Tornados, Trips, and Celebrations...oh my!

It all started last Friday with thunderstorms & pouring rain. PJ had his tour of the highschool (he said it was a little overwhelming, but he's really excited for next year), and his 8th grade picnic. Well, the storms kind of messed up the picnic, but they still had fun inside, hanging out, eating hotdogs, chips, and candy, etc. & celebrating the end of Jr. High.

Neil was getting ready for his trip to England that he was going to be leaving for on Saturday afteroon, and Tessa was planning to be in a riding show on Saturday morning. Well, the storms continued and there were threats of severe weather, so Tessa's riding show was cancelled (they'll reschedule it later in a month or two). So we did a few things around the house, Neil finished getting all packed for his trip, & then we went out for lunch before taking Neil to the airport. Usually he will just drive himself & park in the extended parking, but because the weather reports were predicting severe weather most of the week, with possible tornadoes, large hail, and strong winds, we decided that we didn't want to leave his truck out there.

THEN the storms began to hit Sunday night. I was concerned, but not overly worried. Most often the storms weaken by the time the get to Bentonville, or pass us completely. I kept watching the news reports of them tracking the storms, and had flashlights, sleeping bags, and cell phones all ready if we had to take cover in the hallway. Well, it kept getting worse & at one point (around 10:30 p.m.) they showed a large storm cell right over Bentonville that was showing some rotation. They were really concerned that it could very quickly turn into a tornado. I was just about ready to go get the kids out of bed to go "hunker down", when just a couple minutes later they said that it was beginning to weaken. So I waited a little longer & it eventually calmed down. By about 1:30 a.m. they said the threat was mostly over (other than some flash-flood warnings and thunderstorms), so I finally went to bed. Somehow the kids all slept through the storm. I'm not sure how, with all the thunder, lightning, tornado sirens, automated emergency phone calls, and my cell phone beeping text updates every 10 minutes. It was a CRAZY night!

Monday morning I was up again at 5 a.m. (after only 3-1/2 hours of sleep), to get the kids registered for classes at the fitness center (they have a phone-in enrollment & the classes fill up very fast, so you have to get it done as soon as it opens at 5 a.m.). PJ & Tessa are going to take Tennis, and Jonah & Clay will take swimming again. We also decided that during the summer PJ & Tessa will take violin (they've been wanting to try it for a while), and Jonah will start piano. He has been talking about wanting to play the drums for a while now, but we thought that starting with some basic piano would be a good introduction to reading music, rhythm, etc. He is excited too and will sometimes sit down at the piano & try to play some of the beginning books that PJ & Tessa used. So, we should have a fun & busy summer. :)

Anyway, I got the kids off to school, and continuted to watch the weather reports. They were expecting more severe weather most of the week. At about 9:30 a.m., it started getting really dark & stormy outside again. I was starting to worry. I don't like my kids to be away from me if it starts to get really bad. I was just hoping that it wouldn't turn into anything really severe. After a couple hours, things calmed down a little, but then it turned into a torrential downpour, with flash-flood warnings the rest of the day. It didn't sound like there was any immediate danger of tornadoes that night, so I was able to get to bed by 10:30.

On Monday, I was looking at the stories & pictures of the huge tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri (only about an hour North of us).

It was UNBELIEVEABLE & heart breaking! The tornado that hit there, destroyed the hospital, the highschool, an LDS church, a Walmart store, and completely destroyed some subdivisions. There were areas that were completely wiped out & flattened. And 118 people died in the process. It's scary that something so devestating can happen so quickly. After living here for 6 years now, I was finally at a point where I didn't get overly worried or panic during the severe thunderstorms. Well, after looking at all that destruction in Joplin, I was starting to worry a little more...especially because the National Weather Service issued ANOTHER Severe Weather Warning in our area for Tuesday night. They said it had the potential for developing severe storms, strong winds, large tornadoes, flash flooding, and large hail. GREAT! And Neil was missing out on all this fun! :(

Tuesday started out fine, with blue skies & sunshine. No problem. Clay was supposed to have his Kindergarten Celebration that night at 6 p.m. at the highschool. I was hoping that if the weather got as bad as they said it was going to get, that they would cancel the program & reschedule. Well, after school, Clay had a note that said they were still going to have it! I couldn't believe it! What about safety?! They had cancelled some other schools' activities, and closed the fitness center at 5 p.m. and people were leaving Walmart at around 5:00, just as I was driving to the highschool. That was NOT a good sign. I was getting more worried. Then at the beginning of the Kindergarten Celebreation, the Principal said, "Just so you don't worry, we have someone watching the weather & will let us know if it starts to get really bad & we need to take cover. Right now the storm is in Oklahoma, so we will get through the program as quickly as possible and then we ask that after the program, if you could please leave AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, so they can lock up the building & get home to safety." Ummm...don't you think it would have been better to reschedule & stay home to be safe?! Anyway, the program was really cute. Clay did a great job on the songs, poem, etc., and looked adorable as always. Right afterwards, we hurried home & got there by 7:15, and managed to avoid the storm. It didn't actually start to hit Bentonville until about 9:30.


Well, I started to think about our "safe spot" which is usually in our hallway between Tessa's room & Jonah & Clay's room. We just shut all the doors & put a mattress up in that doorway to block it off completely. Well, there is also an A/C vent right above us there, and I always worry that if a tornado ripped the roof off our house, then that could be like a vacuum & suck us right up. We have the same problem with our bathrooms. Not only are they on an outside wall, they also have skylights, which would NOT be safe in a tornado. So, I thought maybe we could all huddle in PJ's closet, but there isn't much space there & he has a window in his bedroom. So, I decided to move all the large boxes off the shelves in my closet (we store stuff in our master bedroom closets, because we don't want to drag it all out to the garage, & up the ladder to our attic). So, after I got the kids in bed, I pulled all the big boxes down (hoping not to hurt myself in the process), and moved them into Neil's closet. Then I collected the kids bike helmets (they say it's good to wear them to protect your head), flashlights, sleeping bags, water, snacks, cell phones, all our important documents, etc.

I had a few people from church call to check on us, because they knew that Neil was out of town, and a couple of them offered for us to come to their houses (that had basements) to wait out the storm. I thanked them, but said I'd just stay here. The kids were already asleep & I didn't want to wake them up unless it got really serious, and then we'd huddle in the closet & pray that we didn't get blown away. And after it all, I'm glad I didn't go to someone else's house, because I think that would have worried the kids even more, and they would have been exhausted from staying up half the night.

The storm warning was supposed to last until 3 a.m., but I finally went to bed around 2:00, because the severe threat had passed & I could hardly keep my eyes open after a couple of nights of this! Everything was fine & the rest of the night was relatively calm. We've had flash-flood warnings & some more stormy weather (and we have more expected through Friday), but hopefully nothing severe.

Neil will get home from his trip on Friday night. We will be happy to have him back home! It's been a great experience for him to be working in England & he's enjoying his time there, working with the people at the ASDA office in Leeds. He will most likely end up going to a couple other countries later in the year as well. Too bad we can't all stow away in his lugguge & make a family vacation out of these trips! :(

So, THAT has been our excitement over the past few days! Hopefully we are done with all this tornado weather for the rest of the year! :) At least the weather is supposed to be warm & sunny for the long Memorial Day weekend. HOORAY! :)