well we knew with these warmer temps that it meant severe weather was on its way.

i started raining yesterday and we were doused with heavier showers through the night and this morning. ben left of for his little walk to work in a down pour and i watched the radar to see when the heavier cells were subsiding for a while to get the kids to school with as little soaking as possible. its was like go time. one down pour subsided and we raced to the van and i got them over to the school and out right as the next was letting loose. its all about the timing. lol.

i got luke to school and did my shopping and returned home. not only was the yard flooded enough to actual float the pirate ship but apparently unbeknowst to me we were in some sever weather warnings and watches.

the emails came pouring in inquiring to our safety. thank you to all for your concern but as usual i was completely oblivious.

the sun is shining now and there are blue skies everywhere.

and here is what can be an odd or funny or even disturbing fact about me. bad weather doesn’t scare me. maybe it should more but i never grew up being afraid of thunder or rain or even tornadoes.

i think it all comes from the fact that my dad used to work for the power company. he was a lineman and was always being called out in the middle of storms to fix down lines and turn the power back on. oh and consequently power outages never scared me as a kid either. “no big deal dad can fix it”

we were the only house in our neighborhood with a basement. so when there were tornadoes everyone came to our house. it was like a block party. and i grew up sitting on our front porch watching as the lightening made spectacular displays across the sky.

it wasn’t until college that tornadoes started to make me a little concerned. while away on a theatre trip in norman, oklahoma, my college town of arkadelphia, arkansas was hit by numerous tornadoes. we happen to catch a glimpse about it on cnn and spent the rest of the trip unsure of what we were going back to. the campus sustained no real damage (let’s hear it for big brick building) but the rest of town wasn’t so lucky.
the downtown was in shambles and many old trees were up rooted exposing root systems over 10 feet in diameter.

jerusalem‘s parents house was even hit and and destroyed. and my cousin’s mobile home in little rock was blown away as the tornadoes continued through the state. 10 years later the town has repaired itself but the one thing that i notice is that the trees that once towered are still gone.

so i guess i would say i have a healthy understanding about storms. my kids on the other hand are unfamiliar with this weather and it still unnerves them but i am trying to teach them that this is just normal for arkansas. i know to go to the center of my house where its strongest and to stay away from windows and doors. i know that brick structures fare the best. i know not to stand in an open field during a thunderstorm. but i refused to be afraid.