after the storm

We had some excitement here yesterday afternoon when an extreme thunder/wind storm came through, with tornado warnings. I was at my brother's house with some of the kids, a few miles north of here, and Paul was home with the other kids. The storm took the roof off a house, removed some barn roofs, moved a shed with a huge tractor in it off the foundation and landed thirty feet away. It moved through right between our home and my brother's house. It was quick, but quite scary.

There is a tree down down the road, and lots of branches, but thankfully nothing else here damaged.

Our power went out though...for hours and hours and hours. At seven it was still out, we were hungry, and when our power is out we have no water. So, since it was Evelyn's birthday, we decided to go to Pizza Hut. Twelve of the kids went (Abigail,Mirielle, Aaron, Mali, Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, and Camille), and Paul and I. Some people WERE counting. Then they came by as they were leaving and asked if these kids were all ours. A few of the older ones were dying, they get so embarrassed. The guy said he had been around lots of kids, and he had never seen such well behaved kids. Well, of course they were being good! They were out for pizza! Anyway I also behaved myself, and didn't tell the people that we had FOUR more that were not with us. I got ten points for that. The kids were rather impressed.

So while we enjoyed the Buffalo Chicken Wing pizza, and the bacon pizzas, and the pepperoni pizza, Mali texted friends in town...and they had power back on! Too bad we don't live in town. Ours didn't come back on until almost two in the morning. We had a nice evening of candlelight and flashlights, and flushing the toilets with buckets of water from the swimming pool.

Evelyn will have her grilled burgers today, and she is making her own ice cream pies. Don't feel sorry for her, she loves making them.

Tomorrow we shall go shopping for the school supplies we still need. We filled backpacks today, and made a list of what they still need. Evelyn needs sneakers, Sam needs clothes...and we need groceries.

I am tempted to call the dr. to see if I can get in sooner. But if I wait 'til Friday, I know I will get to see my favorite midwife, who delivered lots of these guys. And, after all the bleeding I have done, I am not so very hopeful anymore. Crampy? Not so much. But, sorry if this is too much info, but...there have been little clots and such...if this has been a miscarriage, it has been different from any I have had, mine were always terrible cramps and blood that gushes and rushes. Oh, life is interesting. And I am sick and tired of bleeding, nevermind the outcome. Of course I want the outcome to be baby with nice strong heartbeat...

So...here I am. Camille is snuggled up to me. There are guys here fixing our leaky roof. Paul is "on vacation", ha. He has been mowing and weeding and weed-eating. I swept the kitchen and living room and mopped, while the little girls washed the floors with their cloths on their hands and knees playing, "Cinderella". I did some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, and then my chair pulled me back into it.