Jared, aka "The One With the Skinny Neck"

This post will be dedicated to the lovable Jorj, also known as Jared, or sometimes, Baby B. I haven't really been able to think of one recurring definable characteristic about Jared that is comparable to Adam's inexplicable lucky streak, so I'm just going to tell a few funny stories about the odd things Jared used to do as a small and also not so small child. I think I will start off by explaining the title of this post. Why is Jared "the one with the skinny neck?" Ok, so I admit it. I'm not entirely sure why Dad, started calling Jared skinny neck, but my guess is because as a kid Jared had an incredibly large head (inherited from Dad) that made his neck look very skinny in comparison. So, on many home videos we have Jared in the background trying to show off how skinny his neck is. This is, of course, after he had begged repeatedly "Dad, can I look in there?" Jared always thought that there was something magical inside the camera that only the one looking into the little view finder could see.

Unlike Adam and I, Jared was never big on performing and taking part in our own made up plays/productions. When we were small this worked to our advantage. Since we couldn't exactly count on him to participate and/or remember his lines throughout our entire movies of epic proportions, Adam and I simply cast Jared as the dog, or monkey. Usually this suited Jared just fine. This way he could come in and out of the movie at basically anytime, and he was free to speak unintelligibly anytime he felt like it. Every now and then disaster struck, and Jared got the urge to take on a human role. When this happened, he didn't really change his acting methods employed when playing a monkey or a dog. Jared still came in and out when he pleased. He still made up his own lines, and delivered them at his own discretion. But the difference was clearly there, and on our homemade movies, you can see the cringing terror all over mine and Adam's faces.

As we got older, and moved more into the genre of Christmas plays, Adam gave over his role of director to Brooke and me. For some reason, we still felt like we just had to have Jared's participation in our Christmas productions, whether he liked it or not. I do have to commend Brooke and myself for our ingenuity of giving Jared the role of "stage manager." This way he was behind the scenes, and just as much as ever, he was free to come in and out whenever he pleased. Many times the lights didn't go on/off when they were scheduled to, or us girls had to come out on "stage" to show him where he was supposed to move the props to for the next scene. But, he felt like he was in charge, and hey, at least he wasn't making up and delivering his own lines!


Jared has always been a very friendly person. One of Jared's main positions in baseball was catcher. This was a very good spot for him, because it meant he always had someone to talk to, and I don't mean the batter. I'm talking about the umpire. Starting at about the age 9, Jared started collecting umpire friends. In between innings, and during warmups, Jared and the ump behind the plate always shared a leisurely chat. When Jared got a double the field ump would walk by to say "Hey man, whats up?" Just strolling around the park to watch other siblings games, the umps would throw him a friendly wave, and Jared would turn to one of us and say, "That guy's my favorite ump!" And of course, it would usually be a different ump every week.


From a very young age Jared always had a very lofty aspiration. It was a goal very different from most males in this world. No one ever quite understood his yearning toward this goal, but that doesn't mean we didn't do what we could to aid him in his pursuit.

Jared's goal was simply this: to be completely bald.

Jared kept his hair in a buzz during almost all of his childhood, but for Jared, this (no pun intended) simply didn't cut it. He wanted to have his head shaved. He was constantly making deals with Dad such as "if my baseball team wins the tournament, you'll shave my head." Now, isn't it usually the person that loses the bet has to get their head shaved? Not for Jared, when his baseball team won (and I think it was also his soccer team once), he jubilantly got out the razor and made Dad start to work on turning his son into a human q-ball! Eventually Jared grew out of this, and listening to my wizened suggestion, grew out his hair. For a year or two, he had a head full of more hair than anyone knew he was capable of growing! Now that he is about to become an old married man, he has settled down to a normal everyday head of hair. So, Jared, in honor of this post, I have a deal to make with you......

Next year, if West Huntstville wins the softball tournament (and you're still playing on the team of course) you get to shave your head! And yes, I said get to, because we all know you want to be bald again!

