Crazy weather

Tuesday night the kids and I spent 45 minutes in our downstairs little guest bathroom. Not by choice mind you, but out of safety. Ian was almost asleep and Payton was in bed when we heard the tornado sirens go off. We knew that we were under a tornado watch and I was on alert, especially with Joplin's tragedy fresh in my mind. The kids hurriedly scrambled downstairs - Ian worrying the whole time. Payton was a little more calm a about it. I grabbed some blankets and pillows for comfort and safety and closed the door on our little 4x5 ft shelter.

Can I just say, thank God for distractions. The kids were super wound up (and so was I). They settled down into watching a show in the iPad while I scanned weather.com on the computer.

We were lucky. We had 2 tornado warnings, but no tornadoes near us. After the warnings had expired, I tucked the kids in bed but had to stay with them till they fell asleep.

Then round 2 started. We had a weird alarm sound through our neighborhood like it was traveling through the streets on a vehicle. Then it said, 'severe thunderstorm warning'. Another line of thunderstorms, this time with wind up to 70 mph and hail came through. The kids slept through it thankfully, but it was a pretty loud storm.

This was the fourth time we've used our little guest bathroom for shelter since we moved here less than a year ago.

We've been battered by winds, hailed on, several tornado warnings, 100 hours of below freezing weather, snow and ice. When we moved to Plano, I didn't realize how crazy the weather here can be.