evelyn's quilt for auction

the elliott reunion is coming up very soon, and evelyn has her quilt ready for the auction. the auction is the fundraiser to support the reunion expenses that may occur in preparing the reunion gathering. this year, evelyn has designed a family quilt (with jennifer and janie and joleen's help) that notes this reunion was held in missouri, has a block for the elliott parents, and a block for each of the children (evelyn and her siblings). this is also a memorable reunion because it's the first time the reunion has been anywhere except nebraska.

this is quite an amazing quilt and very meaningful to the family members. jerry and i have already decided what we are willing to bid for this treasure and we're hoping that we come away the proud winners. we understand that we might not be, but we're going to give it a run for the money!

bidders must be present to bid and/or win any auction items. be prepared and be forewarned!

midwest storms

many people have asked lately about the tornadoes near us and what was going on with that. this is a photo of the tornado from 5/10/08 that hit picher, OK, through seneca, MO (south edge of joplin, MO), and then on down through granby, MO.

this picture was taken from the parking lot of central school in baxter springs, KS -- about 10 minutes from picher, OK, area. i received this picture through email, so i'm not sure who should get the credit for the original photograph.

ireport has posted several pictures of this incident if you're interested in specific destruction of this area.

this particular tornado rated an EF 3-4 on the scale, which means it's pretty bad. i've not ever noticed a hyphenated number before, but i guess it could've changed levels of destruction as it traveled or something. if you're interested in tornado ratings, you can read the classifications.

what can i say? not a lot going on in tornado alley during tornado season -- other than watching the storms roll in and (hopefully) right on by. we had another tornado warning last night and could hear the pittsburg, KS, sirens going off. part of the my kids were already here and the other part arrived shortly before the sirens. i guess it was more fun to watch the storm from here!

last night to keep raven from being scared of tornadoes, i told her that's how a person gets to oz to see the wizard -- so she just went on about playing as if there was nothing wrong. no need having her crying as well as riahna, who was afraid of the thunder (and the cat and the dog and the train, etc!)