Days 5, 6, and 7

Day 5: Tuesday, June 17

Day 5 started with a phone call at about 12:30am. It was my sister, Shannon, who lives in Madison. Normally, I would be terrified to see my sister calling me in the middle of the night, but I had been battling a terrible head cold that made me really groggy. "Hello?" I asked. "A tornado hit our house. Half of the house is gone. Get in your basement." What?! It took me a little while to figure out what she was saying, and I was still in shock. She also told me she couldn't get a hold of my mom, who lives a couple miles from her. I ran downstairs where Jayson was working and told him and we rushed to get the air mattress set up and all the kids in the basement. They thought it was great that they were going to sleep in the basement.

Once we got down there, we turned on the TV and I kept trying my mom's phone. I used Facebook to chat with my friend, Angie, who lives near my family. I told her what was happening and her husband, Phil, went to my mom's house to check on her. The power was out, so he had a hard time finding her house, but he found it and she was very confused about who he was and why he was there, but I was able to talk to her and am so grateful to Phil for doing that.

We spent a very uncomfortable night in the basement. Our power went out in the middle of the storm and we were worried about our sump pump. We planned to go to Madison in the morning to help out with the cleanup, but didn't want to leave our house until we had power. By late afternoon, we still had no power and more storms were expected. We decided we had to buy a generator. We couldn't risk having the basement flood. We got it set up and ran it to empty the water from the sump.

This is my sister's house on the news:

Day 6: Wednesday, June 18

Unfortunately, this day also started in the middle of the night, with our generator running out of propane in the middle of the night. I had Lydia and Charlie in bed with me because they were scared, and I didn't want to leave them. Jayson ran to get more propane in the middle of the storm and eventually got the generator and sump pump going again. Jayson had another uncomfortable night, this time on the couch. The power went on at 5:30am.

Charlie and Lydia in my bed:

We had Audrey's birthday party! We invited ten kids and three came. Poor summer birthday kid. We saw the Lego move and then went out for pizza. It was pretty low-key, but she had a great time. After the party, Lydia, Audrey, and I went to Madison to help my sister out. Jayson and Charlie stayed home because Charlie had her first tee-ball practice of the year and Jayson is the coach. We saw the damage, helped move some things, and were home at 10:00 at night.

Tornado damage. They're standing on what used to be the garage roof.

Day 7: Thursday, June 19

Today was back to normal. We went to the gym in the morning, then swim lessons. Charlie is pretty awesome to watch. She just loves swimming. Lydia and Audrey are also doing great and we're hoping Lydia can try out for the swim team soon. After lunch, the girls played while Jayson got some work done and I went to a team meeting for my Cross Country team. After dinner, Charlie came with me to the mall to get clothes for our family pictures this weekend and Jayson took the other two to Lydia's softball practice. Charlie did a great job shopping with me. She listened so well and didn't complain. I told her, "You are doing such a good job!" and she said, "Not really. Remember when I ran around in that store?" I told her that wasn't so bad. And really, it was only once. In one store, a guy was buying a pink shirt and she asked loudly, "Why would a boy want a pink shirt?! Boys don't like pretty things." Overall, it was a good trip.