Today's Drama

So we had a bit of severe weather today.  Not the first time for me, but it was certainly the first time I have felt fear from INSIDE my own home in said severe weather.  I guess that's why they call this general area, "Tornado Alley."  We took two glances at how hard the wind was blowing outside once it arrived and grabbed our babies and headed for the downstairs bathroom.  No sooner than we got there, the power went out.  Never fear - we had the magical light of the iPad and GalaxyTab to light our way around the toilet and step stools. :)  Noah was cool with it all because of a certain power outage/stormy weather episode he recalled from Caillou.

As soon as the winds died down we piled in the car to see what all happened in the neighborhood.  Basically, a LOT of trees ...

and then a LOT more...

And a bunch of blown fences and gates and trampolines and trash cans and such...

so I couldn't get too upset about our own gate busting.   We are a little bummed about the damage to the front of our house in two places though.   Word of the day:  Fascia.  (as in fascia board, as in "dang, we're gonna have to call a contractor after all.")

Note to self:  Start looking for a house with a brick exterior so this sort of thing does not happen to us again. (and really, I only say that half-heartedly because the brick homes we saw had shutters blown off as well)

On the upswing of today's weather fallout, there was, of course, lots of running water in the street for Anna to put in a little more rain boot time.  Josh and Noah also tried out their Lego boats but headed back inside quickly because it was cold. And I almost got out of cooking, but the power came back on by the time I wrangled Anna out of her boots and got back inside.

One happy note about the storms and power outage is that my new toy, the baby iPad, kept us in internet operation with its 3G superpowers.  Love.  With these superpowers we were able to google some roofing companies and schedule a couple to come by tomorrow all quick-like before the rest of town called, too.

Funny note:  When the power came back on, Noah ran from room to room turning on lights and shouting with excitement (and surprise), "Daddy, the pwayroom wite is on!"  and then "The wivving room wite is on, too!" and so on and so forth.

Also, Josh is happy that I finally fear severe weather and will take the warnings seriously from now on.