It was Just Like College

Here in Alabama, we take severe weather very seriously.  We'd been hearing for 4-5 days that there was a moderate threat for severe weather Monday and Tuesday.  It never fails that if there is going to be severe weather, Patrick is going to be on second shift.  I sent out a text on Sunday afternoon to three of my best friends that don't have basements that they could come ride out the storm at my house if they wanted.  I thought "this will be just like college" Ha.

They took me up on my offer and everyone arrived around 5:00 Monday evening.  We ate pizza and baked cookies and settled in to what would be a long night of storm watching. I didn't take long for it to look like a tornado had already passed through the living room. Ha!  We bathed the kids and Kristen bathed the dogs and we were ready. The kids had a blast playing together.  It was fun watching them play! We tried to get them to lay down in hopes they would fall asleep.  We had no such luck but these pictures were so cute of them together.  Elise would have probably fallen asleep if Barrett wouldn't have been picking at her.  He was so tired he was doing everything he could to fight sleep. It wasn't long until the storms were headed our way.  There were several storms in the viewing area and we spent many hours glued to the TV.  There was a storm headed right for us and for a few minutes they down-graded it to a thunderstorm and focused their attention on another storm in Tuscaloosa.  Well during this few minutes Joseph went upstairs to get something and we had that tv on a different channel. He came back down saying that channel was saying it was headed right for us.  About that time James Spann said he was getting reports of a tornado on the ground at our exit (about 2 miles from our house).  Cue the silent panic.  I quickly put on my tennis shoes and we grabbed up the kids.  We sat in the floor all huddled together.  Once I realized that the power was still on and the satellite was still on my nerves calmed a little.  My phone started blowing up with people checking on us.  That will make a girl feel loved.  It wasn't long till we started hearing reports of damage in Kimberly (about 3 miles away).  We were hearing that Lorie and Joseph's neighborhood was hit, so of course we were all a little on edge.  Patrick was still at work and stayed a little late to make sure it was safe.   This part is kinda funny now.  After we got the all clear for our area, Joseph and I were upstairs for some reason and he casually said look outside, it looks like there's a funnel cloud.  Sure enough the lightening lit up the sky and it looked just like a funnel cloud.  I panicked and ran down the stairs and Joseph was right on my heels.  We got in the corner of the room and put the kids in the built in book case for more protection.  It took a few minutes to realize that they weren't saying anything on tv so we probably didn't see anything.  Which is funny to me now.  While this was going on, Barrett lost it.  He was screaming and crying. He was exhausted and needed his bed to sleep.  There was still more bad weather on the way so I wasn't comfortable putting him in his bed so I went and rocked him and he went to sleep easily in my arms.  It wasn't much later that Patrick got home from work and he and Joseph left to see if they could get to their house.  The highway was blocked by downed trees so they just came on back.  We stayed up late tracking the last of the storms and watching the damage reports.  It was 3:00am when we finally crawled into bed. (not before watching an interview with a local woman that rode out the storm in her mobile home. I felt sorry for her and was embarrassed for our area that she was representing all at the same time.) We were all up by 8:00 Tuesday morning.  Joseph left to go check out the house.  He came back and Lorie and I rode with him to get her car.  There was a lot of damage in their neighborhood but thankfully they just had a few shingles blown off.   I took a few pictures of damage as we rode through.
We got home and relaxed and watched movies and hung out most of the day.  They were predicting another round for Tuesday night.  Luckily it ended up not being as bad.  We watched tv and just had fun together.  Around 8:30 Joseph got a call saying their power was back on.  We were so surprised.  He left to go get the house aired out while Lorie and Elise stayed and helped pack and clean everything up.  It wasn't long until my house way empty again.   I was so thankful that I wasn't here with Barrett by myself.  We laughed several times commenting it was "just like college" with two kids and two dogs.  In college we would spend days on the couch catching up on tv shows and watching movies, which is exactly what we did Tuesday.  I got to see Frozen which is 100 times more adorable hearing Elise sing the songs.  We also watched Beauty and the Beast, which is my all time favorite Disney movie.  I'm still exhausted today.  I can not recover from a late night as quickly as I did in college. I'm still dragging today.  We are so thankful that is wasn't any worse than it was in our area.

Blessed.

I've been avoiding this post all day.  I want to record this day in my journal but part of me knows there's no need.  Wednesday, April 27, 2011 is a day I'll never forget like so many Alabamians. 

This is what we watched live Wednesday afternoon.  There are no words to describe the feelings.  We watched people's lives be ripped right out from under them.  It was surreal, like watching a movie.  Except we knew people in the path.  My sister and cousin live about 4 blocks from where the storm hit.  Thankfully my cousin had gone to a friends basement and my sister had fled to Birmingham but we hadn't been able to get in touch with her until the storm hit.  We didn't know that she wasn't in Tuscaloosa.  I will never forget the sound of my mom's voice when she called me to tell me that my sister was safe.  (I know this all sounds really dramatic but I don't know how else to describe it.  It was dramatic.)  Our house was untouched.  Luckily it didn't take long to get in touch with everyone.  Then the storm was headed for us in Birmingham.  It hit about 5 miles south in Fultondale.  We are so lucky, blessed.  There were so many other areas and families affected.  These are the areas close to me and my heart.  As of tonight the death toll stands at 238 in the great state of Alabama, 45 in Tuscaloosa, 8 of those confirmed students. 

