Philadelphia Tornado

This is a tornado that went through my hometown of Philadelphia, MS.  If you look at the very, very beginning, the building to the left behind the trees is where my dad worked for many, many years.  The road that turns to the left is the way home.   

Thankfully, my mother, who had been in town, made the decision to go home instead of stopping for a bite to eat.  She was approximately 10 to 15 minutes ahead of the tornado, on that exact road.  She made it home without incident.  Also thankfully, my sister's house, which is only a few miles from there, sustained no damage. 

I'm amazed by weather and what mother nature can do, but this video gives me the creeps.  I guess because I know exactly where it is, and my friends, it's a little too close for comfort. 

Our prayers to those who have lost loved ones in this outbreak of tornadoes. 

Deep Freeze in the Deep South

This Time Of Year

Eighty degree days....perfect!  (For me anyway.)  The mornings and evenings have a little chill in the air but during the day it warms up quite nicely. 

This time of year is great......football games, trips to the pumpkin patch, homecoming parades, and it's all done without having to bundle up in coats, gloves, and hats. 

However, this time of year always brings a point of disagreement between my husband and me.  In the car or in the house, he still thinks it is AC-on kind of weather.  I think it is AC-off kind of weather.  So the battle goes on and on every day.  But since I'm here during the days and he's not, guess who gets to control the AC?  But as soon as he walks in the door, he turns it down and I start reaching for one of the dozen blankets the kids and I keep handy around the living room. 

My question to him is always this - why does your comfort supercede mine?  There's never a good answer to this question except him mumbling something about the fact that I'm always cold which, by the way, is not always true. 

I'd like to say that disagreeing on the temperature of our house is the most serious thing we have to disagree about, but I'd be oh-so-wrong.  There are many things my hubby and I disagree on, some serious issues, some not-so-serious issues, but when I'm cold, I tend to be more disagreeable.  So honey, it's in your best interest to keep me comfy and warm. 

Lost in Yazoo

A couple of weekends ago, I talked my family into hopping in the truck and taking a small road trip to Yazoo City, Mississippi. Some of you may remember this town as being the one ravaged by a tornado a few months ago. I really wanted to go volunteer, especially since Samaritan's Purse was in town heading up a relief effort, but things kept getting in my way (shame on me) and I never did. But my curiosity got to me, and I wanted to at least see the damage for my own eyes that I had seen on TV.  

It took less than 2 hours to arrive and what we saw took our breath away.  One minute, we're driving along the highway and everything looks normal.  Then over the top of one hill you begin seeing it.  Trees snapped off, businesses destroyed, and homes decorated with blue tarps on their roofs.  We turned down a road to our right and saw the restaurant where the media had been stationed and did all their reports from.  It had been repaired enough to have a sign out front saying "Grand Re-Opening."  I read in the paper just last week it has in fact now reopened. 

Apparently this road was the worst hit area.  There was still debris everywhere and the homes were barely inhabitable.  An eerie silence filled our truck.  There's something about coming face to face with the fact that we are so small and God is so big.  

We turned around, not sure where this road led, and came back to the main highway.  Down the highway we saw the Wendy's that had sustained damage and then Brad took another right turn and that is where our story ends begins. 

We realized almost immediately there was no damage to be seen on this road, but figured we would run back into the aforementioned road if we just kept taking rights, you know, if we make a square circle.  We were wrong. 

After going miles and miles and miles and going deeper and deeper into the woods, we discussed turning around.  Brad wanted to, I didn't.  I was sure we were almost to civilization.  Wrong again.  Miles and miles and more miles.  We tried to decide if we had gone so far as to be out of Yazoo County.  But there was no way to tell.  Then I remembered hearing after the tornado the little fact that Yazoo is the biggest county in the state.  Oh, great!

I was almost irritated....I mean, we had seen the damage for a total of umm, maybe 4 minutes, and now we were headed who-knows-where on this barely-paved road. 

Before I go any farther, let me remind you I grew up where there were dirt roads .  I normally love riding around on the back country roads, and we often do just that when I return home.  Just get in the car and ride and listen to Momma's stories about what it looked like when she was a little girl.  The difference is there I know where we are, and in Yazoo County, a place I had never been in my life, none of us had a clue.  Or a map. 

So we just kept riding.  Pop-Tart gave up and went to sleep.  I guess it was just too much excitement for her.  Gogurt starting sharing about a book he had read based in Yazoo City.  It was by Willie Morris and it told about his days growing up in Yazoo City in the 1940s.  Gee, I wish we could find the city again and then maybe we could find some of the things mentioned in the book. 

Somewhere between hour 6 and hour 8 on this trip (okay, that's an exaggeration, we weren't gone that long) we started laughing.  Brad kept his cool - which was a slight miracle in itself - and started making light of our situation.  If we ran out of gas we would just squat on a piece of land and call it home.  Gogurt started laughing at all of Brad's antics, and instead of being irritated I decided to sit back and enjoy the ride. 

We were seeing beautiful country, and we were also spending some good, quality time together as a family (although PopTart missed all of it).  She did wake up before we wound our way back to a main road.  Her first question was "Where are we?"  Good question.  "I think we're still in Missississippi.  I think."

During this trip we came to many forks in the road and had to decide which way to go.  We finally, and I mean FINALLY, saw a "To 55" interstate sign.  Sweet heaven!  We're gonna make it out alive!

It still felt like another hour before we found the actual interstate but we felt better knowing we were at least headed in the right direction.  We got on the interstate and drove.  Then we saw the Exit, "Yazoo City."  Brad looked at me, I looked at him.  "You wanna try it again?" he asked.  I thought about it for a second.  We had seen the damage but for a very short time.  We had not even made it into the acutal city I don't think.  I certainly did not feel like we had accomplished what we went there to do.  "Sure," I said.  He exited.  Less than a mile down this road we saw the sign.  "Yazoo City 27 miles." 

We collectively gasped, turned around, got back on the interstate and headed back toward Jackson. 

The day wasn't a total loss however.  We stopped at a mall we had never been to and found Five Guys.  That was one of the best hamburgers I've ever had.  Ironically (I think he had this whole thing planned out) Brad found an Apple store and we all went in and played with iphones and ipads. 

Brad reminded me that if he had had an iphone we never would have gotten lost in Yazoo.  Yeah, but what fun would that have been?

I Love My Job(s)

I really do!

But,

Last week we just knew in our hearts we would get a day (or two!) off from school because of the predicted ice storm that was coming. 

Nope. 

Today I was told the clinic I type for would be closed due to the water crisis in Jackson. 

Nope. 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go.......

I pray each of you had a great Easter! I know my family and I did. Had a little time to visit with family and friends and enjoy alot of good food. What could be better than that?

We are having a beautiful day here and my kids have been outside most of the afternoon. Poptart started coughing last night and informed me she had a "sinus ejection." Too funny!

Found out this morning that Brad's hometown had a tornado. Click here to see pictures of the damage.

Have a great day........

We woke up to something rarely seen in the deep south. S-N-O-W! Yeah! We love snow!

If you are reading this from the deep south or other snow-deprived area, you can completely understand our excitement.

If you are reading this from the north or another snow-proned area, I'm sure you are laughing at us right now! Go ahead--we don't mind!