Emergency Preparedness

You will all be happy to know that J, the angels, and I did NOT blow away in the storm that blew through our town last night. We almost had a limb come through our front window, but, hey, it's a rental!

J and I were about 2/3 of the way through our DVR'd version of AI last night, blissfully oblvious to the mounting storm outside, when gale force winds began blowing through our neighborhood. 80+ mph winds. No joke.

Between the 2 of us, we decided it would be a GREAT idea to pause AI (thank you, DVR!) and find out exactly what kind of weather we should be concerned about. If I'm being honest, there's not much weather that frightens me worse that a tornado. Or even the thought of a tornado. A tornado watch will keep my eyes glued to The Weather Channel until it passes. Hurricanes? After growing up in Houston, I can live with them. Tornadoes? Too unpredictable for this Type-A"ish" personality.

So J. opened the front door- which is EXACTLY what you should ALWAYS do in the midst of gale force winds. Who doesn't need a little extra fresh air gusting through the house like a typhoon?- and the wind just wasn't "right." So we rounded up all the children to cozy up with some blankets and pillows. And nothing else but my cell phone. In the bathroom.

Thankfully, I just cleaned the bathroom the day before b/c the thought of pillows and blankets on the bathroom floor and then back into beds kind of gives me hives just thinking about it.

Cade was about to have a panic attack and kept asking if we were going to have a "twister." Micah, on the other hand, Lord help us if an emergency ever strikes while he's sleeping. Jason was shouting at him loud enough to wake the dead, with no response. J. finally got him lucid enough to stumble into the bathroom where he promptly fell asleep again.

J. kept an eye on the news and after about 10 minutes, gave us the all-clear that the tornadoes were north of us, headed northeast. Whew! Well, for us at least. I sent the kiddos back to bed, and finished up AI. We had to turn it up pretty loud to hear the TV over the hail that set in for awhile. But we were glad the storm passed quickly.

This morning, Cade was still talking about "twisters" and Micah was wondering why we had so many limbs down in our yard. And I learned that it's probably a good idea to keep a small emergency kit with a flashlight or 2 under the bathroom sink.