LOTS of rain = floods! (and new records!)

Ok, so I know I just said I don't know what to post about... But I've got something!
This last weekend and the last couple days, it's been... how shall I say it... COLD & WET!

I know it won't sound cold to all of you people from Idaho, but for us, who have just gotten (sorta) used to the above 100 degrees, 70 is super COLD! It is currently 71.4, according to wunderground.com, as opposed to the 84 degrees it says it is in Victor, ID, today! How is it possible that it's warmer at my parents house in Idaho than it is in the middle of the desert in Texas?!

And in other weather related news... remember a while ago I posted about being woken up in the night by a big old thunderstorm that ended up lighting our neighbors house on fire? (See my post on June 22, called "Wow")...
We had a killer awesome (unless you wanted to be sleeping, that is) loud thunderstorm last night. It poured rain all night long! And, consequently, today, we have flooding in Wichita Falls. This morning some of the roads in and out of the city (highways and such) were all flooded over!

I heard two neat stories at work this morning:
The first one is: one of the ladies I work with has horses. Apparently her pasture is kind of lower than the surrounding area. It was flooded last night. Bad enough that some of the horses were STUCK in it this morning! She stayed home from work today to try to rescue some of their animals!
The second one is: another of the ladies I work with has this son-in-law... who went to go get in his brand new car (he's had it almost 2 months) this morning. And found that it was surrounded by a lake. The water was about halfway up his car doors. (Teach him to park in the middle of a parking lot, huh?)

We more than doubled our previous rainfall record! According to the statistics that I found, on Sheppard Air Force Base (a couple miles from our house), the previous record daily rainfall was set in 1961 (on this day). It was 1.26 inches. Today, so far, we've gotten 2.67 inches. Cool, huh?!

Please help me!

I've been curious, but only today feel inclined to TRY to find out, as to how many people read my blog. Regularly or occasionally.

So, I'm going to try something. If you read this, would you mind letting me know?
Leave a comment! Telling me you read it, just saying your name, if you'd like me to answer some questions in future posts ask me those, or if you'd like me to add you to my "blog link" list, let me know that too!

If you don't know how to leave a comment, I'll explain!
If you don't have a "google/blogger identity" IT'S OK!!! You can still comment on my blog! (Even if you can't comment on some other blogs.)

Here's how: (in very descriptive terms for people like my wonderful Mom, who doesn't know how to comment... or at least didn't before I tried to show her while I was up there... I love you, Mom!)

Right below this post (but before the next one) there's a line that says "Brought to you by Hal and Dani at 4:50 PM" (followed by) "__ Comments"
CLICK ON the "Comments" word.
It will bring up a new screen, which has on the right hand side a box that says "Leave your comment" above it. Click on the box and type what you want to say. Then right below the box, it says (in orange) "choose an identity." If you DON'T have an identity click the "button" in front of "ANONYMOUS". Then click the "Publish your comment button". (Just to be kind, I've copied these instructions to the comments section, too. So if you get there and get lost, just read the first comment!)
Easy cheesy! *BIG SMILE* :)

Thank you for playing along, everyone!!!

Ummm...

So, I don't really feel like anything exciting is happening to blog about... (Well, not that most people would be interested in, anyways.)

Cocoa (our "new" little girl ferret) has decided punish me, or something. She's decided she has no use for litter boxes, and can poop anywhere in her cage she wants. That human girl (that's me) will clean it up for her... Grrrr....

And I've caught two geckos lately. I opened my front door and some little tiny critter ran it. So, I chased it and stepped on it. (It was a little tiny gecko.) No, I did not squish it. I was able to pick it up (with a paper towel of course! Ewww!!!) and throw it back outside. I think I pulled off it's tail somehow, though... hmmm.... And then the other gecko suddenly appeared on my wall. So Hal helped me corner him (we snuck up from both sides) and I caught him and flushed him away. I've also caught a few more in my sticky traps, but that's not very exciting.

And it's been nice and cool the last few days! Downright pleasant! Under 100 degrees! Wahoo! It's actually like 83 today! Talk about "cold"!

Anyways, that's all I've got to say today... Have a great one!

My trip...

I've been back in Wichita Falls for two weeks now, and I'm finally getting around to posting about my trip! I'm such a slacker!

One of my old roommates, Sheena, got married July 18th, in Idaho Falls. I had promised that I'd come back for her wedding before we moved... so I had to go! :) (I did want to go, too!) And I really wanted to see my family! So, I got to go home for a week. Wa Hoo!!!!
The plan was to fly from Wichita Falls, TX to Jackson Hole, WY, by way of Dallas and Denver. 3 flights each way. Wichita Falls to Dallas, Dallas to Denver, Denver to Jackson Hole.

