...and this is my chance, it appears. Welcome to springtime in Oklahoma!
7:10 pm -- Tornado sirens go off. The air looks greenish and it's VERY still. That's not a good sign. Weathercaster is beside himself with glee and says it's headed right for us. He says we should go to our tornado shelter for the next 40 minutes. Clearly he has never spent an evening in a closet with my four children, or he wouldn't make such an unreasonable request.
7:12 pm -- The kids are in the shelter and I'm on the phone with my dad, who called to make sure I heard the sirens. Hubs, of course, is out of town, far, far away from tornado alley. He always misses the excitement. I'm wondering if I can lie on top of all four kids at once to keep them from blowing away.
7:18 pm -- I join the kids in the shelter (yay for a laptop!) when the weathercaster darn near shouts, "TAKE COVER!" Rain and wind are seriously picking up.
7:22 -- Adam wants to know if he can sneak out to save his Nintendo DS. I say no.
7:25 -- Is it bad that part of me is hoping the pet rats blow away?
7:27 -- The boys are tormenting their sister: "I hear the tornado coming, Corrie!" That will be a great moment for therapy some day.
7:28 -- Major wind and rain, and the sirens are going off again. Just heard the weathercaster say a funnel could drop from the sky at any moment.
7:29 -- Corrie is squealing at the top of her lungs. Did I mention this is a very small closet?
7:32 -- Stephen just shouted, "The BABY BIRDS!" They're suspended in a flower basket, and the wind is awfully high. I ran out to check on them, and I'll be darned if their sweet momma isn't sitting on them, keeping them dry. I'm thinking about sitting on my own kids, though for considerably less noble purposes.
7:35 -- Okay, somebody's tooting in here. I NEED AIR!!!
7:38 -- The weathercast says the worst is probably over. And it's a good thing, because Corrie just bit Stephen.
7:43 -- The sounds of family togetherness:
7:49 -- The worst is definitely over. We're leaving the shelter, in one piece. The weather is still really bad south of us, though; I hope those folks are okay.
7:53 -- The baby birds are safe! But we don't see the momma anywhere; we're a little worried.
8:22 -- The momma bird is back. Wind is gone, rain is mostly gone, backyard is flooded! But we're safe, and these children are headed to bed. Hallelujah!
