It's going to be a long night.

After dealing with tornadoes on Sunday night, severe flooding last night (I almost didn't make it to the end of our street and then almost killed myself trying to make it to work), and facing the significant possibility for severe tornadoes tonight, my brain is dead. My sweet Kendall is acting all scared-hypervigilant-nervous about *anything* that even resembles a cloud in the sky and one of his good friends at school lost their home in West Siloam Sunday night. My heart is breaking for all those affected and we are going to do it all again tonight. I'm going to bed right after I take a long, hot bath.

I have a feeling I will need to be well rested this evening.

I love these kids. :)

So, yesterday I came home to a nasty tornado warning and sirens going off. It was really, really intense here for awhile. Jason was driving home in it. He had picked up Danielle and I knew judging by what time it was that he was getting very close to home....and the impending storm. I prayed first, then I told Kendall to get in the bathtub. I turned on the news and that is when I realized JUST how close the storm was. A storm spotter had identified a funnel cloud on the ground and it was headed right for us. I freaked out and called my son's grandfather. I was in a full blown state of panic by that time and knowing that my husband was driving in it almost sent me over the edge. Charles calmed me down a bit. I also called my best friend and told her the sirens were going off and she needed to take cover now. *She lives in a second story apartment with her two boys.* She decided it was best to try and make the drive over here before the storm hit us. So, there I was....outside....pacing....praying....and watching the sky. Debra got here first and Jason was right behind her, with Danielle. I got all the kids in the bathroom and we all started watching the news. It was then that we realized it was going to miss us by about 5 miles or so. It traveled right behind the casino and then turned and headed north of us. The casino is only about a two minute drive from our house and to be blunt, I was scared out of my mind. I had seen the severe damage the last tornado did to Arkansas' little town of Cincinnati in December.

We watched and waited.

It missed us and all we got was a bit of hail, some heavy rain and high winds.

I calmed down and later, my friend and her kids decided to go back to their own home.

A few hours after the storm I looked outside and the sky was a gorgeous red and yellow color. I told the kids to go outside to look and they were amazed at how awesome the colors looked. Before we came back in I was talking to them about if the sirens were to go off in the middle of the night, they needed to go straight to the bathroom and they weren't to try and grab anything. Just go to their safe place. Kendall looked at me and said, "Mom, what about my hermit crabs?"

Danielle, my sweet, shy, quiet daughter *she lets everyone else do all the talking around here!!* looked at him like he was crazy and said....

"Kendall, nobody cares about your stupid hermit crabs!!!"

I thought I was going to wet my pants I was laughing so hard.

If you know just how shy my step-daughter is, you obviously know this is totally out of character for her to say something like this.

I love these kids. They make me smile.