The trip there was OK... until the end, when it got really frustrating!
In Dallas, my plane was delayed because, apparently, there were "some mechanical failures" (wonderful thing to tell a bunch of potential passengers, huh?) that they were trying to work out before we got into the air. Hmmm... thanks? We finally took off 1/2 hour late, and made it to Denver late, of course. (But it's OK 'cause I had an 1 1/2 hour layover in Denver.)

When I got to Denver, I read the departure board and found, much to my horror, that my plane was delayed. By 2 hours! And then a little later, found out that the departure time had been bumped up an hour. So it's only 1 hour delayed. And then the gate changed, so we all (there were a lot of people waiting for this plane!) headed on down to the other gate. And then it was delayed again. And the gate was changed again. And then the flight was bumped back up again. And then it was delayed again.
Apparently the pilot was in the air circling the Denver airport. He couldn't get permission to land... (What? How does that happen? And where had he been for the last hour and a half?) I finally made it to Jackson 2 hours later than I had planned. (My little brothers, Jake & Zac, were just in heaven! It meant they got to swim at the Rec center in Jackson for even longer! Yay!) I was so relieved to finally be done traveling to get there! It was so great to see my family!

Anyways, I had a blast! I went to Pocatello, where I hung out with my old roommates (Sheena and Maria) all afternoon Wednesday. We got our kids meals (that's what we do for fun. This time Artic Cirlce had fish shaped squirt guns! Sadly, I seem to have misplaced my green shark somewhere in my travels... I hope whoever finds it enjoys it!) and talked and shopped and talked! It was awesome! I miss my girls!

While in Poky, I stayed with my brother and his wife (Skyler & Lacey). And played with my adorable niece, Abigail Joy, every chance I got! (All day Thursday!) She's just too cute! My brother and his wife sure make a cute kid! (And soon to be kids!) I'm so excited for this next one! I don't think I can say here what their expecting, but lets just say I'm super excited!

On Friday, Sheena got married, in the Idaho Falls temple. (That's where Hal & I were married.) And I just have to admit... It's awfully sad to go to a wedding without my husband! During the sealing, I cried. It could have been that it was so beautiful watching Sheena and Travis get married. Or it could have been that it made me miss Hal. But either way, I cried. Sheena was so pretty & Travis adores her. (At least, it looked that way to me!) It was really sweet!

Then we did 'girl pictures' (Mom, Lacey, Me, Memorie, and Abigail) and played for a couple hours together before Sheena's wedding reception. I made Abigail giggle so hard and so much that I gave her hick-ups! I felt so bad!!! I hope when we come up for Christmas, she remembers how fun her Aunt Banani is! :)

After the reception in Pocatello, and dinner with Sky, Lacey, and Abi, Mom & I (and Mem and Maria) all drove back to Idaho Falls, where we dropped Maria & Mem off at their cars. And Mom and I went shopping! (It was almost midnight, but so?!) Anyways, we finally got home to Victor at about 2 (or was it 2:30? I forget...) And stayed up talking 'til all hours of the morning. I think we finally fell asleep at like 4 or 4:30 or something...
Whew! Big day!

The rest of the time I was there was a lot slower paced and more relaxed!

Saturday, I was feeling ambitious! And did yard work... It was a great day for it! All nice and cool! (Read 75-80 degrees.) Poor Mom came out with me... I think I about roasted her alive! Then we went to a bridal shower for Serenity Woolstenhulme. (Yay, Seri!) I was so tired! But it was fun and cute and yummy! :)

Sunday was church and we played games as a family. It was fun!

Monday... well, I don't remember... But I'm sure it was full of talking, laughing, and games!

Tuesday Mom and I (and Jake for a while, and Ben for a while) made beads. They were gorgeous! Until they dried... And then all the colors went all yucky and weird! Grrrr!!!!
And we invited Ben's girlfriend Chelsea over to play with us. (She's great! We all love her to pieces!) We tried to weed the garden... and got hailed out! We had hailstones - no exaggeration - the size of quarters. Neat! (Luckily, I don't think it ruined Dad's grain!) It was so cool!
And we made more beads. And played games. It was super fun! It's great to have whole crowds of people who will play card games with me!
By Tuesday night, I'd developed a migraine. (Surprise! I didn't have one all week! So, it was about time...) So, I'm not sure how nice or fun I was, but I have fond memories of it...

Wednesday morning Mom had to take me back to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye, but I was excited to come back home to see Hal again! I'd missed him like crazy!!

