In Like a Lion

March certainly came in like a lion this year, with the girls' first experience of a tornado last week. We started hearing the sirens around 11:30 at night, but since it was still calm outside we decided to stay in bed. Probably not the best idea given that our bedroom is nothing but windows! At 11:45 another round of sirens began, and then the storm hit. I have to say, I haven't been that afraid of a storm in a LONG time. One minute everything was calm, and the next minute the trees were completely bent over in the wind, the rain was pounding the windows, and the sky was flashing GREEN. The green lightning made me bolt upright and tell Joe that we needed to get out of that room and get the girls -- I remember seeing green skies as a kid when tornados were around. We headed downstairs and stood in the hallway by the basement. Libby was having a ball, and Siena slept through the entire thing. Ah, the adventures of living in the midwest!

We soon lost power, and woke in the morning to find huge trees down in our neighborhood. Thankfully our yard seemed intact, save a few branches from our big pine tree. I spent the entire day shuttling food back and forth from our freezer and fridge to my parents' house, especially the nearly 80 ounces of breastmilk I'd pumped for our upcoming trip to Orlando. Phew! When we were still without power that evening, we packed up the girls for a sleepover at Winnie and Picky's. Siena spent about half the night in her pink tent and half the night in bed with Mommy -- needless to say we didn't get much sleep! Power finally returned the next day, I moved all of our food back to our house, and all was well. What would we do without family in town? Thanks, Winnie and Picky!