Pocketful Of Shoes: Crop Stories: Code Red

So, this last weekend I got to hang out with some great ladies at a Scrapbook Retreat. They will only be known by their aliases - to protect their true identity. Ok the name thing really took place at the delirious sleep deprived hour of like 4:00 am where some of us thought it would be funny to give each person a scrapbook retreat name at one of our previous retreats. Now, not all of the names have been nailed down - and one or two I made up on the way home, so they are by no means set in adhesive.

Anyway......we arrived at our exotic location on Lake Texoma Thursday afternoon. We decided to venture out for some dinner, and Paper Madam insisted that we try some local cuisine at Merlene's. We did a drive by - where we were caught by Mr. Merlene checking the place out. When I stepped through that door into the dimly lit dining establishment I was a little scared. Merlene's was the local bar, where every bar stool was occupied. They were very friendly, but poor Merlene was worn out making all of our dinner while Mr. Merlene told not so funny jokes to us.

Now I admit I never watch the news and I do not check the weather - seriously does it matter in Texas? The weather changes all the time, and usually the weatherman can't keep up. So I was unaware of the coming storms to the area we were staying. But our kind hostess was diligent in her efforts to make sure that we were kept abreast of the worsening weather conditions (translation: she wouldn't stop calling to tell us that we were in for it). Poor Scrapbug (I am still working on a new name..but think of it as a cute little ladybug holding her adhesive in one hand and her scissors in the other) took the brunt of these calls, over and over again. Most of us were like...whatever, bring it on mother nature. That's about when the phone rang and it was the local fire department issuing a CODE RED alert which demanded that we take cover due to the tornado's. Luckily our hostess had already advised us on where to go....the smallest freaking room in the house - the spare bathroom. Six ladies in one bathroom w/closet for about 30 to 40 minutes. It was fabulous! Lucky for us Scrapzilla had located the mother of all flashlights before we closeted ourselves in there, and I had grabbed my camera for proof!