This time all my flights were on time, so I got home OK, but...
The flight from Jackson to Denver was uneventful. Denver to Dallas was OK...kind of bouncy! (turbulence filled) They did change the gate on me -twice- before my flight. Two gate changes in 1 1/2 seems like a lot to me... Anyone agree? The most eventful part for sure was when we were going to for a landing. The pilot must have been dropping too fast, or something, 'cause he hit the "gas" just before we went in for a touchdown. I don't think I've ever landed going that fast before! What a rush!!! Wow! We were flying down the runway so fast! ...for far enough that I seemed like we'd end up taking off again...

When I got Dallas, I was waiting for the plane... and one of the cleaning crew came in and told the lady running the ticket counter/boarding that they were cleaning some vomit from the back of the plane, and to verify that they were finished before sending people out to board. Ewww! Anyways, by the time we landed in Wichita Falls, the entire plane of people were sick. I actually heard someone say "if that last flight was anything like this one, no wonder the person threw up!" No kidding! Wow!

Anyways, I was wonderful to visit, and it's wonderful to be back home. I'm so excited for Christmas to come visit again! I never knew I'd be some homesick... *sigh*
I wasn't sure where to fit this in at, so it's just here at the end. Huge, huh? I don't think I've ever seen such big hail! After the hail stopped, everyone (Jake, Zac, & Chelsea were all running around gathering up the big hail pieces. They were all melting! :( So we had to get pictures quick!

Phew!

Hi all!
I'm sorry I've had the same post up forever Lac! I'll try to remedy that now...

So, I've been a little more busy than normal the last few weeks. I've got a job. I'm a receptionist at a very slow paced oil company. Neat, huh? I like it. It's right up my alley! I've been stuffing envelopes, typing up information, and helping them "upgrade" their record system (in accounting) to all digital (this last involved scanning old invoices and saving them in as a pdf). Oh, and I answer the phones. Roughly 3-5 times an hour. Sounds tough, huh? Super cool!

Anyways, I've been getting super excited to get on an airplane (3 of them! Each way!) and fly to see my Mommy. And the rest of my family. And Sheena's wedding. YAY!!! It's just now hit me that I'm probably going to miss Hal like crazy though... It's a sad though... I might just cry!

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OK, so story time! A few weeks ago, we got our electricity bill. It was an incredible almost $300! (Like $286.) Well, golly gee why don't you just hit me with a baseball bat?! Anyways, once we got over the shock and anger, we seriously decided it's way past time to get someone to spray insulation into our attic. (We had like 3 inches... way lower than the recommended 12 inches!)
So, Hal made arrangements for someone to come do that for us.

And then we decided that before they come, we should pull out the heater (installed in the house in 1961, they have been unofficially declared a fire hazard) in the bathroom ceiling. (It's turned off and on by a light switch beside the regular light switch.)

Hal got to work trying to get this thing out of the ceiling. One of the biggest problems being that when we flipped the breaker to the bathroom, it turned off the bathroom light, and also turned off the hall light. And then he couldn't see. So we made the decision to leave the breaker on, and he'd just be really carefull with those wires.
During the whole removal event, he shocked himself! He hollered and dropped his tools! Scared me halfway to death! But he was OK. Apparently it just scared him, mostly.

Then we decided to replace the light switch in the bathroom with an electrical outlet. 'Cause, well, everyone needs an outlet in their bathroom! It gets really old stringing an extension chord along the hallway to the bathroom every time I wanted to blow dry my hair.

So I did my part and replaced the socket (I've successfully replaced all but 2 electrical outlets and 2 light switches in my house). I DID turn off the breaker that goes to the bathroom and used my headlamp to see. Everything was going so well! I was trimming the last wire with my wire cutters... And there was this "POP" noise! And the sparks flew! I got zapped! Hard! I yelped so loud! I scared Hal half to death! (Revenge!!! OK, so it wasn't on purpose, but...)

Anyways, I was so super confused! And furious! (Once I got past the scare of thinking I'd been electrocuted!) I turned off the breaker and everything! How did that happen?!?!?! GRRR!!! Bad word!!!

Wow! Hal went into the bedroom and looked at the breaker box to see if he could figure out what had happened. And noticed that there were two breakers turned off. The one I had turned off for the bathroom, and... the one labeled "heater"... Ta da!
Guess what?! If we'd used our noggins and GUESSED we might have saved us both a good zapping! Anyways, we pulled out our circuit tester (yes, we did have one, I just assumed that I had the breaker off and didn't need to test the wires to make sure they weren't live. Bad assumption! I'll never assume that again!) and tested a few wires. We learned that indeed there are two breakers that go into our bathroom. The one for the light and the one for the heater! (Hal could have worked on removing the heater from the ceiling with the bathroom light ON and the heater breaker OFF, and he wouldn't have gotten shocked! And I could have turned them BOTH off and I wouldn't have gotten shocked! GRRRR!!!)

