The Wrath of Mother Nature

We had a heck of a storm roll through last weekend. This was a wind storm bigger than anything I've ever seen in Oregon. The storm reminded me of the wind Dorothy experiences prior to the tornado in "The Wizard Of Oz". I was expecting a tornado to roll through afterwards, from the volatility of the wind. I spent most of the evening standing by the window, convinced I was going to see a funnel barreling across the field towards the house.

The hubby's aunt and uncle's house faces a large field, so the hubby's aunt and I watched the storm come rolling in. And it rolled in fast. I watched the dark clouds move in, nervously. They looked so angry!

The wind that came through, came with winds of 60-70 mph. It seriously felt like a hurricane to me. The porch swing began violently swinging into the house, so Aunt and I had to go out, into the wind to take it down. It was unbelievable, the force of that wind!

What was even more incredible was the lightning show. You don't see stuff like this in Oregon. That, and thunder was clapping on top of the house. At least that's what it felt like. Gizmo hid under the dining room table the whole time.

Another lightning shot.

This is a before picture. See how dark the sky is?

I snapped this after shot of the lightning lighting up the sky. It almost looks like the sun, and that's it's a bright, shiny, sunny day. Not so much :) It was a pretty stunning moment of time to catch on camera.

After the storm, we got this crazy orange sunset. The severity of storms out here is astounding to me. Unfortunately, the weather caused a lot of damage around the area. While we only lost electricity for a couple of hours, millions of people in the area are still without power. The hubby and I's cell phones were also knocked out, they've just now begun to get service as of today.

Another bad thing from the storm? Our builder has been affected by the storm. They have been facing lack of power and unavailability of gas. This has moved our start date to probably Monday. Good lord, what else is going to stand in our way?

Sheesh.

The Daily Headache

http://www.cartoon-cat.net

Today was my first appointment with my new neurologist. The hubby and I drove all the way to Cincinnati to meet with her.

It was a good first appointment. She was friendly, nice, and warm. Very comforting. She reminded me of someone's grandma. She spent about 50 minutes with me, discussing my history. She wanted to consult with my family physician before trying any new options, but she promised to call me later in the week with what they decided. All in all, I thought it was a pretty good appointment.

I don't like her as much as my neurologist in Oregon, however. I had been seeing my previous neurologist since I was 16 though, so I may be a little biased.

I'm a sucker for cute animal pictures, in case you were wondering. Do you want to see some more? I thought so :)

http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com

http://worldwidewack.com

http://vi.sualize.us

Apparently I'm not the only one who gets headaches!

On the way home from Cincinnati, the hubby and I took the backroads home. We drove through a tiny town in Ohio called Otway. Otway was randomly hit by the tornadoes from last month, so the hubby and I got to see a tornado's destruction first hand.

This was a HUGE tree pulled out of the ground by the tornado. The scary part is that this was about 10 yards from someone's house! The hubby and I can't imagine the amount of noise it must have made when it hit the ground. We also can't imagine how scared the people living so close to this must have been.

This was the old firehouse in Otway, completely destroyed by the tornado. We pretty much stared in slack-jawed amazement as we drove by this.

Otway is about an hour and a half away from us, so there was a lot of distance between us and this tornado. Not enough distance though, if you ask me!

Chocolate Chip Cherry Muffins

Back at it again! I spent most of yesterday seriously on edge, glued to the TV, thanks to hours of tornado warnings from the local news. I was spellbound all afternoon by my weather.com app for the iPhone, tracking a huge storm all the way from Jasper, IN as it made its way through Louisville, KY to Lexington, KY to Portsmouth, OH... and on to us. It took from 2 pm to 5:30 pm to track this storm and I spent my nervous energy making muffins. Hey, at least I was productive!

I chose Chocolate Chip Cherry Muffins yesterday.

I assembled all my ingredients on the counter, checked my iPhone, and then nervously paced over to the window.

I mixed all my dry ingredients, mixed all my wet, and then measured out my chocolate chips and my dried cherries. I again checked my iPhone and nervously paced over to the window to take a peek at the ominous sky.

I was finally able to finish mixing the batter, fill the muffin cups, and pop them in the oven for 20 minutes. They had been out of the oven and on the cooling rack for about 30 minutes when the storm hit Ashland.

