What a weekend!

Too tired to spell check so you will have to bear with me!
I am a bit overwhelmed as I try to sum up the weekend. Seems like it was a week long. I guess most of you know by now that our town was hit by a tornado. The second tornado in 7 days actually. The first tornado was an F1 that hit on the outskirts of the other side of town. I didn't even know about it for two days. The second was an F2 that I knew about as it happened!

Going back to last Friday night, Rob dropped Kolby off at a slumber party, dropped Rhett off at my parents for the night and picked me up to go to a Cinco de Mayo party at my cousins. We had a nice relaxing evening and sat on my cousins back patio enjoying the cool breeze and watching lightening roll back to the west, far, far away from us. Since both Rob and I had had an exhausting week, we were happy to cut out early and be home asleep by 11:30pm. I had visions of sleeping late and having a low key yet productive weekend.

At 12:20am I woke up to the sound of our electricity going off and a storm outside. About a minute later my sister called our one remaining land line to tell us that they were across the street in the closet with Rhett and the tornado sirens were going off. Rob and I were up like a shot bolting to the guest bathroom, which has all interior walls. We could hear the emergency warning siren saying "Tornado Warning! Seek Shelter Immmediately" (Yes our sirens have a human voice and are soo creepy)

Anyway we huddled for a moment then decided to take a peek out the windows and look for a flash light and a radio. The storm was amazing. The sky was greenish. There was so much lightening that at times It was a s bright as day outside. ( A man a few blocks away from us took this picture around 12:30am) The only radio we could find was Kolby's "My Scene Barbie Walkman" but it worked. I lit candles. When we heard a very high pitched whirling sound that was not our sirens, we retreated back to the bathroom.

I was very uneasy because both my kids were not with me in this awful storm! I swore never to let Kolby go to a slumber party (her first all nighter by the way) during tornado season. To sooth my nerves, Rob left the confines of the safe bathroom and called over to my friends house where twenty one 8 year old girls were having a slumber party! My friend said that they had waked all the girls up and were crouching in a closet under her stairs. Can you imagine? She said they were all OK and were giggling and telling stories. We later learned that Kolby had gone into a sound sleep and in typical Kolby style was at the bottom of her sleeping bag. They couldn't see her and had left her up stairs. She woke up to a dark room and was all alone. She said she was scared and hid in her sleeping bag for a minute or two before my friend came upstairs and found her. Then she was fine. Glad I didn't know that until later, although I think the whole ordeal took less than four minutes.

I was in the bathroom and kept calling my sisters cell phone frommy cell phone because my parents don't have a land line ( ie a phone that does not require electricity). After several failed attempts and dropped calls I found out that they were all safe in a closet and Rhett had slept through the entire thing. In fact, he never woke up the whole night! That in itself is one of the great blessings of this storm because Rhett is terrified of "funder and lighting."It was a huge relief to me to know he wasn't scared.

By 1:45 the siren had long since stopped going off and the storm had died to a light rain. Our lights were still out. I was tempted to go get both Rhett and Kolby, but it seemed both were ok where they were, so we just went back to bed. I didn't go to sleep until after 3 as it was getting hot in our house, but I wasn't scared anymore.

Saturday is a blur. It took a great deal of time to get us all back together. HINT Do not almost run out of gas the morning after a tornado..there is no place to get any! By the time we had the car filled, the food moved out of the frig (THANK YOU ELIZABETH!!!) and both kids back, it was late afternoon. We ate out at Applebees and spent the rest of the day doing things outside.

Thank goodness the weather stayed cloudy and in the 70's. While it was still light enough to see, we bathed the kids and got them in their PJs. We considered staying with friends or realitives or even a hotel for the night, but decided since the temperatures were pretty mild we could stick it out. We made a Sonic run and ate in the car (with the air on) then Rob and the kids waited in the car while I ran in Wal Mart for flashlights, a weather radio, and breakfast for in the morning.

Once home I stayed outside talking to neighbors until after 9. When I came in, I found the rest of my family had all put themselves to bed and were sound asleep! Kolby and Rhett were both asleep holding their new flash lights. Rob was sawing logs. It had been a day! I opened up every window in the house, blew out all the candles, and went to bed. Couldn't sleep. I had just drifted off when I woke to the sound of Kolby crying. She was crouched in her floor clutching her tummy. A few minutes later she was in the bathroom puking by candlelight. There wasn't much of a breeze in her room so I took her into the back yard where she puked some more. It just isn't fair to be hot and nauseated at the same time. Around 2, I put her back down. The house had really cooled off by then. I fell asleep praying the lights would come on soon and second guessing that hotel decision.

At 6:30AM every bird in Hewitt decided to descend in our yard and chirp their loudest! I thought I was in the rain forrest! Needless to say I got up and Rhett soon followed. Rob didn't get home from the paper until after 7. Rhett decided to go with my parents to breakfast and church so I had him dressed and out by 8. Rob decided to go to class and let me stay with the still sleeping Kolby. I called TXU for an update. 2 to 3 days they said! 2 to 3 DAYS!!!!! This was no longer fun.

The weather was again excellent. Cloudy and in the 60's and 70's. Resigned to the fact that we would not have power for a few more days, I took a shower, put on the last of my prego clean clothes, and started dividing laundry by priority to take to the laundromat. Kolby came in at 9:30 feeling great. What ever had her puking the night before was gone. She ate three muffins! Things were looking up. When Rob got home we re-dressed everyone and headed for a birthday party for both kids at Kiddieland. We were going to make the best of it. I had just blogged from the phone when my Mom called to say our power was on! The ordeal was over...or was it?

I left Rob and the kids at the birthday party and drove home to close all the windows since the AC would be coming on. As I drove up I noticed our sprinkler system had come on and was on it's last station.... That meant my entire yard had been watered with all the windows open!!!! It wasn't too bad inside, but I had to laugh. We survived the tornado but almost flooded the house with the sprinkler system! I was so happy to have power that I didn't even care! The rest of the day we rejoiced and reveled in the AC and lights. I had everything cleaned up and the kids in bed just in time to watch GA! AHHHH the simple pleasures!

This blog is already way too long so I'll stop. I just feel very blessed to have survived the storm realitivly unscathed! AND REALLY glad the weekend is over! This should be a very low key week! I can't wait!!!! :)