Turns out that Hal's friend Jake was right. (He's an electrician.) He told Hal one time that as long as you have a breaker box, you won't die if you get zapped by live wires. It'll just flip the breaker.

The neatest part of the whole thing was seeing the singed wire insulation! The wire and insulation were totally burned by the electricity! I had to trim the wire back past the burned part. I kept it and I've got it sitting on my desk by the computer. The insulation was totally burned off! Neat!

And just for all of you who want to know what getting zapped by a wire in the house feels like... Go grab an electric fence! The feeling of getting shocked by an electrical wire in my house was... wait for it... just like getting zapped by an electric fence! The same muscle clenching, terror striking, awful, painful feeling! Ugh!

And that's my story of the zapping...

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Oh! And last night I was on my way to bed and I saw this little tiny pink thing stuck to my wall. So I walked closer to see what it was. (I knew it wasn't a spider. Spiders aren't pink!) It was like an inch long, pink, and it had legs and a tail. It looked like one of those little sticky toys you can get out of the quarter machines at stores... know what I'm talking about?
And then it moved. And I knew what it was! It was a gecko!!! The same kind that are getting stuck to my sticky traps! What is it doing on my WALL!!!!! They can live in my kitchen and eat my kitchen bugs, BUT STAY OUT OF MY BEDROOM!!! EEWWW!!!!
At the same time though, I kinda want to catch it! It was a little baby lizard! Ohhh!!! Too cute! I don't have one of those! Are leopard geckos reptiles or amphibians? Hmmm....
Eeewww!!!

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And I've been meaning to say this for just forever! I have the sweetest husband ever! For my birthday he got me a keyboard! 'Cause I've been missing playing the piano! (I'm not very good, but I enjoy it.) Isn't he just the sweetest?!

Archimedes!!!

"Something tells me you're all wet, Archimedes!" That's my thought of today!

He's a little camera shy... Can you tell? I love his little toes! His little back claws are too cute!

I named my turtle! I've finally picked a name! My brother Skyler and his wife Lacey were brainstorming ideas for me, and they came up with Archimedes! It's the name of the owl in "The Sword in the Stone", which Lacey and Abi had just watched. (And also just so happens to be one of my favorite movies ever!)

Well, needless to say, I love the name. So thanks for naming my turtle Sky and Lac! I'm so excited! I'm not entirely certain he knows I'm talking to him when I yell "Archimedes" at him, though...

I do have to say... I told a couple of the Laurels (I'm in Young Womens at church) that I'd named my turtle Archimedes. And I quote "That's the stupidest name for a turtle I've ever heard!"

So, I totally picked a good name!!! :)

20 things...

Thanks for tagging me Lacey Joy! This looks fun!

20 things that make me smile
(in no particular order, just what came to mind)

1. Garret trying to getting free when we accidentally leave a door on his cage open... (he'll climb out the doors approximately 3 and 4 feet off the floor, and drop to the floor. And head waddling off to the kitchen!) OH!!! And watching him 'run'. His little duck waddle/hop routine is super cute!
2. Rocket chasing his squeaky toy.
3. Cocoa... well, being Cocoa... she's just cute!
4. Ferrets playing with each other, chasing around the room, hopping and jumping, and quacking (it's called dooking).
5. Killer lightning/thunderstorms! But not in the middle of the night... Just when I'm supposed to be awake!
6. Worms on the sidewalk.
7. Cute kittens. And maybe or maybe not the generic 'cute' kittens... see "my" kitty Two-Two if there are any questions about that!
8. Most baby animals.
9. Zoos!!! and Aquariums!!! I love all animals!
10. Hal! (of course!)
11. Froggie croaking. And sometimes his food chirping... But sometimes it's just annoying...
12. My new turtle, who is still unnamed. I was thinking Fred (honestly), but Nickie said it might be cursed... so hmmm...
13. Looking out my new window. (That Hal put in all by himself! Well, I helped a little, but not much!)
14. Other smiles.
15. Talking to people I like (Family and friends).
16. Thinking of funny stories (like almost getting electrocuted... tee hee...).
17. Getting a kids meal.
18. Driving really fast! (But safely!)
19. Mountain Dew!!!! :) Just the thought of it makes me grin like lunatic!
20. Finishing a project (like finishing sewing something/crocheting something/cross stitching something, fixing something... etc...)

