When it Rains it Pours

Literally. 

Last weekend, August 20th to be exact, I planned to show off to the blog world our very cute Woodward Dream Cruise BBQ.  For those that do not know.  Woodward Dream Cruise is a 16 mile cruise event where old/new classic cars cruise Woodward Ave in Michigan.  Basically it turns into a traffic jam for 12 hours.  Since I live so close to the event, we have a BBQ every year with a few friends and watch the cars drive by.  Ok, I people watched more.  This year, the theme should have been, "I survived Dream Cruise 2011."

The day started off normal.  I made cute cupcakes with cookies that looked like wheels, and made super cute car themed decorations.  I had planned to photograph the whole thing to show everyone.  Well, things didn't go as planned.

As I set up the BBQ and Clint grilled, we noticed the clouds rolling in.  While our guests played ladder ball, the thunder started and they quickly moved to come inside our home.  Out of no where, a sheet of rain flew in!  We all ran in laughing and soaked.  As I grabbed towels, instantly, the power went out and the wind picked up.  I then heard someone say, "Oh my god!  Did you see your car??"  I ran to the window to see our car covered under a tree.  The tree then blew over to our neighbors car, where it landed.

Luckily, it is drivable and this was all that was damaged.

I then heard someone yell, "Look at your back yard!"  I ran to the back bedroom window to see this...

and this...

and this...

This explained why the power went out.  We could not even begin to express the shock.  All of this happened in a matter of seconds and was over before you knew.  They called this a straight line storm.  65 mph winds caused all of this.

It is now day three without power.  We had to throw away almost everything in our fridge and freezer, and still can't fully access our backyard due to downed power lines.  Try explaining this to two doggies that love roaming their yard.  We also have to shell out a big deductible for our home owners insurance.  Not only did trees fall in the backyard, but they fell on the fence, and branches dented our siding and gutters that flew against our home...

Our neighborhood looked like a war zone, filled with tree branches in the roads and power lines on the sidewalks.  Most of the storm damage has been cleared, by now.

One thing I want to point out about power outages.  They surely do bring people together.  We are so blessed to have wonderfully helpful neighbors and each other.  We are so lucky no one was hurt in all of this and thank our lucky stars the trees missed our homes!  Things could have been a lot worse...I don't even want to think how!