My Version of the Wizard of Oz

Remember how Dorothy was swept away in the tornado? My weekend mirrors that story and shows you why I do not have a repurpose/redesign post and may not be able to submit a canning post on Tuesday. On Friday, my daughter had been experiencing labor pains for a day and a half. I was off work walking her as far and as long as she could manage but there was no changing the fact that her pains were haphazard and would sometimes stop completely for an hour or two. By Friday afternoon, she needed to put her feet up and rest so I took her home. I arrived at my home about 3 miles away around 2:30 CDT with my husband not far behind. There was a “slight” risk for severe weather late that afternoon but when you live in tornado alley, “slight” risk is almost ignored. In case of hail, we parked both our cars in the garage I went inside to survey the booty of baby items purchased earlier while he sat on the front porch like most of our other neighbors to watch the storm.
About five minutes later, as I stood in our sunroom the tornado hit our back yard snapping one tree in half and breaking huge limbs out of the other. My husband came back to see the damage and as we were talking we could hear a ruckus down the street. About that time I began receiving texts and phone calls from nearly everyone we knew because all the news stations were reporting a tornado hit our neighborhood. The picture above was taking about 2 blocks from our home. No one could get in our subdivision or out because huge 50 year old uprooted trees block the streets. The fire trucks came, the ambulances, the sheriff, and even Emergency Management came to our little neighborhood to see the damage. About an hour later, after much had been on television about it, the looky-loos came. We still have no cable and electricity and wifi are spotty.
I made sure my daughter and son-in-law were safe and checked on my mother who lives across town. The hubs and I sat on the porch for hours as it got dark and talked with the neighbors and each other. Then we went to bed. At 12:00 AM the phone rang and it was my daughter saying it was time to go to the hospital. Getting out of our subdivision was a trick since most roads were closed and police were letting very few pass. We were lucky that they understood. It was a long night with the nurse sending us home once. We returned at 5:40 AM on Saturday morning and at 7:20 AM my grandson was born! That was the most eventful 16 hours of my entire life!
Later that morning my husband and I decided to return home for some much needed sleep. While the police were still standing guard at the main arteries into our subdivision, there were now tree-cutting salesmen, more looky-loos, and people just like us trying to get home. It was more than frustrating with only 2 hours of sleep and I am pretty sure my husband had a few choice words for 1 or 2 of them.
So, a tornado brought the new love of my life and I’ve never been so grateful! I’m grateful to be alive to meet him. I’m grateful that my daughter and grandson are doing well. I am also grateful I have all of you to share this beautiful picture with – a baby boy who already seems to have his Cookie’s (no grandma for me!) attitude! I have a great recipe for Thursday that I can’t wait to share….I will give you a hint: Lofthouse Cookies, in honor of me – Andrew’s Cookie. If you are wondering my husband’s term of endearment is Rocket. Cookie and Rocket. It fits our personalities perfectly!