Mama's Intuition

I love me a good thunderstorm.

This past Sunday I had a rare moment of alone time - everyone was out running errands & G was napping. There was a storm brewing in the distance. The power had flickered a few times, so I decided to make sure all the TVs & computers in the house were off and I settled down in front of our big picture window to watch the storm roll in.

The lightning got closer, the thunder louder. I told myself if I saw another bolt of lighting get much closer in the field across the street that I would move from my perch at the window. The lightning didn't get any closer, but the hail started pelting the window.

I went to our back room (we all call it the no name room) to turn on the weather radio. None of the warning lights were on and it kept giving me weather for Niagara Falls. Um...I don't live near there, so it wasn't much help.

After fussing with the radio for a minute or 2, I looked up and realized the house looked like it was going through a car wash. Horizontal rain was hitting every side of the house.

This is what amazes me about being a Mom...I don't know if it was intuition, a pressure change in the atmosphere or not wanting to be alone...but I didn't wait another second in running upstairs & getting G from her crib.

She must've sensed it too, because she was wide awake and shot her arms up for me to get her out of there.

Heading down the stairs my mind was racing, deciding if we should sit in the shower in the bathroom, should we go to the basement (which gives me heebie jeebies) or should I just stand in the middle of the house, looking out the windows, ready to run to one of the locations if need be.
We hung out in the back room for a few minutes, Miss G just sitting on my lap, starring out the windows, not even trying to wiggle away from my grip. Luckily the storm started to subside before I could give where to go another thought. I was flooded with relief as I could no longer hear thunder and there was only the sound of light rain.

Like I said, I love a good thunderstorm but that was the most intense storm I've ever been in.  And I've been through 2 microbursts - one of which in a RV - and 3 hurricanes.

It turns out, a tornado had touched down not a mile & a half from where we were. Lots of homes, barns & crops have been damaged but luckily there was not one single injury. (To humans, some cows received scratches & bruises.) 

Tornadoes are a part of life in parts of this country, but certainly not this part. As you can imagine our little community is a buzz.

I learned 2 things from that storm: Never second guess a mama's intuition and the weather radio we have is useless.