November Storms

I planned an entirely different post for today. But after yesterday's storms...I'm posting about the adventures in Shafferland.

Indiana, as you probably all know by now {even if you don't live here} was smacked with a lot of damaging storms yesterday. We had tornadoes, yes, but we had all other sorts of wind damage, too, and our little house was in the line of the storm.

We live in the midwest. We've had a lot of tornado warnings in our lives. But this was the first time in my adult life that I have been THIS frightened of a storm.

I grew up in a home with a basement, and I have sorely missed that during my adult life - mostly when it storms. It's admittedly nice to not have to worry about flooding and things like that - but when it storms, I miss my basement.

We kept an eye on the weather yesterday afternoon and determined this might actually be a storm to pay attention to...especially when we saw pictures of the town near Peoria, Illinois, that had been ransacked.

So we spent some time making a little nest in the bottom of a closet in one of the bedrooms And when I say little, I mean little. This is an old house, people. We don't have big closets.

 Ryan made a little nest of pillows, blankets, and a sleeping bag, and I hauled down all the bags I determined we'd need. Important papers, wallets, extra clothes, my camera bag {duh!!} and everything I wanted to be sure we DID NOT LOSE for our first anniversary. If I lost my house, I wanted to make sure I could at least thumb through a scrapbook and watch a video to remember happier days when that anniversary rolls around in 2 weeks!

You should also know that tornadoes unglue me faster than ANYTHING. I am really, hyperventilatingly, irrationally afraid of them. It was a side of me Ryan had never seen {and I hadn't either for about 15 years!} and I'm not sure he knew what to do!!

When it began to get bad, and the TV started saying Greentown {where my parents live} was under fire, I crawled in, nerves and all.

Ryan went in search of Braeya, and for a while, he didn't find her and I was screaming {yes, screaming} for him to forget her and get to safety. I love my baby girl, but if I have to choose who is surviving this thing between my husband and my cat, I want my husband!!!! Plus, Braeya is far from a lap cat and would NEVER consent to being confined in a closet.

Or would she?

He finally found her, brought her in with us, and there she stayed. Ryan stayed beside the door, monitoring the radar on his phone {yes, our computers were in the closet with us} and I was trying to document, but it was hard to see in there. You know, SINCE IT'S A CLOSET.

I had a total freak out. I mean I was shaking and screaming and begging God not to let us die and hyperventilating, and the whole time, I was on the phone with my sister - the one who has been through this before. She kept telling me to breathe, that it would be okay, and if anything happened, she would get to me as soon as she could and help me just like I helped her. That was strangely comforting. She prayed for and with me, while I screamed in her ear and Ryan kept saying "CALM DOWN!!" {He's always rational. Like ALWAYS.}

Here I am on the phone.

Ryan kept an eye on the sky....

And Braeya tried to find a spot. She doesn't even particularly like sharing a king size bed with us. As you can imagine, sharing a closet was beyond and beneath her.

{That's me in the fetal position there.}

Ryan finally got up and went to look around for a while, to see if we had damage and if the sky looked any better. Braeya DID NOT LEAVE. That scared me even more. She never uttered one peep through this whole thing. And that is NOT like her.

Ryan came back and said he thought we needed to stay in there a bit longer, so we did. He tried to cheer me up with his handsome smile:

And little Braeya was so precious - she put her little paws on his foot and sat quietly:

And he scratched her chin. I wonder if it would have helped if he would have scratched my chin?

In the end, we were safe, and the worst damage we've found on our property is that our recycling bin blew around a bit, decorating our backyard. We took a tour of town when we emerged, and while we found damage, it was NOTHING like it was over in Kokomo, where Ryan works. His workplace was on the opposite end of town from the worst of it, but there were a lot of businesses destroyed. Prayers appreciated for those folks as they clean up and start over.

It's okay with me if we don't have a Sunday this eventful for...the rest of time.

Thankfulness, Day 18: Since I'm feeling sentimental today...thank someone who isn't your family...but who made you family. You know who I mean. The person that feels closer to you than some of those who are related by blood. The person who sees you at your very worst and claims you and loves you - and doesn't even have to.