Okay, so we have been here for almost a year but it's time to make it easier for all of you to see what goes on in our new life in Kansas. We have had a lot of interesting things happen since we moved here, and most of them have involved strange critters/reptiles/bugs/weather and a few interesting people.
We moved into our new house the middle of August, coming from a dry/hot climate in Utah to a very humid/hot climate was a tough adjustment for all of us ( except for Matt, who was living here for 8 months before us.......... in the Extended Stay!) The temperature was 100 degrees, but the "heat index" i.e. humidity level made it "feel" like 120 degrees. Thank God for Central air!
My horses spent six weeks in Nebraska while we were packing up, moving, and un-packing. Gloria came to visit us 2 weeks after we moved here, and at the time that my horses came home. She waited with me for the horse transporter to deliver them to me. The first sight of them was shocking, they were skin and bone. They had stressed themselves out from being in a new place and away from us. Gloria was a strong person for me at that time and reassured me that my horses would be fine.
The boys started school the following week after we moved in. Going from a very populated school in Sandy to a rural middle school in Tonganoxie was very difficult, especially for Taylor. But we all got through it and the boys made friends. Fred and Mary came to visit us in October, which is what we needed at the time. We had fun visiting downtown Lawrence and enjoying a few beverages with them, but it was hard to say good-bye.
The Winter was long, cold......... and did I mention cold? Spring came and we all were happy to get outside. One warm evening I saw something dark and furry dart around the steps of our deck, Matt insisted that it was opossum, but it just didn't look right. Matt started chasing the critter around the backyard telling me to watch as the "opossum" played dead, strange thing is it never did. Now in Matt's defense this happened after we had "enjoyed" a few cocktails so at this point Pepper could have looked like an opossum. The "opossum" never played dead so Matt gave up. The next morning Taylor came up to tell us that there was something in his window-well. Turns out the opossum that Matt was chasing was a Muskrat. A very, very, angry muskrat. One coon trap later and the angry muskrat was back home in his creek. Bye Mr. Opossum-Muskrat.
The begining of May Matt had to take a business trip to Denver. Unfortunately, this is prime tornado time. The day started out very hot and humid, next we had dark clouds and hail storms followed by rain then the sky took on a very strange green color. But by dark it seemed okay and the boys and I went to bed. 1:30 a.m. rolls around and a wicked cold wind starts blowing outside. I turn on the T.V. and we have a severe thunderstorm watch.......... wait........ now it is a tornado watch. A WHAT?!?! We are instructed to seek shelter in the basement. I round up the cats and head downstairs to wake up the boys and seek shelter. I came upstairs to check to see if it was over....... it wasn't........ I have never seen wind/rain/lighting/thunder like this in my life. The windows felt like they would burst from the pressure. I panicked and called Matt. It was the one of the scariest experiances I have ever had. Poor Matt felt so helplesss on the other end of the line, but I needed his voice at the time. It took 30 minutes but the storm blew over. The next morning Hunter and I went out to check out the damage. We lost a lot of trees and our trampoline was folded up like a taco, but we made it!
