Tornadoes?!!! Where?!

This is just a pic I found on the Internet...not anything I took. :) And not related to the recent tornadoes.


This morning around 3:25 a.m. I awoke to rain pelting my windows and high winds, as I started to drift back to sleep the sirens went off. "How serious is a Tornado threat in Madison?", I thought. But I jumped up thinking of my kids and stewardship over them as well as to my husband. We ran upstairs grabbed the kids, and I was pleased that as soon as I said Tornado to Chad, he bolted to the closet under the stairs with his pillow. We've had to do this a couple of times, so he knows the drill. I grabbed Heath and we realized how messy our game closet (under stairs closet) was and threw everything out and used that opportunity to explain to the kids that if they actually PUT stuff away in a neater manner, we wouldn't be having this problem right now and a tornado could've hit us by now and we wouldn't have been prepared. So, now I have a mess to clean , but at least it's not our entire house all over the yard. :) There was some rotation over Browns Ferry and County line Rd., so we took it even more serious then.

Just so you dog lovers know...I put Misha in the kennel with a blanket over it, in case glass shattered, he'd be protected (at least somewhat). That was the best we could do because there is barely enough room under the stairs for us let alone Mr. 120 pounds dog! :)

We listened to the news and as soon as it sounded like the Tornado threat had been lowered for us we all went back to bed.

If we were in Texas I wouldn't even consider asking that question. When I was about 10 years old we were hit with 6 Tornados all around us. I remember my crazy brother and dad looking out the window at it and I actually got to see it too and was amazed that something that skinny looking could do so much damage. Of course this was after we all huddled in the hallway of our triple wide (how safe is that) we said a prayer, sat snuggled in a TON of cushy blankets and pillows on our heads, and then we felt the house shake and it sounded like a freight train was directly over us. 3 of those tornadoes really did some damage and after they were gone you could see all the emergency people gathered in a neighborhood only a couple of miles from us taking action. Our school became a temporary shelter. I remember that as we drove around town there were HUGE holes in the sides of some buildings as well as trees all over the place. So, I would say that they are definitely a threat in Texas, but I have realized it is better to be safe than sorry.

Before this I only remember one tornado up in Chicago when I still lived with my mom and I was freaked, of course in my 4 year old mind I thought it was and ugly squat monster that tried to eat you, but it filled me with fear and it took several lessons in school in Texas to convince it was no squat monster attacking people. LOL

But I would like to mention that many other areas were hit pretty hard in the South and we should all keep them in our prayers. Tennessee was the hardest hit, with dozens killed and hundreds more injured. More than 40 people were killed in these storms, 4 here in Alabama.