Storms!

Well, we were kissed by the tornado, but were blessed to receive only minimal damage. The pond flooded the yard almost to the house, but the spillway kicked in and we didn't get any water inside.
The scariest part is that we had no warning. The sirens aren't audible where we are if you're inside. We awoke to our french doors (all three sets) blowing open as the tornado was reaching our house. I've never heard such a sound. Bradley flew up the stairs and pulled the kids from their beds upstairs as pieces of roof and siding were being pulled from right over their heads. We got into the basement and then about 1 minute later it was just...gone.
It rained a lot through the night and the next day. We watched as the pond rose up over our 5 foot fence and approached the house. The guy who built our house and the ones next to it brought a boat out and went over to the dam to be sure the spillway was working and once we knew that it was functioning, we breathed easy. I still don't like that it flooded our yard, but I'm counting my blessings!
Poor Tuscalosa got it so badly that I feel like we shouldn't complain a single bit.

Here are some pics:

early morning

it took about an hour to cover the fence completely

we had moved the composter up the hill, but the garbage bin that had blown into our yard (not ours) had a nice float around the yard! The water eventually was about halfway up the beds. I'm so glad we made them so tall!!

five foot fence was completely covered not long after this was taken.

it rose a few feet closer to the house than it is in this picture before the spillway kicked in.