Well, last Friday was the one year anniversary of the storms that caused the tornado that hit our house. Thinking back to what we were going through this time last year, we were still in shock.  Trying to put our lives back together from the pieces that we could find scattered around the house and yard.  Seeing how far we have come in just a year really makes me appreciate just how much we were blessed in the days and weeks following the storms.  Between our church family, friends from across the country, and all the business and churches in the area that brought things like water and food to people who needed it, we are in a much different place than we could have been had things gone differently. I think that even if I could change what happened that day, I'm not sure that I would. We received so many blessings after the storms, and I don't think I would give those up, just to avoid going through the storms.  

Well it's been a year today - the last few days have been sort of odd - thinking about how, this time last year we were tripping merrily along, not realizing our lives were about to be shattered.  Fortunately the weather has been VERY nice the last few weeks, so the nerves have been mostly calm. 

The one thing that is interesting is that we are still finding things that have glass and debris in them...  and...about three weeks ago, Lon backed the van into another vehicle, parked in our driveway, and shattered our back glass - while we were on our way to the church for a campout - so we got glass in all of our stuff that we were taking on that trip, so MORE glass.  But, honestly, a YEAR later, and we are still finding little pieces of glass in things?  I have a suspicion it will go on for quite some time yet to come.  We even find debris between the pages of a book we have not opened since the storm!!  When I got out the Easter stuff a few weeks ago it was FULL of glass and debris.  Apparently we had just put it away, not realizing how much debris was in there.  I went to get it out and discovered that it had apparently been sitting out (since the storm hit just a few days after Easter last year) during the storm, and mixed in with the Easter grass and other things was alot of glass and other junk.  I pulled out the stuff I cared about and tossed the rest.  So, while my Christmas stuff was all safe in the basement, I had to get almost all new Easter stuff.  Fortunately I was not as attached to my Easter stuff, so it was actually kind of fun, shopping for new things.  : )  (and also, fortunately, I have only one or two boxes of Easter stuff, as opposed to the 18-20 boxes of Christmas stuff!) 

Maybe, since we have gone through a whole calendar year now, it will slow down.  Though, there are at least 2 boxes that I have purposefully not gone through yet.  I need to tackle those one of these days!  They will be emotional though, so I need to do them on a day that I have strength to do that. (the boxes of things I had saved to scrap-book some day) (they got at least a little wet, so I'm sure there will be some 'lost' items in there) Also - I was cleaning out the garage last weekend, and found some boxes of 'stuff' that had been tossed in there, and never gone through - just odds and ends that would get picked up while we were over at the old house various times.  One had the letters from Sarah's bedroom wall, that she had wanted to save, but then we couldn't find them.  : )  I guess my point is, the recovery continues.  But, really, for the most part, we are in a good place now.  God has taken care of us, and we are moving on.  But there is still some 'cleaning up' to do, even a year later, and I'm not sure but what that aspect (at least emotionally) won't continue to be the case for quite some time to come.  Maybe the glass is there to remind me of that. 

Well my mom is making me blog again so here is my life from the last few weeks.  We just got off of spring break and back into a routine.  I like most of my school, grammar being my least favorite.  My mom is making us do a kind of geography fair and I'm not too happy about that.  I will be getting my license soon and am very happy about that, though my mom is probably going to make me run all the errands that she does not want to.  I like to hang out with my friends and the weekly pathfinder meetings are a lot of fun.  I baby sit two little boys two days a week and that is fun also.  I read a lot and one of the books that I am currently reading is the fourth book in the Dahveed series.  All in all my life is pretty normal, mayby the next time my mom makes my blog I will have more to  talk about.

The same path...

I'm sure many of you have heard that the tornadoes that came through on Friday, March 2, followed much the same path as the April, 2011 storm did - it did hit our old neighborhood - but in a MUCH more minor way - probably an EF3, and not a direct hit on that particular neighborhood.  At that location it went a tiny bit south of last year's path, but people who were hit last time (on a street just south of ours) are 'digging out' again - it sort of overlapped on them. Poor souls. One manufactured home was picked up and moved 30-40 feet. Several people who had 'just moved back in' are back out into other housing, awaiting more repairs now. One fellow on our street who is re-building, but had more minor damage than most, (he is the southern-most house to be torn down - those south of him were 'just repaired') -- anyway, he had his new garage, that is still very much in construction phase, torn apart, but the house seemed mostly fine. And no one was hurt.  No one was there!  They have not moved back in yet!!

