INSANE weather

The summer weather in Nebraska can be very unpredictable.  We can be in either a tornado watch or tornado warning any given day.  Afternoon rain storms are common, and totally obnoxious.

 While at baseball games three weeks ago we had a storm come on so fast that some people couldn't make it to their cars.  It is a scary thing to experience!  One minute you're watching the game, while keeping an eye on the sky.  The next minute the temperature drops drastically and the wind goes crazy.  At that point, I grabbed Ella and ran to the van with Morley and Brayden in tow.  I put them in with strict instructions to STAY IN THE CAR.  By that time the hail started and it was BIG and it HURT.  I raced back to the baseball field to get Drew, who was crying because he couldn't find me.  Once he saw me, we ran to the van together while getting pelted by the quarter size hail.  Drew had welts on his arms from the contact of the hail.  It seems like the storm lasted forever.  We sat in the back of the van, hoping that the windshield wouldn't shatter by the force and size of the hail stones.  After a minute or two, all of the boys yelled to me that there was a mom and a little boy out on the grass in the hail.  My heart sunk.  I looked out and there she was.  In a t-shirt bent over her little boy to protect him from the hail.  I opened the door and yelled to her to come to my car.  She couldn't hear me.  I honked the horn, she could hear that.  She scooped up her little guy and ran to the car.  They were both crying and soaked to the bone.  She had welts all over her arms and I can only imagine what her back looked like.  I couldn't hold back the tears and I understood the love she had for her little boy and desire to keep him safe.

After is was all done, the ground was completely white.  The sky was blue and a full double rainbow could be seen.  Of course, that was the one day I didn't have my camera.  Needless to say, the games were cancelled and we drove home, amazed at all the damage we saw around town.  At home, it was a sad sight to see.  All of my plants were shredded.  My hanging baskets were swinging by one chain, instead of three and some plants were even uprooted.  The paint on our house looks like it was power washed and paint chips were everywhere.  The hail also shredded our big tree in the front yard and the wind sprayed our house and the neighbors house with pieces of leaves. 

photo courtesy of Jenni's blog

my poor flowers...

Then about 2 weeks ago we had bad storms every day for five days.  There were two days these guys were in town tracking tornado's in the area.  They are from the Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers. 

Then the next day we received 5.5 inches of rain Friday night.  Our entire street was flooded and we also had water in our basement.  We have never had it actually flowing before.  Matt and I were panicked and quickly emptied out the room with the help of all the boys.  Thankfully most everything was in plastic tubs so nothing was ruined.  After talking with our neighbors who have lived in their house for 35 years, they said they have never seen weather and rain like this before.  Crazy! 

Last week we received hardly any rain, thank goodness.  I was getting really soggy!  We are now enjoying 90+ degrees and occasional storms.  I know we are just in the beginning of our summer storms...yeah.