Tornado

Last weekend we knew some storms were coming.  I get a little nervous about them here, obviously, but not as bad as I expected, especially since we have the best neighbors ever, who happen to have an underground shelter.  On Sunday it was very stormy and we got some crazy hail.  It wasn't too scary, but we watched the news to make sure we didn't get a tornado warning.  Neely loved it, she was watching the hail fall into the rain puddles from earlier, and told us "The fireballs are SWIMMING!"

I think other parts of town had golf ball sized hail, but this is the biggest one we found:

 After it stopped we went outside and the kids threw hail around, breaking them on the sidewalk.  They look pretty cool inside.  Our neighbor Kevin also owns a roofing company, so he's studied weather some, and explained to Jess what those rings inside them mean.  You'll have to ask him, I can't remember.  :)

 Neely threw the hail around, and then cheered that she "DID IT!" and did some cool poses, like so...

Yep, that's another dang hair tie on her arm.  I'd hidden them from her until she seemed to have forgotten them for a week or two there.  Then she found one on the floor, and rekindled her love for her "bracelets."  Now I start being vigilant again.  

The next morning was pretty stormy, and we were on a watch.  (Not as severe as a warning, but you need to be ready)  Jess came home for a later lunch break.  We had lunch like always, and then he started to say goodbye to go back.  I think they might have upgraded us to a tornado warning by then.  I had definitely gotten the recording the city sends to your phone, letting you know the public shelter is open for anyone who'd like to start heading over.  :(  They send those in advance, so we've gotten them several times before.  It didn't make me too nervous, I just figured I'd start packing stuff up to bring in the shelter with us if we needed to go.  But when Jess said goodbye to us, I suddenly realized I was really nervous and didn't want him to go back.  I may have cried a little.  Ha.  Then again, I am pregnant.  He of course made fun of me and went anyway.  

Since I had a bad feeling I asked Paige and Cason to get their shoes, and asked Paige to bring me an outfit for Neely(who loves to be in only a diaper lately) while I got my shoes on.  None of us had even finished those things when I heard someone pounding on our door.  I ran in to the living room, and realized from there I could hear the tornado sirens and Kevin was standing at the window waving at us frantically.  He's usually all excited about the weather so seeing him look scared freaked me out.  I just grabbed Neely and told the other two to run out front, before we could grab shoes or anything.  So we ran next door, in our barefeet, and climbed down into their shelter.  We met his parents for the first time down there, and they acted like it was totally normal that we had no shoes, and Neely was in only a diaper with her wild jungle girl hair.  Haha.  As soon as I sat down I realized I hadn't even grabbed my phone, and Gia was in our backyard.  I was scared about Jess and couldn't even call him to make sure he was safely at work.  :(  I thought about running back to move Gia inside and then decided since I had no idea if Jess was safe, I probably shouldn't risk my life too and leave our kids with no parents.  I wasn't going to say anything out loud about Gia, but one of the neighbor girls asked.  Paige's eyes got really big and she said "SHE'S OUTSIDE!"  I just cringed, and the neighbor girl calmly said "She's probably gonna die."  Ha.  Her mom shushed her of course.  I was trying to look all calm for the kids, so I was really thankful for a moment of comedy when we found a kick me sign Paige had put on Cason's back earlier.  Ha!

Kevin was still standing outside the shelter, yelling back and forth with the neighbor about how far it was from us.  Then I heard him yell "JESS!  Come on in, they're already in here!"  I was so relieved to see him, but also wanted to kill him for driving home when his work has an underground shelter.  :(  Of course he drove right across what ended up being the tornado's path when it first started out. 

After a while they told us it had passed, so we all got out and hung out in their living room for a few hours.  Once the power came back on we turned on the news, and found out just how bad the tornado was.  :(  Neely napped peacefully on the neighbor while the other two played with their friends.  :)  So glad they were unaware.

Their biggest worry was if the tornado had hit Tiger Cho's.  We checked, and it wasn't hit.  

It's so sad, and so weird to actually live where one of these things happened, and see neighborhoods we drive through every week, destroyed on the news.  At first I thought our area had had a smaller tornado, but it was the same one, it just started in our area before getting bigger and stronger as it headed to Moore.  When we went for a drive it was crazy to see how much damage it did in the beginning, before it even became anywhere near what it had become in Moore.  It destroyed a family farm near us, and uprooted trees all over the place.

A minute or so away from us we pass an old bridge with train tracks next to the freeway.  A huge section was completely blown off the supports, and thrown up against the freeway, along with a bunch of trees.

 

We've been considering a job offer Jess got back in Kingman for a few weeks, and had pretty much decided, but Tuesday morning they finalized the offer, and we accepted.  Monday made me even happier about the decision.  Not that tornadoes like this one happen often, but it was pretty scary stuff.  We're moving home at the end of July.  :)