Yesterday, I had a great day with my babies. We played all morning at an indoor play space, came home to nap/rest, went back out to run errands, had date night at IHOP, and finally hit another playground. The sky looked a little dark, but I didn't think much about it. I guess I should have turned the TV to the news at some point during the day. We arrived home from our busy day only to discover we were in the midst of tornado warnings all over Cobb county. After a quick look at the map, they appeared to be headed straight for us. After a minute, I actually start to hear the sirens. Colin is attempting to poop, and Molly is shopping for food in the pantry. I take a deep breath, and I start to herd the children to the basement. Of course, neither child wants to cooperate, and Colin is quite preoccupied with his attempted poop. Even Abby, our dog, is starting to get stressed and whimper. She is giving me the "can you please get your puppies under control?" look I have seen so many times. She is circling around the children, and I simply grab a baby in each arm, and head to our basement. The dog looked relieved, as if to say, "thanks, I had no idea how I was going to do that if you continued to be incompetent." I put both children in the basement, turn on the TV, and start to wait while coming up with a plan. My mind is racing as the weather guy says that I have about 8-10 minutes before it should be upon us. My husband has gone out for a well deserved, but sadly, ill timed night out with our friends. As they continue to describe golf ball sized hail, I decide to move the SUV into the garage, and quickly grab some rations. I bolt into the front yard, move the SUV, grab the kids blankies and stuffed animals, a few diapers, a giant box of goldfish I had just purchased, and an 8 pack of juice boxes. The good news, our basement is finished, so we had a bathroom, a fridge, couches, and a giant TV. Poor Colin is still attempting to poop on the potty downstairs, and I am debating whether or not Molly and I should just sit in the windowless interior bathroom with him, but poor Molly has now passed out on the couch. I make the decision to wait to hear more sirens before locking ourselves in the bathroom. My family was lucky last night, as we have been so many times. Storms actually terrify me. The devastation that can be caused by storms like this is humbling. It is a reminder that while I feel pretty silly for running to my basement with rations of goldfish and diapers, the whole situation could have ended poorly. My prayers go out to the families that lost loved ones, or even simply suffered property damage. I have learned that we need to go through practice drills here in our house so that the children understand what those sounds mean, and listen to mommy when she is trying to get them to safety. Poor Colin has learned that tornadoes don't wait for you to finish pooping...poor guy eventually completed the task while a worried mommy sat by his side trying to explain what was happening, and our sweet dog stood guard over her "puppies" sleeping on the couch. Mike arrived home safely, and we carried both kids upstairs to their rooms around 11 pm. I doubt either child really understands what could have happened last night, but I am glad it turned out to be a brief slumber party, and a silly picture of "base camp Bryan" posted on Facebook.
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