What an Explosion

I'm taking vacation time this week, and Travis is off on Mondays to work on sculpture.

Yesterday I was sitting on the couch in my living room. All the sudden I felt a jolt, and heard a boom. We don't have noticeable earthquakes in Nebraska. If I could imagine what an earthquake feels like, it was similar to that.

Travis was downstairs grinding with headphones on, so he didn't notice a thing.

I went outside to investigate, and noticed nothing. I even made Travis go up to check the roof. He only found a Nerf gun dart.

About a half an hour later I noticed a house blew up in Benson, not too far from me. Number wise the house was on 65th and I live on 76th. It dawned on me, My kids are at Benson Park for camp. My first instinct was to drive over there to see if they were ok. Travis said, "Don't be silly. They'd call us if anything were wrong." So I stayed in my house.

I saw on the news that houses by the one that blew up are unlivable. All those people were sitting outside on a hot day. I thought, Maybe I should do something for those people. Someone brought them water, and another person bought a boy sandals. He was running around barefoot because his shoes were in his house, which was destroyed. It looked as though they were being taken care of. My heart went out to them. I couldn't and can't shake the story from my head.

Before and After Found Here

My first thought was a possible meth lab. That thought disappeared when I found out that the house that blew up was vacant. There was only 1 person in that house, and that was a 30 year old lady that was inspecting it after a tenant was evicted. She was found under the rubble by her husband. Her injuries were so bad that she died. :( Another thought was a gas line, which they do have a gas leak, but that was due to the explosion. I keep wondering if this all has to do with the guy that was evicted. I'm not there, and it's all speculation. There is another adult and a 14 year old child that are at the hospital.

The whole area is taped off. The only people that can get on that street are people that live there. The homicide unit was there last night. Apparently they are called whenever someone dies. Firefighters put out the fire at the home next door that started last night. I just can't imagine being those neighbors, staying in a hotel because their homes are unlivable. Even worse yet the families that have loved ones in the hospital, or the family of the wife and mother that died. It breaks my heart!

When I went to pick up the boys they said the boys saw the explosion, heard it, and felt it. Their camp counselor was able to tell them what had happened from facebook. 

Thanksgiving

We drove 6 hours to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Apel. We also saw Aunt Laura and Cousin Payton.

The boys were pretty good in the car to and from. We did get the question, "Are we there yet?" and "When will we get there?" over and over again on the way Grandma and Grandpa Apel's. We drove both times at night. The only thing I hate about driving in the dark is that CD books are pretty much out. On the way back both boys slept, which was great!

If I was at home I would have kept the boys on the BRAT diet {banana, rice, apple sauce and toast} for a few days. They were sick with the tummy flu before they left. It was Mica that got sick first and Isaak followed. They acted just fine prior to leaving town. In fact they were hungry. I really thought they were on their upswing. The second night while out of town, Mica threw up all over their bedding and Isaak had a major poop explosion in the morning. It's been a long time since Isaak's had a poop explosion. He really hasn't had too many. Both of those situations were embarrassing and hard to clean up! 3 baths and 3 loads of laundry! YUCK! Isaak required 2 baths. We thought they were over their tummy issues. I honestly think that the combo of too much to eat, the type of food they ate after being sick (McDonalds on the way out of town really didn't help!) and lack of sleep didn't help either. The day after I fed them toast, applesauce and bananas.


They both showed some signs of being allergic to their cute kitten and cat. Unfortunately they get that from me! I'm the queen of allergies. I've taken many back prick tests that were off the charts. Mica acted allergic right away, while Isaak was more at the end of our visit. I do have to say that that kitten was CUTE!

Not all was sickness and wiping noses. The kids had a blast playing with their one and only cousin on that side. Payton is in the second grade.

Grandma Apel told Mica and Payton some great stories. Mica's still talking about them.

Daddy, Isaak, Mica, Payton and I went for a walk down to some train tracks. We also went for a drive to see Daddy's first house, school and second house, which no longer exists. The cabin he built with his Dad is still there.

Mica went back to Grandma and Grandpa's and drew this for Grandma Apel.

Mica, Payton, Grandma Apel, Daddy and I played ball outside. Isaak was napping.

We watched TV with Grandpa Apel. Grandpa Apel had knee replacement surgery. He gets his other knee replaced in a month. The surgeries sound and look painful!

The boys performed for us. They made sure we were sitting down. Mica did skits and magic tricks. Isaak followed up with singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and ABC's over and over again. Now he's singing Bah, Bah Black Sheep and 1, 2 Buckle My Shoe over and over again. He skips 5, 6 Pick up Sticks just about every time. Mica lets him know too. :)