Remember That One Time…

Hey there!

Congrats again to Mean Ang for winning the blog redesign giveaway!  I bet her and Tia are working hard together to come up with her new design!

Sunday we had some nasty weather here in SE Iowa.  A confirmed tornado touched down and in 2 separate barns in 2 areas about 30 miles apart there were 2 injuries, one fatal.  So sad.

We were fine, just had some really strong winds and rain.  It all started about 3:30 that afternoon.  We had just gotten home from shopping in the big city.  The sky kept getting darker and darker, then the rain hit.  Some thunder and lightning.  All of a sudden the electricity went off.  The boys ran and got their pen light flashlights from their rooms.  I settled in on the couch and started nursing Tate.  All of a sudden my phone went berserk, TORNADO WARNING!  Shit. I hollered to Andy that it was time to head to the basement,which of course sent the boys into panic mode.  I ordered them to the basement, but since we had no lights they were terrified to go down there alone.  We had windows open, and with the wind really whipping, the rain was coming in so Andy and I had to shut the windows before we could head downstairs.  I got up off the couch, barked at the boys to be brave and get to the basement, then started walking around the house to get the windows shut.  Meanwhile Tate is still latched on, just nursing away! Ha ha, lucky boy!

We all get settled in the basement on the couch and my phone rings – it’s my dad checking in on us.  He has electricity so he’s watching the news and telling me what he’s hearing.  A tornado, on the ground, about 15 miles from here.  The warning was for more northeast of us, which made me feel better, so after another 10 minutes back upstairs we went.  Still no electricity.

Things settled down some.  Andy went back to the kitchen to finish up what he was doing, the boys were bouncing off the walls and I was cuddling with Tate.  5:00 came, still no electricity.  What to do for supper? Call in pizza, of course!  I called the pizza place the next town over, they had power so ordered us up a pie. 

We left about 20 minutes later and were trucking down the highway.  All of a sudden we could see trucks with lights flashing up ahead.  When we got up to them we could see why – the power poles had snapped off and were laying on the highway!  This would have been almost directly south and west of where that tornado had been spotted by about 10 miles.  Later, on IG, I saw a video an old classmate posted.  He was driving down the road, recording the crazy wind and rain, and captures those poles snapping and falling!  He was right by them! Can’t believe his car didn’t get hit! So so crazy!  I think his exact words were “OH F***!”

They had the highway down to one lane only.  We made it past the downed poles and went on to get our supper.  By the time we got home, about 6:00, the electricity was back on and everything had completely settled down. 

I, of course, have no pictures to share to make this story more exciting, but it was one of those weird, crazy evenings and I wanted to make sure I wrote about it so I could look back on it later.  Kind of like when sitting around with the boys 20 some years from now, reminiscing and telling their wives and girlfriends stories of when they were little and bringing up “that one time when I was nursing Tate when a tornado warning went off, you boys were so scared and Dad and I had to shut all the windows…”  I love stories like that!