tamara b

Wow, it truly does seem like time is flying. I’ve claimed that I was crazy busy in college and things have since slowed down. But more recently, I’m beginning to wonder if that continues to be true. Another whirlwind week has gone by and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down as of yet.
Last Tuesday was a full day at work with lots of things to accomplish. I began my day with a phone call to the chiropractor to have him adjust my jaw back into place. The receptionist, Peggy, scheduled me for 4:20. Not exactly what I was looking for but at least she could get me in. So, anyway, I work a full day with my jaw out of place which causes a nasty headache which then causes my eyes to be blurry. But hey, that’s life. I catch up with Dr. Ferguson who does his work and chit chats with me. So, I left the chiropractor office at 4:45pm for a 3 hour drive to Des Moines. The sky was darker than usual and rain was coming but I was sure that I’d make it during daylight hours. Thirty minutes down the road and listening to the radio, I hear of thunderstorms and tornado watches. I called Ryan and he agreed to keep me updated as the news came on the TV. A few minutes later mom called to tell me about it. She started naming the counties that I would be traveling through and they all had severe T-storms and tornado watches. I couldn’t even take the long route to get away from the storms. Since I was on my way, I decided that if it was still really bad in Waterloo (80 miles from my office) that I would consider staying the night there. I continued down the road and the sky darkened and quickly turned black. It was now raining pretty hard and the wind was blowing and it looked as if it was the middle of the night. Just before I got into Waterloo, I could no longer see the road in front of me because of the rain. Stopping on the highway is not a good idea so I continued to travel at a slow speed until I could stop. As I came to the I-380 interchange, I saw a line of cars that stopped. So, I pulled into the middle of the pack. Even though it continued to pour down, people were leaving. Knowing that the exit for Waterloo was just a ¼ mile up and the mall is right down the road from that, I got back on the road. Got into town, headed to the mall to assure that I was in a “safe place” should a tornado come and “waited” for the storm to pass. While I waited, I went on a mini shopping spree to Victoria’s Secret, Old Navy and a few other places. I got back on the road about an hour later after the brunt of the storm had passed.
I was scheduled for an 8am meeting in Des Moines the next morning and planned on staying with Ryan’s grandparents about a half hour east of DM. I went the Des Moines route with plans to have supper with some friends before staying the night in Prairie City. Here it was 7:15pm and I was still 2 hours from DM. Plans for supper were out the window by now, I just need to get to PC and go to sleep. Since I was heading towards DM instead of PC, I had to take an unfamiliar route to skip DM and get to PC. It had already been a long day, I still had a headache, the weather was bad, I didn’t get to see Mike and Naphtali and I didn’t know this road I had to take. Praise the Lord for just enough light for the road I’m on! Since I continued to drive through tornado watch and thunderstorm areas, the lightening portion of the storm was just amazing. Not only was it gorgeous to see off in the distance but the bolts of lightening lit up the sky almost continuously. The lightening provided just enough for me to see the road I was traveling. It was such a blessing. It really did calm my heart about driving on this unfamiliar road because I wasn’t totally in the “dark”. I arrived at G&G B’s about 9:15pm and visited a little while before heading off to bed.