Just as we get used to the routine of life on the road....

Real life steps in and smacks you upside the head. After we left Ogallala yesterday morning (6:30 am MST), I was online looking for a van to rent while we were in Omaha having the RV checked out. After I finished that up, I hopped over to my Google Reader to see what was new in the blogworld. I never expected to encounter what I did... a short post from our former preacher, Jim White, alerting us to the death of the 13yo son of friends from our church there. He was one of the 4 scouts killed in the tornado that decimated the Boy Scout camp in Iowa on Wednesday night. The youth minister from church, Franklin Wood, wrote a very touching tribute to Sam last night.

The news made for a somewhat more subdued trip. Friends had planned a cookout and had invited others from church to come to visit us. I wasn't sure whether we should continue it, but we decided it could be a good thing to help lighten the mood a little. We did spend some time talking about Sam and sharing stories about him. Tonight is a memorial service at church and we are so torn. It brings up memories from 3 years ago, just a week or so after we moved to CA, when one of the teens from church was murdered. We were so far off and felt so helpless. Well, now we are here, and feeling just as helpless. We want to stay for the service, but are stuck on a schedule.

Please pray for the Thomsens: Larry, Sharon, Lindsay, and Sara.

Today we will head to the St. Louis area. We have to return the rental van and then drive by our friends' house, as the 3 younger kids all wanted to spend the night there last night.

A Death in the Family

My children experienced their first taste of death today. Thankfully, they were somewhat prepared for it. Summer (our pet rat) had seemed poorly for the last week or two and yesterday her activity level dropped considerably. We told the kids we didn't think she'd last past the night. Noah woke up at 4:30 this morning and checked on her... by his report, she was still breathing. I didn't think to check her until I got back from taking Emily to school at 8. She was gone. Of all the kids, Noah took it the hardest. He talks a good game, but he has a sensitive heart.

We waited for Brian to come home in the afternoon and he and the kids took her to a quiet spot and buried her. I would have gone, but then I would have felt like I should have sung a funeral song for her and I wasn't sure what an appropriate one would have been: When All of God's Ratties Get Home, Precious Ratties, Cheese Perfect Cheese, Precious Lord Take My Paw....?

Anyhow, that's life here. Looking forward to hump day tomorrow. I've had a tough time getting back into the swing of things after that week off, but tomorrow is a new day and we *will* get back on track!