Tornado on April the 13th

Friday the 13th of April a tornado touched down in Norman, OK

I was visiting a family for work, with the weather channel on in the background.  The rain was coming down pretty good, and behind me I heard the weather guy say "if you're not in your tornado shelter, you need to get there" then the lights started to flicker and the tornado sirens sounded. I say to the family all nonchalant like, "well, time to head to the bathroom," while my inner child was scared out of her pants.  I gathered up the family and their creepy black cat and headed to their bathroom, which had a window.  I should have had them go to the hallway.  The wind and rain got fierce, the animal crate from the front yard whipped into the back yard, a tree fell into the back yard and brought the house power line down about 2 feet from the window.  All the while the family members were in the tub, on the edges of the tub, and on the toilet.  I sat in the corner by the door on a case of toilet paper.  When the sirens had been off for about 5 minutes I told the family we were all best friends now, and bid them adieu.  When I got out to the car I noticed the passenger side mirror was torn up, but no other vehicle damage.  On that block I saw tons of branches and downed trees, some roofing in the road, and a bent over stop sign. The drive home was horrible, the rain was up to the sidewalk in some areas, and there were power lines on the road in other areas, so I has to follow traffic and it literally took half an hour to go 5 miles. 

Anthony was at home in bed as he was not feeling well after chemo the previous Wednesday. The tornado sirens woke him up, and he stumble around for a bit as the power was off.  He grabbed Winston and Hemingway and headed to the bathroom to wait out the storm.  He primarily got rain and some wind, no damage. 

The red line below is the approximate path the tornado took.  

Benjamin was at his apartment, far off the map to the middle right.

 This is what I saw after leaving my visit, heading home directly after the tornado.

The water was super high, all the way up to the sidewalk.

(I was driving and could not get a clear shot, but this is a section of roof)

The next day Anthony & I went back to the same area and took these photos.  

Here are some media photos after the tornado.  This first one is the same area I took photos of the downed power lines.  

 This is the Tornado Intercept Vehicle, it drives into the tornado to record video and collect data.  I want to ride in it SO bad!

There was a second storm coming later in the evening, but it ended up missing us.  The next day Anthony & I sorted through our 72 hour kit to make sure we had everything we need.  The hydrogen peroxide expired in 1987, and the socks would not cover half my foot.  We have added clothes that fit, new batteries for flashlights, a weather radio, and cat food.  A little treasure I found in my kit; a note that was written in elementary school from my mother stating she loved me, and if I was not with them they were on their way to get me, that she knew I was scared and it seemed like a long time, but they were on their way.  The letter included a photo of our family.  I put the letter and photo back in my kit.  I'm never too old to know my mother is looking for me.

I've mentioned food storage and 72 hour kits to a few people, and everyone looks at me like I am crazy.  I honest to goodness did not know this preparedness stuff was primarily an LDS thing.  Believe you me, I've been spreading the word.   This is what the water and flashlight sections of the store looked like the day after the storm when we were replenishing our 72 hour kits.

So, that was our first tornado.  We're better prepared for the next ones now.  

Sweet, sweet memories!

I love having a camera readily available on my phone because I am able to capture so many memories with my sweet family! There are LOTS of pictures and videos and I'll explain each as I go along.


My Loves!





I caught M'Ree laughing for one of the first times ever!!!





Myles loves to dress himself, but this day he got in a jam with his sweater. It made us laugh and smile and he eventually got it right too.





Brothers! I love that they will have pictures with each other as they grow up together.





Myles LOVES basketball! For Christmas he got a hoop that hooks over the top of a door so he can practice whenever he wants and all his practice has definitely paid off! My Dad and stepmom took us to Chuck E. Cheese's last weekend and I was so amazed by how well he was doing at the little basketball booth! I would have gotten a longer video of him making more shots, but my camera was dying so I couldn't :(.





Up in the mouse cage at Chuck E. Cheese's





My sleepy little men!





Sweet Myles





He is getting so big so fast!





Myles and I made homemade fruit snack gummies!





Stirring the gummy mixture





Excited to try his gummies!





Trying a gummy!





