What a Night!

Right after I finished typing the last post, I heard a disturbing weather report. There was severe weather in the area and a possible tornado up near Denton. It also showed a line of severe weather stretching from the Red River to just south of Ellis county. So I talked it over with Jason and we agreed that I should go down to Twilight camp to see what was going on.

I was able to park right close to the camping area and quickly showed my id to the people at the check in station. They were keeping an eye on the weather but didn't seem too worried. I found Jack at the archery station. He made a bull's eye! He was so excited, and then equally excited when he saw I was there to see it. Right before the last group was supposed to go, they finally called everyone to the pavilion. It had been rumbling once or twice and I was getting nervous. As soon as they called it, I grabbed his bucket and we headed to the car at a fast pace. There was some really wicked lightening on the way, which helped to speed him up. It was extremely dark on the way home, and Jack masked his worry by asking a million and one questions about lightning, tornado sirens, etc.

Not long after we got home the wind came. It was vicious! Just as Jack and Caroline got to the window to look out of it, the electricity went out. Jason and I went to the area of the house where the lights were, but kept hearing the kids bumping into things. We told them several times to sit down, but they were legitimately freaked out. Finally, after somewhat telling Jack loudly to sit down he did but then started to cry. I think he was freaking himself out. Just as we found the lights, the sirens went off and again the kids started to cry. I ushered them into the bathroom and we sat with the candle and I patiently answered their questions (even though they asked the same ones over and over and over again). Shortly after that Jason brought in the dogs and I knew it was serious. He wouldn't have brought in the dogs if he didn't think it was necessary. Max and Lilly climbed into the bathtub with the kids and covered up. Maggie and I sat on the floor.

After about 20 minutes we all came out because the coast was clear and we came out. The kids finally sat down to dinner, but Jack was too worried to eat. At about 9:00 p.m. we decided to check out Jason's parents house to see if we could stay there. Their power was out as well. We could see onto the golf course that's across from their house and it didn't look good. There were limbs everywhere! We had a couple of houses in our neighborhood that lost limbs. Jason forgot his wallet at home and so we drove back to get it. We decided to go to McDonald's to get an ice cream sundae, and I was surprised at what we saw. All the way down one of the major streets there was no power -- which meant no street lights. Most everybody followed the four way stop rule so it wasn't too bad. There was a section of another major road blocked by a tree that was knocked over.

The kids and I landed at my mom's house for the night (Jason stayed with his sister, and made it safely to Fort Worth in this deluge). After getting over the excitement of the whole evening we all went to bed. My mom and her husband were really nice to let us come over and stay. We left during a lull in the storm and worked our way home. We had to take a couple of detours mainly because of flooded roads and downed trees and power lines.

Now we're ready for round 2. Or is it 3?