local news

here are some local newsites that have some pretty amazing pictures on them.

http://www.wavy.com/Global/link.asp?L=312666

http://www.wvec.com/

http://hamptonroads.com/pilotonline

and here's a pretty amazing photo - taken near the hospital about 10 minutes from work. A truck was flung into this building and there were people in this cancer center getting their treatment.

this one is from burbage grant, the development where our friends Adam and Sara live...about 10 minutes away

This one is over by our friend Doug's apartment..near where Shari's old house is. her house is toward the tornado and off to the left. If you know the area, it the shopping center where the Food Lion is.

Calls, Emails, And Tornado right over our house

I can't believe how loved I feel today with all of the calls, emails, and messages we have gotten over the past 24 hours. It feels so wonderful that so many people were thinking of us and we're grateful for your concern.

A couple of interesting things today....

This video that I posted yesterday (I posted it again below from another website), turns out it is right by our house.

Make sure to view the one that says "Storm Chaser video: Tornado touches down in Suffolk"

http://www.hamptonroads.tv/index.cfm?locvid=139644&tid=r700

We found it on a 2nd website where the person who took it listed where they were. The first part of the video, where you see the signs for the interstate, he is driving from our gym, which is 6 minutes from the house (and the same gym where I was headed when I was on the highway). The swirling cloud that eventually becomes a tornado again has got to be the one that touched 2 neighborhoods over and went back up. When it's over the right lane of the road, right at the very beginning, it would be right over our house!! Just reinforces how crazy lucky we were.... The 2nd part of the video is 1 exit up from our house....near College Drive, for those who know the area. I feel luckier and luckier every moment....I knew we had some angels looking over us, but wow, we really got the good of the deal on this one.

The 2nd thing today was that the drive to work was terrible. I had a fine time getting there, but I have to drive past Driver, an area devastated...I couldn't keep it together as I drove by...It was just too much...Then I got to the highway were we were stuck last night and you could see in sunlight, the path of destruction it took and where it jumped the highway toward the hospital. The trees were uprooted, smashed, torn apart, just obliterated. There were cars all up and down the highway shoulder where people had to park and walk home because they couldn't take the exit to their house and drive there last night. I broke down again, it was just amazing to think of all of the people whose houses were leveled and how fortunate we were.

Target is pulling in 2 trucks from our distribution center in Stuarts Draft, VA. We store things long term in our building and don't keep the kinds of things we would need for relief efforts. They are sending them tomorrow and our plan is to get them to the shelters and unload them for the people that need it most. That will be very rewarding to be a part of.

I didn't get much sleep last night. Target called at midnight making sure we were ok and then Brad got calls from work about gas stations that were down starting around 330...I think that equates to a total of 3 uninterrupted hours of sleep..maybe a total of 5. I think it's time to hit the hay.

Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts and concern.

OH! More get well wishes to Grandpa who is in the hospital but doing much, much better and to mom who had a reaction to a medication this week -- What a crew we are this week....

Love,
Andrea, Dre, Andi, or whatever else you know me by :)

A video from the weather channel

I don't know where this was taken exactly...664 is the interstate that is about about 1.5 miles from our house...It runs north & south and we live right in the middle of the stretch. This could be on the other side of the highway or our side...can't really tell. Given that our friends believe it touched down and went back up, this could be the one that hit their neighborhood, as it comes down and goes back up without moving too far.

http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?clip=10634&from=hp_video_1

A week late - Supergirl!

I forgot to post my elation at Danica finally getting her first win! She is the first woman to win an Indy car race

Here's a video of her win and her getting out of the car!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFBIosnet6o&feature=related

http://www.danicaracing.com/indexSmall.html

More Tornado

here is another website that shows the destruction near the hosptial...just terrible.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/galleries/702.html?SITE=VANOV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

I forgot to mention I also saw a guy driving home that had all of his car windows blown out and his windshield completely shattered...crazy.

Tornado

So apparently we moved to Virginia to come in close contact with a tornado. We seriously missed it by 5-10 minutes on the highway. I left work at 4 with my car pool buddy Michael in order to get to a class at the gym at 5. The first sign of the tornado was that we could actually smell tree bark and then we saw trees ripped down and branches ripped from trunks. Our cell phones weren't working hardly at all and they put another warning while we were on the highway. Michael's wife eventually called and said the tornado near us and then Driver and Shoulder's Hill road...both right near our house. Luckily Ryan next door was home and so I called him to see how the house was and he said the wind was horrible but that we didn't get hit.

We got stopped on the highway for over an hour and a half only to get turned around by the police at the next place you could do a u-turn. Turns out that just up the road a car was smashed and tossed like a soda can into the tree line off the highway.

