My First Tornado Warning!

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that in the land of the midwest, I would encounter storms and crazy weather....but while I may dramatically exclaim about the dangers, I don't ever really think through these things...:o)

So imagine my surprise that my first tornado warning came a week or so ago, while I was at the movies at a matinee of The Avengers.  Towards the end where the action really started picking up, we noticed a creaking sound coming from the ceiling...which soon became apparent that it was NOT part of the movie or surround sound.  Only minutes later, a employee came in, paused the movie and informed everyone that they could either stay in the back of the theatre or move into the hallway.  Since sitting higher up in stadium seating, closer to the high, creaking ceiling did not seem like the best plan, my friends and I moved out to the hallway to wait for the fifteen/twenty minutes.  As we filed back in, the same employee assured us that our movie was "close to being done, since it's....well, I'm not going to tell you how it ends." Thank you movie theater employee for holding back the spoiler alert that almost left your lips.  And then, one man sneezed and collectively the whole theater blessed him. I guess we felt bonded having survived a natural disaster and all....

It wasn't until we attempted to make it back across town, that we saw the damage inflicted by the storm. Trees and branches had been knocked down, street lights were out, and traffic was pretty bad. A few streets were blocked off by cop cars and we back-roaded it to our part of town.  People around Fort Wayne were out of power for upwards of a week, and my fridge held extra food rescued from a friend's powerless house for a few days...actually looked like I had grocery shopped for a while...:o) Luckily there are not many trees around my apartment complex nor did we lose our power.  Perfect as 100 degree weather quickly followed the storm, making for some hot and humid days.

damage to a mobile home close to the movie theater!

The irony was not lost of me that the same storm hit all the way across to the East Coast knocking power out in most of Northern Virginia....amazingly Colonial Beach did not lose power....normally it would be the other way around!

Something to Tide You Over

 This week is absolutely crazy with the amount of meetings and planning and practices going on, so in lieu of a hastily scribbled, sentimental post of Virginia....here's Mitch watching a Cat DVD a church member was sweet enough to pick up for him.

I can honestly say that when we moved in, Mitch got more presents than I did! Have to love fellow cat lovers!

A SURPRISE Visit Home!

Very rarely do I have an opportunity to pull off a major surprise....like flying home to Virginia for the 4th of July, a rather important holiday in my family as its my dad's birthday, and a time when family and friends gather.  Also, growing up mere miles from the nation's capital put a strong emphasis on celebrating America's independence.....and now my family lives in the land of George Washington and Robert E. Lee's birthplaces.... can't get more patriotic than that!

Even as I've settled in to the midwest the past six months, I couldn't imagine not being home this 4th. So I booked a ticket and told only my parents I was on my way so someone could pick me up at the airport.  That left my grandparents, nephew, and sister in the dark.

Nate came with Mom and Dad to the airport....they only told him they had a surprise.  I was waiting by the escalator as he rode down from the parking garage, and it took him several moments to see me, process, and then take off running to jump into my arms. In the lifting of him, his knees knocked together and added to the absolute shock of seeing me, he started crying....but was quickly subdued by the gold packaging of "Indiana" chocolate (some good ole Debrand!) that I pulled out of my bag. A quick lunch at golden corral and we were on our way to Colonial Beach barely beating my sister home from work

My grandparents were absolute dolls when I walked into the room, my grandmother hugging me several times and my grandfather with his big ole smile, but I still laugh remembering when my sister walked in. She headed straight to the kitchen, avoiding the room I was in, asking about dinner and grumbling when she found that it wasn't ready or even decided yet.  I walked around the corner to say, "Becky, the reason we don't have dinner ready is that I came and we just got here."  She froze with her hand holding the cabinet door she had just opened as she stared at me. I gave her a hug.  She just asked what I was doing there. (sidenote: I NEVER get to surprise my sister so the fact that we pulled this one off was pretty epic!) We ended up leaving her and Nate at home to take the grands to dinner...mostly so the both of them could absorb my arrival.

We packed a lot in for the three full days I was home, in many ways when I landed in Baltimore....I let out a huge exhale, almost like I had been holding my breath for the past six months and could only let it out as I found myself on familiar ground, a place where I knew my way around, knew what to expect.  Makes sense, since the past year has been change after change; adapting and learning.  It was good to be with family, my tribe.  I'll post some of our other happenings this week, catch everyone up on how the Cox family is settling in to the quaint, quiet river town of Colonial Beach....stay tuned.