Worst Storm in Arizona History

"The worst storm in Arizona History"  that's what the news is saying.  I know that for us, where we live, we have seen worse but for many parts of the state it was the worst.  We didn't lose the roof on anything this time and we are so thankful.  But we did get some much needed rain.  Most people, those not from the desert, think "Rain we get that a lot.  What's the big deal?"  When it rains here it is a hard rain.  My son in law is from Kalispell, Montana and he said the rain storms there are nothing like a storm in the desert.  He describes the thunderstorms here as "frightening and angry" in comparrison. 

The grandkids were all excited and worried about the storms.  This is how Payten spent her day.

She ran to the window and watched threw the mini blinds

Notice the water threw the blinds?

I raised the blinds for her so she could see better and so Grandma's blinds would survive Payten.  She stood there all morning!

I started to feel bad for her so I set up a chair in the afternoon.  This is what she asked ALL day long! "I want to go "imming"  all day!  The water is big outside I want to "im".  I want to go "imming" in grandma's pool.  Translation:  imming=swimming   Just in case you didn't catch that.

She took a brief break to do some of this...

and she is working hard on potty training so she did some of this...

But other than that she spent the entire day looking out the window!  She was SO excited to see this.

Kaitlen! Kaitlen's  Home!

Poor Kaitlen was running as fast as she could.  The strong winds about blew her over!  Notice Grandma's swimming pool?  Our front yard has never been landscaped.  Hubby doesn't see the need.  He did take a back hoe and dig down a foot or more for a water retention and I'm so thankful he did because the water now runs away from the house.  We have a standing arguement over what to do with the front yard.  I want trees, grass in the retention area with trees and shrubs bordering the yard.  Did I mention trees?  Teele wants to fence it off and fill it with horses.  I say NO unless he plants a permanent pasture for greenery and stands at the door and swats flies!  So the front yard stays as is.

Then the tornado warning was issued for Amanda's area so they packed up and came to our house.  By the time they arrived we had lost power and were seeing more and more roof shingles flying off and we were now under a tornado watch.  We called Crystal and they still had power so all of us went to their house.  Amanda cooked an amazing spaghetti dinner and we stayed tuned to the television for more tornado, flash food, and thunderstorm updates.

Then our tornado watch was updated to a warning.  We made plans to go to the laundry room,  moved the couch out from under the window and had the first aid kit ready...just in case.  We went home when the warning was over and our power was restored at 10:00pm.  We were one of the last cars to pass over the new bridge because minutes later the Sheriff's Department closed it off because a power pole was leaning over and threatening to fall .  This is what we woke up to this morning.

That's some swimming pool!  It's at least a foot deep!  We are expecting more showers today but nothing like yesterday.   I am so thankful the tornadoes never touched ground, the roof and awnings are still on the house, and that we finally got some much needed moisture!  I'm seriously thinking about letting Payten "play" in my pool.  I think I can talk RaLee into taking her "imming" tomorrow.  I would do it tonight but she has to cheer at a basketball game.