Stormy Weather

 The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.

Nehum 1:7

Whew! What a WILD weather week we have had! I am constantly amazed at just how quickly life-anyone's life-can change in a matter of seconds or minutes! I am so thankful that my little bubble here in Birmingham was spared by the massive tornadoes we saw last week! Why, I will never know! Why was my neighborhood only hit with power outages and downed trees when just a few miles away, there was complete devastation? I just have to remember that the Lord is good-even in times of trouble. Here is a recap or our last 5 days and how we weathered the storms:

     Rainy, cloudy weather started last Tuesday, April 26.  It was not a really terrible stormy day. Just rainy, and with two little boys who would MUCH rather be outside, those rainy days are looonnng ones! I tried to be creative, so we had "movie morning". I rented the boys a movie off of pay-per-view, popped popcorn, poured Cokes, and got out the beach chairs. I thought it was genius! And it was-for about 10 minutes! It's really hard to keep their attention when it's a movie at home! Here is a picture I snapped as the movie began to play:

     The rain was gone by the time naps were over, so we enjoyed a nice afternoon outside.  The next day was Wednesday. We knew rain/severe storms were coming, but thought we would go to school, come home and wait for the storm. Boy was that a miscalculation!

     At 5:15am Wednesday, April 27, I woke up to tornado sirens.  I have a real fear of storms! I mean REAL fear! My mother says I watched the Wizard of Oz too many times when I was little.  So, when  I hit Robb in the arm to let him know the sirens were going off, he simply handed me the TV remote control and never said a word. I was so confused by this weather, because I thought it wasn't going to get bad until later-as in 2:00 in the afternoon later! What were the sirens about SO early?! I turned on the weather and there it was-a nice red squal line headed our way. I watched for a few minutes, and then informed my sleeping husband we needed to be up and start getting prepared. As the sirens blared again, I was taking measures "to get ahead of the storm". I made us coffee, got the flash lights out, shut all the doors to our hallway, (which has become quite a popular place in our home), and turned on 3 tv's-because I needed to be updated and informed in all areas of the house.  The storm became a little more intense, and that's when my exasperated husband started taking me serious! (he's been through many false, hysterical, overreacting storms with me) He has learned a few things from me, and did something that was VERY smart-he filled up the bathtub with hot water-"just in case we do loose power"-he said.    

     We watched and waited a little while longer and then I made the call-get in the hall-get the boys out of the bed! By the time we got the boys up the power was gone. We sat and waited for about 15 minutes and then decided to get back in the bed for a few more minutes of rest. By this time, it was about 6:15ish. The four of us all laid in the bed and "rested". I think I was just waiting for the power to come back. I can remember checking the time on my phone to see just how much longer I had before I had to get up and get showered for school. Time went by and no power came on.  Thankfully we had a tub of HOT HOT water! So hot, we had to add cold water to be able to use it! 

    With a wet head of hair and a bit of makeup, we were off to school. That is a plus about working at the preschool where my boys go-we all go together and leave together.  I remember pulling up to the school and thinking about how pretty the day had turned out! The sky was blue and it was as if there had never been any storm at all! In fact, I had only observed a few trees down around our house, so it was weird we were still without power. We quickly learned that Cahabla Heights had been hit really hard! Many of the schools were without power and so they were encouraging parents to keep children at home. As a result, school was cancelled for us as well. We played at school because I didn't think coming home with two little boys and no power would be much fun.......at least not for me.

     Listening to the radio that morning,  weather was still all that was being talked about.  Storms were expected to hit around 2 and get really bad around 6.  The boys and I had lunch with Robb and then I borought them home for a quick siesta! It had been a long morning and we all needed to rest!

     Robb surprised me and came home early. He decided he should start the little generator we have to keep the fridge going.  He even connected one TV so we could watch the storm radar.  And boy was it something to watch! I have never seen SO many tornadoes on one radar screen! The weathermen could not even stay on one storm for very long, because they were tracking so many and trying to tell so many people in different places to take cover! 

     

When the storms started getting close, we put the boys in the hallway. Flashlights, iPhones, and iPads were the entertainment of choice for the boys.  Here they are playing their games.                                                     

 Here is when I really REALLY lost it! This is a picture I took of the TV screen as the tornado hit Tuscaloosa.  There was nothing anybody could do but watch! I can't imagine how scary it must have been for all the people who were hit by this massive storm! It was unbelieveable! I just watched and cried.
 

Learned a lot about tornadoes that day.  One was that a debris cloud can bring things MILES away and drop it in your yard.  After we watched the storm hit, we began seeing shingles floating in the sky above us.  Here is a picture of a piece floating in the air, and one that the boys found in the grass.  Harris has been collecting them. He calls them bricks.

 This is a piece of foam that we watched fall out of the sky and land across the street in a neighbor's driveway.

 The generator that we ran while the power was out. 

 Things we did while we were out of power: rode bikes, sidewalk chalk, painted, and played games on the iPad. Here are some shots of the boys after the storms passed. Thankfully Thursday was a really nice cool day!

 We left Birmingham Friday after school to head to Montgomery for Robb's sister's wedding. We left the house with no power and came home to no power! A positive to being without "full-time" electricity-cleaning out the fridge! Yes, it hurt my heart to throw away so much food, but it did make me clean/scrub the inside! Thought a picture might inspire me to keep it so clean. We'll see how long that lasts!

 After so many nights of eating out, and being out of our routine, it was nice to get back to normal.  The power came back Sunday, May 1 around 6:30 pm.  I was like a child at Christmas! I squealed with excitement as I turned on all the lights, ran the dishwasher, and washed a load of clothes! The boys were excited they got to read a book with their daddy-and not with the aid of a flashlight!

     There has been so much devastation in AL this last week.  I am encouraged by the faith that I have seen by so many people who lost it all.  As they stand before a pile of rubble, everything earthly truly gone from their lives, it is awesome to see God given the glory! My prayer is that I could have this same faith and thanksgiving! That even in the storms, I will praise God, know that He is good, and seek him in times of trouble.