Wild and Crazy night!!!

I don't have any pictures of this post because we were too busy working our tails off!!

We had some big time storms come through here yesterday afternoon and last night.  Omaha and parts of Iowa got some crazy hail.  We escaped that part of it in the afternoon and only had some wind.  Then the 2nd storm came through.....

Luckily, I had gotten the kids into the bath about an hour earlier than I normally do so I had them out and Collin in bed before the power went out at around 7:30.  We didn't have a tornado warning or anything but I still spent the entire night in the basement.....Ugh!!

When the power went out, the sump pump stopped working.  And it was dumping rain-a ton of rain!  I would empty out a 5 gallon bucket of water and by the time I would go outside (in the rain) to dump it out, it was already filled back up to the top again.  For about an hour, this went on.  (I think I did about 10 buckets full which is 50 gallons of water!)  Aaron wasn't home at the time so I was working it alone!  As fast as I could dump it, it would fill up.  It was like one of those bad dreams where you keep doing the same thing over and over and nothing changes!

When Aaron got home he and I worked it together.  Brady was still up (mostly because we had to use flashlights and he was having fun) as we continued to do this until after 10:00 when we could finally stop for a little bit to relax because we had emptied it out and it wasn't filling up as fast again.  So we let it go until the alarm sounded and it took all of 15 minutes!!  We went back to work again to empty it, Brady finally fell asleep and it was after 11 that we tried to lay down and rest.  We decided to let the alarm sound when the water got to the top and then we would take turns getting up to go empty it out.  At least the rain had stopped by then so it was just all the water that had soaked in the ground we were dealing with so we had a little more time in between fillings.

It was like we were up all night with a newborn again-just waiting for it to "cry" for us to come and empty it!  I took the first shift when the alarm went off after midnight and emptied 10 more buckets full and laid back down to try and go back to sleep at 12:30.  Then at 1 am, Collin woke up scared because his room was pitch black (no night light) so I went to put him back to sleep and laid back down.

Luckily, the alarm did not sound back again and the power came back on at 4 am.  We went to look at the sump pump again and it was pretty close to being full but the pump kicked in and sucked it all out.  When we finally went to bed then, I couldn't go back to sleep-I kept seeing a hole with water in it and me filling buckets and dumping them.  Even then I couldn't get any sleep because I was half awake dreaming of emptying it!

This morning my shoulders, arms and legs are sore and I am tired!  Of course we had to get up and be out of the house at 8 to take Collin to his Dr appt for his one year check-up so I only got a couple good hours of sleep.  Poor Aaron had a check ride today too so I hope he does well.  It's hard with no sleep!  I think we'll be taking it easy today!