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I have so many random thoughts going on in my head today. Perhaps because I got about 3 hours of sleep last night? There is not enough coffee in the world today to bring me to 100%. There are always “currently” posts flying around blog world and I have never done one. We can’t say that anymore after today!

All I have to say after last nights storms is: So many polygons and warnings, so little nerves!!!

Watching : The weather. Like it’s my job. Literally. This is me iat my office yesterday around 3:00 pm when James Spann first went live. We are supposed to have another round today starting at 3:00pm. Oh goodie goodie. If the tornadoes don’t come for me, it might be my nerves that get the best of me!

Feeling: Annoyed. I finally painted my nails after weeks of them being bare. One day in and there are already THREE fingers chipped. Seriously? Why do I even bother!!!

I am side eyeing you mr pinky. Get your shit together!

Reading: If You Ask Me (And of Course You Wont) by Betty White. I just finished reading the Best of Me this past weekend. It was a great read, but I need a break from Nicholas Sparks for now….two tear jerkers in a row are enough! My mom gave me this book a few years ago and I have yet to get around to reading it. I figure it will be a light and easy read. Plus, there are a lot of pictures. Who doesn’t like pictures?

Eating: My meals lately have consisted of protein smoothies for breakfast, mostly salads and veggies for lunch and then a protein and side for dinner. This morning specifically consisted of two cups of coffee and counting.

Wanting/Loving: All of these beautiful spring prints and romantic lace options. Check out some things I have my eyes on!

Listening: I listened to my “high school/college” playlist on Spotify this morning while getting ready. In This Skin came on by Jessica Simpson. I just love this song.

 

Well hey there. It seems another weekend has come and gone way to quickly. This weekend was mostly chill for us. I got a lot of cleaning done around the house, the dogs got bathed, Mac got his hair did, and there was certainly some TV watching and Law and Order SVU marathoning going on. I also finished another book, The Best of Me. Way to pull at my heart strings once more, Nicholas Sparks!

The most notable event from this weekend though would hands down be the celebration of love that occurred on Saturday as Chris and Adam exchanged vowels. The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful. The bride was radiant. The decor was absolutely perfect. This has to have been the funnest wedding I have ever attended!

The exchanging of vowels.

The crowd gathered around Chris and Adam as they exchanged vowels.

Courtney and I waiting to get the party started!

Obligatory wedding selfies. Duh.

The Friday lunch club! We are a diversified group. We have Rashmin (The Indian), Chris (The Mexican), Courtney (The Texan) and me (The Yankee)

This is my attempt at trying to be artistic with my photographic skills. Cheers to the bride and groom. #fail (Lauren, I am sorry…but the hashtag was appropriate here!!!!)

Our dancing was off the change. No one can do it better than the white girls!

Some of the beautiful touches of the wedding. SO many little details and each of them perfect!!!

Things I learn this weekend:

Dancing really is a work out and builds up a good sweat.

I have 30 year old knees.

I have 30 year old feet.

I need not have buzz to act a fool on the dance floor. I can do it all on my own.

I like New Castle.

In other news, just as quick as the beautiful weather came, it went away. We are supposed to have some severe weather over the next few days. I basically will be a basket case, not sleep, and worry until I want to puke. If you read my post yesterday, then you know why. I saw that there were some tornadoes over Arkansas and the Midwest yesterday and it makes me sad for them….and sad for us as it is coming this way.Such is April in Alabama. Everyone stay safe, and have a great week!

If you have been reading my blog for over a year, then you probably already know this story. I can’t help but to share it again as I remember the tragic events that took place on April 27th, 2011.

If you lived under a rock, or don’t care about the South East half of the country, you may have missed one of the worst tornado outbreak in history. April 27, 2011 358 tornadoes broke out, taking with them 349 people and my heart.

I have mentioned in posts before about how I am a big scardy cat baby when I even hear the threat of bad weather. By bad weather, I am talking tornado, or sever thunderstorm that could be damaging wind weather. When the sky turns a funky color, my heart starts racing and I can’t focus on anything but weather updates. I have been like this all my life. Perhaps to prepare me for April 27, 2011.

The day started out on a dark note for me. I woke up knowing something was going to happen, I just didn’t know to whom and to what extent. I woke up, and did my usual routine. Chris and I both worked in downtown Birmingham at the time, across the street from each other. We commuted together every day, and this day was no different. As I sat at work, I was constantly checking the weather. You see, when we left in the morning, it was bright, warm and sunny. A disaster for unstable weather if you are expecting storms that day. There was talk about possibly shutting down early if things were to get bad, but we were playing it by ear. Cahaba Heights and other areas were hit very early that morning with the first round of storms that came through. Nothing too horrific, but some major damage. There was a lot of wind damage through the state actually. I remember my dad calling me to tell me he had some trees down at his house. Little did he know that these trees were the least of his problems.

