AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday night at about 6:30pm our house was hit by lightning! Taz, Bob and I were at home but we are all okay! Taz and I were in the kitchen when the lightning actually hit the house. I saw a really, really bright blue/white light and BAM! Our power went out and Taz howled like I have never heard before. The insurance lady later told me that because our house is built on a slab and because animals don't have anything on their feet, he was actually electrocuted by the lightning that went through his body. After taking care of him for a minute and figuring out something was wrong, I walked outside and saw this just above our side garage door.

That is where they suspect the lightning actually struck the house.

Of course, the one time I didn't charge my cell phone the night prior; I had almost no cell power so I had to go to the neighbor's house and call the power company. It was still raining at this point and I actually RAN next door. As I rounded the corner of our house headed next door, I saw a Progress Energy truck pulling away from the house caddy corner to ours. About 15-20 minutes later, the guy showed up and I realized the full damage to the outside.

This is where it went to the right from the "strike" and that is the cable internet line which was fixed today so I could post this!

These are the two points to the left of the "strike" where the vinyl trim was blown off of the house. You can't see it well in this picture but there is another burnt point at the very top of the roof.

Lightning is mysterious! It actually rounded the back corner of the house and this is just above our back door. It was searching for a way to get to the ground. (sorry about the sunshine!)

And here is where it found the "ground" at the bottom of our back door. Very weird.

Yeah, our first estimate is $1,300+ in exterior damage repairs! A friend had tried to call me while this was happening and when she couldn't get our house phone to work, called my cell. With the last 15 seconds of power I had, I told her the power was out, the house had been hit by lightning but we were okay. She offered to come over but I said we would be fine. She knew something wasn't right so she came over anyways! Taz and I spent Monday night at her house (that's the house Taz found Nate at) and I started the lengthy process of getting repairs and filing an insurance claim on Tuesday morning. Our present interior damaged items are: stove, TV in living room, Xbox 360, PS2 (Nate's with all the extra hard drive and modem and such; of course not mine because it was the basic version), elliptical machine, stereo receiver, cable modem, router, and house phone.

Thought you might enjoy a shot of our tyedyed TV! :)

I am exhausted and have to return to work tomorrow! Keep us in your prayers so we can get these things taken care and our life can return to normal. NATE SHOULD BE HOME IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!!!!

~S

VEGAS!!

The much awaited pictures of Vegas are here!!

So I have a ton of pictures so I'm going to try and share a few of my favorites. We had a great time and the weather was wonderful. It had been between 100 and 105 degrees up until the day we flew from Wichita. It was about 70 degrees during the hottest part of the day for our three days!


We stayed the Luxor hotel. I had a good experience there. The shower in our room was really my favorite part of the room, hehe! HUGE walk-in shower with granite/slate tiles.

A shot of me in our room.
And the view from our room on the side of the pyramid. We were on the 8th floor.

And what else would you got to Vegas for....haha!
Mom at Mandalay Bay, our favorite casino during the trip!
Lunch buffet at Mandalay Bay. YUM-O! And no, I did not eat all of these items! My mom and I had a bite of each one. Oh, and yes, there is more than one plate on the table! :)
Bellagio Fountains...probably one of my favorite things I saw while in Vegas!

Me!!

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!
Goodnight in Vegas

Enjoy!
~S

P.S. Check back for more...I've got a fountain video and some pictures from The Blue Man Group show! :)

Wichita

Sorry I am a little slow in getting these up but here is the start of a bunch of pictures!

For those of you know might not know, my mom won a trip to Las Vegas from her last employer. She took me with her and we met up in Wichita, KS before heading to Vegas.

My brand new camera crapped out after taking just 4 pictures so I only have a small number of pictures from our trip to the Botanica Gardens.
Mom and I had an amazing time walking around this place. Things were just starting to bloom but you could see some really neat flowers and landscaping already. They had a garden of peonies and roses that was absolutely incredible! The blooms on some of those were at least 8 inches wide. I wish I had more pictures to share but these poppies were huge!
While I was out there, I had dinner with Nate's dad, mom and brother, Jody. It was really great to see them and the food was yummy!My trip to Wichita was nice and relaxing. Mom and I ate at some really good Mexican restaurant and used the hot tub in our hotel both evenings!
~S

Another Call & Flowers

I just hung up the phone with Nate! He is out in the desert. WAY OUT! Today's temperature was 132degrees!! Yes, that's no typo - 132 degrees! They have a water shortage and the temperature inside the house is 90degrees during the day. He was tired and exhausted but sounded like he was in good spirits!

Today I got some flowers! I'd say from Nate but he claims he didn't send them. They were from Taz and Bob, hehe! Here are some pictures of the two beautiful vases full of roses and tulips just after I got them out of the boxes.
Here's a picture of the flowers that "Taz" sent me. I think that is his 'I miss my daddy face!'Here, he is inspecting the roses from Bob.
~S

Pictures from Africa

I chatted with Nate today on gmail's chat function. I was actually on my (late) lunch at work this afternoon when he sent me a text message from his email. I got to chat with him for about 30minutes and he sent me a few pictures. I thought I would share them so you can see what it is like where he is now. Just a note, this is not where he will be in a few days and I probably won't have to the chance to talk/chat with him while out on their mission. For now, enjoy a few pictures of Nate in Africa...


~S