Olivia's 19th birthday was this week. We had her dinner party on Sunday evening after she got off work. Scheduling things like this is harder now that the girls are older and work schedules start to overlap. It was a small gathering, but we had fun none the less. We'd ordered Olivia's cake the weekend before we left, and asked for turquoise decorations, Olivia was not amused when we picked up the cake and it was very busy with color.
None the less, the cake was delicious and the party went well. 19 years sure went by fast!
Monday Olivia went back to work at the equine clinic. She was on the road with one of the veterinarians all day. Lindsey's Monday babysitting gig was canceled due to a nasty stomach bug hitting that whole family. She did her school work, then had an orthodontist appointment in the afternoon. We had left over birthday food when Olivia got home from work. After dinner, Olivia packed up and headed off to a 10 day dog/house sitting gig for my friend Yvette. This gig is combined with her Mon-Wed equine center job and her weekend job at the farm. She's in high demand.
Tuesday Lindsey was up early to do her academics and get out the door to work. Tom and I did some work in the flower beds and yard early in the day. Around 1pm, I could hear the distant rumbling of thunder and could see a large storm cloud heading our way. The dog got very antsy as the darkness settled in and the wind picked up. My dusk to dawn light came on shortly after 1pm (it was very dark). I texted Lindsey to make sure she was paying close attention and had a plan in place to get the kids to the basement. Sure enough, a tornado hit our area shortly after 1:30. We had high winds, heavy rain and hail, but thankfully the worst of the storm passed us. Our area is not prone to tornados, and there were no warnings issued. Enough people sent footage to NWS to cause them to come out and confirm that it was indeed a 75 foot tornado that traveled for 6 miles through two communities. We found out that we're apparently in a radar "blind spot", since it was never picked up on any radar. Olivia ended up getting called out to an emergency situation on one of the horse farms to help with a horse that was injured either by the tornado, or from terror trying to get away from the storm. Lots of stitches were required, but it looks like the horse will be ok if infection doesn't set in.
Olivia was able to get to meet Lindsey at jiu-jitsu and then she came home to get a shower before heading back to her house/dog sitting job.
Wednesday was a regular day for Lindsey as far as school and work. I just worked on some small projects around the house. I had an arborist come take a look at the tree by our back patio. I wanted it trimmed, but I noticed it looked like it was leaning a bit after Tuesday's storm. He said it needs to come down, sigh. After dinner, Lindsey drove us to town to get dessert.
Thursday morning, Lindsey got a text around 5:30am that the nasty bug that hit Monday's family had now hit the full time family. (Both families have children in the same private school, and apparently it's moving through the school pretty rapidly.) She worked for the one family, but it was a shorter day of 8:30-1pm and at a different location. I picked up groceries, paid bills and worked on house work. Olivia came home for dinner, then headed to jiu-jitsu with Lindsey, then back home to shower before heading out again. Both girls are very good at what they do and are in high demand.
Friday morning Lindsey was off work, so she was able to sleep in. The arborist arrived around 9am, and he made short work of our tree. Start to finish, he had it down in about an hour. Cleaning up the debris took longer than anything, but at least we got a little fire wood out of it. Here are before and after photos.
I hope you've all had a great week. May is only a few days away! The year is getting away from us again!
Wow; so glad you all made out okay with the storm! We don't often get tornadoes either but sadly they seem to be getting more and more frequent.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to Olivia. Sounds like a good and productive week.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn