Lightning struck

Sunday morning, way before I wanted to wake up, we were jolted awake from thunder, that sounded to be right outside the door.  We laid in bed for a good hour, listening to the thunder, seeing the lightning, the room filling up with the eeriest green/yellow glow.  Such a sight for 5am.

 

It rained buckets for an hour or so and we were able to go back to sleep after it all passed. 

 

However, once we woke up and started working our way through the house to do this or that, we started noticing several things not working.  Lance went outside to find that our largest oak tree had been struck by lightning.  Throughout the course of the day we found the oven/range didn't work, the cable didn't work, the 2nd garage door didn't work and Easton's room {and the 3rd bedroom} had no power.  Lance was able to get Easton's room back on but sparks flew when he flipped the breaker outside.  Always a comforting sight. 

{3 different sides of the tree}

There was bark from this tree, all the way to the front of the driveway {that's a good 75-100 yards away}.  Strips of bark a few feet long and chunks of bark that just exploded off the tree were scattered all over the driveway and the yard.

 

It's such an strange feeling to think that something so powerful can do so much damage in one hit.  They say lightening doesn't strike the same place twice so we are assuming that the lightening hit the tree and sent the electrical current all the way through the lot and house. An electrician came to the house yesterday and said we could possible lose all the trees on our lot, especially those near this oak tree. Hopefully not, only time will tell. 

 

Yes, all this is a pain to have repaired and added expense that we don't really want to pay for, but thank God for His protection.  Thank God there was no fire.  Thank God it didn't knock the tree over, as you can see it already leans toward the garage & bonus room.  

 

These are all minor setbacks but we are so thankful for his protection.     

Hunkered down

I've never really minded storms.  As a child I remember being 'scared' of storms but looking back I think that was because I could get my mom to sleep with me.  

Storms never really bothered me.  I like a good rain.  I like a good thunderstorm.  Makes for a cozy afternoon.

But Friday's storms might have just changed my thinking.

We closed work early on Friday for these storms.  Lance's work closed early.  They don't close early.  

This was set to be a whopper of a storm.

And indeed, it didn't disappoint.

After an afternoon of sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures, getting off work early, picking up Easton right after nap, laughing off the weathermen because it was so perfect outside, we got that storm.

I have never in my life heard anything like this.  It sounded like it was raining marbles for about 5 minutes.  I'm pretty sure it felt like an hour or more, but it couldn't have been more than 5 minutes.  It was the longest 5 minutes I've experienced in a while.

Easton and I hunkered down in the bathroom and tried to take our mind off of the deafening noise going on overhead.  He sensed my fear as he was starting to get worked up too.  I brought the iPad in and tried to entertain him with that, but truth be told, we were both a little distracted.

I kept running out trying to see what was going on but it would just get more loud.  I feared the worst.  

After it finally died down and we were able to survey outside, I was simply in awe of what our yard looked like.  It looked more like a snow storm than the rain/wind/tornado storm they had predicted.  Our yard was covered in marble size hail.  Covered.  In some spots it was up to 2 inches. It was simply like nothing I've ever seen before.  

We did have about 10 shingles come off of our new roof, but they've already been fixed, thanks to Lance and Uncle Matt.  Other than that, we were all safe and sound.  Thank the Lord.    

We really fared well compared to some.  The storm headed east where there were reports of baseball sized hail.  

I'm pretty sure that the next time the meteorologists get antsy, I will too!