Bad Weather

Indiana is cruel, because whenever the winter weather turns beautiful, you know you're gonna pay for it later.  And Tuesday was blindingly, blue-skyed, roll-in-the-grass gorgeous. We loved it.  But it has been so long since we had bad weather (2011 was a good, good year for us!) that I didn't take much notice of the weather forecast that night.

I woke at 5:30 Wednesday morning because, naturally, that was the time my subconscious had appointed to remind me that I forgot to return my 18 library books the day before. (Sure wish I could reset that reminder to before midnight...) I sleepily saw a flash of lightning and wondered if I could convince Michael to run the books over before work... then the librarians would be fooled into thinking I'd returned them the night before...  I drifted off to sleep just a little bit when the alarm rang.  Wait, no, that wasn't the alarm.  A phone call?  Michael fumbled at the phone keys and listened for a moment.  Then he threw the covers off and jumped out of bed.  "Into the basement." he said, dead serious.  "Get the kids.  NOW."

I fell out of bed and grabbed a shirt (yes, I still remember my BYU freshman training - "always wear a shirt to bed in case there's an emergency."  Except I never wear a shirt because I'm so burning hot at night, but see, I remembered to grab one!  I can't remember if that's smart or stupid.  Anyway.) I grabbed the baby, ran him downstairs, plopped him in the bassinet and ran back up to help Michael shepherd the little ones down the stairs.

We tried to snuggle the little ones into our big basement bed, but by then they were both wide awake and bouncing (yes, that is redundant, our kids bounce 13 hours a day.)  Zane went down for another half hour but Jed and Zoe insisted on cuddling under blankets in the big green chairs to watch TV with Dad.  Outside, very little seemed to be happening.  We called our neighbor Jackie down the street and she hoofed it over to join us just a few moments before the tornado was supposed to hit. We all sat and rocked and chatted.  Have I ever told you how much I love my basement?  Because I REALLY love my basement.  Peace of mind is worth a million beautifully decorated main floors.

Thankfully, OH SO THANKFULLY, the tornado skipped right over us before touching down just to the east and taking out several houses.  To our relief, no one was even injured in our town, though the same could not be said for many, many people to the south and east. Waking up in terror, grabbing your children, and running for safety isn't exactly the most lovely way to start the day off before 6 AM, but it's so much better than the horror that other families felt yesterday. We all hugged our kids a little tighter that day and thanked the Lord for modern technology (the"Thunder Call" that woke us with the warning), a basement to give us some security, and the protective hand of our God watching over us this week.

Over the course of the next hour or so, we made and received many phone calls and texts, as members of the community checked in on each other to make sure everybody was safe and no damage done.  I sure love our neighbors and church friends around here.

The weather was indescribably gorgeous again today.

I'm wearing a shirt to bed. Just in case.