Ta da! 20 things that make me smile! In no particular order. I didn't feel like trying to re-arrange them. Phew! That was harder than I thought it'd be to come up with 20!

And now I tag... anybody else who'd like to name 20 things that make them smile!

Guess what I've got now?!

I got a turtle! One of my Young Women has baby turtles and she gave me one!!! He's the cutest little ugly thing! I've always wanted a tiny turtle!!! Too bad he won't always stay this little... (Which reminds me of a question: Are turtles like goldfish? If you keep them in a small cage, they stay small and if they're in a big cage they grow bigger? Also, would that be completely inhumane?)

It's kind of a bad picture of him, but at least you can see the top shell! He was a little scared to be moved around so much... I think I could get a better picture of him now! He's a bit more well adjusted.

What should I call him?! I haven't been able to come up with a good turtle name yet... I kind of like Squirt, but that's totally straight out of Finding Nemo... hmm.... And he won't always be two inches big... Any ideas?!

Wow!

Here in Wichita Falls, TX, we have the neatest thunderstorms! I love watching lightning and listening to thunder! A few weeks ago, we had one that was accompanied by lots of wind. There was a tornado warning that went with it, too! Neat! :)
Unfortunately they usually happen between the hours of 10 PM and 6 AM (when we're sleeping, of course!)

Story #1
We had another amazing thunderstorm last Wednesday night. We were woken up at about 5 AM Thursday morning by this loud thuderous BOOM!!! I'm mean it was killer loud! My eyes flew open and I watched the lightning flashing. The rumble (of the thunder and the shaking of the house!) lasted for what seemed like FOREVER, in actuality it was probably only like 45-60 seconds.

I thought my house had been hit by lightning! But there was no smoke, so probably not.

And then the firetruck came. It flew through our neighborhood the siren and lights blaring. I jumped up in bed and peered out the window... to watch it turn on the next street over! It being 5 AM, I wasn't wearing much and didn't feel inclined to follow it to see what's up...

Story #2
When we got up like an hour later, our internet (my lifeline to the world!) wasn't working! Hal messed with it for a while, and then decided it's probably AT&T's problem to fix. And he went to work. I called AT&T to report that our internet is down, and got in touch with someone in India or somewhere. 45 minutes later, I'd managed to convince her that my problem was indeed from somewhere other than my computer/modem connection, and she reported my problem.

The people investigating the problem called me back a little while later and told me, via automated voice system, that there is no problem.

When Hal got home, he called the company and did his "I know what I'm talking about! There is a problem!" routine. They scheduled an appointment for a repair man to come out the next day.

On Friday, the repair man came out to my house, hooked his little computer sensor thingy up to my internet line and SURPRISE! There's a problem! We had no signal! So he went out back to our phone line box (I'm not sure what it's called really) and there was no signal there either! So, he got his ladder off his truck and climbed my power pole... There's no signal there either! Up the row to the next pole, and the next... after climbing five poles, he finally found the problem...

The conclusion to both story #1 and #2
The telephone pole just up the block from our house was hit by lightning.

Which fused all the telephone wires together, effectively ruining all of our neighbors phone and internet connections luckily, the repair guy was able to fish out my two wires and fix my internet. (Which makes no sense to me... If the whole bundle was fused together, how was he able to pick out the yellow and green wires and make my internet work again?) However he did it, my problem was fixed! Yay!

Also, when the lightning hit the pole, the current traveled up the phone line and lit his house on fire. Hence, the firetruck! (The repair guy learned that while he was fixing my internet and the people that live around there told him all about it!) Neat, huh?

I'm so very grateful that my house wasn't lit on fire! Whew!!!

All gone...

Well, Bam, Bob, and Jinx left last night. We'll miss them terribly! But who knows? Maybe they'll come visit again sometime!


Okay, so they weren't our ferrets. We were ferret-sitting for the weekend. One of the guys Hal works with has ferrets and he asked us to watch his ferrets for him. It was super fun! We all (Hal, me, Garret, Rocket, and Cocoa) had fun playing with the new guys.

...Laundry baskets and empty cereal bags... What FUN!!!

So, no we did not get three new ferrets! I don't know that we could handle having six ferrets! They're super cute and fun, but 6 ferrets makes a lot more work than just 3. (Come to think of it, 3 is a quite a bit more work than 2!) However, it was fun while it lasted!

This was my favorite game... we have this tube (it's like a dryer hose) that the ferrets play in. We tried putting (shoving) all six of them in there and holding the two ends of the hose together... they went around and around chasing each other through the tunnel! It was super fun for us! I like to think they liked it, too, but did they really?

Anyways, we had a lot of fun ferret-sitting! I had a blast watching them all play together! And playing with them!