Hiding Out in the Laundry Room

No, it's not what you think. That's not my actual hiding place for the times I have the need to pull out all my hair.

This was a hiding spot for another reason: tornado warning!

Not fun. Not fun at all.

But, when you are a mama to three little ones and a dog... And, you husband is sent out of town on business for a day or so... You are obligated to make it fun. No matter what.

Three years ago on April 27th, we had a tornado warning. And it hit much of our neighboring town just 7 minutes from us.

So, on April 28th of this year, I was not going to take chances. So, at 9:29pm, I yanked the boys out of their beds (after every warning on my phone, tv, and actual tornado siren was yelling at us that it is our time) and sent them to the laundry room. Complete with their pillows and babies. Alex, my grumpy pants, was NOT a fan of being woken up. But, who is?? Austin wasn't sure what was going on. But, my sweet Andrew (at 4.5 years old, by the way) turned into a big boy in an instant. Alex was so scared... Andrew tried to make him laugh, sing to him, hold his hand. Everything. We even made funny faces:

Now, that first warning was really more of a "watch out" it seemed only because it was lifted pretty quickly. Only, they shouldn't have done that.

Twenty minutes later I get the boys back in bed. As I shut their bedroom door, the tornado siren begins blaring. My phone is buzzing and beeping out of control. The warnings are going off on my phone from Google, the Weather Channel, Fox6, and some emergency alert system. Jason is texting me everything he is seeing on the Weather Channel from Mobile. My mom is now texting me, too. My friends are texting me. My neighbors are texting me.

Well, this isn't good.

By 10:15, I tell the boys run to the laundry room. I grab Austin while Andrew rounds up Max and we listen. By this point, I get Fox6 live streaming on my phone and we are watching in the laundry room with pillows over our heads.

At 10:22, Jason writes "Next tornado heading right for you. It's on the ground and it is big."

Not something you want to read...

As I get Jason's text message at 10:31pm that read, "Buckle up" it gets crazy.

The wind had stopped for a moment, then it seemed as if all hell was breaking lose. Stuff was flying into house (later we found out it was a bunch of branches from the trees on the hill behind us), hail was hitting our roof and windows, our house was literally shaking (our safe spot in the central most locating and surrounded by pipes as it is the laundry room), and then all stopped just as quickly as it started.

Around 11, I was able to get the boys back into bed. They were not fans of that. Well, Alex wasn't. But, Andrew talked him to sleep it sounded like. They were worried about the storms - as it was to continuing raining the rest of the night. But, I taught them a little way to figure out if the storm is going away or not. Maybe this could help you kids, too, when there are bad storms. You most likely already know it.

     When you see lightning, start counting "1001, 1002, 1003..." until you hear the thunder.
     Then you will know how close the storm is and if it really going away. 

Andrew thought it was the coolest thing. And, Alex started laughing when Andrew would get higher up in number. Finally the house was quite and back to sleep once more. Austin did pretty good being woken up and such. He is such a good baby!

This mama needs a treat...

Thank God, that nothing more than that happened to our neighborhood or our town. Just horrible winds and rain.

However, a few towns just north of us didn't fair so well. Kimberly, a small town maybe 15 minutes north or so, lost a good portion of everything - a church, many homes, many businesses, etc. A few weeks have gone by and they are in the rebuilding stages. But, please keep these people in your prayers.