Our Weekend - Tornados and... More Tornados

Well, our weekend didn’t exactly go as planned, but I’m choosing to look on the bright side and be thankful that our house is still standing and we are all okay.  We had some awful, awful weather this weekend and we spent the better part of it watching the local weather and worrying about what might possibly be heading our way.  Or at least I did, anyway.  Brian isn’t a worrier so he didn’t seem to be as bothered as I was.  Ha!

Friday night started out normal as always.  The kids played on the back porch and I enjoyed a glass of wine while we waited for B to bring home Carrabba’s.  We spent the evening eating yummy food and catching up on shows.  B and I watched the second episode of The OA and I hate to admit it, but I’m hooked.  I don’t love watching weird stuff because it gives me the creeps, but I just can’t stop watching this show.  It is really good.

Saturday morning we were greeted by both kids in the bed due to the storms in our area so we were up extra early.  We had loads and loads of laundry to do and we also had a project to work on for J, so it wasn’t such a bad thing getting up early.  Well, about halfway through the morning just as we were about to start on Jacob’s project, a massive storm blew up practically out of nowhere.  Almost simultaneously the tornado sirens started going off, so we snatched up the kids and ran downstairs into the closet under our stairs.  B turned on the news and they had broken into the regular coverage to inform us that there was a tornado in our area.  As a matter of fact, it was just five or so miles up the street from us. 

Bad weather used to not bother me when I was younger, but now that I know I have two little lives to take care of I hate it.  I hate it, y’all.  It completely freaks me out so I was a total wreck.

It poured and was crazy windy for about a half an hour and the power flickered a few times, but then it just left as quickly as it had come.  We were able to come right back out of the closet and work on Jacob’s project for school.  Their 100th day of school is today, so we had to make a shirt with 100 things on it.  We decided on Legos since he’s so obsessed with them right now, and the shirt turned out great.  Now whether or not he will actually keep it on all day remains to be seen.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning, laundry-ing, and working on some Valentine’s Day decorating.  I started on my chalkboard, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you as soon as it’s done!

As the day continued the skies cleared and the sun came out, but the weather team had warned us that more severe weather would be coming through later Saturday night.  We decided to go ahead and go to church to get out of the house, and then after church we went to our favorite BBQ place for dinner for my uncle’s 70th birthday.  At this restaurant they put paper down on the tables and they have buckets of crayons on the tables, so I drew Elsa to keep Olivia entertained while we waited for our food.  (Not too shabby, huh?)  There were about 35 people so the dinner was long, and by the time we got home it was late. 

We had just enough time to get the kids down and watch a couple of shows and then we flipped over to the news where they were warning everybody that the weather was going to be very bad again.  They said that on a scale of 1-10 our chances of having bad tornadoes was a 6 and our chances of having damaging winds of up to 70 mph was an 8.  Sigh. 

So B and I hopped up and prepared our “storm shelter” and then fell into bed around 11:30.  They had said that the worst of the weather was due to occur between midnight and 2, so I knew that it was getting close, so I couldn’t sleep.  I tossed and turned, and kept my ears finely tuned for any freight train noises.  Fortunately the worst of it went around us and the sirens never went off to indicate any tornadoes, but we had another really bad storm around 4 AM.  Olivia was so terrified when the thunder woke her that she started crying and her breathing sounded so scary that I flew out of the bed and into her room as fast as I could to comfort her.  She had gotten so upset that I think she was hyperventilating which explained the scary breathing.

I knew she would never go back to sleep in her own room during the storm, so I brought her back into our bed where she fell asleep immediately.  The storm was still raging, so I laid there for what seemed like forever, just waiting for the tornado sirens to go off, but thankfully they never did, and I somehow finally drifted off to sleep. 

B never has any trouble sleeping, so he let me sleep in Sunday morning since I hadn’t slept all night.  I woke up around 8:45 feeling surprisingly refreshed, and I was extremely thankful that the house was still standing.

We spent the morning finishing up laundry, cleaning, and finishing decorating the house for Valentine’s Day.  We knew that even more bad weather was imminent Sunday afternoon, so we stepped out of the house long enough to have lunch at Chipotle, let the kids burn off some steam at Barnes and Noble, and grab Blizzards at DQ.  Then we headed back home to hunker down for the afternoon.

Guys, we were so fortunate.  So fortunate.  The line of storms Sunday afternoon seemed to split and go on either side of us.  All we had was some heavy rain and wind for a few minutes and the power flickered a few times, and then it was done.

We were able to venture out again Sunday evening for our usual dinner with my parents where we celebrated another one of my uncle’s birthdays.  For the first time all weekend, I felt like I could finally breathe because I knew that all of the bad weather was finally behind us.  It was a good evening indeed.  

Three rounds of tornadic weather, y’all.  Three rounds.  I’m so thankful that we made it through unscathed.  We haven’t heard about all of the damage just yet, but I know one of the high schools nearby experienced a lot of damage, and one of the neighborhoods a few miles from us sustained a lot of damage.  One of my friends actually lives there, but fortunately her house was spared.

I’m starting this week with a grateful heart, even more so than I usually do.  I’m just so so thankful that we were among the lucky ones to avoid all of the badness.

Now, can we please have a weekend redo? 

P.S. I don’t usually give a flying flip about pro football, but our Atlanta Falcons are heading to the Super Bowl, y’all!!  #RiseUp

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending.