My Latest Natural Disaster episode

Sunday night around 10pm, a severe wind storm blew through the neighborhood. It knocked down the tree in my front yard and all the electrical lines in the field across from my house. I could feel the whole house shaking. Downed power lines blocked off the road for several hours and there was no power until 3am. At one point the next day, there were 14 trucks in the field across from my house resetting the power poles.

On April 18, there was a 5.2 earthquake followed by a 4.5 after shock the next day. So in the last 2 months, I have survived an earthquake and a wind storm. If this is all to prepare me for the challenges of traveling to Kaz, then I am ready!

This is the view from my front yard of the trucks repairing the railroad crossing lights and resetting one of the poles. While it wasn't a tornado (straight line winds is the term they used), you could follow the path of destruction that was about an 1/8 of a mile wide as it came from across the field, past my house and through the neighborhood.

My Latest Purchase

After extensive research on the internet and in store testing, I finally decided on what diaper pail to buy. I went with the Diaper Champ. This is the new pink model that I had to drive 45 miles to Springfield to get since they only had the older blue version in town. Spending so much time on deciding what diaper pail to buy probably means that I have been waiting a long time and I am running out of things to do to keep sane during this wait. :) I've tried it with a clean diaper and it works pretty good. I hope I have the opportunity to try it with a dirty one soon!

Matt Damon and Scott Backula are in town!

The big news around here is that Matt Damon and Scott Bakula are in town to film the movie "The Informant". The movie is about ADM! This was all before I went to work for them, but they got caught price fixing the price of lysine(This is one of the products I work on). The Informant was informing on ADM at the same time he was embezzelling millions from ADM. Probably why it is not called "The Genius". Anyway, he got ADM in trouble, but he also ended up in jail himself.

I have not seen any of the filming, but a lot of people have. One thing that is nice is that everyone who has seen the filming has said how great they are at signing autographs, taking photos etc. No security teams surrounding them or anything. The limos have been seen going through McDonalds and Taco Bell. Plus they have gone out to eat at local restaurants and bars. The film takes place around Christmas time so they have decorated the mall for Christmas and made snow for the streets downtown.

Notice the McDonalds Cup!

Snow made from huge blocks of ice in a nearby truck.

Technology is fun...

I got the monitor for the baby's room. No more simple sound monitors! This one has a hand held color monitor and a camera that switches to night vision automatically when it gets dark. I tried it in a completely dark room and it still showed everything very clearly. I thought it would be sort of fuzzy or grainy, but you can see things very well. I took the monitor all around my yard and house and it picks up the signal everywhere. If you look close at the monitor, you can see the picture of the crib.

5 Months Down ?? to Go

I thought about labeling this post- Waiting Sucks!, but I decided to try to be a little more upbeat. Today is 5 months since I submitted my dossier. As I mentioned in a previous post, the best estimate until I get to know my region is 6-9 months. So I am getting closer, but the closer I get the tougher it is to wait. I have read other blogs where the people say the wait gets harder with each step and that the wait for the LOI (Letter of Invitaion to travel) is even worse once you get your region assignment!



I think this little guy sums it up;
Waiting does suck!

The Great Escape

I was folding laundry in my bedroom this morning when I heard the front door bell ring. When I opened the door, noone was there except my dog sitting on the front porch! She was suppose to be in the fenced in back yard. As I was trying to figure out how she got there and how she managed to ring the door bell, my neightbor appeared from around the garage. She had found Frosty playing with 2 neighborhood kids in her yard and had tried to get Frosty back in my yard, but Frosty had ran to the front door instead. One of the gates had not been latched completely and she was able to squeeze out and had a fun time running around the neighborhood.

It reminded me that although I have started childproofing the house, I've not done anything with the back yard. I will need to get a different style of gate latch since if you push on the current ones, you can get the gate open. I need to walk around and see what other things need modified for a child. It also reminded me of how lucky I am to live in a good neighborhood like this. Everyone watches out for the kids and each other and even the dogs.

Objects may be larger than they appear!

I found the cutest Eeyore rocking horse on the internet. Eeyore is one of my favorite characters so I thought it would be great. However, it is huge! It is probably sized for a 5 or 6 year old. I still think it is adorable, but it will have to wait a while until it is used. I reread the description and it says it is good for kids up to 140lbs! I guess that should have tipped me off that it would be big, but it looked so small in the picture.