My Cherry Has Been Popped

Mike and I were in Antioch all weekend and Sunday night I got to have my first tornado experience. There were terrible storms all weekend, and there were several tornado sightings not too too far from Mike's sister's house Saturday night. But we were all cool, and never heard any sirens from the town over. But then last night the weather got nuts again. The skies got dark, the lightening was insanely cool to look at, and the wind was so strong I was having a hard time standing straight. We had the kids play in the basement so they'd be there just in case. Then we heard the sirens going off in the next town over. They have a weather radio thing that just goes off on it's own when it is anything other than sunny and 73, and the thing was freaking out. Beeping and blaring about tornadoes.
At this point, I'm getting a little freaked out. I grew up in Skokie IL. The worst odd weather anomaly we had, was in the 80's there was a flood. But I don't have time to think about it because the kids are getting really scared, and Collin, the youngest one won't stop talking about how we are all in 'great danger' because the tornadoes are coming to get us. So I was trying to get him to calm the fuck down and stop freaking out his sisters. So then I hear the sirens go off a few blocks away. All the adults look at each other and head down. Mike grabbed his computer, lol, because even if tornadoes are coming he has work to do... Being that I've never had to worry about a tornado before I wasn't sure what to grab, so I grabbed my purse that was right there, and a pair of shoes. Not sure why I grabbed the shoes, but whatever. They were right there, so I grabbed them. We all went into the reinforced concrete room, and hung out for a while. Steve had grabbed a bowl of popcorn, and Jenny had grabbed some blankets. So after we got the kids to stop crying we cuddled up in the blankets and munched on popcorn while telling stories. About 45 minutes later the sirens turned off and we came back up stairs. Everything was cool and untouched. Which is really really good because aside from the obvious reasons you wouldn't want a tornado by your house, Jenny and Steve are supposed to be getting married Saturday in their backyard.

So anyway, my tornado cherry has officially been popped.