Sobering Moments

This is what we faced within the last hour. This pic doesn't really do it justice, but it was the best I could get.
As I write the tornado sirens are still going off, but I assure you we are safe.

I experienced one of the most sobering moments when I walked into Cackie's school today to pick her up. As I was on my way there, the sirens started going off because of tornado warnings to the south of us. When I got to the school, I found all the kids and their teachers in the closets of the classrooms. It hit me suddenly how different these emergencies are now that we have Cackie in our lives.
Cackie and I quickly left the school and got home just before the big downpour of rain hit the area. Michael got home a few minutes later and got drenched just running from his truck to the porch. In the meantime I was running around the house, gathering candles... searching for the flashlight and cranking the weather radio (of course, there were no batteries in it!). I had Cackie in the hall closet because at that time the news weather forcasters were calling for a big cell to come right over our house. When Michael got here, he manned the upstairs while Cackie, the dogs and I headed to the basement. We were down there nearly 45 minutes listening to the radio and hearing reports of tornadoes and damage just 10 - 15 miles from our house. Cackie of course, didn't really understand it all but she was soo well behaved. I'm so proud of my big girl!
After we came upstairs we got calls from friends and it was a sobering feeling knowing that others are worried about us as much as we were about them.
We left our little setup in the basement just in case... there's a line of storms coming from the west and we'd much rather be safe than sorry.
Stay safe everyone!