It's not over, 'til it's over

Apparently, I remembered the important things about living through tornadoes in Kansas like: grab a flashlight (or two in case your toddler wants to play with one), crack the windows open a bit (confirmed by Eric's text from Asheville where he was visiting his Dad and Jan after another Hollywood stint...more on that later), stay away from said windows, and remember that things are just things. As Camille was soundly sleeping (and I got a few winks), my ever-vigilant mom texted me letting me know the severe thunderstorm warning had now turned into a tornado warning. I had known this as I was glued to the television trying to find the most legitimate weather forecast. All of them concurred: take shelter now. First task: wake Camille. Check (she did great through the whole ordeal). Second: crank volume of TV up loud so I can hear any new announcements while in the bathroom (mind you, this bathroom is tiny). Third: Coax dog to go into the bathroom (no problem there, she came very willingly). Fourth: Hunker down! Log on to YouTube on the trusty Droid and search "Elmo." Hallelujah! Lots of choices - Elmo and Adam Sandler even - perfect for Camille AND me. So, in this position we sat - dog on floor curled as tightly as a golden retriever can curl literally on my feet and Camille sitting on my lap laughing to Elmo and Adam Sandler. (In the background I can hear the piercing blare of the warning sound on the TV and rain on the windows while the lights flickered on and off). In the midst of the Elmo videos, texts from my mom: "I'm reading about a large tornado on the ground in north raleigh. Do you hear anything?" ... "la la la la, la la la la, Elmo's song!" "Ok? Tornado in ground north Raleigh." (We live in Northwest Raleigh). What a wonderful mother I have...I can only imagine how awful it must have been on the other end. We both agreed that we would have gone crazy without texting.

Anyway... shortly after this stint in the bathroom (at which point, Camille started feeding Mabel piece by piece of her food - so cute!), we all needed to escape. Wanting to see what it was like outside (the sun was peaking out, clouds breaking and blue sky emerging), we geared up in the stroller and got Mabes leashed up. It was sprinkly but clearing. Ha! Apparently the thing I forgot was to wait until it really is over. We got halfway up the street and it started raining a bit more. Then a huge clap of thunder and the rain came. And then, the pea sized hail came. And then I started looking for cover but I was SO close to home I thought just running faster would be better. (I can now see how this fallacy gets people in trouble). Finally, we made it into our garage and all was well. We ALL (I think even Mabel) took a deep breath and said, "whoa!" We were absolutely drenched. We changed clothes and Camille enjoyed just being in a diaper and bloomies. I made a unilateral decision to have a "nibble tray" for dinner -- not exactly in the mood for cooking anything -- we munched on cherry tomatoes, hummus & crackers, pickles, cheese, black beans and yogurt. Delicious. Rehashing the entire afternoon in part for my own sanity and not wanting Camille to have traumatic memories associated with rain, we talked about how wet we got and admittedly a bit scared. "Mommy got wet! Tameel got wet! It not rainin' any moah." Thankfully, Camille, it is not raining anymore. Here is the link of one of our local news stations that shows the path of (all) the storms.