Tornado Time

Early this month at least twelve tornados touched down in North Texas in one afternoon. That's just crazy. And scary. The sky was on the foreboding side even in the morning as we made our way too and from Paige's two month checkup and to pick up Tessa from preschool. It wasn't until later in in the afternoon that the weather really started to party. The news was soon saying that if you lived in certain counties (mine being one of them) that you should not go out. So, I cancelled my doctor's appointment that afternoon right before they called to tell me to stay home, and I kept the news on. You know that colorful radar they use to show you the direction of a storm? Well, the screen was a virtual rainbow with intense weather all over the place. We feel very fortunate that our city stayed in a pocket of less severity. But, that's hindsight! You never know where tornados are going to tango once they are on the prowl, and the weatherman kept making comments about getting to the bathroom or other safe place with blankets, etc. Our safe place is our bathroom --the tub as the safest spot. So, I figured I should listen and be prepared.
We've lived here almost six years and had the tornado siren go off several times, but this was definitely the biggest threat we've dealt with. I had Cole and Paige down for naps but felt like "better safe than sorry" was an apt cliche at the moment. I dragged those two grumpily off of their beds and tucked them into the blanket and pillow filled tub with Tessa and me. Emergency supplies close by, we had the TV up loud in the living room so I could hear when the worst had passed.
A heavy thunderstorm came tearing through, throwing some hail on the lawn, but that was over in a few minutes. With Jake in another city working, I worried that it might be worse there and just wanted him teleported home. It turns out that they were ushered into the work bathrooms where he was working that day. Jake turned ACDC's "Thunderstruck" song on his phone while they were in there for amusement (his own, mainly). He said that he could hear one of the women yelling and rebuking the storm in the lady's bathroom. Very different approaches. After the strongest part of the storm in that area had moved on, they went outside to check it out and saw hail on the ground.

 Really big hail.

This was Jake's last week helping out with this company before he was back to his office with covered parking in Dallas. The hail pock marked the entire top of his car. Some of the dents I would imagine could have knocked a person out if they had been hit. Even though his car suffered dent damage, it fared better than his coworker's car: 

That hail slammed right on through the windshield! Crazy.

Back here at home Paige and I were done with the crampy bathtub scene, but the "tormado" (according to Cole) leftovers were still pretty exciting to the older two kids. I gave them some animal crackers and let them go hang out, munch, and read in the tub. 

(That's a big sticker on Cole's head from the pediatrician. I don't know why it's on his head. It just is.)