Rain ... Be Gone, You.

Rain, rain, go away. Pretty please?! 

It was heartbreaking to watch my hometown of Columbia, SC get flooded. My parents (who live on the outskirts of the city) definitely witnessed flooding in the neighborhood, but had no problems themselves, thankfully. But last night I was awake at 3am just thinking of the homes and businesses that were lost. Ian and I were watching the NBC Nightly News last night, and a red-eyed man was interviewed and was discussing the devastation. I turned to Ian and I said, "I know him." Columbia is just not that large. He was involved in the ballet school where I spent more days than less through the age of 17. And in the background of the interview video was my old dance teacher, the owner of the ballet school, staring straight ahead sullenly and smoking. I know the ballet school is located right in an area that was hit HARD, so I'm assuming they were flooded as well. Devastating. 

We started realizing the gravity of what the weekend would hold around 9:30am Friday, when my mother-in-law let us know that my sister-in-law and her family would no longer be traveling from Cincinatti to the family mountainhouse to meet us all. Boone was supposed to be hit hard with rain, so we all made a decision to move the visit from Boone to our home in Charlotte. My MIL packed up all of the groceries she had just stocked the fridge with and headed to our house. It was great having her here ... she played a ton with Camille, cooked us homemade chicken and dumplings that night, and relaxed with us on the couch that evening to all watch Dateline together. Low-key and great.

Saturday was pretty relaxed, minus me calling 911! It had been raining a little bit and Ian was out with friends. Camille was napping and all of the sudden I heard a LOUD gunshot. I texted Ian and he immediately responded, telling me to report it to 911. I felt a little crazy doing that but definitely want to keep up the safety of my neighborhood. I told the responder that I didn't know if it was an emergency, it could have been someone shooting a snake or something? But it just didn't sit well with me. So they sent a cop out to investigate.

Lo and behold, 30 minutes later, I received a call back from the officer. What I heard was a transformer that blew! I can't describe how loud it was. When it blew, it caught on fire, so they told me that all was good and nobody was harmed. 

Sunday, we all went to Moes, Homegoods, and Jesse Browns. Jesse Browns is an outdoor store we like, and Camille was intrigued by some of the animals they have up in the store. The bear ... she wasn't really a fan of that one at first. 

Later yesterday afternoon, I met my ADPi little sister and her cutie pie son at the mall. We wanted to let the kiddos get some energy out at the Lego store and at the outdoor play area. They had a really fun time together ... it was so precious watching them play!

Here is his sweet mama and me ... back in 2008!

So, even though Charlotte wasn't hit badly this weekend, I feel like all Ian and I talked about was the scary rainfall throughout the Carolinas. We were horrified by some of the photos we saw online. I just cannot imagine losing so much unexpectedly. There just didn't seem to be the knowledge beforehand of how bad it would truly turn out to be.

Stay safe, everyone, and let's all keep those affected by the torrential rains in our thoughts.