Right now I am standing in Alabama in the middle of the devastation left by the massive F5 tornado that came through Mount Hope. There are no words to describe how horrible the scene is other than to say it looks like a war zone. My heart goes out to the families affected by this horrible natural disaster. I will post the photos I’ve taken with my cell phone and photos and videos when I have internet access. I’m sharing this from my phone. The scene here is far worse than I ever imagined, and my photos only show a smidgen of the damage.

Outside the Lynch farm we found a few signs. This one was thanking volunteers. Another said "Looters Will Be Shot". Looting has been a major problem.

Found on the Crosby farm, a tree ripped in half by the F5 tornado and a trailer upside down a few feet from it's foundation.

Another look at the upside down mobile home (tarped because it's been ripped apart), and the twisted up horse trailer.

Can you believe three people were inside this camper when the F5 tornado picked it up and threw it? I talked to one of the survivers, and he can't believe he's still alive.

Across from the Crosby farm another family owned 4 chicken houses. All were destroyed, and left behind was a massive pile of dead chickens and debri. This is about a week after cleanup began, and you can see there is still a lot left to do.

Everything in the tornado's path was leveled. Notice the old building foundation and trees broken of like tooth picks.

A pile of various power lines and wire found on the property during cleanup and more damage in the background.

This is the pile of belongings salvaged from the 4 trailers on the Crosby's property. There isn't much left, and most of it is not only dirty but damaged.

This is the family's new home. The coolers and boxes outside contain donations from Red Cross to keep them and the animals still on the property fed. The two older boys are living here, the younger children are spread out with other neighbors who could take them in, and most of the adults are still hospitalized with serious injuries.

When driving through the hard hit areas we found piles like this everywhere along the side of the roads. These piles are what had to be cut and removed from the roads so emergency crews could get into the area.

A leveled block building in the middle of town (taken through the truck window)

I’m so tired of this cold and nasty rainy weather.  It’s like we had a couple weeks of early Spring then when Spring officially arrived we reverted back to the cold and rainy Winter stuff.  We’ve got a full week of it ahead of us, too, and I’m already sick of rain.

The good news is tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and pretty.  It’s not going to be as warm as I would like, though.  I scheduled an outdoor photo session for Ellie’s Easter photos with Crystal Underwood Photography, but it’s only supposed to be 63 degrees.  I love Crystal’s photography work, especially her outdoor shots, so I really wanted to schedule Ellie’s Easter session with her at the South Carolina Botanical Garden.  We’re lucky to have this beautiful location 20 minutes from home.  Crystal is a long time family friend, and I’d love for you to give her a call if you’re in the area and looking for a great photographer. 

Ellie’s Easter dress she’s supposed to be wearing is sleeveless, so I’m going to go through all her lightweight Spring coats and see if any of them fit yet.  My Mom bought her a couple really pretty white lightweight button up sweaters, so hopefully one of them will look really good with her dress.  If my little girl is warm enough then all will be well, and the photos will be beautiful.

At least I know Ellie absolutely loves her dress.  It’s a 12 month, so I was afraid it might not fit her come Easter.  She’s in between 12-18month right now depending on the cut and brand, so I never know what’s going to fit.  I tried the dress on her this morning and decided to put her whole outfit together, socks, shoes, and her hat.  Normally Ellie hates hats, but I couldn’t get her to take the dress or the hat off.  She pitched a screaming hissy fit when I told her it was time to change, and we had to go through her closet until she found another little dress she would let me change her into.  Good Lord the child is only 17 months, and she’s already being a little diva over her clothes!  Some days I swear she’s 17 months going on 17 years!

Speaking of cameras I need to get on with my next task.  I promised my aunt I’d look up some prices online of olympus camera batteries because I’m almost certain I can find them cheaper online than in the local stores. She doesn’t even know how to turn a computer on, so I end up doing all her online research and shopping for her. Anywho I better get to it so I can give her an update when she gets home from work and possibly get a battery ordered for her.

Whew.  Today I faced one of the ultimate fat burners out there. It’s called all the freakin’ steps at Little John Coliseum.   I’ve always loved Little John, but I absolutely hate all those steps you have to walk up to get into the place.  Well one side of the building has a grassy area and a few steps while the other side is what feels like 1000 steps from the parking lot to the coliseum.  The “easy” side was roped off and reserved as handicapped parking (which I’m glad they did btw), so we had to hoof it with baby in tow (minus the stroller because there would be no where for it inside).

We were there for my little cousin’s graduation, and by the time we made it into the place we were all huffing and puffing so hard we had to sit down and rest for a good few minutes before anyone even said hello to each other.  The graduation was nice, though, and even though it was one of the largest graduating classes the school has had the graduation was the shortest one I’ve ever been to.  I took lots and lots of photos with my cell phone, but stupid me forgot my camera.  I did play around with the panoramic option on my cell phone, though, and I’m pretty happy at how it turned out.  The photos are only a little off in a couple places.  I do think it turned out pretty well for a cell phone.

This is the last graduation we’ll be attending for awhile.  Actually Ellie is the next one in line, so we’ll be there again in about 18 years. I admit I felt a little sad though because it reminded me that my 10 year reunion is in a couple weeks. Have I really been out of school that long?  

After graduation we swung by the hospital to see my sister and the baby, and then we headed to my cousin’s after graduation cookout.  We were out until almost 11pm after such a long day, so needless to say I’m completely beat now.  I will be taking my head to meet my pillow as soon as Ellie has wound down enough to go to sleep.

Ok so it IS totally sinus stuff.  I woke up this morning with my ear swollen, red, and pounding.  It felt like someone had hit me in the side of my face with a sledge hammer.  I think I have it under control now, though.  Before Ellie woke up I successfully popped some Tylenol, heated up a sock full of rice, and dropped some olive oil in my ear.

I laid in bed reading the news while I laid there with the sock on my ear.  I really haven’t had a lot of time to read the news this week, so I wanted to catch up on stuff, especially what’s going on with the gulf coast and the oil stuff right now.  I had just read about the Gulf Coast Jones Act a few days before all this stuff started happening.

Anywho, after a few minutes the pain was gone just in time for Ellie to wake up. A hour later the swelling had gone down, and the redness went away with it. I’m hoping things stay like this because I really don’t want to have to take a trip to Urgent Care this weekend. At least now I know I don’t need a dentist!

I have a photo I was going to share on Wordless Wednesday if I had time to participate this week, but with the way things are going around here I decided to go ahead and share it.  My mother-in-law took this photo last week when she was here playing with Elliana, and I thought it was too cute not to share.

She was studying my mother-in-law’s Canon camera like crazy. I guess she was thinking “Hey Mommy that thing makes noises and flashes like the one you have, but it’s bigger!” Then again I’m quite envious of my MIL’s camera every time I see it.  I’ll have to get a copy of the full size image from her, so I can print this one out.  I just ganked the one she uploaded to Facebook to share with you, so the image quality isn’t that great.

Anywho, there ya have it.  Elliana was showing off her cuteness.  Man I can’t believe she’s already 3 1/2 months old!