Storm Warning

Reading Brad's blog this morning he was talking about hurricanes and our midwest version, tornados and it got me thinking about storms in general. When our four kids were young, we lived in an older farmhouse that had the master bedroom on the main floor, and two bedrooms up under the eves upstairs. The two girls slept in one room and for awhile, the two boys slept in another (ES got to the point he couldn't stand his little brother so moved into the 'dungeon' - our unfinished, dank, damp, icky basement).

The stairs that went up to these rooms were very narrow and shallow (the steps themselves weren't very deep). Hubby grew up in this house, and his room was upstairs, so even as a man with size 11 feet, he could go up and down those stairs like a man on fire. Me, I went slowly, putting each foot sideways on the steps, holding onto the railing for dear life, and STILL managed to fall down them a couple of times!

Because of the steps being so trecherous, I was always paranoid that if lightening would strike during a storm, or if we'd have a tornado warning (that usually gives you about a 10-15 minute warning, if that), it would be hard to get all the kids downstairs in a timely fashion. We started a routine, that if there were storm warnings out, we'd just have the kids sleep in the livingroom. That solved a lot of trouble. My kids are notoriously deep sleepers, too. Especially the oldest one. We'd go upstairs to wake them and make them move downstairs and I'd think she was awake - she'd be talking to me and walking toward the stairs - when I'd turn around and she'd be back in bed! She'd do that more than once! It was a comedy trying to get them all awake enough to get downstairs, as they were all too big to carry! Finally, we'd get them down there and settled, and at least I knew if I had to get them the rest of the way, it would be easier without having to deal with those stairs.

Now, when there are storm warnings, I just start worrying about the critters and how to get them all crated or shut in the "safe" room so they'll be okay. Maybe Hubby IS right... all the kids are grown, so I'm having to have something to take care of. He must not think he's enough.