Adam, aka the "Lucky Nelson"

I'm thinking about doing a post on each of my siblings, and either telling a story about them, or talking about some type of defining personality trait of theirs as a child, or something to that effect. We'll see how exactly this gets interpreted as I go along. I will start with Adam, of course, because that is where this whole idea was born. I've been wanting to talk about what a lucky streak Adam had going for him during his childhood. Who knows, he may still have it. I'm pretty sure that any day now, Ed Mcmahon (no clue if that's how to spell his name) will be showing up on the doorstep of Adam and Amber's new home, and presenting Adam with on of those gigantic Publisher's Clearinghouse checks. Yeah, and then with my luck, Adam will decide to share some of the money with me, and I will buy some stuffed Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers dolls (yeah, more on that later).


Adam's luck all started when he was born, and was given the name Adam. Until I was about....9, I really truly believed that most of Adam's luckiness somehow came about from the fact that his name started with the first letter of the alphabet. I guess I was just imagining a giant bowl of entry forms, and one of the people in charge of the contest says :

"Wow, there is no way we're gonna be able to choose a winner out of all these entrys"

And some lazy person (probably named Aaron) who doesnt care about all us poor unfortunates replies,

"Eh, let's just keep the names that start with an 'A' and throw out the rest of the alphabet."

To which the oblivious original speaker, who never enters contests, therefore isn't concerned with this blatant disregard for fairness, says.

"Ok, fine with me."

10 minutes later....................................

"Looks like we've got a winner, 'Adam Nelson' lets call him up and tell him the good news."

The second epidsode of "Adam wins everything" consisted of him being about...4 years old (??) and winning, not only tickets, but also backstage passes to some kind of real live showing of his favorite cartoon ever......Thunder Thunder Thunder Thundercats hooooooooo (or something like that). Of course, I got to come along, and enjoy all of the benfits of Adam's winnings, but that, my friends was completely beside the point. Adam was the benevolent host of all this wonderfulness, and I was merely mooching off of his winnings.

Up next in Adam's lucky shennanegins is the probably the biggest out of his winnings, at least at the time it seemed like the biggest. The channel Fox 54 was having some kind of contest where, I suppose, you sent in your name, and they would randomly choose a person to call. This chosen person was instructed "dont say hello, say Fox 54." If the person that was called followed these instructions, they won $54 and got to film a little commercial for Fox 54. Take a wild gander at who in our household got the coveted call from Fox 54.....correct, Adam! I'm not even sure if he actually answered "Fox 54" or not. I don't think they were all that strict on enforcing that rule. It was basically, if you get the call, you're in. So, Adam, at the ripe old age of about...7, won 54 dollars! To Adam and me this might as well have been a million dollars. Of course, with Mom's encouragement, Adam shared the money with me. We went to Toys R Us, and I used my pity money to purchase a lovely stuffed set of Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. I was grateful to be shared with of course, but I remember wishing that I could have been the sharer, instead of the sharee. Adam made his commercial, and for some reason that didn't really bother me. I enjoyed seeing him on tv, and I didn't really wish that I could have been the one on tv. I just really wanted to have won the $54.

Let's see.....after the $54 in winnings came something that was probably the most insignificant bundle of luck in Adam's mind, but the most excruciatingly painful event to me. The competition was just a simple guessing game. Not much skill involved. In fact, Adam, Jared and I didn't even make the guesses for ourselves. Mom just entered each of our birthdays as our guesses. But...........................get this..................

The prize: 101 Dalmations Tshirts. 101 Dalmations was my thing, or more like my obsession. I had a deep seeded need to collect everything with black and white spots. One christmas it was like every present I got was 101 Dalmations, a sleeping bag, stuffed puppies, a handheld game, underwear, stickers.....ok you get the point. So, in my mind I just really believed that if there was any justice in the world, the powers that be would select me as the winner of this amazing contest. Not so. Adam won. The object was to guess how many spots,in all, were covering the Dalmations in the movie poster. In a complete act of luck, Adam's birthdate was the closest out of all the entries to the correct number. So, he won a set of tshirts. I think there were at least 4 shirts, one for Adam, Jared, Anna, and me. Now of course if I had been a logical thinker I would have been overjoyed because at least someone in our family had won, and thereby secured me a spotted tshirt that was not being sold in stores. But, all my competitive brain could think about was that Adam had won again! And this time it had been on my home turf!