Shit started to get real when we were watching the tornado coverage in Mississippi. Then it started tracking into Alabama. I remember sitting in our office watching the tornado come right through Tuscaloosa. This is only about 45 minutes away from us. It was unreal. Chris and I made the decision to get on home, and left work. I remember driving up I-59, and Chris was checking the weather on his phone. The weather channel was showing that it wasn’t even really going to rain much more. It didn’t seem serious now. We decided to go to Starbucks, and we sat outside on the patio. The wind started to pick up some, and Chris decided that maybe he wanted to pick up some cigars for himself to enjoy in our sun room at home.

We headed to go get those, but most of the tobacco stores were closed, so we decided to just head home. It started to get pretty nasty pretty quickly on our way back to our house. It started raining, and the sky started turning those funky colors before a nasty storm comes. I started to cook dinner, it was pork chops and roasted potatoes. The meal was about 15 minutes away from being done, and Chris and I were watching the weather on TV. It looked like a long tracking tornado was making it’s way right for us. We quickly made the decision to turn off the oven, pack up our dogs and head to his parents house where there is a basement.

At the time, our rental house was about 10 minutes from his parents house. We got in my car, and I sat in back with the dogs as Chris drove our way through the pouring down rain, very heavy rain and debris filled the streets to his parents. The debris at the time was from tree limbs and other such nature that was falling due to the winds.

We got to the house and got the dogs inside. We ran upstairs and they were telling everyone to take cover, that the storm was right over us. We all ran downstairs to the basement and took cover by the back wall near the dogs. Chris and his dad went upstairs for a minute, and they heard/saw rotation in the sky and came running back down.

Luckily for us, the storm happened to not make land fall and skip over our area, and land in St. Clair County.

As soon as the storm passed through, it started to calm down and Chris and I headed back to our house. I texted my dad, sister and mom and let them know that we were OK. I told my dad and my sister that it was coming for them.

My sister was at home by herself with 2 of my nephews. Her husband was at work, and her in-laws were across the street. Her mother-in-law called her to come on over, as she usually does in bad weather. For whatever reason, my sister felt she should stay at her house.

She took my nephews and some pillows and blankets and hunkered down in her hallway that led back to the bedrooms.

Minutes after Chris and I got home my mom called my cell phone, she was hysterical. She was crying and screaming and I couldn’t hardly understand her. Then I realized what she was saying. The tornado landed in Shoal Creek, my sister lost her house and is outside looking for her in laws. She called my mom screaming and crying after it went through, and they lost connection. My mom was unable to get a hold of her again and didn’t know what to do. She knew she couldn’t leave to come up there because there were hundreds of trees down blocking the roads.

I called my dad. He didn’t answer at first, then called me right back. He too lost his house. He, his wife, and a few other guys from the fire department were out helping people when they saw the storm coming and took shelter in a pantry that was built in under the stairs in his house. There was more of his house standing than my sisters, but it was a total loss. He told me that he was going to start cutting trees up and try to get to my sister. She needed help because she was trying to find her father in law and mother in law.

My dad never made it to my sister that night. They live about 2 miles from each other and there were just too many trees down, and too many people around his house that needed help. What was left of his house became a triage for the rest of the area. As he went to the area he could get to, he was pulling people out and sending them to his wife for her to help them in any way she could.

My sister eventually found her in-laws. They were thrown a good bit away from their house, landed next to each other in the yard. My sister’s father in law was not alive, and her mother in law was barely breathing and injured. My sister was also part of the fire department, and called for medical help. They landed a helicopter to take her mother in law to the hospital.

Unfortunately, her mother in law did not make it. She passed a few days later, never to come conscience. There was a joint funeral for them. The funeral home was in Pell City, and the burial was in Shoal Creek Valley at their church’s graveyard. I have never been to a funeral were there were so many people. Chris and I had to stand in the back because they ran out of seating. I never made it up to the front to view or see my sister or any of her family because the line was so long that they had to cut it off and start the service. When it was over, I ran to the back to hug my sister. I can’t imagine going through something like that. She had just turned 23 a month before all this happened.

The processional line to drive to the grave side service was just as long as the line in the funeral home. It was so long, and there were so many cars that the back half the line missed part of the grave side service. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen though. The National Guard and about 300 volunteers were meeting at a gas station on the corner of a road we had to cross to get to the grave side. All of the National Guard stood still, with their hats over their hearts…and all the volunteers lined up around the corner as well as our line of cars made its way through the rubble that was left of the area. I felt like it was a scene out of the movies or something. I cried, silently, the rest of the way to the grave side.

Net and Charlie were amazing people. They are missed greatly. They took my nephew Christopher in as their own. They were amazing parents and grandparents and we were lucky to know them for as long as we did.

