Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We hope that everyone has had time to reflect on the things/people they are thankful for and hopefully do a good deed onto others.  This month I'm going to do something a little different.  The reason why is to reflect on the things/people that are most important to us and how thankful we are for those around us.  Recently Jeff decided to take another storm chasing trip to Illinois mid November.  I thought he was crazy and told him to be safe.  Next thing I new, he was loading the car, the new car, and heading off on his journey; alone.  It never really hit me about my feelings about the storm chasing until the next day when Jayden and I were home alone and tending to the house.  What if something happens to him?  What would I do and how could I manage on my own?  The answer wasn't there right away, but then my mind cleared and it was obvious.  My family and friends and my trust in God would pull me through if anything happened to my love.

We are thankful for everyday even though we don't get the chance sometimes to voice it.  Our family means the world to us and if we ever needed anything, we could depend on their help.  Friends for so many memories and so many "talks" in time of need.  My faith in God, knowing the protection I receive and the trust in knowing I'm never alone.  Our home to keep us warm and safe.  Our jobs to support our family, our many adventures to make so many memories, the food on our table...I could go on and on.  We are thankful for the things that we all take for granted such as the service the troops do for our country, the mail person for delivering our mail, the garbage people, the firemen/women, the police, nurses and service workers.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I want to share with you some pictures from Jeff's storm chase and share some of the stories he shared with me about his journey.  Even though I'm not a fan of his travels and love for the storms, I learned that it is beyond the storm.  It is the warmth in his heart to help those that are in need afterwards.  What an amazing things to be able to do when help is needed greatly.

The day started out with this warning.

The beautiful skies were a good sign it was going to be a pretty active day.

Here the storm had just started to  build.  This is of one of the wall clouds, the beginning of the storm.  You will notice that there are no more pictures of the storm here after since the storms were moving so fast, Jeff had to keep on the move to stay safe.

After hours of chasing the storm and being chased by the storm, Jeff seen some power flashes(when a transformer blows) from a distance and seen a tornado on the ground.  He headed to the town, thinking it was a different one, not knowing this little town was even there.  The town of Gifford, IL, population of about 1000 people.  He pulled up to this area not knowing the extent of the damage.

Here are some pictures of the damage right after the storm.  Jeff didn't take too many pictures since his real mission was to help those in need and start the rescue mission.

 

 

 

 

 

 I don't think I need to say anymore about these pictures; they say enough on their own.

 

Help has arrived as some of the community arrive to see how there neighborhood was torn apart.  Just put yourself and your family in their shoes and wonder for a moment, where would you begin and what would you do.  Most people couldn't believe what they were looking at and wept.  Jeff said it was very emotional to see these townsfolk "come home".

 

This picture if you look close, there is a cop and a towns person.  They are trying to get to this tractor so they can start clearing debris from the roads so help can get into the town instead of just the the outer limits. Jeff thought this may have been a town garage for the community.

I do want to share some stories behind some of the pictures Jeff took.  I hope I can share them as well as Jeff did and hope that you can find how touching they were to me as he shared them.

 

Jeff and another man were out looking and calling for anyone in help.  They stumbled upon a woman sitting on the ground holding her purse in her pajamas.  They asked if she was hurt and checked her out a little.  They asked her story...I was in the basement and remembered my purse upstairs.  I went up to get it and that is the last I remember.  So the tornado tore through her house with her in it when she grabbed her purse.  She was a little banged up and she was full of mud.  They found a chair for her to sit in and covered her with this blanket.  Jeff mentioned that she was such a brave 82 year old that was so up beat and didn't seem too shaken.  After Jeff told me this story I asked if he took a picture of this brave women and he said no, that he wished he did.  When looking at stories on the internet, he stumbled upon this picture; it is the woman they helped.

