Ok

Well, here come a lot of pictures and a lot of captions.  I probably should put these into separate posts, but I'm too lazy and want to get it done (see following post).

Last Thursday, we had a crazy storm blow through Madison.  It started around 5 or so with lots of rain and about 60 mph winds.  It seemed like it came out of nowhere, even though they had been calling for it all day.  So, we started watching it from our window.  The rain was just pouring off of the roofs across the street.  As we were watching, I noticed the wind pick up.  I got kind of scared cause we are in tornado country.  As I backed away from the window (so I wouldn't get cut with shards of broken glass in case the window blew through), I saw a branch from my favorite tree bend more than it ever has before and snap off and fall to the ground.

Now the really interesting thing is that earlier in the day, there were workers across the street building that concrete foundation (it's kind of in the upper middle of the pic with stakes around it).  Their truck was backed into their driveway, so Chad said we should move the Xterra (it was kind of close to their truck).  That was in the morning, around 10 or so.  I moved it right away just so I wouldn't have to do it later.  5pm that night, this branch fell right where the Xterra would have been.  And amazingly, no other cars were there---there are almost always cars parked there.

This is the other side of the driveway where I pulled the Xterra earlier.  Like our white-trash fridge sitting on the lawn?!!

We lost power for a few hours.  Luckily, I had some rolls in the oven that were pretty much done.  I used the oven heat to warm up some leftover chili.  Chad didn't think it would work but it did!  We were very glad we didn't lose power for the whole night.  We wouldn't have slept very well cause of the stuffiness of our apt.  We went to the Temple the next day and knew we had to get up early.  Turns out, there were two other huge storms at 1:30am and 3:30am so we didn't sleep too well anyway.  Go fig.

The next morning, these guys came to clean up around 6am.

Something else has changed in our apt.  Our neighbor, Carol (the one that had that old fridge on the lawn!), moved next door to a townhouse.  She moved from a house and didn't have nearly as much space.  So, she started giving us her furniture!  Chad does quite a bit to help her out (has helped with her multiple moves, put in her window unit ac's, and carried that fridge out of the basement!).  I think she felt very indebted to us (well, to him really).  

We got this nice armoire that we put our tv in.  We then moved it to the corner of the room--this is the first time in 2 years that we've rearranged, so I was excited.

She also gave us this pretty hutch.  I think it has a top to it, but I knew that would be too much furniture in our living room!

And we got her old kitchen table that went along with the hutch.

And we got rid of our mammoth computer desk and replaced it with a smaller table Carol gave us.  Oh, and she gave us that cabinet on the right, too.  We had those little while shelves from when we first moved to Madison.

And TA DA!!!  We got a Mac!  I was using Chad's old laptop that would always cut off for no reason.  Well, one day, I was trying to kill a fruit fly (there has been an epidemic of them in our place lately...nasty) and tipped my glass of water on the keyboard!  I totally panicked and pulled the power cord out of the strip and turned it off.  It was too late...it was never the same again.  So Chad found a great computer at a great price on Ebay.  It's 3 years old, but has Office 2008 and Photoshop 2008 on it already!  

Getting to know how to use a Mac has been interesting, but it's been fun.

I just started taking a class online (to work on my Masters in International Relations and Conflict Resolution) from APUS and I'm slowly figuring out how to use this computer for it!

Ok.  So I've been really sick of my hair lately.  I wanted to get it high and low-lighted, but didn't want to spend too much.  I decided to go to the Beauty school down the street.  I went on Tuesday and this is what happened to my hair.

Doesn't look too bad, right?  Well, look at the top of it!

(Not sure why this is underlined, but I can't fix it with the mouse we have and I'm too new to Mac.  Sorry.)

Hello!!!  Am I a skunk?  And not even a skunk with even stripes!  I decided not to freak about it, but after a few days, I couldn't handle it anymore.  The worst part was the HUGE blonde chunk in my bangs.  No way to hide that, even if I pulled my bangs back.  So I got it fixed on Friday night at Penney's.  Shew.  That lady sure knew what she was talking about!  I don't have a pic my new hair, but just know that it's a bit darker and looks WAY better!

Lesson learned.

For the 4th of July, we went to two bbq's.  The first one, we rode our bikes to.  Ummmm...I was so hot and sweaty when we got there.  Look at my arms and Cameron.  I think we just look really hot.  It was at a girl's house that is in Chad's program.

I think this was before or after Cameron tried to lick the balloon, but fell face first on the floor.  He fell so many times that day!

The clan that was there early (Chad, Cameron, Katy, Loren, Nicole, and Sean).

Chad took a pic of Cameron stuffing his face with a banana one morning.  

Chris from downstairs turned 2 on the 3rd.  He is in LOVE with elephants, so Mandi made him an elephant cake.  His party was in our backyard.   It was really fun...lots of kids and it wasn't too hot, although the mosquitos were pretty bad.

Chris got this roller coaster for his bday.  It was a hit!  Cameron still wants to get on everytime we get out of the car (even if it has just rained and it's really nasty and wet!).

Chris, the Birthday Boy

A few days before the party, I went to the pool with a bunch of ladies from the ward (some of those I visit teach and others).

We got a scholarship to the pool...we get 15 free passes.  But it was SO crowded that I'm not sure how much we'll really go.

We've been busy, but have had a good time.  Thanks for sticking with this gargantuan post!