Another one of Adam's forays into the world of luckiness occurred when he and I, and possibly Jared (but probably not Jared because he would have never had the patience to sit down and color an entire bunny picture), entered into a "coloring contest" around Easter. All that was required was to color a cute little bunny picture, and turn it into the local grocery store. The winner would be awarded a giant Easter basket stuffed with all kinds of cheapo toys and goodies that all children love. My bunny was beautiful. He was blue and purple and yellow (all in pastel shades, because what could be more eastery?). I darkened all of the edges in the picture, and lightly shaded the insides. I thouroughly enjoyed the coloring process, and almost forgot about the competition side of it. When Adam and I compared finished products, I almost felt sorry for him. There was nothing fanciful or springy about his picture. His rabbit was brown and his grass was dark green. It looked like the kind of bunny that hunters would go after, not a bunny that could wear a bowtie and hand out Easter eggs. At this point I just knew I was going to win. It would be a runaway. A few days later, we got the call. "Congratulations Adam Nelson! You can pick up your basket during these times." I was disgusted. Mom tried to convince me that it was just a random drawing. Which would have just meant another case of those bums taking out everyone but the "A's." But I knew better. This was even worse. This wasn't just a case of bad luck on my part for not being named Annabelle. This was a blatant disregaurd for genuine coloring skills and Easter spirit. The conductor of this event needed to be holding a Field and Stream coloring contest. Not an Easter coloring contest. Once again, Adam shared his prize with me, giving me candy, and even a little toy truck that was inside one of the eggs. I was probably wearing my 101 dalmations charity tee, and holding my pity Chip and Dale stuffed animals in my lap. And I was not amused.


My last remembrance of Adam's lucky streak is not quite as painful as the others. Possibly because I was older. Possibly because it happened during the most wonderful trip of my life. It was the year 2000. We, along with the Hubbard family were on the Disney Wonder! After dinner one night, we all went to the famiy nite club, Studio Sea. This was right around the height of Who Wants to be a Millionaire's popularity. The special for the nite's entertainment was Disney's own version of this wildly popular show, entitled, "Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer." Upon entering Studio Sea, each person was given a ticket with a number. We would later find out that these tickets would be used to select constestants for the show. Ha! And they were trying to pretend that they didn't take part in the conspiracy that is "A" discrimination. Obviously they did, because Adam was selected. Happily, this time I was not bitter, or insulted. I was just happy to be able to claim the first contestant as someone from my party. Plus, I knew he would have more of a chance at winning than I would, and I wanted to see what kind of prizes would be given out. But most of all, I was happy, because this was just further proof for my, "Adam is Freakishly Lucky" case.

Your thoughts on a new post.....

So....I have officially finished my story on Tornadoes, and I never want to type the word tornado again. I think the story was definitely a raging success with most of my readers....with the exception of Anna. She complains that the last segment was boring, and also that I made her sound like a wimpy little girl.... so I would like to add a little something to my story to make ammends for Anna's disdain of my story. This is to replace what I said when talking about the kids playing handball in the basement before the t*****o.

*Adam, Jessi and Jared were usually forced to play 1 on 1 on 1 because, alas, their 4 year old sister Anna was too busy with her own schedule to play with them. Jessi snuck a glance over at Anna, who had already worked up a sweat with her daily weight lifting program. Anna, at the age of 4, already had more muscle mass than her 11 year old brother. As Anna was lost in her reps and breathing control, Jessi shot a look at Adam that said, "Should we even bother to ask her if she'll play?" Adam, interpreting Jessi's look, shrugged his shoulders, and then decided it was worth a try. Jared, on the other hand, was sort of wishing that they would just leave Anna be. The last time they had convinced her to play, she had pegged him from her spot in centerfield, on his way to home plate, and he had been left with a bright red welt for a week! And this was with a squishy ball that the kids had gotten from Chuckie Cheese! But, Jared didn't speak up soon enough, and Adam called out to Anna.
"Hey, Anna"
"Yo!" She responded, as she let out a loud breath, finished her bench press, and put the weighted bar back on its holder.
"If you're almost done, do you wanna play handball?"
Anna sat up, and lifted up her wifebeater to wipe her forehead with the edge of it.
"I dont think so, when I'm done with this, I'm goin' outisde to do a little target practice."
Anna had her own handgun, and she was a regular Annie Oakley, just a little more on the macho side. After saying this, she picked up her favorite plastic Sylvester Stallone cup that she always used during workouts, and spit an enormous loogie into it.
"Dang, its amazing how much spit I can work up during just one workout." She commented to no one in particular.
By this time, Adam had turned away, dissappointed. Jared was breathing a large sigh of relief, and Jessi was just wondering to herself if one day Anna would really be a cage fighter like she always talked about. Jessi was pretty sure it would happen, and she already pitied any of Anna's future opponents. *


