Non Voyage

As many of you know, this weekend was to be the beginning of our much-anticipated vacation to Miami and the Bahamas with two of our favorite friends, Natasha & Keith. Unfortunately, that journey will be a road less-traveled by the Millers. More to the point, we've had to cancel. 

Instead, I'm sad to pass along that Kevin and Juli's amazing grandmother (Granny) is in the ICU in Houston and is facing some difficult health challenges right now. Kevin left today to join his mom who arrived in Texas earlier this week. Juli and her family flew in this afternoon. I'm still here with Riley while we recover from a very nasty week of being sick and then we'll decide what to do from there. We're not sure it would be a great idea to take Riley down to a hospital setting where he wouldn't be allowed to do much of anything. Hard on him, hard on us. However, I'm aching to be with Kevin. So, I may be flying down at some point soon, leaving Riley in capable hands. 

Kevin and Juli are so close to their Granny and she is one of the most caring, genuine, and sincere women I've ever met. A true lady in a world where there are few. For her to be sick and hurting is devastating.

Please send your prayers, good thoughts, and blessings to Granny (her name is Jo), the entire Miller family and to Granny's husband Lloyd while we journey together towards a rapid recovery.

Much love to all. 

Twisted.

The actual tornado that was way too close.

This shot is from I-35 and Waterloo looking back in our direction.

It was less than a year ago that I was telling the story of crawling into the under-the-stairs closet with Riley during a tornado warning and here I am telling the same story once again. 

We were expecting rain, but an F-3 tornado less than a mile from our house? Not so much. Riley and I had been in the backyard playing when I could tell the rain was coming. Thinking nothing of it, we headed inside, turned on some toons and were hanging out like any other day. I called Kevin and learned that there were some storms in the area so I switched over the TV. Um, yeah. Storms quickly became tornado, which quickly became headed straight for us. 

The always reliable satellite went kaput right about the time things started getting bad and the hail was flying. Kevin was trying to talk me through the radar reports as I am freaking out. He tells me it's a tornado warning and I should probably take cover. So, I grab Riley, head to the stupid closet, and within a couple of minutes, we lose power. Poor Riley didn't freak at all. In fact, he was freakishly silent during the whole ordeal of being in a pitch-black closet while his mother is losing her mind on the phone.

The short story is that it missed us--again. This time, however, it was even closer than our last close call. It was less than a mile. Less. than. a. mile. And for real. Kevin started racing home after the storm passed and it took him forever because so many roads were closed off. He actually had to show his ID with our address on it to make it past the last of the closures. Our electricity was off for about 6.5 hours so we finally headed out for food and light and saw some of the damage. It is NUTS how close this sucker was. I'm going to make myself a shirt that says says "I hate tornadoes."

We are the lucky ones and I'm thankful we are safe and sound. Seriously, lived in Oklahoma 30 years and have not had the tornado action I've had in this ONE house in the LAST YEAR. Get me out of here! 

The storm from I-35 & Waterloo. *Note the flying debris.

Here's some destruction, about a mile from our house:

One of our shots from down the street where an aluminum 

building made a nice dinner for Mr. Twister. 

(Hard to see via iPhone in the super dark. 

Lights are from a news crew van.)

The gas station down the street proved command central for the news crews. 

We pulled in for gas, but the pumps were off. Later learned that the tornado actually 

hit here and everyone got into the coolers for shelter. 

The cure for no power and surviving a tornado scare? Steak 'n' Shake. 

Not even exciting by comparison. Pics of a small pile of hail and our backyard swamp. 

This is what's called being lucky, which we are. 

Say Cheese!

All three Millers have been sick this week, so I guess it's lucky that showings were sparse. I don't know what potential buyers might have seen... Blech!

On Saturday, Riley, Brandi, and I (Kevin was in bed sick) headed to Tulsa for a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for Crystal's three-year-old son, Dylan. (Catch all that?) It was a much-needed break from reality and so fun to see a few of my oldest and best friends from college. If I had to do it again, I would have packed an overnight bag because we had to force ourselves to head home. 

The Mouse House was not my favorite, but Riley seemed to dig it. Here's a few shots of his visit to the germ warehouse formerly known as Showbiz.