Tornado!

Just checking in to let everyone know that we are alive and well.  Yesterday afternoon our family experienced something new to all of us.  We heard that storms would be moving in late in the afternoon so Rich came home early from work.  I'm so glad that he did--since he is the experienced one when it comes to tornadoes.  Rich and the boys watched a movie for a little bit until I insisted that we check the news.  We then moved the movie watching into the hallway on the laptop.  Rich grabbed the boys mattresses to pull over us.  When the weatherman informed us that the storm was headed to our little town we turned off the movie and pulled those mattresses on top.  Rich informed the boys that the power would go off in a minute... and right on cue the house went dark.  We huddled under the mattresses (boy it was HOT), played "I spy" (although there wasn't much to see!), told dad about our days, and played a matching game on the ipod.  Since all our stuff is packed up we had no idea what was going on--no emergency radio.  We could just listen to the storm (it sounded like a low growl) and wait for it to pass.  I also texted Rich's mom to get updates (when we could get reception) and she let us know when it was gone.  It was nice to get out of that hallway (not exactly comfortable sitting on the floor under a mattress with no air when you are super pregnant).  We waited for the rain to stop and then went outside to assess any damages.  We are so blessed that we had no damages at all!  (We drove past the new house as well and it is safe also.)

The boys had fun playing with the worms and splashing in the puddles.

Not everyone in our little town was quite so lucky.  Apparently our town was "the hardest hit area. There's more damage in {our town} because it's the most densely populated area."  In fact, they canceled the last day of school (which should have been today). {See here for pictures} The saddest story I heard was about a mom who was with her three kids huddled in the bathtub when the tornado hit.  Two of the kids have been found alive but her three-year-old is still missing.  I can't even imagine being that mom!  During the tornado I kept thinking, "If it hits us I am going to hold on to these boys tight so we don't get separated."

Rich has been through a lot of tornadoes but he said this is the most scared he's ever been in a storm.  In all his years of living here this is the closest he's been to a tornado.  Let's hope it's the last time!