Top 10 Recent Events

I kept the blog open after getting married for the sake of writing once in a while the odd things that happen in life, and when we found out Olivia was coming, I figured what a great way to share events that happen to her and photos and keep a running tally of what's going on in her life. It's been a pretty decent failure so far at doing that, so I'm going to try to get into a better routine. Ok, here is the top 10 recent events that happened to us.

10. I've demolished and rebuilt the inside of the garage to make sure that there is room for everything
9. Heather is starting to rub in her summer off
8. We have the Seadoo here (in the more spacious inside of the garage meaning summer is rapidly approaching)
7. We got our new couch that compliments our decor very well
6. I went back on the road last week and was in Chattanooga, TN for a week. I got there just in time for the worst out break of tornadoes in 40 years. While I was just fine, it was a wild week of weather down there.
5. Olivia has started smiling, laughing, and occasionally making sounds
4. Soccer has resumed and that is going to start pulling in tons of my time
3. Olivia has started sleeping in longer stretches, and while we cannot go one full night yet, we are only getting up once in the middle of the night to eat. Sleep is slowly coming back to us in larger quantities.
2. Olivia's first road trip to Nana and Papa's house in Minnesota two weekends ago was a success. She sleeps extremely well in the car.
1. Olivia was dedicated in church this morning marking one of the biggest events of her little young life!

That's the nickel and dime tour of the past several weeks. Some of these things are a great adventure, and making honorable mention is the preparations outdoor for the summer which includes some re-landscaping, and some moving of current landscaping and alot of spruce up's outside. We're really focusing on the front yard, and redoing the back of the house in many different ways. I always hated landscaping growing up, but somehow, when it's your own house and your dad isn't forcing you to do it, it's not nearly as bad, but it will still be a lot of work for sure!

Looking above at #6 on the list, I spent this past week in Chattanooga, TN. As I'm sure you saw on the news, Chattanooga was right in the middle of the nasty weather outbreak in the south. When I left from Sioux Falls Monday in the afternoon, my flight was delayed by 3 1/2 hours. Mechanical issues got me to Atlanta quite late, so I rented a car and drove to Tennessee as I would not be able to make it until morning if I flew, and I already had the hotel in Chattanooga paid for. So, I drove up the interstate and went through the town of Ringgold, GA just before crossing the border into to Tennessee. Nothing looked odd or out of place at all, just another small community on the interstate. Now, I wish I would have paid more attention to what things looked like because as of Wednesday night, there was hardly anything of the town left. I talked to a person in the office of the company I work with in Chattanooga who said that they had about 30 seconds to prepare for the tornado hitting. The only reason they heard it coming was because the power went out, and the sound of a tornado being loud like a freight train is what tipped her off. Her property received very minor damage, and her family came out just fine, however, she said that just one block over, there was absolutely nothing left. The schools are literally destroyed, and most of the town is in ruins. There was no siren (as most towns in the south do not have warning system apparently). There is no basement to go to (as most houses in the south also do not have basements). It's a miracle that more people don't die in these tornadoes every time they hit a populated area.

Here is a photo in Ringgold, GA from a resident just before the tornado tore the town apart.