Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful....And it was just our anniversary!

Gosh, I have lots to update on....

Let's start with the night of my last post.  Due to flooding, the last 2 days of school were cancelled so  the kids got out for Summer break early.  It was actually sad for us because there was no time to say goodbye to teachers and friends, and all of the end of year parties were cancelled.  I am SO happy it's Summer Break, but sad for the anti-climatic ending!  We are safe where where we are located, but the schools are not as lucky :'( 

We trekked up to the school that evening (even though it was closed) to get our annual "jump pic" since they didn't get to do it on the REAL last day of school (since they didn't know it would be their last day) and then went to get them their end-of-year slurpees.  The flooding hadn't hit the school building *yet* just the parking lot and field.  Lucy's teacher said the school staff spent the day moving everything they could onto high shelves in their classrooms to prep for what might come- desks, chairs, everything they could stack they did.  When we left the school we drove past hundreds of people sandbagging houses and buildings and covering all doors and windows with Visqueen :(  We saw countless houses evacuating and people trying to get all their belongings into the back of trucks before the flood reached them.  It was so, SO sad.  The community banned together, as we always do, and actually had to turn away volunteers that night because they were at max capacity. I am so thankful for this sweet community of mine.

Anyway, the Arkansas River is what is flooding because we have had SO MUCH RAIN.  The reservoirs can't hold it anymore so we are seeing historic flooding.  They have to let it out of the dam at a rate that allows slow flooding because if they don't let it out, the dam could actually break and then there would be catastrophic floods.  It's just awful.  Running trails are completely submerged with sinkholes everywhere.  Houses are destroyed. The water is flowing FAST.  Someone fell into it the other day while trying to take a video and sadly they died.  They got swept away immediatley! We had helicopters, drones, police, firefighters etc. looking for the body but it was nowhere to be found.  The reservoirs started letting water out of the dam at 165,000csf (cubic square feet) but they had to raise it to 200,000csf after more rain, then 215,000, then 250,000 and they said with the rain we are supposed to get tonight it will reach 300,00csf.  That will be the highest rate they've ever released water in history and it will be the worst flood Bixby/Jenks has ever seen.  It hasn't flooded this bad since 1986.  This is just devastating! I live in Jenks, but we are part of the Jenks AND Bixby community (our kids go to school in Bixby) because we are right on the border of Bixby.  It's kinda like Eagle, ID and Meridian, ID- they're so close together that it's all one area- if that helps give you an idea of it all. 

In the midst of all this, Shawn and I celebrated our 9th anniversary!  It feels weird that we have only been married for 9 years.  It seems almost like I've been with him my whole life because we've been through so much together.  Our lives have shifted so much and it feels like he's been with me forever.  We hired a babysitter and with money from my sweet Mom and Nana we were able to go out to dinner first, and then axe throwing later!  You might think that's weird, but Shawn and I love trying new things and this was one of those things we really wanted to do!  It is SO much fun! I'm absolutely terrible at it, but we laughed and laughed the whole time!  That man of mine is a gem! 

I asked Lucy to take a picture of Shawn and I for our anniversary.  She did, then she disappeared for 15 minutes.  When she came back she had a full face of makeup on and said "now can me and YOU take pictures together Mommy? I made my lips red so we could match since I'm your anniversary baby." I know she wasn't born ON our anniversary, but it was her due date so we call her our Anniversary Baby :)

Ok.... Last weather update on here.  This is a doozy!  I'm copying and pasting what I wrote on Facebook Sunday morning so that I don't have to re-type it all.

"Storytime:🌪
This whole story takes place from 12:28-12:38am.
Last night I was just drifting off to sleep at 12:28 (you know when you’re in the middle of sleep and wake) when my phone blared the “severe weather alert” sound. Right then, my bed started lightly bouncing. I thought “oh great, we are in the middle of another earthquake- that’s what the weather alert is all about.” I picked my phone up and instead of an earthquake, I saw it said Tornado warning. I noticed Shawn wasn’t in bed with me so I went out to find him. It was probably 12:30 at this point. Shawn’s on our back porch, it’s pouring rain and thunder and lightening everywhere and an eerie feeling in the air. We look at the sky and it’s this greenish haze that you see when the weather is right for tornados. We start panicking because the wind suddenly starts whipping. People told me our city wasn’t in the path of tornados but this didn’t look good. We run through the house and out to our front porch to look and Oh. My. Gosh. In between the flashes of lightening that would light up the entire sky every 2-3 seconds we see this MASSIVE black mass coming out of the sky. Every flash made it look bigger and bigger and blacker and blacker. I’ve never seen anything like it. I was frozen. It took my mind a few times of seeing the mass to realize what I was actually seeing. I was seeing a TORNADO. It was incredible. It wasn’t like what you see in the movies when you see them form out in a field, and it wasn’t like I saw it ripping through the ‘hood. I saw it off in the distance just coming out of the sky. This was at 12:32. Shawn said “get the kids, go to the closet!” Our closet is a central room on our ground-level with no windows so that’s the safest spot. He grabs the girls, I grab the boy. They’re all disoriented from being woken up like this but we all go sit in my closet. Our phones are blaring alerts, the tornado sirens are so loud, the wind is howling, the lights are flickering, Lucy’s crying; it was not fun. We sit for a minute and I’m shushing the kids so I can hear what’s happening outside. Then I pick up my phone. It’s 12:38 at this point and I open my phone to see if there are any updates. Sure enough: the news says a tornado touched down in Jenks in 12:34am moving at 55mph (but with winds at 101mph). News everywhere saying “TAKE COVER. TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN JENKS. THIS IS A LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION.” It was over by the time I opened my phone.
We are ok. It hit 2 miles from my house and was only an F1 tornado; no damage to our house or yard at all. Half our city is without power and lots are without sections of their roofs. The most damage we had was that our grill got blown into the middle of our yard and our dart board got blown off. I’m literally shocked right now that I saw a tornado with my own eyes. Shawn said that the bed bouncing was because of the pressure building up inside our house and causing things to move and shake. At one point he tried to open the back door but it was getting sucked close. It was terrifying and amazing all at once! I’ve ALWAYS wanted to see a tornado in real life and I finally got to even if it was just the formation/growth of it. I am so thankful we are okay and our house is ok. It was an eventful night, to say the least!"

And, because I have nothing else to add to that (other than, as weird as this sounds it was one of the most incredible things I've EVER seen) I'll end on a happy note! I think we clocked in close to 20 hours poolside over the 3 day weekend and I don't think my kids fought even ONCE!!!!!!

Happy Summer! And, please continue to pray for my community because the floods seem never-ending! and.... P.S....this meme ;-)