Getting caught up and a tornado

I can’t believe that it has been almost a month since my last post. We have been in our new home now for close to seven weeks. Some days it seems more like seven months. Things have improved a lot around here, starting to feel more like home to us. We’ve managed to get pictures on the walls, furniture in place and are finally getting used to one bathroom for the four of us.
Like I said in my last post, we were supposed to move in on July 14th, but it ended up being that Monday the 16th before we actually stayed in our new home. So after a week and a half of unpacking and getting things in place, we decided to have a day at the beach on Friday (the 27th). We got up that morning and drove an hour to Panama City Beach. Sad to say that the only pictures that I took were of these birds.

Then on Saturday (the 28th) Chuck’s parents came up for a quick visit. We showed them around the college campus and our “little town”.  Although we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them (they went home the next morning) we were so glad that they came to visit.
Chuck started classes at the college on Monday, August 13th. So the kids and I had that week to get school clothes and supplies for them. Tyler also started football practice that week. They both started school on Monday, August 20th. I was an awful mom, I did not get any “first day of school” photos of them.
So much has happened since we’ve been here. Of course the obvious was everyone starting back to school, well not me, for now anyway.  Chuck was hired as the Interim Youth Pastor at FBC Graceville. Thanking God for providing a position for Chuck at a local church. Tyler is fitting in really well with the youth at FBC. Kaelyn is trying to but she is the youngest one in the group. However she has made several friends at school.  Everyone is adjusting well.
Last Friday night was the first football game of the season. It was the kickoff classic game. Both Varsity and J.V. teams played. Tyler is on the J.V. team this year and his games will be played on Thursday nights. Because of him coming onto the team just a few weeks ago and not having much experience playing, the varsity coach thought it would be best for Tyler to move down to the j.v. team to get some playing time in.  He did get to play in this game.  Tyler is #79. Even though they didn’t win their game, Tyler had a good time playing.

Kaelyn was all dressed up in their school colors of orange and black to cheer on those Tigers and her brother!

Finally to close out this post with a little excitement for us today. Chuck was going to go get Tyler picked up from football practice and asked if I wanted to go with him. So I did, Kaelyn stayed home to get her homework finished before time to leave for Church. It was really cloudy outside and had been raining off and on all afternoon. Just before we left an alarm went off on the cell phone saying there was a tornado warning until 5:30 p.m. CDT. I turned the t.v. on to a local news channel and they said that a tornado had touched down just outside a nearby town. I didn’t really think anything about it, considering it was a ways from us and heading in a different direction. When we got to the football field/locker room area, we saw some of the players running inside. Well a few seconds later someone came out of the locker room yelling for people to get inside. Sure enough there was a tornado coming. It went over the locker room and touched down on the other side of some trees on the northwest side of the school. Talk about one of the SCARIEST times of my life. All I could think of was that Kaelyn was at home (less than a mile and a half down the road) by herself. I tried calling her, but couldn’t get through, finally after about the third time of calling she answered the phone. I told her to stay calm, that there was a tornado that just went over us and for her to go close the bathroom door and get down in the hallway with pillows over her. We could hear the tornado while it was on the other side of those trees and all I could think about was why in the world didn’t I just stay at home with Kaelyn or have her come with us. I was almost to the point of being sick on my stomach right there in front of the football team in that locker room. Not sure if it was my nerves, and panic feeling or the smell in there.  To make matters worse Chuck and I could see a very big black cloud over the area where we live at, but because of the school being in the way we couldn’t really tell if there was any kind of rotation going on in those clouds or not. Thank God, he kept our family and the rest of the families that were up there at the school safe. When we got home, Kaelyn was still hunkered down in the hallway. I was afraid she would be upset, but she wasn’t. She was just as calm as she could be. I thank my heavenly Father for keeping us all safe.