking to hook up with pregnant women. SERIOUSLY?!?! Which was some what funny at the time seeing as how Andrea was pregnant and Adam was out of town.

But I think what really got me were all the people on there that were looking to cheat on their spouses. My question is do people really answer these? And if so why? I guess as someone who has been cheated on I don't get it. If you are that unhappy in your relationship why stay in it? And yes their are people who stay in a marriage for the kids, or for this thing or that thing but I guess I feel like that is wrong too. And on top of that is it wrong for people or a company to support this? Your probably asking yourself or me how would your regulate it? And there really isn't a way and I get that. But I still think that it is wrong and that it shouldn't be aloud.

Well this blog went in a direction that I wasn't expecting it to. At first I was just going to get on here and poke a little fun at some of the crazy personal ads. Guess that is fun of these things you start writing and you never know where you will end up!

Good Night For Now!

She's Finally Here! Welcome Ms. Avery Michele!

Today had been a very very exciting today, and I'm not talking about the weather, all the hail or even the tornados. But because Andrea and Adam had their second child today! Ms. Avery Michele was born at 7:13 am she is 19 inches long and 6 lbs 14 oz. Both Mom and baby are doing fine.



Andrea hasn't had the easiest pregnancy and I know she wasn't feeling very well this last week leading up to today, so I'm glad that Avery is here and Andrea is going to get a chance to start feeling better. But as I have been told, since I don't have any kids, now all the work really begins and so do the sleeplest nights. Since my mom basically works at the hospital she was able to go over and check on Avery today before I got off work. Of course she got to hold her before I did, like almost all of my friends babies! So she was very sweet and sent me a picture to rub it in.

I was lucky that Austin was there when I came up to visit because I was curious as to how he was going to react to his new little sister. He is such a caring, helpful and giving little boy so I had a feeling he would be a good big brother. But I really wasn't prepaired to how quickly he seems to have taken to her. While I was holding her she started to cry and he stoped looking at the book he was playing with and came over to her and touched her head and told me that she needed her binky. It was a very sweet moment. And then later he really wanted to help me rock her so he climbed up on my lap and then put his arms around her while I supported them both and we rocked her back to sleep. I am so very excited to see how their relationship will grow as they get older. He will be a huge help to his Mommy and Daddy right now and I have a feeling that he will be very protective of his little sister!



There is always something so special about getting to hold a baby that is just a few hours old. There is so much hope and innocents in them. They really help you to remember what is truely right in the world and how special life is. Now the fun part really begins. I am looking forward to really getting to know her as she grows and see the type of person she becomes.

So to Ms. Avery, you had been brought in to not only a family that loves you more than you will ever be able to imagine but to an extended group of friends that will be there for you no matter what. We have some great stories about Mommy and Daddy so come find us in 18 years and we will tell you a few, there are other that will have to wait until your 21. I hope that in the future I will get the chance to be a small part of your life and to be to get the chance to watch you grow.

Good Night for now!

Rock Chalk... Matt Wertz...?

It's been a while since I have been to Lawrence. I had two cousins who went to college there and went up once or twice while they were in school to visit them but it has been years since I was there. But it really is a cool place and we had a great time there. Kammie and I got lucky that we had Jennifer with us. She was a great tour guide and found us some very yummy places to eat.

We started our extremly short visit to Lawrence at the Salty Iguana, which was suppose to have some of the best margaritas in town. While the margaritas were yummy the coolest place about the resturant was the murals they had painted all over the walls. My favorite one was the one you see when you first walk in. It was all the Wizard Of Oz characters but they were iguanas and they called it Lizards of Oz. There was so much to look at that half the time I had a hard time concentrating on what was going on in the converstaions we were having becuase I was drawn into looking at all the murals on the walls.

After we had dinner we went down to Mass street to get some yogurt at a place called 3 Spoons, for those of you that are familar with Orange Leaf it is the same thing. You go in and pick the yogurt you want, then add your toppings and you pay based on how much it weighs. I actually think that it was a little bit less expensive than Organe Leaf but it was still very yummy and we had a nice time sitting out front of the store watching all the people go by. (Which I just might add is something that I really love to do!)

We then headed down to the venue to watch the show. Kammie and I got the chance to Matt Wertz last March when he was opening for Five For Fighting. (There is a post about that show in my older posts if you want to take a look at it.) Ben Rector, who is also the keyboardist and a guitarist for Matt, opened for him and he blew us away! I had a few of his songs downloaded so I had a small idea as to who he was but he was ten times better than I expected. I actually ended up buying his CD while we were there and Kammie has since downloaded two of his other albums. The crowd was really into him, which is always good to see for an opening act. There were actually a few guys who were having way more fun then most people there.

Let me just take this moment and say that I love Matt Wertz! He is an amazing song writter and very talented. I love listening to his CDs but it is so much better to see him live. You can tell that he really enjoys what he does and he really appreciates his fans. The show was as amazing as I expected. He was just as funny as I remembered him to be telling a story about a grandma that though WTF meant With the Fmaily and he even told us about his love for Taylor Swift, how he thinks they should be best friends and then get married one day. I wonder if he is aware of the age difference? But one of the weirdest but coolest moments came when I turned around to say something to Kammie and realized the guy standing next to her looked a lot like Dave Barnes, another amazing artist and one of Matt's best friends. I actually said something along those lines to her some what loud, I can't say anything softly, and I was pretty sure the guy heard us and I was a tad embarrassed about it. That was until the end of the next song and Matt Wertz called up on to stage his best friend, you just happened to be in town that night, Dave Barnes. It was then that Kammie and I realized the guy who had been standing next to us that I thought was Dave Barnes was in fact Dave Barnes! I always thought that seeing Matt Wertz and Dave Barnes on stage together would be amazing and I was right. I was sad that he only sang one song and then left the venue but it was really cool to see them perform together!



It was a great night and we had a lot of fun. The drive back to Wichita was long but it was worth it. I just hope that Jennifer feels that way since she was the only one of us that had to work this morning. I highly recomend to everyone to go and check out Matt Wertz, Ben Rector and/or Dave Barnes. If you like Singer Songwritter music you will love these guys!

Good Night for now.