In the Blink of an Eye

Guys, I live in Southwest Missouri. I’m close to Branson, in fact within about an hour and a half or so depending on traffic. I’ve ridden the Ride the Ducks there in Branson. And there has been a horrific accident that happened.

I’m not sure if this has made national/international news or not. I did get a notification from my Weather.com app last night about it, but that may be due to the fact I live in Southwest Missouri.

I don’t know all the details so I won’t pretend I do, but a huge storm blew through here last night. In fact, it may have been the same storm that actually blew through my corner of the state and headed that direction, I’m not sure. Again, I don’t claim to know all the details. But the Ride the Ducks is located in Branson and basically, it’s a land/water vessel that takes you around Branson and off into Table Rock Lake and then back to dry land. One of the vessels got caught up in 60+mph winds last night (google tells me that’s 96+kmh). It capsized the vessel and there were casualties.

The storm that blew through here, one minute it was hot out and I was sweating up a storm (haha… whoops) and in a matter of less than minutes it dropped at least 10 degrees, the wind picked up, the trees started whipping, and it blew through.

I was standing in our barn doing chores. One of the National Weather Service announcements came on issuing a warning for my area. Abug was yacking at me so I didn’t hear when it was supposed to actually blow through here, but I figured by looking at the clouds it was going to go around us. For the most part, the clouds were going North of us. (more…)

In light of recent events

Looking on to the Vegas Strip toward Bally's and The Perisian

Yesterday morning I woke up like usual, Before I needed to, and decided to lay in bed and scan through Facebook quickly before telling myself, “Get out of bed and be productive.” I was reading through all the new meme’s that appear daily, hourly, minutely (word?), even secondly (not as in 1st, 2nd, but seconds on a clock). That’s when I saw, “Prayers for Las Vegas.”

Oh crap, I thought to myself. What’s happened now? Don’t you think that is a sad thing to think to yourself? What’s happened now? Are we so conditioned to that? Unfortunately, I think we are. Another shooting. Yet another massacre. Even worse, another round of innocent lives lost. Of course when you see the “Prayers for Las Vegas” you immediately have to go and see what is going on. I do anyway. I want to be in the “know” I guess?!

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My Own Day of Mourning

Today is 9-11. I know where I was on that fateful day 16 years ago. I’ve mentioned it many times here on the ol blog… But I was yelling at my roommate because her alarm was way too darn loud. We had bunk beds and my bed was on top. I hopped off the bed after yelling at her and went off to the bathroom. We had community bathrooms. As I was walking back to my room to go back to sleep, because I didn’t have class until 11 am, I heard Tom Brokaw’s voice. Not something you typically hear in the morning.

I immediately knew something was up. I wandered down the hallway into Jessie’s room, sat down on one of the beds and watched as the second plane hit the second tower. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I asked her what movie she was watching. It was so life like. She told me this was really happening.

People all around campus were glued to the tv, and those who weren’t were waiting in line at the gas stations scared to death about what was going to happen.

Okay, What Gives with the Title?

My Own Day of Mourning. That title has nothing to do with the above paragraphs. 9-11-01 has nothing to do with the title. Let me explain!

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9/11 – Never Forget

“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.”- Former President George W Bush

“We’re going to find out who did this and we’re going after the bastards”- Sen. Orrin Hatch

What more is there to say that they haven’t already said?

Hurricane Harvey

#Repost @borntopharm (@get_repost) ・・・ A few thoughts that have been on my ❤ all day. The flooding & devastation in Texas is unfathomable. It’s catastrophic & so many people have lost everything. The flooding is only expected to get worse as the rain isn’t predicted to let up until Thursday. It’s great to see my news feed filled with “Pray for Texas” posts. It’s awesome to see people supporting those affected & offering up prayers! It’s absolutely true that the people of Texas need prayers right now, & I’m not discounting anyone’s posts related to that. However, how often do we post, “Pray for ________” and then don’t actually take a moment and thoughtfully pray for the things the people of our post need? I know I’m guilty of this. I’m not telling anyone how or what they should pray for. I’m simply asking you to take time to sit without distractions & offer up your thoughts & prayers for everyone affected by Hurricane Harvey. Then, what if we all take things a step further & put our prayers into action? I believe, by doing this, big things & miracles will happen! If you think about it, someone in Texas is praying to be rescued, someone is praying for shelter, for food, for medicine, for clothing, for water, for someone to find their pet, for strength to go out on another rescue call, for a hug, & for someone to tell them, “it will be ok.” When you put your prayers into action, YOU can be the answer to THEIR prayers! How awesome is it to think about it that way?! If you’re called to help, then put that call into action! If you’re able to go to Texas, do that. If you can’t, then find something you can do where you are. Take up clothing or food donations, or donate to a relief organization. Everyone can do SOMETHING, no matter how small. Small efforts completed by many people add up to BIG results! So yes, pray for Texas, the people of Texas, and all of the people affected by Hurricane Harvey. Then, I encourage you to follow up that prayer with action, because you don’t know how many people in Texas are praying for YOU to be the answer to their prayers right now. Relief options: https://www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/2017/8/27/16211866/how-to-help-houston-after-hurricane-harvey

A post shared by Nicole (@boomerbear) on

That link because it wouldn’t post correctly…. https://www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/2017/8/27/16211866/how-to-help-houston-after-hurricane-harvey

If you’ve been anywhere that news has been reported or even around people, you know that Hurricane Harvey hit Houston hard. I’m sitting here this morning in my chair, I posted a funny photo on Instagram about how my coffee pot wouldn’t work, yet there are those who are sleeping on counters, rooftops, and just totally displaced from their home.

