We went thru one last year on may 8th here in southern IL...well technically it was callled an inland hurricane. We had over 110 mph winds here, I had to take down my 80 year old twin silos due to damage, we had over 20 trees down in just our yard alone, had damage to the house and barns......over 20,000 worth of damage. We are still cutting down trees from last year. We were without power for over a week and you learn quickly how unprepared you are for that. We learned alot of lessons on keeping more water for drinking on hand, fuel to cook on with the coleman camping stove and stuff like that. Live and learn. I have never heard such noises during that storm from inside and outside the house. It was crazy....I don't know I 'heard" the train noise coming.....just alot of loud groaning and breaking glass, grinding metal and stuff like that. It was the only time in my life where I actually went to the basement and feared for my life, but my 5 year old grandson was with me and I didn't want him to get hurt so we were under the pool table. I am usually the idiot on the front porch watching the storm. Not that time.

Carol, I believe you are right about the majority of the damage being west of Meridian. If I remember the streets correctly, we went a block or two past Meridian and the drove south on a road I don't remember. When we got to Evergreen, we turned back east. It was on Evergreen that you really saw storm damage to the north of Meridian. On the south side of Evergreen, there was damage in pastures, but that sort of damage isn't as obvious as wrecked homes. When you drove towards Meridian on Evergreen, you passed the remains of the home (north of Evergreen and west of Meridian) where the elderly man died and his son suffered injuries that would take his life a day or so later. As we got close to Meridian, the damage was staggering. Turning from Evergreen north onto Meridian, we observed damage on both side of the street. The trailer park was on the east side of the road and it had the most damage, but houses that were on Meridian, but on the west side of the road, had spotty damage. It was like the storm hit Meridian and traveled almost, but not quite, straight up Meridian. However, it was going somewhat east of the road and as you traveled further north on Meridian, the damage was going more and more to the east of the road. I don't know if I said that well, but we first saw major damage west of Meridian on Evergreen, then on the west side of Meridian road, then on the east side of Meridian road, and then further and further east as you drove north towards Hwy 70. If a storm ever hits and I am under a carport, I hope I have that same "dumb luck". LOL EVERYONE should have a weather radio--we have three, plus our fire/police radios, and 2 out of 3 of the fire radios have the NWS channel. Tell your BIL that they also can sign up for weather alerts from KXII at the KXII website and the station will send weather alerts to their computers or cell phones. I remember the Wichita Falls tornado well. My older brother was a college student there at the time. While I do remember the massive damage quite well and, also the lives lost, what I remember most was that, when we went to WF for his college graduation 13 months after the tornado, there still was so much damage that hadn't been fixed or cleaned up. There were buildings with tarped roofs, the street lights and traffic signals all were not repaired or replaced, and rusting hulks of cars still set on right-of-way or in medians. At the time, I couldn't imagine why they hadn't cleaned up more, but now I understand it--the feds didn't help pay for clean-up back then as much as they do now, and I am sure WF was doing the best they could with the resources they had. Because the street lights had not been repaired, it was SO DARK there at night. I don't know how people drove on the pitch-black streets without having accidents constantly. After the afternoon graduation ceremony ended, my brother urged us to leave for home quickly so we could get out of WF before darkness fell. Once, when we were on vacation in south Texas, we drove past the remains of a small town, once known as Saragosa, that ceased to exist after it was wiped out by a massive multiple-vortex F-4 tornado. I think we drove through the remains of the town in the early 1990s and the tornado had hit in 1987. That tornado wiped out 85% of the town's buildings, killed 35 people and injured 121. The town only had a population of about 185 but there were extra people in town for a graduation ceremony in the community center. That community center was hit and hit hard and quite a few fatalities occurred to people inside it when it collapsed. Saragosa was a very improverished, mostly Hispanic community and almost every family opted to move away and start over someplace else. Because most of the town's inhabitants spoke ony Spanish, and warnings were issued only in English, very few people even knew there was a tornado bearing down on the town. When we drove through the town, all we saw was the remains of 1 house and a lot of concrete slabs. It was eerie. Dawn

