Graduation Day

Graduation Day! Jensin Taylor Koester graduated today. She ended up a scholar athlete, in the National Honor Society, and headed to nursing school - a far cry from 17 years ago when the doctor told her parents that they could expect her to be deaf, blind, and mentally retarded. We are all so thankful for God's mercy and blessings!

Big, strong, Kaid helping haul rock down to the landscaping project.

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We worked and worked and worked, and only got about a third of the hill completed last weekend! This weekend it was too wet after rain Saturday morning. Today, we were in Effingham. It will be beautiful one of these weekends!

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Marion Caroline (Hankins) Zehner 1934 - 2009

Our sweet Aunt Marion passed away on Tuesday.

Inland Hurricane and other Spring "Happenings"

I am playing catch-up here, so bare with me. I have missed so many weeks of blogging that I don't know where to begin. So, once again, I will just post some random pictures and give you captions. At least you will have an idea of what's been happenin' around here.

Blooming Bradford Pears on Bradford Lane.

Kaid at the EHS lift meet.

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Baleigh went to a her friend Molly's birthday party held at the SIU women's softball game. The Saluki Dawg hung out for a few minutes for a photo shoot.

Baleigh is modeling her new apron and chef's hat while making her pre-game (soccer) pancakes.

This was an unbelievably muddy soccer tournament in Marion. It really slowed the pace of the game down! But, it was funny to watch the splashing and sliding!

Finally, here are some pictures of the aftermath of the Inland Hurricane. Things are looking much better 3 weeks after, but there are still hundreds of reminders of the storm because of all of the ugly trees - broken off at the top trees , slanted trees, or trees with no leaves.

The 4x4 posts, in concrete, were snapped by the wind. Four sections of fencing need repaired. State Farm treated us quite fairly.

Breakfast of champions without electricity.

Baleigh and 2 neighbor girls started dragging limbs away immediately after the storm.

Our driveway, neighbor's house.

Next post: Landscaping project in progress and Jensin's graduation.

After the Storm...

We are at MaMa's house where we have luxaries like hot water and electricity. Dan said that up until Friday, May 8th, he thought the internet was the greatest invention of all time. Now we know, that ELECTRICITY is still the holding that top spot!! We were very lucky that we are all safe and our house is in tact. I think that because the storm came through at 1:30, most people were in stable buildings such as schools and office buildings where there is shelter and the sirens were sounding. My biggest anxiety came from not being able to contact Baleigh's school or her teacher. Her school sits up on a small hill without a basement. I finally got to leave the high school at 3:00 and head to Giant City School. It took me 40 minutes to drive 3 miles. Trees and power lines were all over the place. I drove over 4 power lines, scraped the hell out of my Rainier going around a tree and through a ditch, but made it to my pumpkin safely. She was scared, but holding up pretty well. I told her to "buckle up tight and try to keep your jaw off your lap :) people are driving like maniacs and we may have to do some ditch-riding to get home, and you are not going to believe what you are about to see".

We spent the evening talking and texting, trying to get updates on how everyone's houses were. It didn't take long to find out that the damage was very widespread and that no one had power. We have heard that Ameren plans on getting most people hooked back up by Tuesday night, but we have Egyptian Electric and our old hometown neighbor Louie says that his "big wig" friends say it could be 2 weeks for us. School is the big unknown right now. We've heard a lot of rumors.

I thought I was going to post our Inland Hurricane pictures last night, but I forgot the dang camera cord! So, I searched on YouTube for a good video. Try this link or search for the title What the Hell was it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki-HacgTtW0&NR=1

I need to cut this short and get to my hot shower. Have a great week!