Tornados, Wildfires, Summer Vacation....Oh My!

It's the last week of school! Four more days until sweet, sweet freedom. But, this week has already had its share of drama. This weekend a huge wildfire burned up 120 acres of prairie along the road I drive to get to school. This same thing happened about a month or so ago, but not as big. 120 acres is a LOT of land. The black stretch of scorched earth just kept going and going and going. It didn't look like any homes were harmed, but a lot of that land is grazing land for cattle. Probably not a lot of happy ranchers around that area.

Today the school day went pretty well with only a slight hiccup in the daily schedule. Near the end of the day it started hailing. I took my 1st graders to the back doors of the school to take a look. After the storm calmed down I let them go outside to get a piece of hail. About 20 minutes later it was storming pretty hard. As I was attempting to take the kids out to the busses an announcement came on that we were going to wait until the storm calmed down a little bit. Five minutes into playing "Heads Up, Seven Up," the tornado alarm came on. For about 45 minutes my class tucked themselves into little balls along the side of the hallway. I found out later that a tornado touched down only 5 miles north of the school and destroyed a house. Luckily no one was hurt.

Well, with that big storm came the big problem of power lines being blown down and crossing roads. Just when we thought the kids were all secure on the busses and ready to go home, another announcement came over the intercom informing us that the some of the busses were headed back to the school because they couldn't get across the roads with the power lines in the way. I stayed tonight to help out until 6:30. There were still 3 kids left who were waiting to be picked up by their parents. What a nightmare. We even had to raid the cafeteria kitchen for a snack to feed the kids. Spending 3 extra hours at school can make anyone hungry.

But, only 3 more days left. I can make it. I can make it. I can make it.