We arrived in Illinois in the middle of a drought and the hottest summer in living memory. We went on to freak snowstorms including ten inches of snow on the second day of spring.
We've now made it to tornado season.
Last night we were at church for the Wednesday night service. We could hear rain drumming on the roof. It quickly grew in intensity to the point where it was about to drown out the preacher. (It was competing with some people in the sanctuary who feel the need to chat during the sermon because of course whatever they are saying to the person next to them is so witty and/or deep they just can't hold it in until after the service and of course they aren't bothering anyone around them who might actually want to listen to the preacher not to mention the fact that it's just plain rude and weren't they taught manners growing up or were they born in a barn???) Ahem.
Then someone from the children's department trotted into the sanctuary and announced without preamble that we needed to cut it short, get our kids, and get out. Now. Bad weather was a-comin'.
As everyone jumped up and headed out, I looked up at the preacher who was just shuffling his notes together. I felt bad for him, he worked on that sermon, put time and effort into preparing it for us, and it was interrupted by rude people, and then by a tornado.
We grabbed the girls and headed home. Luckily the rain had slacked off and it started to seem pointless that we had actually left the church so early.
We got home and started in on another episode of Dr Who. Emily and I have seen them all and we are trying to induct Kerry into our Dr Who fandom.
Then Ben texted me, "The tornado sirens just went off."
I texted back, "Is there a shelter you're supposed to go to?"
"No idea."
Great. My oldest son is twenty minutes away in a possible tornado and no one has ever told the students where to go in case of danger????
Or maybe they did but he wasn't listening.
I got up and went to the door, and realized that indeed, the tornado sirens were going off, we just couldn't hear them over the sound of how awesome Dr Who is. We debated heading for the basement, but really, Dr Who was being stalked by the Empty Child, and well, there's no TV in the basement.
Then Ben texted, "They're calling us out of our rooms." Luckily they have a system at his college where everyone gets a text if there is any sort of danger.
"Where are they sending you?"
"We're just in the hallways."
"Okay, away from the windows, that's good."
"Yeah, this building's pretty solid, are ya'll in the basement?"
Uh....."No, we're in the living room, we'll run down there if it gets worse." I would have throttled any of my kids if I had gotten that response from them in the middle of a tornado. I would have been furious. I would have stomped around and griped about how I raised kids with no common sense whatsoever.
But Dr Who was on!
And.......it all turned out okay. We did not get swept away by a tornado. I am not writing this from the land of Oz this morning and breakfast is not being prepared for me by a hoard of grateful Munchkins. Dang it.
The only downside came when we headed to bed (after watching two episodes of Dr Who because the first one was a cliffhanger) and we discovered that Katie had left her windows open and her carpet was soaked a full two feet in from the windows. And I do mean soaked. Also, one end of her bed was wet, we had to take the mattresses apart so they could dry thoroughly and we used quite a few towels, paper towels, and the spot bot vacuuming attachment to get all the water up.
Then we aimed an oscillating fan at the carpet and went to bed.
Then we discovered that Kerry had accidentally given me caffeinated coffee instead of de-caf while we were at church. So I stayed up and played "Plants vs. Zombies" for a few hours until the caffeine wore off.
And now I have to go make breakfast because the Munchkins ain't gonna.
Peace Out.
We've now made it to tornado season.
Last night we were at church for the Wednesday night service. We could hear rain drumming on the roof. It quickly grew in intensity to the point where it was about to drown out the preacher. (It was competing with some people in the sanctuary who feel the need to chat during the sermon because of course whatever they are saying to the person next to them is so witty and/or deep they just can't hold it in until after the service and of course they aren't bothering anyone around them who might actually want to listen to the preacher not to mention the fact that it's just plain rude and weren't they taught manners growing up or were they born in a barn???) Ahem.
Then someone from the children's department trotted into the sanctuary and announced without preamble that we needed to cut it short, get our kids, and get out. Now. Bad weather was a-comin'.
As everyone jumped up and headed out, I looked up at the preacher who was just shuffling his notes together. I felt bad for him, he worked on that sermon, put time and effort into preparing it for us, and it was interrupted by rude people, and then by a tornado.
We grabbed the girls and headed home. Luckily the rain had slacked off and it started to seem pointless that we had actually left the church so early.
We got home and started in on another episode of Dr Who. Emily and I have seen them all and we are trying to induct Kerry into our Dr Who fandom.
Then Ben texted me, "The tornado sirens just went off."
I texted back, "Is there a shelter you're supposed to go to?"
"No idea."
Great. My oldest son is twenty minutes away in a possible tornado and no one has ever told the students where to go in case of danger????
Or maybe they did but he wasn't listening.
I got up and went to the door, and realized that indeed, the tornado sirens were going off, we just couldn't hear them over the sound of how awesome Dr Who is. We debated heading for the basement, but really, Dr Who was being stalked by the Empty Child, and well, there's no TV in the basement.
Then Ben texted, "They're calling us out of our rooms." Luckily they have a system at his college where everyone gets a text if there is any sort of danger.
"Where are they sending you?"
"We're just in the hallways."
"Okay, away from the windows, that's good."
"Yeah, this building's pretty solid, are ya'll in the basement?"
Uh....."No, we're in the living room, we'll run down there if it gets worse." I would have throttled any of my kids if I had gotten that response from them in the middle of a tornado. I would have been furious. I would have stomped around and griped about how I raised kids with no common sense whatsoever.
But Dr Who was on!
And.......it all turned out okay. We did not get swept away by a tornado. I am not writing this from the land of Oz this morning and breakfast is not being prepared for me by a hoard of grateful Munchkins. Dang it.
The only downside came when we headed to bed (after watching two episodes of Dr Who because the first one was a cliffhanger) and we discovered that Katie had left her windows open and her carpet was soaked a full two feet in from the windows. And I do mean soaked. Also, one end of her bed was wet, we had to take the mattresses apart so they could dry thoroughly and we used quite a few towels, paper towels, and the spot bot vacuuming attachment to get all the water up.
Then we aimed an oscillating fan at the carpet and went to bed.
Then we discovered that Kerry had accidentally given me caffeinated coffee instead of de-caf while we were at church. So I stayed up and played "Plants vs. Zombies" for a few hours until the caffeine wore off.
And now I have to go make breakfast because the Munchkins ain't gonna.
Peace Out.
Comments
Post a Comment