Thursday happened....yeah.
I woke up in the morning to the sound of something scrapping down the driveway. I didn't know what time it was since the power was off in the house so Aaron's alarm clock was dead. The wind sounded scary and so I pulled myself out of bed to look outside and see what was happening.
My garbage cans had been pushed out of the backyard against the house, down the driveway all the way to the curb, where it was fallen over and my trash was being blown around the neighborhood. I ran outside to grab them back into the yard and trying to gather my trash.
I found that our shed was slumped down. Our rain gutter down spout in the back was almost ripped off the house. I went back into the house and called Aaron to let him know at work what was going on. He wasn't too concerned since it wasn't suppose to get too bad at our place.
I went back to sleep since I had another hour before I had to get up to get ready for classes.
About 10 minutes later, I got a text message from the school. "Due to high winds and flying debris, W.S.U. is asking everyone to stay inside campus buildings. Shelter in place."
Okay people, if I was going to hide in any building that day it NEEDED to be my final botany class! We were going to go over the last material of the semester and then go over the final exam that we would be taking this next week.
I called some friends and forced them to drive me to school since the bus systems were so messed up from the wind knocking over semis and UTA was like, "OH NO! Hide the buses!" for awhile and then they were all late and crazy.
Anyway, I didn't realize how bad it was outside till we were driving. The power was off in the whole area. All the lights at the intersections were off...and some of them had flown off and were in the road. Pine trees were down everywhere. We didn't see any in people's houses but some pretty close calls with some cars. HUGE pine trees.
There were only 4 people in the classroom when I got there...and my professor. By the time I got into my class I got another message from the University. " Weber State University classes are canceled until 4:30pm. Evening courses will be held. Shelter in place until you feel its safe to move about."
Yeah...super. My friend who gave me a ride to campus IMMEDIATELY called me to tell me that she would come get me to bring me safely home. I told her to hold on because I needed to check the children's school.
The walk to the children's school was...kind of frightening...not going to lie. I almost got pinned to a building in the wind. Do you know how stupid that would look? Also the wind would be blowing hard in one direction for awhile and I would lean into it to stop from falling over. Then, it would suddenly turn and I would almost fall over. The school is on a hill and I needed to get to the bottom which made stairs REALLY scary. All of a sudden the wind would be at your back pushing you down the stairs. Also, when they said "flying debris" they meant, everything not tacked down will whirl around your head. There was glass from broken windows. There was all manner of trash. There were ice chunks from the roof. There were shingles from the roof. Trees were giving way all over the place. I mean, the score board in the football stadium was knocked over...so the size of the debris was kind of ridiculous.
I got into the children's school and one of my coworkers told me that they were sending the kids home. My boss handed me a stack of emergency cards and asked if I could start making phone calls to parents. I could indeed. I had been trained at APX Alarm to make professional sounding calls. When I was done reaching parents I went to read with the kids until their parents could come get them. Some of the children seemed super confused when their parents showed up early. One girl's mother came to pick her up without us calling because a tree had fallen into their house and she needed to take her daughter to her grandmothers since the house wasn't safe. That poor girl started crying when her mom told her that couldn't go get her favorite something or other from the house. I felt really bad for her.
Once the last child was out of the classroom, I started walking to the bus stop to wait for my friend to come get me (seriously, this woman is amazing). I stopped in the bathroom on my way out and puked my guts out. It was so weird. I had been feeling queasy while standing up making calls to parents but not full on barfing sick. After vomiting, I felt better and hoped that it was a one off.
By the time I got home, I had the chills. The power wasn't on in the house yet. I couldn't get warm. The only place that would be warm was in the shower. I took a warm shower and quickly dried off and jumped into bed. The dogs came and snuggle me for warmth. I was probably only asleep for 45 minutes before I had to jump out of bed to run to the toilet. This pattern continued for a while. Usually I would hop in the shower after a vomiting spell to try and warm up again. That was probably where Aaron found me when he got home. He got me the warmest clothes that he had and I laid on the bathroom floor praying that the heat would at least come back on.
We were told that the electricity would come back on at the very least, in 12 hours and at the most 48 hours. So, I laid on the bathroom floor with the humidity from the shower I had just taken, trapped in the room with me and I prayed.
At 4:58pm I heard the greatest sound in all of the world. The heater kicked on. It was a miracle. The power was off for less than 12 hours for us. Prayers are answered.
Aaron had put about 6 blankets on the bed for me which was sweet of him. I climbed into bed and we watched The Biggest Loser while I barfed next to him in my bucket. Because every family needs a barf bucket. Finally Aaron left me while I was in the bathroom in a very bad way. I weighed myself after I was "finished" and I was 125lbs. Which is nice...but I need those 3lbs of water weigh. Not good.
When he got back he gave me a blessing. I had been freaking out while I was barfing and while the power was off about my final the next day and not missing work and being able to go down to Provo to get ready for Clarise's party. I didn't tell Aaron about all of my worries but when he gave me a blessing he blessed me that I would be able to "get all the things accomplished that will need to get done tomorrow". And that is why you marry a priesthood holder. I was able to get a bit of sleep and FINALLY hold down a little bit of fluid. Finally, the horrible day was over.
I got all of the things done today that I needed too. I know that it was because of Aaron's blessing from my Heavenly Father. I'm so grateful that I have a Heavenly Father who is always mindful of me and never gives me more than I can handle.
This is my favorite picture so far. I'm not done editing since I had a wedding to edit also. But yeah, they both look so happy. Love it!
You can barely tell that there is a tree behind us!
Then I started to open a present that I thought was going to be a humidifier but it turned out to be so much better. This is me goofing off while opening it.
This is the face that I made when I saw what was really in the package.
I had a really great day so I can only imagine how nice it was for Clarise and Geoff. I got to work on some Family History while I was there also. It was a really wonderful day and it will forever be in my memory as one of the greatest days of my friendship with Clarise and Geoff.
We thought that this would be the perfect souvenir for us! And ornament for the year we got married. It was in this shop that I said, "Wouldn't it be cute if we got an ornament every year that tells something about what happened that year?"
I got the Raggity Ann last year. My mother made it for me when I was about 6 years old. She stayed up all night making it so that when I woke up in the morning, I would know that Santa was real and that he got my really late letter. It was well loved and started falling apart and my mother has had it in a "to mend" pile for 15 years or so. I got it last year and it is a reminder to me of what the Christmas spirit should be and remembering charity and the true life of Christ and how closely that aligns with being a mother.
She is so sincerely lovely. I can't wait for her wedding. If anyone in the world deserves a happily ever after, it is this lovely woman. My universe is full of wonderful people and Clarise is the brightest star.
