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Crazy storms last night. I'm not generally bothered by them. I've been through two tornadoes, one which ripped through my high school my freshman year (see? prayers do come true). The second never actually hit the building I was in, but touched down nearby. We were there for a choir competition, and still performed after being on our knees, with our heads tucked between them for over an hour. (That was fun while wearing a skirt.)

But I realized that, now that I'm a parent, I should be a little more prepared for stuff like this. For instance, when they issued the tornado warning for our county at about 2am this morning, I decided to quickly change Cora's diaper and head downstairs to wait out the rest of the storm. No sooner had I gotten Cora's new diaper on, then we lost power. So, I'm trying to maneuver in the dark to get back to the living room to my cell phone so the light from the phone can light my way. I put Cora in the car seat and took her downstairs, then went about finding a flash light and battery-radio. Flash light was easy, it was already downstairs. Fortunately, Husband knew where it and the radio were (I was on the phone with him while he was at work). However, I felt guilty because Family Dog won't go downstairs (she'll go upstairs, but the stairs are narrow, and she's a chicken shit, so she won't go down them). I should have lead her around the house to the basement before it got really bad, I would have felt guilty if our house had storm damage and she could have been hurt. Anyway, we waited out the storm and it was fine. The tornado warning was lifted, and we went to bed, putting Cora in the bed with me in the co-sleeper, just in case we had to go back downstairs again. At about 4 am we had a horrible thunderstorm, which Cora wasn't pleased about. I'm not sure she was scared, but the thunder was so booming, it kept waking her up (and me too). So it was a long night. Husband had a meeting this morning, so he didn't get home until noon, after working a 12-hour night shift. Now I'm taking her with me to my Italian class, so he can get some sleep. She's been a gremlin all day, probably because she didn't get much sleep last night.

Anyway, I've decided we need to be more prepared for things like that. Batteries in the flashlights, and the kinds of flashlights that plug into the wall and will turn on when there's no power (so there's no fumbling in the dark). Also, my mom lives in a mobile home in the county south of ours, so I was worried about her. She had her home moved last year, and this new place doesn't have a plan for such things. Her old place had a church across the street they were supposed to go to, but nothing now. So we need to figure out a plan for her too.

Planning... what a mom thing to do, geez.

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