 

This house was torn to shreds.  Jeff and the other man walked around asking if anyone was in here and they heard a lady cry for help.  Jeff kicked in the front door and weaved through the debris to find the women in the room to the left covered by a mattress.  She was very shook up, but mostly unharmed.  Every home they walked upon, the hiss of gas leaking and the smell was so strong.  Jeff said that you had to be so careful, but people needed help.  A lot of the towns people left there home, knowing the storms were going to be bad and some were at church not know what was even happening.

 

This couple on the right are searching through there home for their dog Cooper.  If you look close enough, there home used to sit to the left on this picture.  Jeff helped them dig through the rubble for about 15 minutes before moving onto the next home.  The man wept the whole time.  I couldn't imagine loosing your beloved 'friend' in something like this.

I hope this moves you as much as it has myself.  Please thank those around us that do the little things in life and don't take it for granted.

This time of year there are red kettles everywhere for the Salvation Army.  Please, if you have even an extra penny, please drop it in the kettle.  It is a way to help those in need and those that are in need will be thankful for all that you can do.  We wish you Happy Holidays from our house to yours.

Until next time,

Jeff, Heather and Jayden

Loving Fall

Fall is our favorite season, at least for this month.  Kids change their minds a lot and right now it is fall, I'm sure when the snow is flying it will be winter.  As a kid I remember waiting for fall to come to enjoy the fall leaves, the crisp breezes and the holidays too.  Now that we are in our 30's, the year flies by and it seems you can blink and the next minute the leaves changed colors and the next, the trees are bare.  This season is going by way to fast or maybe it is our busy schedules that are taking up too much time to not be able to take notice.  Soon all the trees will be bare and snow sticking to the Wisconsin ground.  We sure hope that everyone can enjoy a little fall fun before the snow flies, we sure did.

Jayden has Fun Friday's at school and so we thought it would be a great

to share some of our gourds with his classmates and teacher.

So to the store we went to find all the fun things to paint and put on

all the gourds and here are a few of the creations...

And here are a few more!

Our buddy Grant, just chilling!

Jeff and Chad decided to take off on an adventure after work on a Thursday after work.

"Where are you headed?"  "Oh, the chase the tornadoes in Iowa".

"So you know they are going to be there?"  "We sure hope so, that is what we are predicting".

So off they left, driving many miles to fulfil one of their dreams...to see a tornado and to chase it.

They were successful in seeing two of them.  This one is called a Wedge Tornado, it was over 1 mile wide.  The other, they were on the back end of the storm and were able to do a rescue mission for a elderly lady.  Luckily, her house was empty and she was on vacation.

Unluckily though, her brand new house was gone along with all her sheds and her vehicle.

The guys said "it was the most Erie site after a tornado".

 On their way back to Wisconsin(they ended up getting into Nebraska and Iowa),

1 mile into the state, my car lost power and died.

After a long wait for a tow truck to arrive, Jeff hitch hiking to get to the airport for a

rental(everything closes in Dubuque, Iowa on a Saturday at noon),

$311 to cover the cost of the rental to get home 3.5 hours,

the guys finally made it home Saturday night.  Now the wait to see what happened to my car...

So here is our new car...the engine blew on the Kia.

 Jayden sells entertainment books for school and who ever sells books, is entered into a drawing.

Guess who was the lucky kid this year?

You guess it, Jayden took the prize.  Looks like a lot of fun for our family.

Our Annual Pumpkin carving with my Cousins and Sister and the kids.

We had a blast, even Grant(very tired) made it to touch the inside of the pumpkin.

Here we are carving.

The finished product!

Grant enjoying, maybe, the feel of the pumpkin.

 We decided to take a few pics of the kids(Gabbi and Jayden) and here are a few.  Peek!

Love the smiles!

Gabbi running away.

Jayden swinging so quick on the monkey bars.

I had the opportunity to join my parents, my dad's cousin and wife,

my mom's friend and her son and friend at Alliance Church for the Mathew West concert.

Here are the ladies(Wendy Bebeau, my mom Mary and Rae Stoffel) having a blast.

Oh Rae, who's glasses are you wearing?

I did take a few pictures, but we were up a little ways and they are pretty blurry.