Hope you like this Anna! I personally think its a large improvement. Thanks for the idea!
Now, I need everyone's help. And by everyone, I mean my 4 readers, Jake, Anna, Furf, and Adam. What do you want me to post about next? Another fake story? something real? my daily life? a character sketch? a book review? baby looney toons?? See, the possibilities are endless. I know you can't comment me, so I guess I'll just have to settle for your suggestions in real life. Let me know! Peace out.

Rocky Vs. Apollo Part Dos

Adam pushed Jared and Anna behind the door for protection as he opened it just wide enough for Jessi to slip out. Even that small opening allowed a huge gust of hot wind to begin to fill the entryway in which they were standing, and it kept swirling around the room as long as the door was open, making the three siblings feel as if they were experiencing their own mini tornado while still indoors. Anna, being a very aware four year old, noticed her biggest brother struggling to keep the door open while holding onto the belt rope to keep reeling out more slack for Jessi as she made her way to Rocky. So, Anna, without being asked, grabbed the door, and continued to wrestle with holding it open for Adam throughout the rest of the rescue process. This left Adam free to concentrate fully on guiding Jessi with the belt rope. Jared took his place behind Adam, holding the rope securely to the railing. This was no small task, as every 10 seconds or so a gust of wind would grab onto Jessi, causing the rope to yank hard at the railing it was anchored to. It was an old house, and an old and rickety railing as well, but it had been their best option for an anchor. Meanwhile, Jessi was outside, battling the elements, slowly making her way toward Rocky, who was all the while barking loudly above the wind, seeming to know that help was on the way, and that his barking was spurring Jessi on towards him and his rescue. While making her way slowly and very shakily to the spot where Rocky was chained, Jessi looked about her, trying to assess the damages that the tornado had brought about so far. From what she could see, things weren't too bad....yet. There were trees down all over the yard, but the barn was still standing, as well as the pop up camper, which unluckily happened to be set up. By the end of the storm, neither the barn nor the camper would still be standing. Just as Jessi finally got within sight of Rocky, she heard a noise coming at her from her left, and was able to duck a giant piece of metal (that came from who knows where) flying towards her head. Later, when cleaning up the yard, she and Adam would decide that these pieces of renegade metal had come from the roof of the barn, which was at the present, just starting to be torn apart. Jessi made one last lurch towards Rocky, which luckily put her right withing reaching distance of his collar, which was where the chain was hooked. She pulled herself up, fighting the gales of wind. With her left hand she grabbed Rocky securely by his collar, with her right hand she unhooked his chain, which was instantly picked up by the wind, and went flying into the side of their brick house. As soon as he realized he was free, Rocky started bounding towards the house, knocking Jessi off her feet once again. She tried to keep her hand around his collar, but with the combination of Rocky's breakneck pace, and the swirling winds, no matter how hard she tried, there was really nothing she could do. With a desperate cry of "Inside Rocky!" Jessi's grip on her dog's collar was lost. Contrary to the older four Nelsons kids wishes (they were forever trying to get Rocky ready to enter "That's My Dog, a show that did not even exist anymore), Rocky was really not a very well trained dog. With 5 children in the house, neither of the Nelson parents had much time or energy to invest in dog training. So, all of this goes to say that when Jessi shouted for Rocky to go into the house, she really had no idea if he would actually obey her or not. Luckily for them all, the one thing that was on Rocky's poor terrified mind was to get inside the house as fast as he possibly could. Withing seconds, Jessi thought she could hear the door opening, and Rocky being pulled inside, so she struggled to her feet, and yelled, "Guys, pull me in!!" At this same time, Anna had just finished swinging the door open wide for Jared to usher in the dog. Adam saw that although Rocky had made it safely inside, Jessi was nowhere in sight. Then he heard her voice calling, "pull me in!!" He knew he shouldn't yank too hard, because he assumed she was either unable to get to her feet, or unsteady enough that she couldn't make her way back to the house without some help. So, Adam used the rope to gently guide Jessi back to the carport through the raging tornado winds. Finally she was just steps away from being inside the doorway, when Adam saw a giant silver piece of metal spiraling towards her head. He barely had time to scream, "Jess, duck!" As he let go of the rope and dove towards her, tackling her to the ground. The chunk of barn roofing barely missed the two of them, as it continued flying through the air and ended its journey by slamming into the door that Anna had closed just in time. By this time Rocky had already hightailed it to the basement, and was happily laying on the old couch, oblivious to all of the turmoil still going on because of him. As soon as they heard the crash of the metal against the door, Anna and Jared reopened the door, and grabbed the rope to pull in their older siblings. By this time, Adam had grabbed onto the rope and was helping Jessi get to her feet. They were safely helped inside, then they slammed the back door and locked it for good measure. The four adventurers raced downstairs, to find that while they were away, all of the basement windows had been cracked to bits. They grabbed Rocky, and took cover under their blankets anyway. As they waited out the rest of the tornado, in what now seemed like a very calm and safe environment, they triumphantly discussed how they took on, and defeated the tornado of '95. The four siblings knew it was a story they would be telling for the rest of their childhoods, if not for the rest of their lives. Rocky didn't seem to be as enthused as his young owners were. He fell asleep minutes after they put him under the blankets with them. Adam said this was just because he was the "rescued," not one of the "rescuers." Jessi, Jared and Anna had to agree. They were all proud to be among the ranks of the "rescuers."

