Hey Weather, can you listen up a minute?  Would you be so kind as to make up your dang mind already?  Are you so indecisive that you insist we must experience Fall, Winter, and Spring all at the same time this year, or have you just decided to toy with us?

In all seriousness I have definitely loved the warm days this Winter, but I would be just as happy with the cold if you would just make up your mind already.  All this flip flopping is driving me crazy, annoying my sinuses, and causing horrid headaches that I would rather not deal with right now.

The constant rainy days I could live without.  I would really enjoy it if my husband could actually work at his new job, but rainy days don’t keep the bills paid.  Can we get a break for at least a week or two?  I’d really love to keep my power on.

No, I didn’t particularly enjoy the thunderstorms yesterday either.  I usually appreciate the fact that you allow my thunderstorm phobia one season each year to rest. I don’t think “thunderstorms” and “January” should exist together in any circumstance.  Alas, I took my dearly departed great grandmother’s words into consideration as soon as I heard that first rumble around noon, and I began making preparations for snow to arrive.  A few of my friends told me I was crazy, but I believe Granny Wilson’s wives tale to be true.

Winter thunderstorms will be followed by snow in the next seven days.

Oh, you just had to do it didn’t you?  Imagine my lack of surprise when I checked the weather forecast this morning and saw the possibility of snow showers tonight.  No, we aren’t expecting any accumulation, but snow is snow.  When I asked for a break in the rain I was actually asking for a break in all precipitation, but I imagine you’re laughing right now at my lack of clarity on that point.  The mountains are expecting some accumulation, and that means yet again Ben will more than likely be home tomorrow driving me crazy with his complaints of being stuck at home restless and bored.  Thanks Weather.  I owe ya one.

You don’t know how thankful I am that the weather cooled off a bit today. We’re still in the upper 80s, but that’s much better than the upper 90s with what has felt like 100% humidity we started the week with. I’ve been so afraid to take Ellie outside for more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time because it’s so hot. The pool and sprinkler have definitely been a staple!

We went outside for a few minutes this morning, and it felt great out there with a nice cool breeze blowing. We walked down to see the horses, and we spent a few minutes feeding them carrots before we came back inside for nap time. Hopefully she’ll take a nice long nap, and we can go back outside and play in the pool this afternoon before the storms move in tonight.

While she naps I’m going to get some stuff done around here. I got caught up on all my work yesterday, but I got a couple computers to fix in this morning. I’m going get those fixed, do some research on a problem my Dad is having with his router that I can’t seem to fix (after spending hours on the phone with tech support & their fixes not working either), and hopefully Ellie will sleep long enough to allow me to make some phone calls, too.

I need to call Verizon today…again. I’ve been calling them every few days for a couple weeks now, and my problem hasn’t been fixed. I pay them way too much to be having a major issue with my phone. I’ve been having an issue with us not being able to make calls between phones on the same plan. I can make and receive calls to anyone else, but we have trouble calling each other. It’s only the first two phones on our plan that have been active for years, too. The other three phones on my plan are my in-law’s phones, and we have no problems calling them, but if I try to call Ben or he tries to call me we have to repeat the call 3 or 4 times before it will even ring once! I don’t know what’s up with it, but Verizon needs to fix it! I wish it were as simple as buying a cell booster antenna, but I don’t think signal has anything to do with it. We can both have full bars and not be able to make calls to each other.

I called Charter yesterday to see if we could lower our bill. I call every 2 or 3 months because that’s when they normally release new promotions. Honestly I’d drop the cable TV all together if I could, but it doesn’t benefit us financially. I’ve had plenty of people ask me why we still have cable tv while we’re struggling financially, but the answer is simple. I have to have internet to work and make a majority of the income that’s keeping us going right now. It’s more expensive to have just the cable internet than it is to have cable and tv. Without a tv package we wouldn’t qualify for a lot of the promotions I’m able to get, and the promotions allow us to have both services for less than or equal to what we’d be paying for just the internet. We don’t have any other options except for dial-up, and I don’t have the time to sit around waiting forever to things to load. I have limited time to work as it is, so keeping the cable is the best option for us. Yeah it takes remembering when a promo ends and making sure we call to find a new promo before it does, but it’s well worth it in my opinion. Yesterday I was able to drop $40 off our bill without changing much at all. I only dropped one thing, and it was a $5 package for channels we don’t really watch anymore. I could have gotten an even lower price if I had agreed to lock into a 2 year plan, but I refuse to do that right now. Another thing I will be doing is purchasing my own modem. Our promo is about to run out for the free modem lease. Currently that is a $5 credit each month, but when our promo runs out the monthly leasing fee is going up to $7/month. I can buy a us modem that will support speeds much higher than I currently have (and be useful for more than a few months) for $29.99 thus saving us money in the long run. That’s something else I need to take care of today!

Anywho I don’t hear babbling coming from the baby monitor anymore, so it’s safe to say Ellie has finally fallen asleep. I need to get my butt in gear and get to work before she decides to cut her nap short!