We then had to go around to a road near the hospital where the ER section was heavily damaged. There were several neighborhoods where houses & businesses were leveled. There were people parked along the road because they had to get out and walk to their houses. There was so much debris, power lines, and gas line issues that they couldn't let people drive and in some cases even get to their houses at all.

We finally got home 3 hours later. After talking with all of our friends and watching the news...it appears it hit up the road from my work, then downtown by the hospital, jumped into Driver which is a neighborhood about 4 miles from our house where it leveled some houses and businesses. Then it jumped our friend Jim and Fran's neighborhood and touched down for a second 2 neighborhoods over in Bayberry Cove. We have 3 friends who live there...Mike & Lisa took cover because they could hear it. It looks like it touched down in our friend Cheryl's backyard, across the street from Mike and Lisa...And then it mangled some power lines and trees in the next neighborhood over badly and then skipped us...I have no idea how...

The drive home was crazy, the devastation is astounding...it looks like pictures out of Kansas when you see the news.

There is a video of tornado if you happen to see it on the national news...Of the tornado near a farm house with a big yard and a white picket fence all around the perimeter...that is about 2 miles from our house.

Below is a link to a local website. The damage to our area isn't even close to as bad as it was at the hospital, about a 20 minute drive away. (The hospital is between my work and our house).

Scroll to the middle of the page & there is a "view storm photos"...lots of pics from near our neighborhood, but we weren't hit at all compared to the other part of town.

If you see these places labeled in the pictures, here's where they are:

The picture of the tornado from highway 58...That's the highway I drive on...I would guess we were about 5-10 minutes right behind this picture.

Bayberry Cove - 2 neighborhoods over from us.

Belmont Park - the neighborhood across from ours.

http://www.wvec.com/index.html

we are still waiting to hear how a couple of people from work fared. My former boss, Sandi, from Target had her neighborhood get hit badly as they live right behind the hospital..Sounds like her house is one of the only ones standing...it's terribly sad.

Thanks for all of the calls tonight...word got to the national news fast...we appreciate everyone reaching out to us. Also thinking about everyone back in Grundy with the rain and damage to basements...hope you are all faring better this week.

Love,
A

Happy Earth Day

Today I carpooled, recycled, and used less paper. What did you do in order to do your part

http://ww2.earthday.net/

good weekend and pup week

Fozzie & Molly are staying with us for the week while Jes and Mike house hunt in Texas :( Sad about them moving, happy that M and F are staying with us!

I have some pictures to post later this week.

There was a great escape today when three puppies became convicts after pushing out a board of the fence and squeezing through the hole! The bottom of the board was coming off and they pushed it out. Brad and I were in the front yard and all three of them came running out. I corralled Molly first and got her back in the yard. Brad ran after Fozzie & Sammy....crazy pups!

Friday night we went to Luna Maya with Kate, Roger, Jes and Mike and then Brad and I went to see 88 minutes with Dave, Lauren (Dave's wife), and Christian from work. It was a good movie, but a bit scarier at the beginning then I thought. I love going to the movie...it was fun!

Saturday morning I slept in, went shopping, and we went to Nora's for a wine and dinner party.

Sunday I slept in again...it was great....we went to Backyard Burger for lunch, I cleaned part of the house, worked on laundry and planted some flowers...which reminds me, I need to take some pictures of them. Brad mowed the lawn and now we are curled up on the couch with Sammy and Molly; Fozzie has staked his claim on the round chair by the window because he likes to look outside.....

I want to do more of this and not go to work tomorrow.....

Silly pics

Some pictures from Saturday night at Mike & Lisa's.


Charlie's Angels wannabes


Hanging out on the deck

The guys on the deck..Brad, Tony, Mike, Albert

The girls playing on the slide

The girls doing what we do best...being silly!

this week

it's been another busy week. bradley was in north carolina working on a new store, he had an interview for another job at work, and i spent the week working, battling allergies, and hanging out with sammy. i also managed to run a few times.

one of the best parts of the week was friday, when i spent most of the day trying to farm out some of the things i've taken on at work that has made my work/life balance get a bit out of control again. i'm always hesitant about asking others to take things on because i don't want it to appear that i think they aren't busy and i'm really busy. however, being that i have been down the road of working too many hours for years at a time, 3 weeks was my limit this time. when it doesn't die down after a couple of weeks, that's my signal that things are out of balance.

friday night we hung out for a bit at ryan and pam's next door. i haven't been feeling well again this week because of my allergies and haven't slept well because i didn't feel well. i wanted to just hang around the house and not venture too far.

saturday i got to sleep in and felt better than i had all week, which wasn't actually great...i spent the whole afternoon with tana...we went to macarthur center and ate at nordstrom cafe (YUM!), and went to see the other boleyn girl...it was a great movie and i enjoyed it even more than i thought i would. then we browsed a few stores and a bought a jacket and a utensil at williams-sonoma.