Who loves corn mazes?  We do!!!

We headed to Polly's corn maze in Chilton and had a blast.

Here Jayden and I are posing.

Jeff and Jayden leading the way through the maze(without a map).

I was a little hesitant to try it that way since it was my first time,

but we had a blast taking turns leading the way.

From the tower in the middle.

What?  Jeff, you didn't!!!

Who will win?  Jeff won this race and all the other ones too.

Kings of the hay Hill!

We carved pumpkins with Jeff's brother Chad and his family.

What a fun time and some great ideas.

We finished off by enjoying some homemade chicken noodle soup.

Snowing?  Yes, it was snowing.  The boys on the way to school were loving it.

They were trying to see who could catch the most on their tongues.

The picture doesn't show it off too much, but it was really pretty coming down.

Halloween 2013!

And the results of a rainy night and only about 1 hour of trick or treating.

Our family is wishing you a fun and adventurous November.

Until next time,

Jeff, Heather and Jayden

Happy Fall

Autumn is here!!!

   Our 2nd grader.

Best buds (Jayden and Beck)

Beck and Jayden playing some football game with Jeff.

We took an afternoon to go and enjoy some apple picking.

The bees were buzzing around us, the heat was a little too much,

but we looked past that and had a blast.

I'm pretty sure we ate a couple extra pounds of apples while we picked.

Oops!

 

Grant came to hang out with the boys before school one morning.

Guess who didn't get to push him to school?  Me!

The boys were having such a fun time playing with him and taking good care of him.

So what does an Auntie do when she babysits?  Let the kid play with chalk.

I don't know who was more full of chalk, Jayden, Grant or I.  The boys loved it.

Jayden, Grant, Grandpa and Grandma Stoffel and I took a trip up to the farm.

Jayden was in heaven as always and he decided it was a good day to go frog catching.

One of the catches.

Grant loving the grass.  Mr. Blue Eyes

Jayden found one of his pumpkins in the patch that has his name on.

It was so funny watching his reaction.  He was slapping his leg, laughing.

He couldn't believe that a pumpkin could grow that way.  I hope he always can "believe".

At the eye doctor.  20/20 vision!!!

Can you believe it, Nicole(in the teal van) is a movie star!!!

This is one of many clock towers Jayden has built.

But this one is special, it is that tallest.

We have one proud kid.  If he could build all day long, I think he would.

Thank goodness for a wonderful imagination.

My mom and I took Grant to get some apples at a local orchard.

I had to take advantage of this picture opportunity.

Jayden:  "Mom, can we go on a bike ride?

There is a tree I have to climb and it would be great to go tonight"

Me:  "Were is the tree?"

Jayden:  "I can take you there, I know right where to go, I'll show you"

Me:  "Sure, lets go.  Wait, how far away is this tree?"

Jayden:  "Lets just go and I'll show you.  I have to climb it, it's the perfect tree climbing tree."

Jayden and Grant getting ready for the 2013 pumpkin picking extravaganza.

Grant crawling.

Nicole and Grant Getting deep into the sand and having fun.

Jayden loving being at the farm and keeping an eye on his gourds.

Mike and Grant found another pumpkin with a name...GRANT.

Grandma Stoffel and Jayden peeking through the corn.

Me and my buddy.

The pumpkin crew.

Nicole was walking with Grant behind us as we were loading the pumpkins and she yelled "Snake".  Of course Jayden dropped what he was doing to go and check it out.  Here he is trying to catch the snake.  He did end up getting it.  Only thing, the snake didn't want to be held at all...it bit Jayden in the hand.   He was a champ and put it down and let it go.  Went inside and washed his hands and just moved on with the day.

With our pumpkin delivery to my Aunt Paula and Uncle Bill's house,

Jayden spotted another perfect climbing tree.

Thanks Uncle Bill and Aunt Paula!!!

Happy Fall to everyone and may you have a wonderful October.

Until next time...

Jeff, Heather and Jayden