I am so thankful for everyone who has blogged, facebooked, texted, tweeted and prayed for the tornado victims across the south especially Alabama. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and keep it comin' these people are going to need us not just now but for weeks and months. 

Snow Day

We woke up to this on Thursday morning.  It was beautiful.  I still had to go to work.  But oddly I didn't mind, the drive in was so pretty and serene.

The view from the kitchen.

Swingset in the backyard.

Ally loved the snow.  She ran around like a crazy dog.  It was pretty funny!

I love snow.  I was sad to see it melt so quickly.  But I'm also so excited for the spring like weather we are predicted to get this week.  High's in the 70's by Friday.  I can't wait!

Snow Day

I remember snow days as a kid...today was not much different!  Beside that fact that I was the one at WalMart getting bread and milk instead of my mom (for the record we did use the bread to make grilled cheese sandwiches for our chili but I think we would have survived without them).  My big brother woke me with an early morning phone call instead of a snow ball (which was a lot drier and more pleasant).  They'd seen a deer in their yard, he was so excited! I think he was more excited than the kids!  I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast then we got bundled up and headed out! 

We let Sam and Gracie out first and they were so excited!  Sam loved for us to make snowballs and throw them for him.  He caught most of them in his mouth!

We got the four-wheeler out and started surveying the neighborhood! It was indeed a winter wonderland! The roads were slick and slushy!  We road down to turkey creek to see how bad the bridge was.  It was pretty slick.  I hiked down to the water with my camera in tow while Patrick acted like a little kid riding doing doughnuts on the bridge!  I was in heaven, so was he!  We went back to the house to start the chili for lunch!  I loved watching all the neighbors play and build snowmen!  This is when Patrick realized that ESPN was already counting down to the big game tonight.  So he was pretty much done with the snow for today!  I did manage to get him out again for an afternoon ride!

After that we came in, ate lunch, built a fire and took naps!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

I have been like a little kid all day!  We are supposed to get 3-6" or  4-8" (depending on who you ask) of snow overnight tomorrow. I'm so excited!  Usually when they predict it like this it never happens...but they seem so confident that it's hard not to get your hopes up!  Patrick is on vacation this week so he will be home! Yay!  They are also predicting up to 1/4" of ice.  This is what we are worried about..you see there is kind of a big game coming on Monday night that the hubs is very concerned about watching.  You see if we get that ice there is a good chance for widespread power outages.  Patrick has already said he would sit in the truck to listen to the game on the radio!  We have a list of movies to watch while we're snowed in.  a few of the titles include Beauty and the Beast (thanks to my sis for letting me have the bluray copy), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (again thanks to my sis for letting me borrow), and Steel Magnolias! 

I (finally) took down all our Christmas decorations today.  It was bittersweet to me!  Well, mostly just bitter!  It took all.day!  I finally got it all put away!  Now I need to clean, clean, clean.  Not tonight though!  Tonight I rest!  I'm watching Change of Plans on FOX with Brooke White from American Idol.  I love her!

Our first fire

We burned our first fire in our fireplace this week.  It was Monday night and it had started to snow again.  I was freezing (i'm pretty much always freezing!).  So we had a couple logs and Patrick decided to build a fire.  OH My WoRD!  It was so nice and cozy and warm!  Ally kept walking over to it and just standing because it was so warm.  We've lived in our house for about 2 1/2 years but never built a fire until this week.   We had a light dusting outside.  It was so nice to just sit and listen to the fire crackle and watching the snow fall outside.  I loved it!

Snow Day...

I wanted to add more pictures from our snow adventures.  We had so so so much fun!  I felt like a kid again!  We started the day sledding down the small hill at my parents house.  We have an old truck bedliner that works really well.  The only problem is it is really heavy.  Usually the boys are there to help us but this time they weren't.  We only did it one or two times because it was so heavy.  We then just resorted to sliding on trash bags!  You go so fast but man does it hurt!

My Mommy & Daddy!

Sunset at The Horton House

After the Mardi Gras party at church we decided to stop by the new Gardendale High School and have a snowball fight in the courtyard.  Well that somehow turned into going sledding at the stadium.   There is a huge hill at the stadium so we went home and changed into our "snow suits" and headed back to the school.  It was so much fun!

Elizabeth making snow angels.  This became her "Snow Signature"!

Me in the courtyard at the new school. 

Me and Sister

She was brave enough to go first!

Me and Ally at the top of the hill.  The new school in the background!

Ally loves sledding.  Please try to notice how high and steep this hill is!

Sister and Amy!

Snow angel on the field!

Such a fun night! thanks girls!

Elizabeth and Amy got up Saturday morning to run a 5K.  Ally and I slept in!
That's all the snow pictures for now!  More on Mardi Gras to come!