Rocky vs. Apollo (aka the Tornado of '95) Part I

"Rocky!" Adam, Jared, and Anna all echoed Jessi's exclamation.
"We've gotta go out there!" Jessi declared, already jumping out from under the blanket.
"We can't go out there now, it's too late!" Adam decreed. "Y'all haven't seen the severe conditions that are going on." He continued seriously.
"He's all alone..." Anna said, unintentionally aiming large worried eyes towards Adam.
"Yeah," Jared added. "It's him versus the tornado, and he's handicapped by his chain!"
"Come on Adam, we can do it. Rocky needs our help!" Jessi pleaded. The three younger Nelsons knew they had to have Adam in on the rescue mission. Although they already had the "want-to," they needed Adam's brain power and leadership.
"Fine," Adam conceded. "Lets take on that twister!"
He spoke with perfect timing and inflection, his sentence sounded like it was straight out of a 3 ninjas movie. Jessi, Jared and Anna's eyes lit up, and they spontaineously stacked their hands together in a huddle, then simultaneously brought them down a little bit and back up yelling "Go!" in unison. It was a perfect 3 ninjas/kid power moment. But none of the four took the time to bask in the greatness of the moment, because they had a job to do. An important mission of mercy to carry out. A monumental battle to fight!
"OK," Adam called out, "We need something to hold onto, or something that will hold onto us, so that we won't get swept up in the tornado when we go out there."
They all took a minute to look around the basement. It was filled with all kinds of random playthings, and they were sure there had to be something helpful to them in their mission. They knew they had a long piece of rope that was very thick and would work perfectly, but it was out in the barn. They had been using it to play Indiana Jones just the other day.
"I know!" Jared yelled, with a triumphant look on his face. Adam and Jessi swapped a wary look. Jared was forever coming up with elaborate and somewhat hairbrained ideas that weren't really practical. They were afraid this might be another one of those type of ideas. Luckily for them, and for Rocky, it wasn't.
"Let's tie together all of our karate belts, and use them!" Jared finished.
"Perfect!" Adam and Jessi aprroved heartily.
"Yeah, we can even use my pink belt." Anna volunteered. This was a big sacrifice for Anna, she loved her specially dyed pink karate belt, and usually didn't allow it to be used for the various games and plans for which the kids used their karate belts.
So they got to work, getting their many and various colored karate belts out of the bucket that held all of the dress up type clothes. Adam Jessi and Jared were all currently taking karate (although Jared wasn't quite as serious about it as his two older siblings). Adam was a brown belt, Jessi a purple belt, and Jared a "lowly" orange belt. This meant they had a total of 14 belts. 3 old white belts, 3 yellows, Jessi and Adam's old orange belts, 2 green belts, 2 blue belts, 1 purple, and of course, Anna's pink belt. Adam, Jessi and Jared kept their current belts (orange, purple, and brown) upstairs with their karate gis. Once they had gotten every single belt tied tightly together end from end they had quite a rope. It was probably more reliable than the length of real rope they had left hanging from the loft in the barn. Next, they made their way up the flight of stairs to make their way to the back door, which, by this time was missing the 3 glass panes at its top. The kids could hear the wind swirling angrily through the broken glass. Even though the door was closed, it was shaking violently inside of its hinges. Rocky's bark could be heard, frantically trying to rise above the chaos of the elements. They knew they needed to act quickly before things got worse.
"So, are we all going out there?" Jared asked seriously, his voice mixed with excitement and trepidation.
"No!!" Adam and Jessi chorused.
Adam took action, vocalizing the plan he had formed in his head long before they had finished tying the belts together.
"Jess, you're going to have to be the one to go out there. You're lighter than me, plus I'm the strongest, so I need to be here anchoring the belts."
"Just what I was thinking." Jessi agreed.
Adam started tying one end of the belt rope to the end railing that ran all the way up the stairway to the basement. He was tying what he called a Polamer knot, which he had doubtless learned from one of the fishing books he was forever reading. As he worked quickly on the knot he turned to Jared and Anna.
"You two have to help me make sure this rope stays in the house with us, no matter what! And also, when Jessi gets back to the door with Rocky, you two grab him by the collar and pull him in, while I make sure Jessi is in, and the door is shut."
Jared and Anna nodded intently.
Adam finished tying the first end to the railing and turned to Jessi, who already had the roped wrapped around her waist. He tied an even tighter Polamer Knot and reminded her to hold the knot secure around her waist as long as she possibly could.

To Be cont......