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)

Last night was definitely a wild night.  My anxiety level was beyond overload thanks to my massive storm phobia.  I had been following all the stories of devastation across the South as the storms headed out way, so I was good and freaked out before they even hit us.

Thankfully the storms started to break down when they hit the mountains, and we were saved from the brunt of it.  A little after 12:30am the tornado warnings started going off.  I loaded up the little one and took her to my Grandparent’s house next door since they have a basement.  When we walked outside I had an eerie feeling run over me.  Everything seemed a bit too calm, and even though it was dark the sky still had a weird color to it.  The lights from the church a half mile away were reflecting off the clouds and showing weird green and yellows.  I just felt like a tornado was near.  Hubby didn’t think it was bad enough to camp out in the basement though, so he stayed home.  Thankfully the storms skirted off to the north of us leaving us with a lot of wind and lightning (where a tornado was reported 5 miles from our house), and we were able to return home around 2am.

I feel for all the families caught in the devastation created by these storms before they reached us.  I have spent a lot of time praying for the families that have lost loved ones and those that have no home to return to after this mess.  I’m also very thankful our family in Alabama made it through unscathed. 

Update 4/30/11:  Even though our family members are ok we have learned many of the other families in their small community of Mount Hope, Alabama were not so lucky.  Many many farms were destroyed, entire families are in pretty bad shape in the hospital, and others have lost loved ones.  There is massive destruction in the area, and they will be without utilities for at least 45 days.  Gas, food, and supplies are scarce to say the least, and the one operating gas station is using generators to offer gas, but it is rationed.  Many of the businesses in this small town have been destroyed, and most others are not operational without power.  This means these families will have no income for at least 45 days on top of dealing with losing their homes and even family members.

The area has been blocked off by National Guard, and only residents with ID cards that were handed out are allowed in.  Red Cross and FEMA has passed this town by because their help is required in the larger cities of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.  Please keep these families in your prayers, and if you have the means to donate anything at all please consider these small towns that aren’t receiving help from the outside!  There are many small towns like this in Alabama that suffered, but there just isn’t enough help to get to them all!  I am in the process of setting up a donation fund to supply needed items to Mount Hope. 

I will update with information as soon as I have that available.  If you are able to help in anyway please consider donating funds to supply these families!  My husband and mother-in-law will be purchasing as many items as possible and transporting them to Mount Hope in the coming weeks.  Because we have family there they can gain access to the blocked off areas to deliver much needed donations!

Anyone who knows me personally knows most of my storm phobia revolves around tornadoes.  I believe my phobia stems from my Mom’s phobia of the same thing.  Anytime a storm rolled through while my Dad was at work, no matter the size of it, she would load us up and take us to my Grandparent’s house.  My Dad worked swing shifts, so stormy nights were spent at my Grandparent’s house as well.  Over the years my phobia increased, and it became impossible for me to stay home alone during a thunderstorm even when the conditions aren’t right for a tornado.  At that first clap of thunder I panic, and my anxiety takes over.

As a child I remember sitting in the hallway of our mobile home crying while my Mom sang to me to try to calm me down and my Dad stood in the front door watching for a tornado in case we needed to get our quickly.  Whenever I hear a tornado warning my anxiety level hits about 20, and that memory pops into my head.  My Grandparent’s house has always been my safe haven, and I believe it’s because that’s where we went when were children…although then they lived in the house I live in now.  Mentally I connect them with safety, not the house they lived in, so even today their house is where it’s safe.  Of course today their house is safer.  They have a basement.  We have a small dirt cellar dug out beneath the house, and it’s almost impossible to get to.

I know it’s a phobia, and it’s one I hope to eventually overcome.  I hate knowing that my own phobia could impact my daughter.  I don’t want her to grow up fearing something just because I do.  I’ve read many articles about children developing phobias not only because a parent suffers from it, but on a worse level.  I really don’t want that happening, and I want to take steps to avoid it which includes overcoming my own fears.

After absolutely wearing the little one out last night before bed I was hoping she’d be tired enough to let me sleep in an extra hour this morning.  Instead we were up bright and early at 5am.  Ben took a couple of his sleeping pills last night, so I didn’t bother him. I let him sleep while I fed the little one and made breakfast. I know he’s out cold when the smell of bacon doesn’t awaken him!

It was also a bit of a shock to the system to wake up to such a cold morning after having such nice weather the last few days.  We haven’t burned the wood stove in days, so Ben hasn’t brought any wood up from the barn.  When we woke up to a cold morning I had to improvise.  I couldn’t leave the little one to go get wood to start a fire, so I grabbed my electric heater out of the bathroom, stuck it up high out of reach, and heated up the playroom.  Our rooms in this house are small enough that I had the playroom up to 70 in about 20 minutes.  As soon as Ben woke up he trekked down to the barn for wood, and now the fire is blazing keeping us nice and toasty.

Thank goodness the warm weather is supposed to return tomorrow, but I don’t think this is the last of the cold stuff either.  My Grandma says this is the weather that tricks the flowers into blooming right before we get a big frost.  Then they’ll all die off, and we won’t have a yard full of pretty flowers for Easter.