Tornados!

We had a very exciting night last night! Ha! Luckily I was on the phone with my sister yesterday evening when she asked if I was ready for all of the tornados. Tornados? Huh? They don't have much of a storm tracker on Nickelodeon these days! It was just raining a little outside so I didn't think too much about it. (I did grow up in the middle of tornado alley after all) So we went ahead and ate and went to the toy room to play a while before bedtime when I decided to turn the TV on. Whoa! I had exactly 25 minutes before they estimated the first rotation to come right over our house. So now I had a decision to make....keep Ainsley up and wait it out or put her to bed? Funny that I didn't think about shelter first! :)

So after a couple of friends called to check on me I decided to go ahead and get Ainsley ready for bed...just in case the storm didn't even come our way. Well, now I only had 20 minutes left so I was in a little bit of a panic mode. I got Ainsley in the bath and started pulling stuff out of the bathroom closet and lining the floor with blankets, pillows, books, snacks, flashlights, etc. to keep her happy. Then everything was out of place...couldn't find my cell....pajamas were all in the dryer....flashlight??? flashlight???...where's the stupid weather radio!!??? Yeah, I was a little flustered trying to get everything finished in enough time to get Ainsley out and dressed without rushing her. After all, I didn't want to scare her. Well, too late. I guess just all of the commotion was enough because she was crouching down in the bathroom and starting to cry a little. When I asked her what was wrong she said, "I cared!" (I'm scared) So I ask why she's scared and she says, "Torm's comin!" (Storm's coming) Wow! I had tried so hard to be calm in front of her (and didn't even know she knew what a storm was) but kids are SO perceptive!

My friend, Leah, called back to warn me that it was headed straight to us and see if I wanted to come on over. I had pumped myself all up into thinking I'd be fine by myself, but knowing that I was starting to scare Ainsley made me decide it might be better to go over there and get her mind off of things. So, by now I only have about 5 minutes before the storm hits. I decided to drive the Bronco (hoping I'd get Clint a new truck out of the deal) but I had to put the carseat in first. Then I had to chase Benji because he was so scared and running from me. By now it was REALLY pouring down outside and a little hard to see, but I could see the wall cloud and we still had plenty of time to drive just a few blocks to their house. Leah had made popcorn for the kids and, being in their p.j.'s, they thought we were having a party! They immediately starting running around and squeeling! We mostly let the kids play while we watched TV and Caleb (Leah's husband) watched outside. At one point it got scary enough that we went to the closet where Caleb had hooked the portable DVD player up and made a little pallet for the kids. They stayed in there for a long time!

Well, the rotations were coming about every 10-15 minutes so I knew it would be several hours before it all passed by. So, I decided to put Ainsley to sleep at their house. She did fine and we continued to watch the storms pass right over us until about 11:30pm when Ainsley woke up crying. I think she just didn't know where she was and it scared her...plus she was overtired since it was after 9:00pm before she went to bed. So I decided to just go ahead and take her home. There were only about 3 more rotations to pass and it looked like they would miss us by 4 or 5 miles so we loaded up during the heavy rain again (since I knew a tornado wouldn't hit during rain) and went home. It was a scary drive again, but once home Ainsley went straight to sleep. The poor thing just climbed into bed and closed her eyes! I stayed up until the last rotation passed about 1:30am. But then woke back up at 2:15am to a loud noise and the weather radio going off again. I turned the TV back on and waited it out again...back to sleep at 2:45am.

6:45am - my alarm clock went off so I could get the trash out before the truck came. This is something I really hate doing while Clint's gone because the truck usually comes so early! Then I just went ahead and took a shower and got ready because we had Toddler Toes at 10:00am anyway. Well, it turns out the truck didn't come until 2:00pm and Ainsley slept until 9:00am! I could have had 2 more hours of sleep!!! Agh!

Oh, the loud noise? I guess a branch broke off of the neighbors huge dead Oak tree (behind us and over one). Their guttering is flattened and there's plastic nailed to the corner of their roof. At least the tree didn't fall because it probably would have hit our house!