saturday night we spent at mike and lisa's for game night with them, cheryl and albert, and friends we recently met, leanne and tony. it was a great time...we ended up on the deck just socializing and being stupid...it was a nice outlet after another busy week. i really couldn't have planned a more relaxing saturday.

this morning, i'm hanging out in bed with sammy...posted a note on craig's list about selling all of our VHS tapes, and now i'm watching one of my favorite shows..one about real life crime dramas..murders mostly...it's weird i know..i'm mesmerized by people who do crazy things....and i'm catching up on email and other things. and you can see, i'm feeling lazy....no captial letters today.

it's nice to have no big obligations today and to see the sun shining again...after 10 days of rain and no sun, i was wondering if we had secretly been transported to seattle or something.

Great Weekend

Friday night we went to Mike & Lisa's for dinner and games. We played a dice game called Farkel...it's a simple game, but really fun. What else do you do on a Friday night when it's like 70 degrees outside? You go play on the kids playground of course! First you go down the slide and then you swing and jump out!

Saturday afternoon we headed to Norfolk to the ocean in order to take some pictures with a "Flat Stanley" from our niece Kaitlyn. We went to the ocean, went through a tunnel, took pictures of cranes that unload container ships at the port, and went to the zoo.

i'm looking a little frumpy as i try to stay warm in our Seattle like weather

this is the zoo where my run in May is...

We also went to Newport News to Trader Joes and Target and bought 1 half of a patio set. We were going to go pick up the other half by our house but Brad lost the key to the neighbor's somewhere on our adventure. We are taking care of Nella and Reesie next door and luckily it wasn't an emergency for them to go outside. After trying to break into the house (by practicing breaking into ours) we ended up getting in touch with Ryan and Pam and got a key from her mom's house.

On Sunday, our other friend Ryan met us at Target, so we could use his truck to get our patio chairs home. Then we met Jes and Mike at Hell's Kitchen in Norfolk to eat dinner...It was delicious!

Now I'm getting the pictures printed to send Flat Stanley back to Iowa and Brad is putting the patio chairs home. He is going to North Carolina for the week because they are opening a new store there soon.

Another reunion!

And this time....It's New Kids On The Block who are getting back together!

Wow...I was like 13 when I went to see them...Hopefully they'll come through here!

STP is back!

I just found out today that Stone Temple Pilots are reuniting! They haven't toured in 8 years since I saw them when we first moved here! I am SOOOO excited!!!!! This called for such celebration that I changed the header on our blog to an STP picture! The tour will be announced on Monday! YIPPEE!

Also, today I discovered that in Baltimore there is a weekend music festival in August that STP and Foo Fighters (one of Brad's favorite bands) are playing in...I think we might be planning a trip to Baltimore in August.....

RENT

Tonight, Doug and I went to see RENT. It's one of my favorite musicals ever. I never tire of it. I also have the movie and the soundtrack on my iPod.

This is the 3rd time I've seen it - including the time last summer I saw it on Broadway..Just in time, too. I see it's going to be ending this year in September.

"We're not gonna pay.................we're not gonna pay...................last year's rent!"

http://www.siteforrent.com/

Andrea goes crazy

So, my "runner friends" convinced me that I can run a 3 mile race...Now remember, the last time I ran before 2008 was in HS or college for the fitness tests...I don't count running bases in softball as real running. I started running on the treadmill because I got bored walking and riding the bike at the gym. Before I knew it, I could run 2 miles in 30 minutes. Those runner friends were encouraging of the running and my buying my heart monitor to keep good track of my heart (so not to wear it out prematurely) and about my getting in shape....They told me about 5k and 8k races (which I had no idea how far they were....). When I found out 5k was 3 miles...I thought, I can run 3 miles if I'm already running 2!

So I signed up for a 5k race in May. I am starting my training this week. I took Tana's advice and went to Running, Etc. where they video tape your stride and recommend the right shoe for you. I also bought a new iPod shuffle and gave Bradley my other one...Now with my music, shoes and heart monitor, I'm ready to go! Ironically, I couldn't decide between 2 pair of shoes and the guy remembered that a higher end pair was on sale and I got these great pink and gray shoes for $40 off! Seriously....I must be crazy....

The coolest part about it is the race is to raise money for a cancer organization that provides free services to cancer patients. My friend Cindy passed away from cancer last year and I would love to run the race in her memory...what a great 1st race...And my LIVESTRONG bracelet is always a reminder that now matter how tired or bad I might feel while training, it's nothing compared to what she endured.

The race is on May 31st and I am trying to raise donations for the organization. More to come on how to donate.

Lee's Friends

http://www.leesfriends.org/services.htm

Run on the Wild Side

http://www.leesfriends.org/events.htm

"They're my magic shoes" Forrest Gump