Mika Brzezinski of MNSBC rips Paris report

i've never heard of Mika Brzezinski, but i'm definitely a fan now! hooray for a newscaster doing what her part to promote relavent news instead of more about Paris Hilton!

i was thinking tonight about how stupid moths are. they always fly towards light -- whether it be from the headlights of a car racing down the interstate or a porch light. and before long, they're dead.

then it occurred to me...they race for what they're drawn to. us humans are drawn to something (or rather someone) as well. but too often, we go for the quick fixes and short cuts, which never satisfy long term. so maybe i'm not much smarter than a moth.

i'm not ready to say moths aren't stupid, but i certainly have a different perspective now!

"hold my hand or you might blow away"...

...mom frequently told me as a little tyke. i gripped her hand tightly as i imagined myself flailing in the wind, like debris tossed around by a tornado.

i hadn't thought about this for awhile, but definitely did today as we had sustained winds of 43 mph and gusts of 51 mph. one county employee told me she was almost pushed to the concrete from a gust when walking around a building corner. (i imagined this causing a broken wrist or another injury and the victim trying to explain the injury, laughing to myself.)

the yard behind my place is littered with large branches, finally blown from the trees after being broken during our ice storm in december. in the next county they are having power outages because of the wind.

it's classic tornado weather, but so far we're only in a watch (and obviously a wind advisory). here's to a safe night in central nebraska!

i saw alot of trailers this week. this quote is from one of my favorites...

"Dude, you just killed a helicopter with a car!"
"Yeah, I was out of bullets."
  --Live Free or Die Hard trailer

i've spent the week with the Casselberry's in oklahoma. my sister keeps asking what i've been up to and i never really know how to respond. i guess i can sum it up by saying i'm just living life with them and soaking up what family life is supposed to be like. they're the first to admit their family isn't perfect, but i learn so much each time i'm down here. it's one thing to hear about how families deal with conflict, work through frustrations, etc, but it means alot more to watch it in action. i also learn just as much by observing the ways they interact in the good times. growing up, i celebrated, laughed, and generally enjoyed life away from my family. but now i get to see how families enjoy that stuff together as a unit.

of course, it hasn't all been observation! we've watched a bunch of movies (pirates 2, shrek 3, pirates 3, a beautiful mind, and perhaps more before i leave), went shopping for maggie moo's ($203 worth of candy!) with Amos (one of the other "adopted" kids here), played rook, drank coffee, drank lots of chocolate milk with Johnny (a new tradition when i come down here), and made a few cheesecakes with Amos (another new tradition).

i'm so thankful that they welcome me into their family as one of them and let me live life with them!!!