“Life is not waiting for the storm to pass, it’s learning to dance in the rain.”

We did a little of both this weekend. Waiting and dancing. I was scared on Saturday. More scared than I have been a while. 

My Employer closed. That is unheard of. I closed up shop and went home in the rain. It had started a couple of hours earlier. I got home to my kiddos and my neighbors watching them and was thrilled to see they could care less about the weather that day. They had gone out to breakfast, played with legos, made a Birthday dessert for the Mr. and even had watched a movie. Boy, the things they con the newbies in to! :)

I made us some lunch when Hubs came home for break and we all sat and chatted. When it was time for Hubs to return to work instead of the kiddos crying, Mommy did. I was overwhelmed at being alone with my kiddos in the house while we did nothing but wait. And wait. Hubs wasn’t due back home until almost 8pm. 

The kiddos and I prepared some Ziploc baggies of water, took some water bottles to the deep freezer in the basement and checked the basement walls for leaks. All clear.

After an hour or so it seemed as if we were only getting bouts of rain here and there. Not too much wind. So, what better than to get a little wet in it. Out we went. I stood in the garage snapping pictures while ME, JP and puppy Daisy headed out into the rain. They got soaked. They laughed and smiled the entire time. And why shouldn’t they? It’s just another rain storm. 

When the kiddos seemed to have had enough we all returned to the comfort of our home and changed into dry clothes. We watched a little TV and I even decided I may make dinner since we still had power. That’s a Holiday in our house, Mommy making dinner. I prepared everything I had for my spaghetti with meat sauce until I realized we had no sauce. My APB on FaceBook and Twitter proved useful though when my neighbor showed up at my door with a jar of Ragu. (I love my neighbors!)

While scanning FaceBook, the neighbor around the corner had posted a picture that caught my eye. Her Hubs and her kiddos were in their back yard slip sliding in the mud. Surely this was no serious storm if they were out in it like we were earlier. And even deeper in it. I invited us over.

We jumped in the car and made our way in the pouring rain one street over. ME went straight to the backyard. JP tried and decided he was more comfortable inside with Mommy. That was fine with Mommy, too. We watched and laughed as the Daddies in the backyard pulled the kiddos on boogie boards through the mud. Once again, when we returned home we had to change into dry clothes. Well worth it, though.

Once the sun went down, Mommy got scared. I began reading of several Tornado Warnings in the area, our area, my Mom’s area, my Dad’s area, my friends’ area. Everywhere. I was, eh, okay, until all of that. I had let the kiddos play outside twice for goodness sake. The Tornado Warnings changed all of that. One had touched down at the Beach near where Hubs’ Dad and Grandmother live. This was too close for comfort. 

We started out upstairs camping together in our bedroom. Until the Warnings became closer and closer. Once we lost power, off we went to the basement. I had told ME before she fell asleep that if Mommy woke her up and told her it was time to go to the basement, we go, FAST. She was my little trooper. She feel asleep on the floor of my bedroom and not 20 minutes later we were headed down. She held my hand as we made our way in the dark to our hideout. Hubs carried JP down and when we got to the bottom of the stairs he sat up and said excitedly “we’re camping in the basement?!” And then like a switch, went right back to sleep. 

Hubs and I did not sleep. We dozed here and there, but we did not sleep. I remember wondering how safe we actually were. Would we be found if something did happen? Would our dogs be ok? Would we all be together? I remember regretting that I didn’t evacuate. I had thought about it. I had thought about taking the kids, the dogs, and some clothes-- west. I didn’t know where west. I just knew West. The only reason I didn’t was that Hubs was still expected to report to work and there was no way I was leaving him behind. 

Our power came back on some time between 1 and 2am. I was relieved and exhausted. But the power did not restore my safe feeling. It almost made it worse as I heard the sump pump come on over and over again and quickly, too. I kept wondering whether I would wake up swimming. 

I said goodbye to Hubs around 4:30am as he waded off to work. I was not happy at all that he was leaving us. But I know he had little choice in the matter. At least the worst was supposedly behind us. When I finally watched some news around 9am, it was in fact, behind us. 

And the kiddos and I returned to our normally scheduled Sunday routine. That afternoon we even ventured out to one of our favorite spots on the bay, Woodland Beach.   

Ahh, a sigh of relief as I watched the kiddos do their thing, without a care in the world as to how lucky we just were.