Easter morning! I think my favorite thing about this picture is how happy Myles was thinking he was the most spoiled kid in the world, but we got EVERY one of their Easter goodies you see in the picture for about $15! D.I. and dollar items is where it's at! The little couch looking thing has a zipper on the bottom and it has a little Myles sized sleeping bag inside! Those things brand new are about $20, but D.I. sold it for $3! A bit of scrubbing and a run through the washing machine and it was as good as new :D. He hasn't slept a night without his sleeping bag since either.





Oh how I love this precious little face and his adorable ears!!!





Little stowaway! Myles attached himself to Liz's and Isaac's bag when they were leaving after they'd visited one weekend.





I couldn't resist a picture of sweet, little M'Ree in his little fisherman hat!





He walked in the house after we had been at the park one day and just crashed! I'm glad it's getting to be warm all the time so this will be happening more often during the day!





Our little dare devil! Making us nervous looking like he's going to climb on the bars.





He's says he can do it so we're trusting him.





Well, he can do It! I don't know if those bars are meant to be a slide, but they are now!





M'Ree kept it a lot more chill at the park





No pictures please, but I still love you, see, I can sign it!





Myles asks me to sing to him every night before he goes to bed, but while I sing he likes to stroke my hair and hold my face in his little hand. It's one of my favorite times of the day and will no doubt be one of my favorite memories of all time. This picture was one Frank got one night when Myles and I had fallen asleep after I had sung to him and yes, I am totally in his little toddler bed with him :)





M'Ree doing what M'Ree does best!





Myles has loved watching Sleeping Beauty lately because "Myles a prince! I kill the dragon!!! He gets all dressed up for the occasion too.





I captured a HUGE smile from sweet M'Ree!





My Liz, Isaac and his little sister, Becky, came to our house so we could celebrate Liz's birthday with her. As always, they are a blast to have around! Like me, Liz is a HUGE volleyball fan so we all went to a BYU men's volleyball game. They are ranked #3 in the nation so they were very fun to watch especially since they won!. Isaac is Venezuelan so it was customary to have a piñata as part of the birthday celebration, but I'm thinking it might have been more for Myles than Liz. We had to improvise a bit since the loop the rope traditionally goes through broke off haha.





Some sweet pictures from our Nevada trip.


Great Grandma Mills and M'Ree





Grandpa Astle and M'Ree





Great Grandpa Mills. Cute as ever!





I am titling this next segment the Joys of Parenthood. I have stories with pictures and just stories, but you'll get a good laugh from both so enjoy!


Myles cheeks flare up with an eczema rash occasionally and during these times we have been advised to give him Benadryl to help calm it. The first night we did this it was already really late at night and Myles was what we call "rummy". Add a dose of Benadryl to an already rummy 2 year old and you get Myles staggering around the living room and Frank says, "Myles you need to go to sleep. You're staggering around like you're drunk!" Myles reply? "Ya, I drunk!" My reply? "Oh, great Frank. What do we tell the bishop when he says that in nursery on Sunday?!"


That moment when you are in a restaurant and your child start SCREAMING like they are dying so you look up to find they have tried to shimmy out the bottom of the booster chair and gotten their head and arm stuck on their way out.





Myles is old enough now to know most of what we are talking about so when we are talking about the possibility of going to the park or making cookies or something of that nature, Frank and I speak to each other in double dutch to throw Myles off so we don't get stuck with him houding us about the park all day because he heard us say the word park, but it's raining outside so there's nothing we can do about it. We were having one of these conversations when Myles walked up to us and goes, "Ibi da bu da do da be bubble!" hahaha it was adorable and I've tried to get it on camera, but he's too shy to perform his double dutch for me!


