Wow, this cartoon about tornado's SUCKS!
I woke up this morning and was checking email when the tornado sirens started blaring. Luckily neither of my kids were up yet or I probably wouldn’t have even heard it. After checking my watch and realizing that it was neither noon or Wednesday, which is when the siren is tested, my heart started to pound and I realized that this is probably “the real deal.” I don’t watch the news, read the paper or spend a lot of time on CNN.com so I was a little behind on the gigantic storm blaring through my area of Cobb county. Needless to say I was a little freaked out. Especially since I had two children to get up, get dressed, one to sit on the potty, the other one needed her diaper changed, food and water to pack into a bag, the hand cranked radio grabbed and get the three of us and the dog into the basement.
What struck me as hilarious is that after I got Porter and Gracie up and dressed, I decided to turn on the TV to see the weather report. Because the only TV we really watch in our house is for the kids (thank gods for the iPod) it immediately started blaring PBS’s “Word Girl” which was promptly turned off so we could see our impending doom. That went over swimmingly as you can imagine. Between Gracie’s screams of anguish and Porter’s tears and cries of “BUT WE WANNA WATCH WORD GIRL!” I could barely hear what the TV was saying. All I could do is yell, “BUT WE NEED TO HEAR THIS BECAUSE THERE IS A TORNADO SO SHUT THE MOUTH!” Once we established that we were being ordered into the basement by not only the siren wailing but the TV screen turning black with the tornado alert information, we quickly grabbed our tornado bag and down the steps we clopped.
So here’s something I forgot to pack in my ever ready bag for the emergencies… kids toys. That’s right. So here we are with two options. We can either play with our christmas decorations (fun fun!) or we can see how long it takes for Gracie to notice the dead cockroaches and try and pick them up. Meanwhile, I’m running up and down the stairs trying to grab last minute things. I’ve instructed Porter to make sure that Gracie doesn’t come up the stairs so he’s at the bottom of the stairs with Gracie in a headlock, she’s screaming “NO NO NO GRAB!” and I’m trying not to laugh at this very serious situation. Porter has decided that during this time that I need to get his light saber because when the tornado comes, he’s going to turn it on and “ZOOM IT BACK TO MARS.” Gracie, who was interrupted and thrown downstairs before she got a chance to eat breakfast is desperately trying to break free from Porter’s grasp and crawl up the stairs to her high chair. My dog, who couldn’t care less and loves to follow me everywhere, it right at my heels driving me nuts and trying to get sucked away like Toto in the Wizard of Oz.
Those of you who know me must realize that if I did get sucked away in a tornado it would be like poetic justice since I’m in love with The Wicked Witch of the West. Anyways, the tornado warning passes, we’re all okay and I’ve had yet another exciting installment of “why having kids changes your whole concept on life.”
