Auntie Em! It’s a Twister!

May 22, 2013

by — Posted in Baby, Life at Home

This has certainly been an exciting weekend. I know it’s Wednesday already… but I haven’t even had time to catch my breath since then! Friday, we headed to Wichita because my baby sister is graduating high school… but before we can get to graduation stuff, we have to stop for a moment and adore my new nephew:

He’s a tiny one. He was born Thursday, before we got up there, even though his wasn’t due until Sunday, so it was perfect timing!

Here he is with his big brother, Adam and all 3 of us. It’s the first pic of all the grandkids!

Saturday we had fun partying…

My middle sister, Laticia… making faces:

Had to include that one because she specifically told me not to. Then, I tried to get Erica to make weird faces… but that didn’t work so well:

She says she doesn’t make weird faces. Whatevs.

And when my aunt & uncle got there, we spend some time outside, enjoying the lovely weather. We grilled some yummy veggies and just enjoyed being together.

Sunday, after church and lunch (with no nap for the little miss) we went to Wichita State’s Koch Arena for graduation. My littlest sister managed to accomplish something that both me and my middle sister strived for, but didn’t quite make it… salutatorian! Both Laticia and I came in 3rd in our class, but Erica made it! That also meant she had to give a speech, but she did such a great job. She spoke calmly, evenly and confidently, even though she had been freaking out… just a bit. This is her:

After the ceremony, we’re waiting for the crowd to clear out into the concourse so we can go take pictures like everyone else, when over the loudspeaker they say, “If you’re on the floor, you need to go into the tunnel. If you’re in the stands, you need to go to the concourse. We are under a tornado warning.”  Of course, this massive concrete building is probably one of the safest places to be (with the obvious exception of the dome), so we decide to maybe hang out. If we leave, we’d actually be driving straight into it. Then, the security guards come by telling everyone they either need to head out or get down to the tunnel. So… into the tunnel we go. We ended up in the WSU press room:

Still without a nap, Avie keeps up her cheerful self (mostly), waving and smiling at some old ladies. After a couple of hours, we get to go home, but fearful of the shape of our car. It was fine. Also, my brother, who left his wife and new baby at home with her parents, rushed home to assess the damage. Initial reports were that they lost the roof of their garage and his dog. Luckily, it was just some shingles and the dog was actually inside. The chicken coop, on the other hand… was gone.

Now comes the difficult decision. We had planned to leave that afternoon after graduation because we had friends dropping by “on their way” home in Colorado from a wedding in St. Louis. (Really, it was 6 hours out of their way, but we’re so grateful they chose to stop by!) However, there were supposed to be more storms throughout the evening in our driving path. After much debate and consideration, we thought there would be a break about 8pm or so and we could follow along the back side of the storm as it passed through Oklahoma. This happened to be the same storm that tore up Shawnee, OK.

We made it home safely and were anxious to see our friends. We hung out during the afternoon, chatting and catching up and thought we’d go out for dinner. Ansen checked the weather and we though “if we go to dinner a little early, we’ll be home by the time the storm hits.” Yeah, well, it was a nice thought. We had just finished eating, about ready to ask for a check, when the sky got really dark. I heard the corner of the building pop. I could almost sense the pressure. The front of the restaurant is a wall of windows and some glass doors. Just then front door flew open. One of the waitresses ran and locked it. And, of course, the lights go out. I turned to our table and said, “um, I think we ought to get away from these windows.” So we stand up and walk toward the back, kinda waiting to see what the staff are going to do. We mention that we should probably go to the back and they’re like, “oh, yeah, here, we can go back this way.” The staff are frantically trying to call the owner, but the power is out and cell service is down, but I think they finally got through. We spent some time in the office and then standing by the walk-in cooler, ready to jump in if we start hearing a freight train. After a bit, we determine that the worst is over and we can go home. They did give us a free dinner, so that was pretty cool. This happens to be the storm that tore up Moore, OK.

When we got home, our house was fine, but we were without power for several hours. The worst part was that I was craving some cookies, like fresh baked… but no oven. :( I found some girl scout cookies, and while we ate them, they weren’t what I had in mind. I decided that if the power was still out by 11 o’clock, I was going to figure out how to use our gas fire place to bake some. Ansen didn’t think it was such a good idea. Luckily, we did get power back and I was able to make some!

Later, Ansen found a video someone posted on Facebook of the funnel at the intersection nearest the restaurant we were in… so it really was more than some strong winds that sucked the door open and made the roof pop.

So that’s how we lived through two Tornado Warnings in two days. Mmm, I love the midwest!

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