Siren's going off = tornado is here!

Well this last weekend was fun and eventful. At the last moment we went to the circus with some friends. We went with them, unfortunately because of lame people and stingy ushers, we weren't able to sit with them. But Kambryn was alittle wired and so we did alot of walking around anyways. But this circus was the Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey and it really is a pretty neat circus. SO much better than the one we went to with Jantsen's preschool a few months ago. Jantsen again loved the motorcycles in the cage. Kambryn liked the elephants. I liked the trapeze artists and Kyle, well he was just glad that everyone else was having a good time. It takes alot to really get him excited about things. But it was fun hanging out as a family and for pretty cheap too.

The next event of our exciting weekend happened on Saturday night/Sunday morning at about 2:30am. We had a tornado that touched down for about a 2mile stretch here in Omaha. I woke up about 2 minutes before the sirens went off to turn off our AC. This is how the next 6-8 minutes went. I heard the sirens start to go off, ran up stairs to wake up Kyle, half awake Kyle runs downstairs with me following right behind, he turned on the computer and I turned on the TV. We then sat for the next 2 or so minutes trying to see what exactly was going on. The weather guy was saying "There is a tornado coming, if you are in the Omaha metro area (which we are) you should be taking cover and in a safe place. So what did Kyle and I do? Oh nothing! What?! Yes I know, we sat there wondering is it really coming? Then we looked out our front door to see rain going sideways and our little parking lot had turned into a river. And our kids were still upstairs of our townhouse sound asleep. After about 2 minutes, the weather guy said the tornado warning had then turned into a thunderstorm/severe weather warning. So it had passed us. Luckily we were safe. Come to find out the tornado had touched down and caused ALOT of destruction about 10 miles west of us. Right around the Walmart and Target area that we grocery shop at. The storm was moving so fast that the tornado hit about 2 minutes before the sirens went off in that area.

I am now reflecting back on how STUPID Kyle and I were with not taking cover and taking care of our kids. I know it was a blessing or a prompting that woke me up to hear the sirens and then I didn't act on that prompting to protect my kids. I have learned my lesson Kyle and I are actually going to do our FHE lesson tonight on preparing for disasters/emergencies and we are getting 72 hour kits together this week and stocking up on water jugs. I think we are going alittle over the top with how determined we are to be prepared, BUT I want to know that I have done my part to prepare for any type of emergency. It was a small but needed awakening for me. But I am glad we are safe and it was exciting and scary all at the same time for that 10 minute span of watching what mother nature can throw at you.

This wasn't the actual tornado in Omaha, I couldn't find any pictures. But they said it was a EF2, so from comparing it to the movie Twister and they had an EF5, I'd say it was still a pretty good sized twister that came through.



And finally we wanted to wish Jeremy (my brother-in-law) a Happy Birthday on Saturday. What an amazing person he is. I have got to say that he one of the most loyal, genuine, caring, patient and fun person that I know and he is an amazing dad to his little girl, Eme-who is totally a daddy's girl!! I know that if we ever needed help in anyway, Jeremy not only wouldn't have to be asked more than once, but he usually volunteers to help even before asked. He treats all his nieces and nephews like his own kid and they all love to be around him! He is a wonderful person to have in our family! We love you Jer and hope you had a great birthday!