March 31, 2023 - The one with the weather

Today is April 1, 2023. April’s Fool Day. But yesterday really fooled us!!

Yesterday, the weather around here made for a Very Interesting day. Dry conditions and high winds in Oklahoma and Kansas, plus a storm front barreling east across the middle of the the country. Multiple Wildfires and Tornadoes along the way. My family was in the thick it it!!

#1’s SO was out volunteering to fight wild fires along the OK/KS border.  Started mid-afternoon and lasted through sundown. 

#3 travelled from OK to TN narrowly avoiding a tornado in AR, only to have one hit right by his Memphis hotel and knocking out power all night. (Still out)

#2 was with my in our far north Edmond / Logan County home when 3 wildfires were near our home. Two were within 3 miles, so we decided to grab some things, the Doxie babies, and evacuate. Spent 4 hours away from home - drove south to OKC to meet up with #4 and hubs. 

#4 and the hubs had their own adventure as this all broke out about the time dad got off work, so he came home for a few minutes - packed up essentials, then went back to get baby boy at the end of his school day. Took 1:10 to drive the 4 miles to the school due to evacuee traffic, after school buses and traffic, and road closures/detours. Once he finally had child in hand, he headed south to OKC to meet up with us and the dogs. 

We sat in the parking lot playing with very nervous dogs for about and hour, the started messaging our neighbors for updates. So many road closures and detours, it took a village of back road experts to navigate us back home. #3, the dogs and I went first to confirm the route, while #4 and hubs stopped to grab us dinner. By 8pm we were home and fed, and started unloading our lives from the back of our cars.  But, we didn’t unpack it all, because wild fires like to respawn. 

And respawn they did along the OK/KS border. #1s SO was back out in it in the middle of the night and finally got back home around 3:30am. 

#3 woke up in Memphis to the sound of fire truck sites around 6am, which was good because they needed to load buses at 7am to play a game at 8am (moved to a different hotel - one out of the danger zone - later that same day). 

#2, #4, hubs and I safe at home. Taking it all in. 

April. Please done be a fool!

Hello Sunshine

Moore Tornadoes.  Moore rain.  More tornadoes. More rain.  This Great State I call home has had it’s share of weather drama over the past few weeks.  But we are #oklahomastrong.  We have finally had a couple of beautiful days with bright, abundant sunshine!  We were DUE!  The Weavers even got in on the bad weather blues  last week – in the middle of dance recital!  Thursday during dress rehearsal, all the moms and dancers took cover for 30 minutes or so before resuming the run through.  The first show was scheduled for Friday night at 7.  It was postponed until 7:30 as everyone that was there – dancers, staff, spectators, and vendors – was once again shuttled to “safe” locations within the building.  Some dancers and families never showed up in the first place since there was a threat of severe weather, and some left when we were sent to take cover.  So, the show was completely cancelled and rescheduled for Saturday.  In the meantime, we had a babysitter at our house with Mr. Finn.  She called while we were sheltered at the high school to tell us the power had gone out in ½ of our house.  Come to find out, we had lost a VERY large limb on a tree in the back yard, and it had taken out the power lines that run to our house as it fell.  The power company had to shut off all our power due to the fire risk, and we ended up in a hotel for the night – checked in at 11:15 pm!  LONG night….  Then, 2 recitals the next day (the second one was missing lots of dancers, and the dancers were tired, but I am glad we got to get both shows in!).  Here are my favorite images from that very crazy, more than enough, 24 hours:

Dress Rehearsal - before taking cover

Dress Rehearsal - after taking cover and back to work

Recital - Night one "taking cover." SO BORED!

Betsey and Britt - waiting out the storm..

4 hours later - Finn in the hotel room... "I may not be able to fix storm damage, but I stayed at the Holiday Inn last night!"

Since then, we have been trying to enjoy our summer.  T-ball games!  Several have been canceled and rescheduled due to rain, but we are just a couple of weeks from the end of the season!  The rain has been a constant companion, but it comes with cooler temperatures and overcast skys, so it is a nice change for an Oklahoma summer!  The kids are adjusting to days with Nana, and I have started my summer schedule of 4 – 10 hour work days with Wednesdays off.  This past Wednesday was my first.  We did chores around the house in the morning, ate lunch, then went bowling.  We ran a couple of errands, then came home to make Jello play doughcookies.  Over all, a pretty fun day.  But, FWIW, 4 kids who are all very high energy and 3 of them are high maintenance with forceful personalities will wear ANYONE out!  KUDOS to Nana the Wonder Sitter – I don’t know how she does it!

