Friday Favorites - Stormy Edition

Hey Friends!  Our week did not go as planned over here.  

We came back from Wisconsin Monday evening, started doing everything you do when you get back in town from a trip and then a huge round of storms hit our area of Southern Indiana in the early hours of Tuesday morning.  First, school was delayed.  Then school was cancelled for the day because of the storms.  We are used to Midwest storms, but this was different.  Tornado sirens, phone alerts and all social media alerts were blaring before 6am.  A tornado was headed our way.  We watched and waited for a bit and then things got scary.  It sounded like our windows might explode.  I ran upstairs to get the kids.  Kevin got Leo and we rushed to our safe spot in the house.  

It sounded awful outside and even though we were trying to assure the kids that everything was going to be okay, we were all scared.  And wouldn't you know 2 of our 3 crazy cats refused to take shelter with us.  Penny was the smart one who wanted to safe with her people.  We stayed put for at least 30 minutes waiting for the storm to pass us.  We prayed, tried to keep everyone calm and just stayed quiet.  Then we emerged with the daylight and started to check out the damage when the radar showed the storm had passed us.  We ended up with lots of debris in our yard, but our house is just fine.  Our neighbors were not so lucky - blown out windows, roof damage, fences that look like a bomb hit them, missing lawn furniture, trampolines nowhere to be found, mangled play sets and chaos through the neighborhood.  Everyone was okay, but the storm hit our area hard.

We were without power for 34 hours.  The kids missed school again on Wednesday because their school still did not have power.  The kids didn't mind one bit having an extra day at home.  Having no power was a pain, but we survived.  Kevin and I agreed later that it was the most nervous we had ever been about a tornado coming straight for us.  The weather service is now reporting that 6 tornadoes came through our area so no wonder we were all scared! 

So even though we had a crazy week, we still had some favorite moments together.  On Tuesday, I got busy and made some to do lists of things we could do without power.  There were tears and stressful moments, but we made it work.

Daylight after the storm.  You can't tell, but the field behind our house was filled with debris, furniture, trampolines, roof shingles and more.  All our friends were okay, shaken up, but okay and looking for their missing items.

Kevin went to work because the storms missed that side of the city.  We dyed Easter eggs that we never got around to doing before Easter.

We went on lots of walks between the storms to check on neighbors, clean up trash and pick up our yard.  We got a ton of rain from the off and on storms all day.

We went fossil hunting in our neighborhood.

The kids played in the rain.

At the end of Day 1 we were all a bit frazzled.  Kevin came home and we used his car as our wifi/charging station and went for a drive.  It felt good to be connected again and to have fully charged devices.  We got all of our flashlights out, the one candle we own was lit haha and beds ready for when it became dark.  We all went to bed at dark.

Penny loved having the kids home for a couple of extra days.

Day 2 Kevin figured out how to pull open our garage door and freed our van.  Having transportation and plans gave us all some pep in our step.  We went to our favorite grocery store for breakfast and then got some fresh food to load up a cooler with snacks/lunch supplies.

I took the kids to one of their favorite play places - Dig N Roll and then we grabbed soft serve ice cream afterwards.  Yay for gift cards.  Our side of town didn't have power, but 15 minutes or so away was fully up and running.

Our power finally came back on 34 hours later and we are so thankful that not opening our fridge or freezer allowed us to save all of our food and things are back up and running here.  The kids went back to school yesterday for a 2 day week and then they're off on Monday for the big eclipse.

The yummiest thing I ate all week was this NuTrail granola.  I could eat it by itself, but adding it to a fruit and greek yogurt bowl was delicious.

I hope you had a great week!!  I think things will be back to normal on the blog next week :)

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