A Tornado in my town.

 Before I begin, I apologize for the recent lack of posts.  I'm absolutely exhausted.  My days are increasingly becoming busier and busier--but in such a happy and satisfying way :)  After this weekend I should be back on here much more often.

I don't live in tornado alley.  Granted, every once in awhile we hear of a tiny tornado that touches down here for ten seconds and uproots a tree and then is gone.  I'll be honest I was skeptical of the warnings on the news and assumed they were being over cautious.

 

Well, that's a bit more than an uprooted tree.  This was our Lowe's Home Improvement

I love my hometown, it's always full of surprises and moments of sweet nostalgia, but I don't think I realized how connected I was until my father and I drove past this ten minutes after it was hit by a category 3 tornado:

 

I had just gotten to my parent's house after leaving work when my mother called telling me that the store she was in just got hit by a tornado.  In all honesty it was unrealistic; if she had called saying she was in a wreck I could have related or felt more impacted--but her being in the middle of a tornado?  I couldn't find a way to connect that in mind or to feel anything towards it.  It was like trying to picture a new color; if you've never seen it then you can't imagine it.  But when that brand new color is forced in front of you, quickly it becomes real.  When I reached my mom and grandma, the reality quickly set in...and the thoughts of what did happen and what could have happened came in waves.  I'm beyond grateful that they are both okay and I know that it was a miracle no one was seriously injured in the stores that it hit.  But instead of more of my melodramatic rambling, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.