Monday, June 14, 2010

Tornado June 6, 2010


It's been the craziest week of my life around here.  Last Sunday at 3am we lost our home to a tornado.  I know.  Who does that happen to in real life??  And in Southwestern Ontario of all places???


Here's how it happened.  Geoff woke up just before 3am (and it doing so woke me up as well!) as the wind and rain had gotten quite strong and we had left the windows in the front of the house open.  We weren't concerned at all because strong winds are very common around here.  Geoff got up and went to close them and headed back to the bedroom.  I was lying in bed thinking about what a pain it was going to be tomorrow to clean up all the toys that had been left in the yard and that I was positive by now were at least several houses down.  HA!  Least of my worries.  Just as I'm thinking this...CRASH.  100+ foot tree from our neighbour's yard lands directly across our house.

I yell for Geoff as I instantly realized what happened.  He's not back in the bedroom yet but does not answer me.  I start screaming for him as I think the tree has landed on him.  Not a good place to go in your mind at 3am in the pitch black.  So Geoff finally answers me and we desperately try to find flashlights and cell phones.  Even though we knew exactly where they should be, it's a different story to actually find them when you can't see at all.

Geoff gets his flashlight and runs upstairs to get the kids.  He gets to the top of the stairs and starts yelling.  The tree had come right through the roof and what was our loft was now crushed.  At first glance, it seemed as if the tree had also come down on the kid's bedroom.  He slips in the rain water that has poured in and loses the flashlight and it does out.  He somehow manages to crawl underneath the tree and breaks down their bedroom door.

He grabs Jasper from his crib and has Sage follow behind him.  Geoff has to let go of Sage's hand for a second to crawl underneath the tree with Jasper in his arms and when he reaches back to grab her he has a few very long seconds of extreme panic when he thinks he can't find her.  In a flash of lightning he sees her standing directly underneath the hole in our house staring up at the sky.

They all make it downstairs safely and we do the quickest carseat buckle up for Jasper ever and run out of the house through the back door.  The wind has practically stopped by now but it is still raining quite hard.  We come around to the front of the house and even though our car was parked just a few feet away from the now fallen tree it is safe.  We pile in and call Geoff's mom to let her know we are on our way to their place.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Giveaway!



Go check out The Anderson Crew for a great Shey B camera strap giveaway.  I have been coveting one of these for sooooo long!