There are news stories, media coverage, videos, photos, you name it, it’s out there of the devastation that has hit Houston. With the state of the country and how we are so torn apart, it is funny to see how people don’t worry about race, sex, agenda, political stance, anything when it comes to rescuing people. It doesn’t matter if you are black, white, purple, green, hairy, male, female, democrat, republican, it doesn’t matter. When there is devastation in this country, people come running to help everyone.

We saw this when the Oklahoma City bombing happened in 95, the World Trade towers fell in 01, the Joplin Tornado happened in 2011. These tragedies bring us together. Our country unites as one. We become One Nation Under God. And you can sit there and say, why does God allow these things to happen? Well, that is something most of us can’t really explain. We have ideas and beliefs as to why, but it is something we just can’t explain. But one thing is for sure, we know that God is there.

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Little Cricket Bars

Isn’t she beautiful? This was Little Cricket Bars, or her barn name was Cricket or Ma. She is a 1984 model. If there’s one thing I can teach you about horses, their age changes on January 1st. That would make her 32. 32 is old in horse years.

A friend of our family gave her to us with the condition she had a home until she died. We agreed, and sadly Saturday night into Sunday morning she lost her battle. I’m not sure she was battling anything other than as she was getting older, it was getting harder for her to get around. Their 32 years is probably like what 70-90 in adult years? I’ve actually never heard a conversion like dog years… for every year a dog gains 7… ya know… I’ve never heard that conversion for horses. (more…)

9/11 – 14 Years Later

9/11. A date that lives on in the lives of many Americans and people world wide. A day that we thought that our world and our lives were coming to an end.

A date that I remember so vividly in my mind, where I was, especially that I watched that second plane hit the tower. Thinking that my dorm mate was watching a movie but definitely NOT sure what movie she’d be watching.

Sitting here typing this post in about the same time line as the date it happened is giving me goosebumps.

And while instances like this one happen from time to time, and people remember those dates, December 7, 1941, April 19, 1995, September 11, 2001, people remember where they were, people know them by heart, the best we can do sometimes is just cope with the date, remember the lives that were lost, remember the feelings we felt, and Pray to God for healing both for those involved, their families and our country.

This morning while I was on Facebook I saw a commercial that I remember watching during the 2002 Superbowl. For one I absolutely have a love for the Budweiser Clydesdale’s (I want to own one!) and for 2 it was such a great tribute to our country. I didn’t realize that it had only aired just once, but I wanted to share that video with you if you never had the privileged of seeing it, or if you just want to see it again!

Here is the interesting backstory to the commercial if you’re interested.

Never forget!

Throwback Thursday: 9/11

Do you remember where you were 13 years ago? Holy cow, is it really 13 years ago? It is crazy how time moves on after tragic events that happen. People heal, people move on, but we never forget.

I know where I was. I still remember hearing Tom Brokaw’s voice and that feeling of, you don’t hear him in the mornings unless something is happening bad. I remember walking into Jess’s room and sitting on her bed and looking at the tv just as the 2nd tower was being hit live. Then the emotions that everyone went through. We may be located in the middle of the US, a few plane rides away, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t affected too.

In high school I was in band, I got out before my senior year of high school because I was lazy. The band teacher tried to talk me into staying in and he’d help me get a full ride scholarship to a university. Had I gone to SMS in band like he tried to talk me in to, the SMS band actually marched in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in November of 2001. I always wanted to go and see the Twin towers but I never got the chance… but I missed out on a second chance of going in November of 2001. I have mixed emotions on that as well…

As a graduation present from college my mom and I went and spent a week in NYC in 2005. One of the destinations I had on our agenda was to go where the twin towers stood. So here are the pictures I took of that area… obviously not all of them because if any of you know me I have a ton! I just got started into digital (plus I had a film camera then) so it made it easy to take an extreme amount of photos…

As I write this post I”m watching CMT’s Throw Back Thursday. It’s crazy to hear all the songs that came out due to 9-11-01. It is also a very surreal feeling that both of my kids will only know 9/11 because of history books. 1-2-03 and 6-26-14.

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What’s up with the Crazy Weather?!?!

Here we are approaching the 2nd Anniversary of the Joplin Tornado.  A tornado that did major devastation to my part of the country and yet we’re not the only part of the country that is hurting.  Just yesterday Moore Oklahoma was hit by an EF5 tornado.  I have a college friend and her husband who live in Moore.  She said they were okay and that their house was 1000 feet from being taken out by the tornado.

I really am starting to wonder why Mother Nature is so upset lately.  Is it just me and the fact that I’m older so I pay more attention, or is the weather becoming crazier?  Can anyone shed some light on that?

So Sunday afternoon we were headed to pick my mom up from her work trip to Germany.  She was in Germany 2 years ago when the Joplin tornado hit.  She found out by watching International news and calling my dad at 1am to chew him out for not telling her what was going on.  I tried to call her but dad said it would be the middle of the night and that he’d call her first thing in the morning.  Just so happens our mornings here started 7 hours after her morning there.  Rude awakening for everyone involved.  Then mom called me at work to chew me out for not making dad call her.  My phone call came in at 10am.

Anyway, they were calling for bad weather.  This is what the sky looked like just before we left to head for the airport.

Which was a bit eery seeing as though this was the predicted forcast for the evening.

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