Our new place is about three miles south of the 'path' for this storm, it went a bit further north of the old path at this particular location - we are about 8 miles southwest now, of where we used to live.

If you heard about it hitting a prison  as the crow flies the prison is just about in the middle, between the two houses - last year it tracked just a few hundred feet south of the prison (there is footage of it going by, on youtube, shot from the prison), and it just clipped Mayahna's school, they are about half a mile apart, on the same road, with nothing but crops between them. Last year, it apparently just knocked down some awning, etc. at the school. But, of course, she was not IN school last year. This year, it went a tiny bit further NORTH at that particular spot also, and actually hit the prison, but apparently things are still secure there.  You can see the prison guard towers and fencing from Mayahna's school parking lot  - I remember looking up there, when I picked her up, and thinking about how last time people shot footage from there - I didn't hear the report that the prison had actually been hit till well AFTER I had picked her up, fortunately. Scary stuff.

We were in our shelter for about 30-40 minutes Friday morning, at about 10:00. Usually stuff goes over much faster than that, typically we are in there for no more than 15-20 minutes, but we were just ready to come out and they tacked another warning, right on to the end of the first one. It's a LOT more cramped in there, than it was in the basement at the old house. But we were happy to have it, and happy to come out!!

The other thing that was odd was the progression of the warnings. Usually the first notice is "Severe Thunderstorm Warning" - that means, there will be storms, and you might need to move in stuff that might fly around, (lawn chairs and garbage cans, etc), and then STRAY inSIDE if you hear thunder. If there is going to be HIGH wind, I usually have the girls stay out of their bedroom, as it is at the back of the house and we have alot of tall trees in the back yard. Then comes "Tornado Watch" - that means this storm has the potential to develop into something more dangerous and we usually have the kids put on shoes, have jackets ready, put the small-animal pets' cages into the shelter, and the musical instruments into their cases and into the closet under the stairs. And I don't typically leave the house, the kids do NOT like to be home alone when we are on 'watch' (understandably!) Then comes "Tornado Warning" - usually, that means you are in the path of what appears to be an actual tornado, and at that point, we go into the shelter. This one went directly from 'Thunderstorm warning', straight to "Tornado WARNING" so that was a tad un-nerving.

There were supposed to be a series of storms that day (again, eerily familiar), but we only ended up on 'warning' the one time, thankfully.  So only one trip into the storm shelter.

The power was out for about 8 hours, but we have a generator, so we were able to power the necessary things (like the incubator with our new flock of chickens inside of it!)(and the modem, so we could track the weather and stay in touch)(and the fridge) it was nice that Lon was home to deal with that. He had been supposed to leave on a backpack trip early Friday morning, but it got cancelled, Thankfully.

Anyway, nerves were on edge, and no one slept real well Friday night, because when we went to bed there was still the potential for more, but, it's all past now, and nothing on the horizon for at least 8-10 days, which is about the furthest they ever predict stuff, so -- whew.

Thanks for checking on us! Please pray for those who were hit - we sure felt the prayers of those who prayed for us last year, it might seem like the 'least you can do' but really - it's the "BEST you can do"!!  It makes a difference, a BIG one!!!

So my mom is making me blog to so mine will probably be as random as Annie's.   I just finished the third Dahveed book by Terri Fivash, for those of you who don't know who she is, she is the author of some of my favorite books. 
I have a job two days  a week, I babysit for a friend who has to work, it's a lot of fun.  
I miss my old room it was nice to have a place that I could be alone. 
I wish that I could  go swimming more, maybe I can when I get my drivers license in April. 
My little brother is showing me pictures he took of some flowers out in the front yard.  
I had to leave in the middle of writing this, my dad, Annie, and I just got back from a driving lesson.  We practiced parallel parking.  My mom is in the process of making dinner, we are having frog-leg patties, they are one of my favorite meals.  My music lessons are going well and my teacher is happy with my progress.   I have to go now, my mom just called us for supper.