SciFi awesomeness

Found at William Sonoma:




Posted from Steph's iPad

Riot Wheel (Re-Invention Of The) wheel.©

This is so Mad Max!

I wonder how it would hold in a hurricane. Looks stout.

Hurricane Irene...

We are now officially under a Tropical storm warning. Ugh.

We won't be hit with hurricane force winds, but our power will most likely go down tomorrow. Dominion Power Has told us to be prepared to be without power for days, not hours. We will be spending today prepping. Chad is off to find dry ice and prepare our Craig's List generator. I am off to buy supplies.

God protect us all.

Posted from Steph's iPad

Virginia - Disaster Central!

So we were sitting in a restaurant on the ground floor of a 200 or so year old building in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. The room began to shake, dust was coming from the walls, and Chad shouted, "Earthquake! Earthquake! Earthquake! Everybody out!"

Only ourselves and the staff left the restaurant. The rest started laughing and looking up at the ceiling. Didn't anyone notice that we were in the bottom floor? Of an old rickety buiding? With 2 ton beams overhead and walls made of brick and plaster? Wo knows how serious it is going to be... And what about aftershocks and gas leaks? Sure it ended up not being as bad as it could have been. But come on people! Use your brains!

When we left the building, smart people were out in the street rather than on the sidewalks, a smart idea given the fact that the walls of the buildings are lined with bricks. Old bricks. Old loose bricks.

We paid for our food and took it to-go. When we got home, being the good homeschooling mama that I am, I got on the web and showed the girls the science of earthquakes on the computer. (Our phone lines our spotty, but web connection remains good. Cellular coverage is very iffy as well.)

Ilsa drew this picture from what she learned:






Next excitement may be arriving on Sunday: the remnants of Hurricane Irene, but I am not going to borrow worry from tomorrow.

Posted from Steph's iPad

newest offering from apple?

Untitled, a photo by BikeBookBread on Flickr.

Nice people

We are in Charlottesville at the moment. Chad was sent here to take a class at the Army JAG school at the University of Virginia. Every morning on the way to class, we have stopped to buy a cup of coffee and a morning pastry at a lovely shop called Hot Cakes. This morning, Ingrid went in with him and was admiring a little cow creamer. A man asked Chad if he could buy it for her. He proceeded to pick up Chad's entire order -- coffee, pastries, etc. Chad was in uniform... Now I don't know if this was one of the reasons he did it, but it was such a kind gesture. It turns out he was a friend of the owners of the shop.

We went back this afternoon and bought some beautiful desserts for this evening. So if you are ever in Charlottesville, check out HotCakes.




Ingrid excited about the goodies.



Ilsa "kissing" the ladybug cupcakes.




Posted from Steph's iPad

Minot Flood 2011

How soon we forget... the Minot, ND floods

I am suddenly struck by how fast the national consciousness forgets. I forgot. I lived in this beautiful community for three years. And I forgot. Just a short few weeks ago, my former home was overrun by flooding.

I received an email this morning from our best friends who left Minot to start a church in Ft. Collins, Colorado asking for prayer and humbly requesting financial assistance for their trip (they'll be sleeping on the floor of our former church, making their own meals, etc.) back to Minot to help rebuild friends' homes.

I went to our former church's website. I am in shock. They posted a Google map with markers indicating all of the families -- OUR FRIENDS -- who have been "displaced" by the flood. What a humble way to say they lost their homes, our former pastor's family included. His home remains underwater.

Please would you pray for this wonderful community? It isn't a flashy place to live -- North Dakota -- but it is filled with the kindest and most giving people my husband and I have ever met in our entire lives. We have said this over and over and over again since we left. I have rarely cried when leaving a location (I usually cry when we arrive at the new place knowing the hard work of replanting roots). But I wept as we sped past the city limits of Minot, ND.

Here is more information about the flood.

Thank you friends.

Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration

I've been a bit... MIA lately. But I just had to post this video.

Happy Independence Friends!

Ilsa's paper art princess costume

Ilsa is definitely creative. Give her a ream of paper, a roll of tape and a stapler, and she is set for a few hours.