The effects of a wicked Texas thunderstorm...

Last night, around 4:00a.m., I woke to the sound of wind and rain whipping against my house and thunder crashing and lightning flashing simultaneously. A few minutes later the tornado sirens for our area sounded and I started poking John, who simply rolled over and resumed snoring after a delirious, "Huh?" So I stayed there on my back, wide-eyed at all the lightning and wondered every few minutes, "Does that sound like a train?...Does THAT sound like a train?" and debated getting everyone up and into the middle bathroom's bathtub with a mattress over our heads. Thankfully the storm died down around 5:00a.m.

However, this morning I found the side wall of our backyard fence fallen against our swing set. John also got a call from Tanya about the storm damage to the church - pictures posted below.


Now I have a clear view of my neighbor's back yard.


Christopher has enjoyed telling everyone, including the fence repairmen, "Be careful you don't get poked by the nails!" Sarah kept asking the fence repairmen if they knew how to fix our fence. This was all very exciting to them.


The back wall of our fence didn't fall over, but the base of 2 posts were broken, so you can see the fence leaning backwards in this photo.

OK, this is what our church looked like BEFORE the storm (picture below taken at the Fall Festival in October)...


This is what our church looks like AFTER last night's storm. Our poor steeple fell into the front yard and broke.



If you look closely, you'll see the cross on the ground at the left and the base of the steeple is cracked.

Several trees on the property were also uprooted. THANKFULLY, the steeple didn't fall on anyone or anything besides the ground!


The wind gusts also ripped some of the siding off of the back wall of the church. John said that several of the iron-rimmed trash cans were missing from the playground, but amazingly enough, the little pavilion which is made of tarp and offers a little shade on the playground area wasn't damaged at all.