I don't have a ghost story, only one that makes you go "hmmmm". My best friend from college, Robbie, comes to WI to visit about once a year. He grew up about an hour from where I live but now lives in California. About 25 years ago, Robbie's older brother married a wonderful gal named Kay who quickly became a dear SIL to Robbie. I met her a couple of times and she was a sweet, down-to-earth, funny, loving person. The family was devastated when Kay was diagnosed with brain cancer, but she survived for several years and went through several treatments before passing away. She and her husband had one son. It's been about 15 years since Kay's death and every time Robbie visits, we talk about finding where she was buried, since Robbie would like to see her grave. He didn't remember much about the cemetery or church, so a few years ago, during his visit, we walked for about an hour through a cemetery about 10 miles from my house, since Kay and her husband lived in a small town near here. No luck, and Robbie's details are so vague, I didn't think we'd ever find the grave. Well, last fall he visited and I asked my boss if there was another cemetery in another town nearby. I didn't think there was, but she told me about one. We went there and as usual, Robbie thought this was "the one" and said he vaguely remembered her grave being near the back of the cemetery near the perimeter fence. We drove into the cemetery and found it to be very large. We drove down the main road and Robbie looked and looked for anything familiar. When we got to the end of the road, we could see that the perimeter fence was a ways away and the graves weren't even close to it, so he was doubting this was the right cemetery, either. Well, he told me to turn at the corner and then finally he said to pull the car over so we could just get out and look around. I hadn't even had time to get out of the car before Robbie checked out the closest headstone and found it was Kay's. It still amazes me and I'm certain that we had some kind of "help" finding the exact location after all those years. Here is a link that might be useful: a lucky break or what? :)

Lascatx-- "If the valance is old, you got your money's worth and it's okay to let it go." I smiled when I read that. It reminded me of trying to get one of your kids to let go of their security blankie or Pooh. I remember how much fun Hannah and I had doing her room and I guess I do need to think about letting it go ;-) Mtnrredux -- love Company Store. Looked for the denim duvet cover and only found the bed skirt. Do you think the duvet cover is discontinued? I love that look. I thought trundles always came with beds, I didn't realize you could purchase them separately till you pointed it out. I don't know if one would fit under our beds. Love the encapsulated mattress idea too. Geokid--had never really looked into bamboo shades, because our old lake has has them in the kitchen and they don't darken. They came with the house. I just looked at them again online and was pleasantly surprised at the selections, colors, and that you can get them with an optional liner to darken the room. Thanks for the suggestion. Busy bee-- when my dds were in high school and even older, we had girls all over our basement. Sprawled everywhere. Wouldn't have had it any other way :-) the night before oldest dd's wedding 2 yrs ago, I had 8 bridesmaids "sleep over" . They don't mind sharing, but you are right boys will not as time goes on. Anitamo and Ellen-- love the sleeper chair, but couldn't find a picture of it opened up. Had no idea there was any such thing. 2 would fit nicely in their room. Sherman--I loved your story. That your dd wanted to do that says something special about how she feels about "home". Anne-- thank you for your opinion. We are moving them down there this afternoon and I'm leaving the valance just for now. So well see :-) Geokid--I did ask for honest opinions and I appreciate yours. Jennangelcat--my boys don't care. At least they say they don't. Which is surprising because they are so different. One is sweet and sensitive, the other is all boy. I should just make the room neutral...and let it evolve! Oakleyoak--thanks. Your sleepover sounds fun. The white blinds are definitely going. That was one spendy thing I got for this house that I'm gradually replacing throughout. Bugs die inside them, no good way to clean them, etc. About the boys.... They are definitely different animals than my girls were. Thanks all. Woke up with a little anxiety about not having my "babies" across the hall from me after 10 yrs . Guess I need to get over it and get to work. Stay tuned for pictures after move!