In the Closet

Yesterday I spent half an hour with two of my kids in the closet. Why you ask? Hmm…well when I got up in the morning, the temperatures were in the 70s and the sky was clear. A short while later, out of nowhere they sky went completely black. In case I never mentioned it before, this part of the country has storms like you would not believe. It is intensified by the fact that we have an old house with older windows that just rattle with every rumble. This storm was right on top of us with lightning and thunder coming simultaneously. At one point there was a bolt that struck right outside Kendra's bedroom window where Kaitlyn was on the computer, and hit our air conditioner. Yikes! Right after that, golf ball sized hail came. Hail is an indicator for tornadoes. We scrambled around and gathered up all the animals, and brought them all inside. The thunder wasn't in a clap – it was a long rumble and each one seemed to last longer than the first, and everything got really weird outside – so I yelled for the two kids who were home to get in the closet. I took the laptop in there with me and checked out the Doppler radar – and sure enough, we were under a tornado warning until 4 pm. It was only noon. It was one of the longest afternoons of my life. We were spared but my nerves were shot. I am not cut out to live in this climate. The day before it had been sunny and beautiful, and this came out of nowhere. That is the hardest part – the unexpectedness.