Stormy Nights

Another storm filled night at the Stewart home. The storms started popping up in the state last night around 9pm (at least that's when I realized there were storms in the state).

By 10pm my mother had already been camped out in her storm shelter for couple of hours.

I called my brother and his wife to check on them, and listened to a short rant about, "Mom's in the storm shelter again?!"

"It makes her feel comfortable. She doesn't have to pace in the living room and worry about what's happening."

"Fine. Whatever. I'll talk to you later."

We watched the weather until about 11pm before succumbing to exhaustion and going to bed. At some point during the night we played a round of musical beds. One of the twins wound up with me, my husband ended up in the guest room to keep from getting kicked in the nether-region by a flailing 4 year old leg, and the other twin ended up in the guest bed with him. The baby is the only one who stayed in her own bed for the entire night. I ended up on the couch at one point as well.

At 3am the phone rings. NOT Good. I have never received a phone call at 3am that was good news, though occasionally it's been a wrong number. This time it was Mom. Her weather radio was going off. Tornado warning outside OKC. Were we watching the weather?

Great. Well, I was watching the weather now, and sure enough, tornado heading our way. I woke my husband up, and one of the twins followed us to the living room, full of questions: Is there a tornado? Where is it? Is it gonna get us?

I didn't want to frighten him, so he sat on the couch with daddy and watched while we waited to see what would happen. The tornado warning expired before reaching us, but the weatherman mentioned straight-line winds entering the metro area anytime now.

And NOW was the cue for the wind to whip up into a frenzy. It blew our patio furniture to the neighbors fence, even though I had moved everything under the patio roof and up against the house to keep it from blowing away. But I don't think there's been any damage, but it's been raining all morning, and I have no intention of going outside until the rain and lightning stop.

But once again, I am thankful for my mom's emergency preparedness, which kept us abreast of a possibly dangerous situation, and helped keep us safe.