Tornado Warning

We live in the mountains. We're not supposed to have tornados in the mountains. Only flat places like Texas, Indiana, and Kansas get tornadoes, right? Apparently not. Though Blacksburg didn't have a tornado yesterday, a very close town only about 8 miles away did. And baseball sized hail.

Last night was crazy. I didn't wake up to the booming thunder or lightning that was occurring every half second. I heard Ethan wimpering. Heard him through our wall in the room next door. Crazy how your ears get tuned to only certain frequencies during the night. But when I woke up I saw Braden standing at the window looking out at this crazy storm. Although we didn't know it at the time, I think we were both actually woken by the tornado siren that went off at VT only a couple miles away.

So we stood there...should we go to the basement? Wake all the kids from their slumber and go to the basement? What a pain! I went to get my phone so I could check the radar from my weather app. We were in a tornado warning until 1:55am and it was 1:35am. My brain was still asleep so I still stood there for a bit trying to decide. But it's better to be on the safe side. So, we woke all of the kids.

As Blythe was walking down to the basement she told me, "it's a tornado and if we stay in our rooms we will die". The power of fear to make them do the right thing!

Brynn was quite confused, but fell back asleep on me as we waited in the basement. Blythe and Ethan climbed into the guest room bed down there and went back to sleep. Once the tornado warning was over, Braden stayed down there and slept on the couch so the kids wouldn't freak out in the morning when they woke up. I took Brynn back upstairs and went back to sleep (eventually).

Braden woke me at 5am when he left for morning practice and I took his post on the couch in the basement. What a crazy night! Hoping not to have to do that again ever (though glad we do have a basement to go to).

As a side note, when Blythe and Ethan woke up this morning, they didn't see me on the couch and they were not the slightest bit concerned. Ethan seemed a little confused, but Blythe reminded him they were in the basement because of the tornado. They were busy jumping on the bed and trying to play with the treadmill in no time (while I laid on the couch and listened).