Hey, Where'd the House Go?

Strong storms came rampaging through the Dallas/Fort Worth area the night before last. I was sleeping peacefully when, at about 3:30 a.m., I was awakened to the sight of Tyler hovering over me. Let me repeat that: I was sleeping peacefully. Our new house is full of windows so anytime I'm awake and a storm starts, there's no chance of going to sleep until it passes. It's just too lightning-bright. But last night, we were late leaving church, we were late getting to bed, and I was just plain worn out.

And if I'd known what was going to happen next, we wouldn't have been late leaving church. It just seems like the kids have so little downtime anymore that I let them stay in the gym and play basketball well after Bible class had ended. So we didn't get home until about 9:00 p.m. and the girls still had to take showers, plus we've been trying to spend time each night winding down by either playing a game (sounds contradictory, but it's not) or reading together so that put us (me, I should say) not getting the kids into bed until about 10:00. Randy missed all the fun because he was in a meeting until 10:00.

Anyway, we finally turned in for the night and I was enjoying a wonderful night's sleep when I was jarred awake by the sight of Randy's arm reaching over me, extending toward Tyler to get him to come over to his side of the bed. (Randy asked me later why the kids always go to MY side of the bed. My reply, "Because I'm the mom and that's what kids do. Get over it." You'd think he'd be pleased!)

Turns out Tyler couldn't sleep because of all the thunder, lightning and hail and the prospect of what it might do to him or the house. I'm telling you, this kid ought to be a meteorologist when he gets older--he is fanatical about storms. (Remember his "superior" science fair project on "Terrifying Tornadoes"?) He watches the news obsessively, waiting for weather updates when the skies are a little overcast. But I will admit, this was no run-of-the-mill storm; it was worth paying attention to.

Randy got up and turned on the television to find all major networks reporting on the storm that had essentially just passed us. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I slept through it. Did I mention I was tired? The storm was already on its way to Dallas and we could see clearly on the weather map that Arlington was not caught in the band of severe weather making its way across North Texas. Nevertheless, Randy noticed that there was a graphic of a tornado sort of hovering near Arlington and the next thing I knew, there were four extra bodies in our bed. Randy, defender and protector of our home, decided that it was truly "better to be safe than sorry," and he went and retrieved the girls and Sawyer from their rooms. (Do you see now why staying late at the church building was such a lousy idea?)

Sawyer thought the whole thing was like one big sleepover. He kept laughing at the spinning graphics and calling them "googly eyes." Pipe down, kid, it's four in the morning! It really was, people. And no kidding, by the time everybody was all snuggled in our bed it wasn't even raining! I have to admit, though, it was kinda fun. Well, except for the tornado part.