3 Ninjas...oh yeah, and Douglas

So, there they were, four children, they had made their decision to hang at the hizzy rather than go to the dreaded Wally World. There was of course another child, young Jacob, he was nearly 2, and had no real say in what he would do or where he would go. In this case he was going to Wal Mart with his mommy. So, Adam, Jessi, Jared and Anna were hanging in the basement about to start a heated game of handball. They were among that lucky group of children who's parents did not forbid them to play ball in the house. They usually snickered at the Brady children on tv who were denied this privilege. There had been a few broken windows in the Nelson basement from these games of handball. They usually came from the hand of Jared. He had the power to hit it to the windows, but not the aim to keep it away from them, like his older siblings Jessi and Adam. Then there was Anna. She was only interested in handball because she had to be. It was essential to her survival. She was needed for the sake of even teams, therefore she was not allowed to say no. Anna was nothing if not compliant (at least as a young child. She quickly grew out of this trait by the age of about 8). So, the game started up, all the while, unbeknownst to the four, a storm was brewing! The Braves had come on earlier that day, but after the game was over, Jared had switched off the tv. Living as far out in the country as they did, the kids had no sirens to warn them of the impending tornado, and even if they had heard a siren going off, chances are, they would have thought it was sounding to alert them of an escaped prisioner from the Limestone County Correction Facility that was just down the road. So, on they played, making it to the 3rd inning before anything out of the ordinary happened. Jessi and Jared were just switching up from defense to start batting, and Adam and Anna were taking the 2-5 steps it took to "take the field." Out of the blue, the very same window that Jared had cracked about 2 weeks before shattered, causing Anna to jump back into the "infield."
"That wasn't me!" Jared said quickly, his eyes as wide as saucers. Of course Adam and Jessi knew it wasn't Jared, the ball was in Adam's right hand. But neither of them had a clue what had actually happened. All of the sudden they heard the most deafening wind that had ever met any of their young ears. Then an almost whistle like sound that wouldnt stop! They all looked to Adam, who already had a guess as to what was going on outside of their house.
"Tornado!"
He said confidently. Adam was always sure of his assessments, whether they were right or wrong. This time he was right.
"Adam, Jess, what do we do??" Jared's eyes were even larger than they had previously been.
"I'm scared!" Anna said quietly, not really expecting an answer.
"We have to stay in the basement for one thing." Adam said with authority.
"We've gotta have blankets for the flying glass!" Jessi blurted out somewhat frantically.
"I'll get them, you guys stay down here, in the very middle of the room, stay down low." Adam called over his shoulder, already on his way out the basement door." Jessi started moving to the middle of the basement, herding Anna and Jared along with her.
"Is our house gonna be swirling around inside the tornado?" Anna asked worriedly. She was probably recalling The Wizard of Oz.