Myles also had a trip to the Dr. recently because he had a few little warts pop up on he wrist. At his 2 1/2 year check up the Dr. said it would be best to freeze them since he was scratching at them making them bleed and more likely to spread. I was unaware of what exactly that procedure would entail and just thought it would be a cold feeling from the liquid nitrogen and that was it, but, no. The Dr. starting prepping for it and when he brought in a needle I was bit baffled. Come to find out the freezing is cold, but the stinging and burning sensations come through much more that the cold does so they inject a local anesthesia into each wart they are treating. I had only prepped Myles for a cold feeling so while the Dr. was still getting ready I showed him the needle and told him the cold would hurt really bad so the Dr. was going to poke him on his owies and it would hurt but not as bad if he held still and then it wouldn't hurt at all while he did the cold part. As I was relaying this speech I knew it was going to be pointless so I prepared for the screaming and kicking, but much to my surprise Myles laid on the table, gave the Dr. his wrist, said. "Be fast, K?" then grabbed my hand with his free hand, turned his face toward the wall, squeezed his eyes shut and just said ow and had a few silent tears as the Dr. injected the local anesthetic into five different places. I was already stunned by how well Myles was handling everything and then the Dr. saw a tiny wart forming that he said was too small to do the local on so he just starts freezing it! Myles starting going ow, ow, ow, mommy that hurts, it burns! Then he told the Dr. to stop it and knocked his hand away hahaha I told the Dr. to let me explain to him first and Myles says to the Dr., "Ya, got to esplain first!" hahaha oh how I love that boy! So I told him the Dr. had to finish and it would be fast so he let him with some coaxing, but he still didn't fight or cry and when he was done he was just excited for the bandaids he got and they pulled out all the stops and let him choose whatever bandaids he wanted, let him take a huge handful for later, and they let him choose extra stickers because he did so well and his Dr. said, "He is the bravest 2 year old I've ever seen!". :D I was prepared to get emotional from the screaming and kicking like I always do when one of my kids is in pain from shots or the like, but I was not prepared for his act of bravery. I ended up crying anyway, but just because I was so proud of him so I told him that because he was so good and so brave I'd take him to McDonald's for lunch and wouldn't you know he comes to me today and says, "Look, another owie, the Dr. needs to fix it so I get french fries cause I'm brave." :D Frank's reply to that was, "Who is this kid? What are we raising?!" hahaha. Myles didn't end up having another wart though, thank goodness. He is such a little trooper! This is a picture of some of the open sores that came a few days after they froze his warts.





We made pizza the other day for dinner and right when we sat down to eat M'Ree started crying so I went to see what was up with him, came back and found a perfectly good piece of pizza sitting on the floor next to Myles chair so I picked it up and asked Myles why his pizza was on the floor. He told me he was feeding the ants. Sure enough, right that moment, I got a tickling feeling on my arm. I looked down to find an ant on my arm and several on the piece of pizza! He had apparently noticed the little critters when I hadn't, but we've had ant problems before so luckily I have ant bait on hand and they were gone within a few days.





Many of you probably have a memory similar to this one of mine where you look up from nursing your infant and see your son or daughter is "nursing" a teddy bear or baby doll! Classic!


Liz and Isaac took us to Arctic Circle for lunch after we'd helped them move one Saturday and Myles decided to pick up Isaac's 32oz soda and get a drink. Poor Myles knew it was slipping and even said, "Help Isaac!", but it was too late. What made this moment so memorable, though, was Isaac looking up when Myles asked for help to see Myles practically toss the soda to him, the lid popping of mid air and Isaac catching a wave of soda full in the face! Myles felt so bad, but when I got a picture of it he was pretty proud because, "I got uncle Isaac!!!" hahaha





This moment was a real joy for me and made me feel accomplished in instilling some great values in Myles. Myles grabbed the Ensign while we were visiting my mom and stepdad a few months back and started "reading" it. I asked what he was reading just like he does to me when I am reading and he gave me the same answer I give him when he asks me what I am reading: "I'm reading the "Esine", because it's the best "magzine" in the house."





I can still almost not believe this next memory even though Myles has always been such a great eater and will try anything, but now I mean ANYTHING! Myles came around the corner from the kitchen at my mom and stepdads and says, "Mmmmm, I like it this juice!" I turned around curious what juice he'd found because his mouth certainly had proof he had been drinking juice, but I could not believe my eyes when I saw what kind of juice he had! You might be able to make it out in the picture, but incase you can't, he was drinking beet juice straight out of the can! I figured if he liked it, great, because it was definitely not going to hurt him so who was I to stop him from drinking something so healthy?





That's all for now!