And in Finn news…  We were trying to sleep train him, but then we had to spend a night in a hotel, and he got this silly summer cold - which put us at his specialist on Monday.  (21 pounds!  YAY!) We’ve been derailed a bit on the sleep thing…  But as soon as he is feeling better we are back at it!  he is on breathing treatments and Dimetapp 3x a day right now.  Poor Peanut! Here is a slide show chronicling the first few nights and how it all went:

By Slide.ly - SlideShow Maker

Finn’s Child Development specialist came to the house for an evaluation yesterday.  She was SO HAPPY with his progress.  He has come a long way in a few short weeks, and he warmed up to her very quickly (which is rare).  He even shared toys, pillows, and used tissues with her! LOL!  At the beginning of the appointment, I told her Finn had 5 words: No, Yes, up, down & uh-oh - in that order, all in the last 7-10 days. These 5 words he uses often and appropriately. While she was there, Finn added cup and ball. Can you say, language explosion?!? She said he is now caught up to his actual age as far as language goes! Just a few short months ago he was MONTHS behind!  And of course, since he is running and climbing like crazy, he has caught up physically, too!  Nana the wonder sitter said he used hello and bye-bye, too!  YAY for talking Finn!

Here's hoping the good news and good weather continue!  We want to go SWIMMING, but it's been too cool!  June doesn't quite feel like June... YET!  Stay tuned!

Today is the day!

Just a few more hours! I am so excited to get going on this trip! So excited, I woke up 45 minutes before my alarm, and couldn’t go back to sleep! I don’t even have any trip details to take care of (besides packing the kids for their destinations, which is mostly done), and I can’t turn my mind off! I have some laundry to fold, and I need to get ready for work, but really, that’s about it! I am going to work a full day, and then we are off to Dallas for the night! Let the adventure begin!

In the meantime, we had a fun little adventure last night, too. Since Sunday evening, the Oklahoma news channels and weather men had been forecasting that Tuesday would be a severe tornado outbreak across the state. Monday, they reports got even more blown up, and a timeline we saw late Monday night indicated that the I-35 corridor (including our town) would be hit between 3 and 5 pm. So, we woke up Tuesday morning planning how to stay safe. My mom was picking the girls up from school, and my dad had been assigned to get Jake from daycare. At lunch, we put one of our cars in our garage, and carpooled back to campus for the afternoon. About 3, my boss told me to leave whenever I needed to do to gather kids and be safe – but at that point the storm wasn’t moving as fast as they first said, any everything was still west of us by a long way. I left my office about 4 and went to Britt’s. About 4:30, they closed campus and sent everyone home. So, we stopped by our house to put our dog in, gathered a few things, then went out to my parents’ house where our kids were. Felt there was safety in numbers, I guess.

The first hour was pretty uneventful. I had the most fun switching from news station to news station and comparing the panic level of the different weather men! They did not disappoint! But, as the rain started, and the skies got darker, and the sirens right outside my parents’ house went off, we decided it was time to duck and cover. In my parents’ neighborhood, there is a common area in the middle of the main circle. There is a building on the land that has a HUGE concrete storm cellar on one side. We, after putting my mom’s dogs in their cages, headed that way. We were some of the last neighbors to get there. There were at least 30 people and about 12 pets down there! And we still had room for more! Some folks came very prepared: flashlights, camp chairs, radios, blankets, snacks, video games… We just came with ourselves. We hoped not to stay long…

Luckily, the radios came in handy. We never heard an all clear from the sirens, but after about 30 minutes or so, the radio informed us that is was all east of where we were, so a few of the men ventured out the door at the top of the stairs. BLUE SKIES! So, we went back across the street to Nana’s house. Where the electricity (light-tricity according to my 4 year old @JakeWeaverSays) was out. We bared that for a bit, even lit all the candles we could find, decided we were hungry, and headed for town – with the rest of the population. We beat the crown to Mexico Joe’s by a few minutes, but it was still crazy busy! We did hear that there were some with significant damage in our town, but thankfully as a whole we fared very well here. Some areas of the state and region were not so fortunate.

When I last texted my mom about 9:30, they still did not have power. I am anxious to hear from them this morning to see when/if it ever came back on. That was a fun adventure, but I am hoping the next few days are full of much better surprises!