A Rough 24 Hours

We've had a rough couple days here in Nashville. It started Friday with severe torando warnings across the state of Tennessee. I planned to leave school right after dismissal and hurry home, but as I was leaving I remembered that I had to write substitute lesson plans for Monday and hadn't done them. I hurried and wrote them, but just as I finished, the sirens started going off near my school. The adults left in the building, along with the after school daycare, went down to the basement room and waited it out. Meanwhile 15 miles away, Brian was waiting under a rug in the center of our apartment while hailstones the size of golf balls pounded our apartment.
After the main storm passed, I made a break for home and got home safely before some smaller spots hit. We were so blessed to be so safe during this storm that was devastating to other parts of the midwest and south.

Fast forward 24 hours. We had just finished moving, loaded all the leftover junk into our car, and were on our way to Goodwill and then the airport to pick up Brian's sister, Stacey. We were driving along 8th Ave. South. Two cars ahead of us, a car had stopped to turn left across traffic. The car in front of us slowed and stopped, so we slowed and stopped. Seconds later, a Jeep Grand Cherokee plowed into us from the back. It was such a shock! I couldn't stop saying "Oh my goodness..." and Brian was saying "what just happened?" It was all very confusing.

We pulled over and then waited 30 minutes for a police officer to come file a report. We looked like we had been living out of our car-- there was Goodwill-bound junk everywhere. Our back window was completely shattered and gone, and our hatchback trunk was smashed 1.5-2 ft into the vehicle. The officer told us that we could drive our car but not after dark and only as much as we absolutely needed to. So we eventually got Stacey and made it home.

Our poor, sad Mazda.
Thankfully we are both fine, besides some very sore/stiff necks and backs. It is a miracle that things weren't much worse!