Let's add some excitement!

Okay, so there's been a bit of excitement around here.
First: This past Thursday we had a tornado hit about a 1/2 mile-1 mile from our house. Around lunchtime I heard some thunder and looked out the window to see some really dark clouds. A few minutes later it started raining, then hailing and the hail got bigger and started coming down harder, then came the wind and sheets of rain. I've never seen it rain that hard in my life. We watched upstairs as the rain was washing the hail out of the gutters (you'd have to see how our house is built to fully understand that). I thought, "Hmmm, what an interesting storm." Then it was done. It wasn't until I got a phone call from a friend a few hours later, wondering if we survived the tornado, that I found out. Amazingly no one was seriously hurt although it did quite a bit of damage to several businesses. It came very close to Bryson's school but everyone was hustled into the building (they were outside for recess) and I don't think most of them even knew what was going on. It's at times like this that I count my many blessings.

Second: Today at church I was walking down the hallway and past a gentleman who looked very familiar. I knew he wasn't in our ward but couldn't quite remember where I had seen him, so I just smiled and kept going. A few minutes later as I was sitting in the foyer doing some work for my church calling, I look up and see him standing off to the side sort of in the coat hanging area. A woman goes over to talk to him and I eaves drop a little and I hear only a few words like "taxi", "hotel", "Portland airport", and "only here for sacrament". Then it hits me. Standing right there is Benji Schwimmer, the winner of "So you think you can dance"! The lady walks away and I look up at him, he smiles and I say, "Now I recognize you, I really enjoyed watching you dance." He says thanks and then heads into the chapel for sacrament. I really wish I had gone over and shook his hand and talked to him a little more, especially to find out why he was all the way up in Vancouver when there are many church houses closer to the airport. Oh well. I felt like a little kids, all giddy inside and I couldn't even concentrate during the rest of my meetings. If only it wasn't church then I would have gotten a picture.

That's the third time in my life that I have ever talked with, shaken hands with or been up close to someone who's famous or close to. The first time was just after I was married I got to shake Pres. Hinckley's hand, the second time was last year at my brother-in-law's pre-wedding dinnner and one of our server's was a guy who had tried out for American Idol and had gotten to Hollywood (sorry I forgot his name) but I had remembered watching him get kicked off and thinking he totally should have stayed, and then Benji. Just goes to show it definitely is a small world.