In this video link below, around 2:52 in, they show my sister’s house. It was brick on the front, you can’t really tell. See the purple wall on the right side? That was my niece’s bedroom…there were other bedrooms there too but they are gone. A tree branch was stuck in the engine of my sisters Ford Expedition. Right through the motor, it was considered totaled as well.

It has been a long road of recovery for everyone in Alabama since April 27, 2011. The weatherman are careful when they use terms to warn us of bad weather. Every week since then, the weather and news crews are in a different city around here programming weather radios for people.

This is James Spann. He is the best weatherman on the entire planet. Everyone in Alabama knows that if this man is on TV, has his suspenders on and his sleeves rolled up wheeling out his Mac Book, that shit is about to get real! He had been warning us for days before April 27 that is was going to be bad, and he has been there for us ever since.

Say what you want about Alabama. We get a lot of trash talk from other states that think they are better. Let me tell you something about this state. I have NEVER in any of the years I spent in Georgia, Missouri or Pennsylvania, have I EVER seen everyone come together for strangers. The amount of people that poured through Shoal Creek Valley alone was amazing. The very next morning after the storms blew through here, everyone was out and about asking what they could do to help someone. Anyone. These people who came out to help reminded me of how good the world still is, despite all the bad things that happen from time to time. You can no have good without evil. You can not have happy without sad.

My sister and her family of 4, 6 every other weekend when they have my nieces…had to live in an RV on their land for 6 months. I don’t know how they did it. I am so thankful that their insurance company settled everything and did right by them. My dad and his wife did not move into their new home until June of this past year. Their insurance company was a nightmare to deal with.

Here are a few pictures of my sister’s house going up. Both my sister and my dad built on the same land and foundation that their original houses sat.

The back yard. The house you see in the upper left corner is still there today, looking the exact same way. The people who lived there did not have home owners insurance. They still own the land so nothing can be done about it.

It’s Friday! Whoop Whoop!!!!!!

1. Blates – One of the reasons that I love blogging is all the connections and blogging friends I make. I had a blate last night with Meighan.  We have been following each other, emailing, tweeting, etc for months and figured out that we work a block from each other downtown. Hello, why haven’t we met for drinks yet?!?! So that is exactly what we did! I had the best time. I love that were able to just talk and talk like we have known each other forever.

2. Favorite Song today that I have been backing my azzzzzz up to – Whatever You Like – TI – Try listening to this song and not be happy….you can’t!

So, you all know the story about the time my sister cracked her head opened and blamed it on me. She was obviously a dramatic child. Well, apparently she adored the attention so much of being a victim….that she one time faked a broken leg.

I share this picture with you because I do not have a picture of Tracy and her unneeded cast. What I do have is a picture of karma sitting in her lap. AKA Cooper. He is every bit Tracy and Mike’s child. He is the one that will give her gray hairs and drive her to drink. He is JUST like her and Mike combined when they were little. My mom always told her that she hopes one day she had a kid just like her so she would understand. Karma is a bitch, Tracy. Hehehehehehehe

The memories of this story are a little fuzzy, perhaps because they were all a lie! I am not sure exactly what event it was that occurred in which Tracy could have possibly broken her leg. However, one day she just decided she couldn’t walk anymore. Her leg hurt and she hammed it up until my parents decided to take her to the ER because that is what any normal parent would do when their child used to walk just fine, can no longer walk, and is complaining about pain.

After multiple xrays and doctors looking at her leg, no one could figure out exactly why my sister couldn’t walk. There didn’t appear to be a brake or fracture?! Nevertheless, they put her little leg in a cast and sent her home to “take it easy” to be on the safe side.

Days turned into weeks that turned into a month and my parents had to carry her ass EVERYWHERE!!! Tracy wanted out of bed? Someone came up and carried her downstairs. Tracy wanted to get some fresh air? Someone had to carry her outside. Tracy wants a water? Make Nadine get it. Tracy needs all the couch to lay out on, make Nadine sit on the floor. Tracy, Tracy, Tracy. Girlfriend can really milk things.

One day, the Casio brothers (that lived up the street) came by and invited me to play a game of baseball with them. Tracy had a crush on the youngest brother. When she got wind that I was going to go play with the boys, she realized that having a broken leg sucked. That she in fact did not like to be sitting on the couch when there are boys to flirt with. Miraculously, Tracy jumped her little ass off that couch and ran outside to meet us and play ball! Tracy can walk?!?!?!?! What a fucking miracle, right??!?!

This made everyone say hmmmmmmmmmm. Just a few minutes ago, Tracy couldn’t dare try to walk and now she is outside running after some boys?

Dear Mom and Dad,

This was your first red flag that Tracy was going to cause some trouble. Just sayin.’

Love,

Your Good Daughter

Just for fun……this is a picture of Cooper on the side lines at his big brother’s football game. You will notice he is not watching the actual game.

He was watching the cheerleaders do their routine. Right after I took this picture, he waved at them and said “Hey girls!”