exciting 3 days

On Monday night {one day after the EF5 tornado in Joplin} we had really bad thunderstorms. all day. & night. news reported that a couple of police officers directing traffic in the heart of the disaster area got struck by lightning. one was released from the hospital that night, the other was still in critical condition the last time I heard. our house got struck by lightning too. we're not sure where it hit but it came out our kitchen light fixture. one that has 5 lightbulbs. 2 of them busted.

 Mathew & his dad checked all over to make sure nothing was smoking, no insulation was smoldering in the attic or anything. but there was glass all up in my kitchen! other than that. no biggie.

Tuesday evening we had bad weather again. a friend of mine from my mom's  meetup group & her family who was in the tornado came & spent the night with us. they were in their Jeep & pulled of where the road dipped by a bridge I think & rode out the storm. The have a 2 and 1/2 year old and a 4 yr old (i think he's 4) that were in the back seat. I don't know the whole story & feel weird telling their story. I don't know, I just kind of feel like it's bad etiquette i guess. anyway, they came over Tuesday evening to ride out the storm. isn't he cute??!

and Isabella just loves her daddy...

It was fun. but we did have a few tornado warnings. a few funnel clouds that would descend partway down but would go back up. right by our house. Thank The Lord nothing major went down around here.

all those days I've felt helpless, hearing stories on the news, seeing the images. I want to do something. so Tuesday I went to donate blood. heard they were low on O (+ & -). That's me. I'm almost certain I am O- but not 100% positive. I'll find out when I get my donor card in the mail I guess. but I felt like I had to do something. I've never donated before. had a blood drive in high school but i didn't weigh enough. now I do.. :/ lol but I prepped, drank lots of fluids. when they checked my levels the nurse told me all my levels were great. that I had great blood :)

I chilled with my 1st time donor sticker & my copy of Midnight Sun on my iPod. {Is reading a book from a vampire's point of view while donating blood weird?}

The nurse that set me up said I had great veins... I already knew that. hear it every time I have blood work done. You can see them whether I want you to or not. even with concealer. good thing I'm hispanic. if I was white I'd totally be see through. lol anyway, she told me iron levels were great, blood pressure perfect.... I was feeling great the whole time... until...

The bag was almost full & the nurse said "you're almost done. should be any minute!" right after she said that I realized that I was feeling a bit light headed. So I let them know. They propped my legs up a little. then took the needle out. {I was already done}. She asked me to put my arm straight up & that did it. I started feeling claustrophobic. of course they lay me down even more {ugh!} I asked for a drink. coke to help with the nausea I now had {something I learned from my time working at a pharmacy}. I felt hot & started sweating. plus I felt claustrophobic because they didn't want me to move. dry heave. hazard bag in my face. wet paper towels on my neck, forehead & chest. almost passed out.

what the heck happened?! everything was going fine! needles don't bother me. blood doesn't bother me. guess I can't spare any of my blood?! after about 30 to 45 minutes! I felt better. got up slowly & score!

Gardetto's & Coke!

they made me eat something & sit there for another 15 minutes. the nurse said {& I quote} "you look a lot better! earlier you couldn't even see your lips, they had no color in them. but you didn't pass out all the way!" ha! only me!... only me!