I have had enough of this weather. Wind (and I'm not talking about a nice summer breeze), rain torrential downpour, lightning and thunder (which is nice to watch for an hour or so but NOT all night long) and tornadoes. I'm tired of it. And yes, I'm sure in a couple of months when we're in the middle of summer, I'll be thinking, "Boy I hope we get some rain soon."
Last night, I had to get the kids out of bed and take them to our tornado shelter. I honestly don't remember exactly what time it was, but I know it was after 8:30. I was watching the weather and pretty soon they started talking about tornadoes west of us heading east. Well crap. Of course this time, I wasn't prepared. After all, last time they had been warning us for days. This time, it was about 10-15 minutes. I went outside. It wasn't even raining yet. I went back inside, got the diaper bag, made sure there were plenty of diapers and wipes, threw in a few snacks, a flashlight and my contact solution because of course on this night, my contacts would be bothering me. I got a sippy of milk for Ethan and a cup for Ereka and went ahead and put them in the diaper bag. Looked outside again. Still nothing except some a lot of lightning and thunder. Ereka gets out of bed and asks, "Mama, I think we need to go to our tornado shelter." So I told her to get a pair of socks and her tennis shoes. I then proceeded to get Ethan up. Of course he was already asleep and trying to get him up was like trying to wake the dead. I put both kids on the couch. The weather man said that people in Douglass should be heading to their tornado shelter. Well crap. I decided to go ahead and take the diaper bag and purse out to the car and unlock the car doors just in case, but I still wasn't sure we would be going anywhere.
As I'm putting stuff in the car, I notice everyone in the neighborhood is leaving. I took that as a sign. I went back inside, grabbed the kids and loaded them up. Just as I was buckling them in, the tornado sirens sounded. As I drove to the tornado shelter, I decided I better call Eric and let him know what was going on. I knew he was working and wouldn't answer his phone and honestly, he probably didn't even have a clue what was going on, but just in case, I wanted him to know where we were. It was a good thing, because I had limited cell phone service inside the shelter. And as much as I was trying to stay calm and collected, I left a very teary-filled voicemail on his cell phone. Because of course this would have to happen on a day that we were cranky with each other and barely even said goodbye when he left for work.
I took the kids inside the storm shelter and we sat and waited. And waited. And waited. We were in there over an hour. There were probably at least 50-75 people (as I try to picture the room and recount in my head) the same area as us and there was no air conditioning. Before I had left, I grabbed my MP3 player from the computer and threw it in my purse. I'm glad. It has an FM tuner and so I was able to somewhat listen to the weather on the radio while we were in the shelter. But I had to turn it off. It was making me nervous. At one point, a lady actually said, "Everyone sit down and cover your children because it's headed right for us." And yet at this point, I was calm. I've been in this situation before a few times; back when I was a girl scout. It never failed. Every year, while at girl scout camp there would be a tornado near us and we would have to go to the storm shelter. It always upset me. But I was younger then. I think I was calm because I was too busy trying to keep an eye on Ereka and keep Ethan from running off to explore. I didn't have time to be scared.
Luckily, nothing happened. I believe there was circulation that passed over us, but nothing touched down near us. THANK YOU LORD. And so we went home.
And of course we still had lightning and thunder and wind and rain all night long so I didn't sleep at all. I am absolutely exhausted today. That ugly orange couch in our conference room is looking mighty comfy right about now.