This was my first real tornado scare. For an hour or so, there was complete chaos here. We had the local news on and tornado warnings were flying in for our county and counties around us. People were calling into the news and reporting seeing funnel clouds all around us. The tornado siren went off in downtown Ashland. The sky outside was a color I've never seen in my entire life! The hubby, his mother, her dog, our dogs, and I hightailed it to the basement and hid for what felt like forever, until the warning expired. There didn't end up being a touch down in Ashland but it was an insanely scary experience. I'm extremely thankful our area wasn't one that was hard hit, but horribly saddened that some nearby communities were affected by storms that touched down.

Here's my Tornado Muffins Chocolate Chip Cherry Muffins recipe-

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips
3/4 cup dried cherries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl (flour-sugar).
3. Mix wet ingredients in a medium bowl (egg-vanilla).
4. Add wet ingredients to dry, mix until just combined. Don't over mix.
5. Fold in chocolate chips and cherries.
6. Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Fill cups 3/4 full. Bake in oven 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove to baking rack, cool completely.

Good Luck! May these muffins not bring a tornado to your house! I am, of course, kidding :)

It's That Time of Year Again

Yes, it's almost March. Which means Spring. Which here in Kentucky means Tornado Season. It's that time of year that Gizmo and I loathe. I am glued to Channel 3 and www.weather.com, and Gizmo... well, Gizmo lives under the bed. I just sit, wait, and watch for the sky to turn this color:

I exaggerate. Where I am in Kentucky is actually very safe. I am tucked away in the hills of Ashland. We do get the occasional tornado warning here and there but from what the hubby tells me, if a tornado were to approach our area it would most likely hit one of the hills and go back up into the sky. He says flat areas are the more dangerous areas and the ones to worry about. He would know, he grew up here. We do have a basement (I have grabbed the dogs and hid in the basement like a tornado-newbie during a couple of those tornado warnings last year!) which are the safest places to be during a tornado.

We had some pretty good thunderstorms last night. If I hadn't already been up most of the night like a crazy insomniac, the thunder would have woken me up. A few cracks felt like they were right over the house. I don't think I could have pried Gizmo out from underneath the covers if I tried.

I've since gotten up and checked what the weather should be for the day, and while there are thunderstorms in the forecast for the day, there is nary a tornado watch or warning for the day. Gizmo should be thrilled. Speaking of Gizmo, the latest T-storm just passed and Gizmo has deemed it safe to crawl out of his safe place and approach the living room. All he gets is a contemptuous look from the brave dog, Haloti, who has not bothered to move from his post on the back of the couch :)

*Update*
I obviously should have knocked on wood, because about an hour after I published this post, the county we live in was put on tornado watch for the rest of the day. The hubby also informed me that this is very early for tornado season, it usually holds off until May/June. Hopefully this is just another blip in this very weird winter.

Weekend Wrap Up

It is definitely summer here in Kentucky. Or so I am told. It is true, it is HOT here. There are also massive thunderstorms! There were thunderstorms everyday last week as well as a tornado in Louisville. Luckily, Louisville is a couple of hours away. But scary!

This was what my weather looked like all last week. Summery right?

By the weekend, the weather cleared up. Saturday was overcast but the temperature was around 80 degrees and it didn't rain a drop. Perfect since it was our nephew Brock's first birthday! We headed out to Grayson (about a 25 minute drive from Ashland) to celebrate at Jerame's sister's house. It was a wonderful party, the birthday boy was well behaved and  really didn't even make that much of a mess with his cake! Just for comparison I have posted a pic from our other nephew Gavin's first birthday as well as one of Brock.

Gavin's 1st Birthday (a tad bit messy!)

Mr Brock and his cake

A couple more pics of the rest of us enjoying the party, sans rubbing cake all over our faces :)

Jerame's Aunt Martha, his sister Jessica, our nephew Brock, Jerame's mother Joyce, and I

Joyce, Martha, and I

I love this adorable picture of the 2 of them :)

Jessica's husband Wayne and their daughter Megan

It may not look like it, but he really did enjoy his new toys!

On Sunday, couponing continued! Jerame picked me up 3 Ashland papers, a Huntington paper, and a Lexington paper. I usually don't do any shopping on Sunday's except for CVS. I was given a tip by a cashier at my CVS who told me there are a couple of "extreme couponers" in Ashland that clear out the shelves on Monday's. Although my CVS was out of the men's body wash I needed for a deal and I had to get a raincheck for it, I still managed to get a lot for the $5 I spent.

CVS Haul 6/26/11

All in all, a great summer weekend here in Kentucky!