The Gang's All Here!

The Gang's All Here!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Tornadoes & Ladybugs

We had an interesting weekend. Spring has come early to the South, as it has to most parts of the country it seems. The weather forecasters had been predicting possible severe weather (which here means tornadoes and severe thunderstorms) for Friday. In my experience, "ususally" when they make a huge deal about a weather event nothing happens. Wrong-ola on Friday evening! Steve and I were catching up on some shows on the DVR (we may or may not have been watching Jersey Shore, I'll never tell!) when I heard our weather radio going off (best investment made when we moved to Georgia). I ran upstairs thinking we had a severe thunderstorm warning underway. When I looked at the screen on the radio it said Tornado Warning. Oh CRAP! Keep in mind it was after 9pm, so Stella was already in bed asleep and Simon was snoozing on his Boppy nest pillow on the couch. We turned on the news to have the weather forecasters freaking out. Okay, so maybe we should be paying attention. On a side note, some of the forecasters are really funny, in such ways as "Keep your shoes on people!" and "Remember: DUCK, it could save your life!". Anyway, it was absolutely still outside which was odd because normally with a tornado warning it's already storming. As we watched the news they were saying Marietta was going to take a direct hit...well, that's us! We were both glued to the TV. The announcers then started naming streets that were in the path. Suddenly, we were like, "oh, that's headed right for us". We ran around gathering flashlights and other essentials. Steve grabbed Stella out of bed and I chased Willie down into the basement (everything is a game to that dog!). Simon rode down to the basement on his pillow and never stirred. Poor Stella was very confused! By the way, it was still doing nothing outside. I walked over to peek out one of the basement windows and it had started to rain. All of the sudden the wind just started howling and the trees went sideways. I jumped back from the window. At the same time, the power flashed on and off about 5 times. And just that quickly it was done. After about 10 minutes, we ventured back upstairs and turned the news back on. The weathermen seemed certain that we had a tornado pass through and it turns out, we did. Luckily for us, the tornado touched down about a mile from our house, so we had minimal damage. However, that's WAY too close for comfort!! There are lots of trees and power lines down where the tornado did hit, so scary!

Other than that, our weekend was nice! Steve's parents came for a visit which was great and Stella was just ecstatic to have "Gamma and Gampa" here. Steve and I even managed to have date night on Saturday evening - we had a lovely dinner at the Chicken and the Egg. It was nice to be out without having to worry about the sugar packets being launched or beans being ground into every available surface. I was even able to enjoy a glass of wine without having to chug it for fear of impending meltdowns of our "sweet" children.

My glass or two of vino got me thinking that overall, I'm doing better than good, I'm great. Things could always be so much worse. Obviously I would prefer not to be juggling two small children while battling cancer, but we're making it work. In fact, my OB pointed out that having Simon probably saved my life. So, when presented with that little tidbit, I'm so very, very grateful for the way things have played out so far. No one would ever choose to go through this, but I'm so thankful for the blessings I have been given to deal with this mess.

The other day I was watching the news and there was a story about ladybugs and how they're becoming somewhat of a rare thing. Obviously, not at my house as they are EVERYWHERE! But you know what? Ladybugs are a sign of good luck. Stella was born 5 weeks early and thankfully just had to spend a few days in the NICU to gain back some weight. The nurses gave her a stuffed ladybug to keep her company when we couldn't be there. When I had Simon, he was over 5 weeks early too and had to spend some time in the NICU. On the third day he was to moved to a different room because his room had been invaded by ladybugs. The nurses were completely freaked out (the NICU is on the 7th floor of the hospital) but I thought it was really neat. He came home shortly after that. So, while most bugs are not welcome in my home, the ladybugs are free to come and go as they please. I'll take all the good luck I can get!

1 comment:

  1. What's better than a ladybug? A kitten in a ladybug costume!

    http://d21c.com/walpurgis9/bugs/pics/010.jpg

    Sending you much love and luck today.

    ReplyDelete