"I don't think so, that's not a real movie y'know?" Jessi answered her, recalling the Wizard of Oz herself, and assuming correctly that this was the image floating around in Anna's head.
"I'm gonna go up there and help Adam!" Jared said all of the sudden, with a determinded gleam in his eyes.
"Oh no you're not!" Jessi said, grabbing him by the arm and holding him in place. "He'll be back any second now."
As she finished the sentence, Adams burst through the door with 3 large blankets filling his arms.
"Its crazy up there!" He panted. "The sky is black, and I think I saw a tornado, who knows if there's just one out there! It felt like the windows were gonna shatter any minute!"
Anna ran up to Adam and wrapped her arms around his knees, relieved that her big brother had survived his brave blanket mission. Jessi and Jared looked a tiny bit dissappointed that they had not gotten to see dramatic scene Adam had described. Little did they know that they would get to not only see this dramatic scene, but experience it very very closely.
Just as they were huddling in the middle of the basement under the thick blankets, Jessi let out a yell.
"Oh my gosh! Rocky's out there!"

To Be Continued.....................

Tornadoes Tornadoes everywhere, and not a twister to fight!

Well, in light of the incessant tornado announcements I have been hearing all morning/afternoon on the radio while at work, I have been thinking a lot about.....you guessed it.....tornadoes! Yes, as all of my readers(because as of now all of my readers are Randall, Anna, and Jacob aka 50 cent) know, the Nelson household was fatefully and callously struck by a tornado in the early summer of 1995. None of us were home at the time, but upon arriving home, and throughout the whole cleanup process I can recall myself as a 9 year old at the time thinking....

how obnoxious of this tornado to include in its self centered path: our house, yard full of beautiful trees, charmingly rustic and useful only for playing in and posing for pictures in front of barn, beloved camper, and of course the poor hapless and chained Rocky I.

I also know that as much as Adam, Jared and I talked about how glad we were that we had chosen to accompany Mom to wal-mart, I think there was a glimmer of a wish inside of our kid power programed brains (thanks to our obsessive viewings of 3 ninjas) that we would have actually chosen to stay home like we so often did. I mean, come on, how brave would we have been?? I'm sure we could have somehow single-handedly battled the tornado and the little tantrum it pitched in our yard as well as in the greater area of Harvest. Of course we wouldn't have tried to protect the whole Harvest area, just our house, yard, camper, trees, barn, pool, and of course the dog! So, in honor of today being as I have now dubbed it, "Twister Day" I would like to write a little story with the central characters being Adam, Jared, Anna, and me. Ages: 11,9,6, and 4. It will be like one of those choose your own scenario books, and we will be choosing the option where the four odd little children choose to stay home from the good old Wally World. This concludes my post for now. Stay tuned because I will hopefully be posting my short tale tonite, maybe after I get off of work. I know you are on the edge of your seat in anticipation!