I mean honestly...the list goes on and on and on...and oh yeah, best of all...Jeff moved home! Seriously! He moved back last weekend and is already back to work at Countrywide in Plano. Needless to say, we decided NOT to move to Utah and are staying put in our house for the unforeseeable future.)
SEE WHAT I MEAN!? I have sooo much to catch up on that I just couldn't post out of order. You would all be so confused as to what the heck was going on with the Barlows (to tell you the truth, some days I don't even know), that you would just read this blog in utter confusion.
But that was my mind set yesterday.
As of today, I'm playing with a whole new set of rules.
So with that said....here goes...
Actually, you know what? Let me just start with a short definition and a couple photos. That, in itself, will speak volumes...
Tornado: {tor-na-do} n. A violent windstorm.
This airstrip is located just 200 yards from my house, and runs alongside our neighborhood. The same force that did the destruction to that airplane shed, did this to my house:
Around 4:00 AM this morning, Jeff and I were abruptly awoken to the biggest crash we've ever heard. I jumped out of bed and ran into the family room to see my precious silk curtains sopping wet and literally blowing in the wind. Apparently, one of our huge windows had been completely shattered, allowing huge wind gusts and tons of rain water to come flooding in. My wood floor was covered in glass and water.
I was in total shock. And yet totally confused (thanks to my Unisom I had taken only 4 hours previously). When I went to bed not too many hours earlier, the night was calm and peaceful. But when I looked outside to find that my fence was now mostly in individual boards, lying on my porch...I literally felt nauseous, as I finally realized that we had a serious storm raging outside. 
Sorry the pictures aren't very clear. It was, after all, 4:30 in the morning. But if you look closely, you can see entire portions of our fence, which had become unhinged and flung up onto our porch.Now I have to say that I'm usually pretty calm under stressful and chaotic situations...but this morning, I had absolutely no idea how to act or what to do. My immediate reaction was to see if the boys were ok. So I ran upstairs as fast as I could...luckily to find that they were both still fast asleep, completely unaware that we were in the middle of the biggest storm of our lives. We all sleep with small fans in our rooms, which are so good about covering up any outside noise...hence the reason Jeff and I didn't hear the sirens going off down the street, nor the crazy rain, wind or hail that started this whole storm...probably a good 30 minutes before our window even broke. For once...darn those fans.
After I knew the boys were ok, I felt that it would be safer to keep them in their rooms so they weren't downstairs walking around all the glass and water. My second thought was...oh my gosh, I'm trying to sell my house! What if my shutters and wood floors are completely ruined?! We DO NOT need this right now! So Jeff and I quickly began mopping up as much water as we could off the floors and the shutters. It was difficult as there was so much glass. Not only had my window shattered, but the wind had also blown over a huge glass vase I had on my fireplace mantle, and a large pot that was sitting right under the window that broke. Furthermore, I could see glass shards glittering in the light, all over my shag rug and couch. It was a mess.
Anyway, not too long after, the winds finally began to calm down and the rain soon stopped. It was still pitch dark outside, so we couldn't really assess the total damage to our house...or our neighborhood. But later this morning, with helicopters constantly flying right above our house, we ventured outside and saw the damage, first-hand:
A good look at the total damage.
Our poor roof...missing siding and tons of shingles.
Fences were hit the worst around here. Especially the really nice ones (i.e. those with electric gates, steel poles, etc.) Luckily for us, we have a totally cheap fence that we've been wanting to replace ever since we moved in. Now I guess we'll be able to! 
Our back yard, post clean-up; two-thirds of our fence is totally gone.
Notice the house right behind Garrett; it is literally missing its chimney now. This house was finished probably two months ago and the owners are already having to rebuild their roof.
Some of our neighbor's fences:
When we first ventured out this morning, this electric gate was completely unhinged from it's steel tracks and was blocking the entire alley way. 
For those people that had anything in their backyard, including trampolines, play-yards, grills, or even dog dishes, it was entertaining (after the horror) to say the least, to see the end result of how (and where) it all landed:
This trampoline belongs NOT to the home owner who's yard that it finally rested on, but actually belongs to the house across the street. So not only did it jump the fence, but it also jump the street, too! 
Our next-door neighbor's dog-dish...they live to the right of our house, which is the one with the red for-sale sign out front. This dish started in their back yard and yet, this is where we found it. It must have blown literally 100 yards down the road.
A few months ago, our realtor told us that our backyard would look much larger if we removed the HUGE trampoline that we had back there for the boys. They very rarely used it (isn't that usually the case?), so we sold it to Jeff's brother (who lives 3 doors down the street) for $125. Sorry to say (for them, at least) that this is the current status of their purchase:
The steel poles had literally shredded away from each other, and not even at the seams!
It's amazing that these enormous flying objects didn't do more damage to the houses or cars ALL around them. They just flew through the air like garbage bags! Over fences and across streets.
The road signs and flag poles simply bent into 90 degree angles; and the poor trees were snapped in half as if they were toothpicks:
This is one of my favorite pictures. Even the bunny came out to see what had become of his world:
At the entrance to our neighborhood is this huge metal "sculpture" (not sure what else to call it). It's shaped in our neighborhood logo which looks like a water fountain. When we drove out this morning we saw that it had been bent and torn apart.
In the picture below, just to the left of the entrance, you can see nothing but green land. That is the where the news picture was taken that I first posted above: Kitty Hawk Airport. It's a small, private airstrip that our neighbor owns for his private planes.
Our storm was light years away from the likes of Katrina or Rita, and yet there was still, I'm sure, hundreds of thousands of dollars of destruction and so much debris and garbage to clean up. It's amazing what Mother Nature can do!
In the end, even after a terrifying night, I still have so much to be grateful for. For one, my little family is safe and unharmed. We still have our beautiful home, amazingly, in-tact. After 6 weeks of being in Utah, Jeff was home in time to give me comfort and help during a very scary time. That is something I know Heavenly Father was mindful of and he truly watched over all of us.
Thanks for reading! We're off to survey some more damage to the neighborhood. If we find some great photo-ops, I'll add them tomorrow. As for tonight, wish us safety and good dreams that don't include the Wicked Witch of the West!
