Last week was the first time that I created a this week in pictures post. I really enjoyed doing it, so I set out to do the same thing this week. It’s funny, I caught myself taking a lot more candid photos than I might have otherwise because the upcoming post was on my mind. I’m fairly good at photographing sporting and school events, but I have a pretty shaky track record for candid life moments. These posts are giving me a structure to use and an outlet for some of the latent photographic talents that I have. In my opinion, that makes these posts a win-win!

We had another busy week, but that’s to be expected…we’re not the Hectic Household for nothing. The week was a rollercoaster of weather-related events, and we had to shift some things on the calendar because of the weather. Here in Kansas in the central US, tornadoes are part of our Spring and Summer. They’re a fact of life. Like earthquakes in California , hurricanes on the East coast of the US, and cloudy days in the UK and Seattle…tornadoes are a normal, if frightening, part of our weather.

There Was a Storm a Brewin’

I had a Twitter exchange with Chivon John of Secrets of a Side Hustler about how there are people around here who chase storms for fun. I’ve also got friends who are professional storm chasers. It never dawned on me that people don’t know that’s a thing. It’s so normal in Kansas and Oklahoma. I’m one to hunker down in my basement when there are tornado warnings. I’ve seen tornadoes up close, and they’re not a sight that I need to have very often. The day after having my Twitter exchange with Chivon, I saw the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) at the Wichita Eisenhower airport. Apparently they were picking up part of their team while awaiting the next day’s forecasted tornadoes. Let’s just say that seeing the TIV raised the hair on the back of my neck. We took Wednesday’s tornado warnings very seriously and slept in the basement that night, despite the fact that the actual tornado activity was 10 miles to our East. Safety first, you know!

Easter Redux

While I know it’s cheating, I ran across several photos from Easter weekend that had all of us in the Hectic Household having a good laugh. Hectic Grandson and his Momma, Hectic 25 looked spectacular for church. He’s such a ham!

It was hilarious later in the day when we attempted to have an Easter egg hunt. He didn’t quite get the concept, and his Momma kept trying to help him out. The photo at the right perfectly captures her trying to direct him and his desires to go anywhere other than where she was telling him eggs were hidden.

Afterwards, the Hectic kids got very motivated and actually cleared and cleaned the kitchen table. I was putting food away, so I didn’t really pay attention to this activity. But when I finally realized what they were doing I was surprised, albeit pleasantly. They’re not ones to help clear the table without a lot of prompting, so I figured something was up. When they brought out the kitchen table tennis net, paddles, and balls I figured out what was going on. For the next two hours the house was filled with laughter and lots of pingpong. My nephew from Oregon was the big winner in the double-elimination tournament. The kids really seemed to have a good time and they played some close games of ping pong. (And yes, if you’re wondering our table extends up to 108″ [275cm] so it’s really big)

After the ping pong tournament, Hectic 19 requested a haircut so that his hair would be military-approved when he got back to campus. His sister, girlfriend, and another friend all stepped up and offered to work on the trimming. Considering that they had to cut barely more than 1/4″ off of his hair, it was a hilarious interlude.

They had some difficulty with getting his hair to taper exactly the way he wanted it. As you can see from the picture, there was a lot of discussion, collaboration, and general confusion as to how to get the hair just right. Somehow it doesn’t look like he minded the attention!

I tried not to be too involved, but I was sitting eight feet away during the entire 45 minute trim session. I finally gave up and decided that it was just too funny not to capture in a photo. This is actually the only one that doesn’t have one of the girls blurry with movement. Only Hectic 19 sat still, the three girls were buzzing around him like a trio of busy bees!

Makin’ Friends

Despite the ominous weather later in the week that brought the TIV to town, we had a couple of gorgeous days on Monday and Tuesday. Hectic Grandson is constantly begging to go outside. With his limited vocabulary, it sometimes takes me a while to figure out what he wants. When I eventually discovered that the source of his happiness was being outdoors, we spent a lot of time out there.

He and our older cat, Socks, are trying really hard to be friends. Our little man is a typical toddler, and he does a lot of ear pulling, pushing, and bumping. Socks is an atypical cat, who is putting up with all of this with aplomb.

Traveling, Dancing, and Eating

Hectic Wife had a medical conference to attend in Denver starting early Wednesday morning, so she set out on the road late Tuesday. She stayed with Hectic 23-2 (our younger twin) in Boulder and commuted into Denver every day for the conference. To ensure her safety and make her as comfortable as possible on the nine hour drive, we rented a car for her. It’s the first time I’ve seen a Fiat like the one pictured above. It was huge inside, with more than enough headroom for even me!

Things got a bit crazy after Hectic Wife left town. Hectic Grandson put on a pretty nice dance show for everybody only clothed in his diaper, socks, and hooded towel. I’m definitely not looking forward to his college years after that display!

The next morning I created somewhat of a disaster when I thought it would be a good idea to serve a waffle with blueberries on top, organized in a checkerboard pattern. Hectic Grandson loves his blueberries, but my introduction to playing with food didn’t end well. Let’s just say that I’ve got some repainting to do in the kitchen now and leave it at that. Anybody know if I’ll have to prime over the blueberry stains first?

Competition Saturday

Hectic 12 wrapped up her week with her second gymnastics competition of the season. She was on hiatus throughout her club volleyball season, so we didn’t really know what to expect. Most of the other girls competing in her session only do gymnastics, so they were attending their sixth meet. Our little gymnast did a superb job, scoring 9.000 or above in all her events. She won the vault…much to our surprise. She took third overall in a very tough (though small) group. It was a great return to gymnastics. The next few weekends will be spent in competition, culminating in the YMCA Nationals in Wichita (just an hour away) in June.

We lucked out with her first Nationals being so close.

Jurassic Quest

Hectic 25 and Hectic Grandson wrapped up their week at the Jurassic Quest in Wichita. We got some outstanding pictures of our little guy. He’s a huge dinosaur fan, and the Jurassic Quest was right up his alley. He seem unconcerned by loud noises, and was fascinated with the animatronics, all the sights, and even the sounds. You can see from his face that he had a great time!

For the trip we didn’t take a stroller, so he was able to walk through the exhibits and lead his Momma to what he wanted to see. He fell in love with one of the souvenir dinosaurs, but it was as big as he was. He and Hectic 25 opted to purchase a smaller set of cartoon dinosaurs. Imagine my surprise when I was given this package of six dinosaurs! We spent the better part of the evening playing with them. We had a blast!

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It was a great week! How was yours?