And now, the Thursday/Friday edition...

Thursday Liam and Olivia had their second neurology appt at the Univ. of Chicago. We had been told 4 months ago at their last appt that both should be scheduled for an EEG at the same time as this routine appt, but they never called to schedule these. When Olivia and I were here last month I mentioned this to her HIV doctors. They contacted her neurologists and they said again that they would have someone call to schedule these. Never called. By the time I realized that they hadn't called, it was too late for me to try to get a hold of them and schedule them myself.

We arrived for their appt at 12 pm. They were scheduled for 1 and 1:30, but her HIV doctors had wanted to see Olivia also to see how she was since her med switch, so we arrived a little early. When we checked in they said that they had been looking for us all morning for Olivia's EEG. Oh, nice. I explained the situation and that we had never been called and they called down to explain to the EEG people. At the appt, the doctor said he was actually glad and it was fine that she didn't have one. He was glad to hear that she has been doing so well on the meds and hasn't had anymore seizures or related issues other than some leg pain from time to time. He is going to see her again in 5 months and will do an EEG that day to see where we're at.

With Liam, he was glad to hear that he has not had any more problems. He had had two, what we think were febrile type seisures. They happened far apart and nothing since, so we're on a wait and watch time with him. The doctor said he won't set a new appt and we'll just see how he is. Sounds good to me.

We headed back with two sleepy kids in the car and picked up Braeden from the sitter's. We played at a park for a while and I debated whether or not to take the kids to a drive in theater I had discovered online. It's about an hour south of us and Wall E was showing, with the last day being Thursday. I thought it would be such a great experience that they would love, but it had also been a long day. I'm glad we didn't go!!!

After dinner we headed down to the basement to watch a little tv and relax. We had just turned the tv on about 6pm and I was getting ready to get on the computer, when the rain began. It was POURING! And then the power blinked and went out. We headed upstairs to look for a flashlight, and as I passed our side door I saw that the garbage can lid was in the neighbor's yard. I was about to open the door to get it, when I saw this:

That's my van and the tree is from a house two doors down. It had cracked part way up and fell across the neighbor's yard. I then turned and looked in their backyard and saw this:

It was CRAZY. We didn't hear anything but the rain!!! We went down to the basement to wait the storm, made the futon into a bed, and giggled and laughed under the blankets. At 7:10 I didn't hear anything, so we went upstairs for Olivia to take her medicine. The rain was done and it was clear as could be outside. I got the kids ready for bed and tucked them in, still no power. Everyone in the neighborhood was outside. It looked like a war zone almost. There were huge branches/trees everywhere. Everyone was helping each other cut up the trees and get them to the side of the road. One of my neighbors told me that she saw her garbage cans fly into the air and swirl around, like in a tornado. A friend who I called to check on saw the same with a lot of junk/garbage.

I talked with my friend J, who was over one town connected to ours. They had rain, but that's it. On her way home from her parents, she crossed an overpass and looked into my town, she said it was a sea of black. She had had no clue.

The next morning, all was clear and ready for the pick up crews: