And the Thunder Rolls...

In northwest indiana yesterday, the morning began with a completely black sky. The clouds had quickly rolled in from the west, and after a phone call from thehubby that sounded like "Honey, did you look outside? How cool is that?". No, I hadn't looked outside. The blinds were still closed, the boy was playing/watching TV, and I was working on the computer (the just so happens to make it so I am facing the kitchen, with my back to all the windows in the room). No, I have to admit, I am NOT a fan of storms. Ever since my 5th grade teacher showed us a movie called "Sounded Like a Freight Train", I have been deathly afraid of storms, particularly ones with wind involved. This is exactly why under our stairs in the basement, I have an emergency area set up, complete with pillows, blankets, water, food, diapers, extra clothes for Jonah, candles, flashlights, cat food, all three cat carriers, and my Black & Decker Storm Station that I got as a birthday gift a few years ago (and yes, I had asked for it for my birthday!). So, I kept my eye on the storm and it rained pretty hard, and got pretty nasty, but was over fairly quickly so all was well. The day went on, with a little more rain, but nothing major, I really thought we were out of the woods.

Then last night came. And frankly, I can't remember what I was doing, but it was about 9:30pm and the tornado sirens in our town went off. I of course, FREAK, make the hubby turn on the weather channel and see that a funnel cloud had been spotted in the area. The wierd thing was, theair was calm, not a trace of wind, and a bit of lightning could be seen in the distance. I called my dad since he lives about 10 minutes west of us, and always gets the weather that we do, only a few minutes earlier. He told me it was pretty nasty, windy, thunder, lightning, lots of rain, but no tornado. And shortly after I got off the phone with him, it hit us too.

The storms were off and on all night. The boy ended up in bed with me, and the hubby went downstairs because he couldn't sleep, to watch some TV. The lightning ended up getting so bad I decided I didn't want to be sleeping with my little guy on the top floor of our house, so I took him downstairs around 12:30 and made up a bed on the living room floor. This posed a problem, because he rolls a lot in his sleep, and ended up in pretty wired places, but I tried to contain him with pillows and my own body. Then, when you think it just might have calmed down enough to get some much needed sleep, at 2:21 am, my cell phone rings...well, vibrates. It was an 888 number, and I was like, "what the heck?!?!" I let it go to voicemail, and then checked the message. It was the alarm company from the DQ (our family business that my mom and her significant other/boyfriend own, in our hometown...which is about 30 minutes away). It is really strange for them to call me, because my phone number is literally the 5th number on the list, which means they call 4 other numbers before they get to me. So, I am freaking out because I can't get a hold of my mom or the boss and their home phone was out because it went straight to voicemail. I called, and called, and called, and called....no answer. I then called the alarm company where they told me it was the cooler alarm that went off, but it reset itself, meaning the power must have gone out for a few seconds, causing the alarm to trip. I hoped and prayed that that was truw, because I wasn't about to drive in that weather, 30 minutes away, in the middle of the night, for something like that.

Then, this morning, I finally get a hold of my mom, who said that the town was in shambles. Trees down, power out, massive flooding (in the street AND in her basement...again, but that's a whole other story). She is supposed to watch Jonah today while I work, but probably won't be able to due to the massive mess she's now going to have to take care of. So, hopefully, in a bit, when I call my dad and step-mom, they will say they are able to watch jonah today (they are both on vacation this week, but being so last minute, they may have plans). So, today I will either work OR stay home, not too sure yet.

And tonight was the town's Night Out Against Crime, where I was going to get pictures of the boy on a fire truck, to help decorate his new fire truck bedroom, ;-(. Hopefully, they will reschedule, to a much nicer day than what today looks like it is going to be like.

And currently, the sky is still fairly dark, fast moving clouds, some thunder and some rain. And seriously, you gotta tell me Mother Nature ain't tired yet? Geez!