Wow!  Our “neck of the woods” has really been hit by some crazy weather, lately.  It’s so strange, although anyone from here is pretty much used to & has grown up experiencing Spring & Summer storms & knows about “tornado season”, it always seems to hit so unexpectedly…  I guess it may be because most of the time, you hear about the stuff in far away, more rural areas, on the local news, since they cover a wide area of our whole state.  But, on Wednesday, they blew sirens, here, in our neighborhood!  Katrina was at her kids’ class, up at our church at the time, so we unfortunately had to split up – Jeremy went to stay with (and get) her, then to bring her home from there, while Alyssa, myself & the dog & cat took shelter in our bathroom.  As the newscaster on T.V. told those in my town to “take shelter now”, I frantically emptied the bathtub of all toys, grabbed our thickest blanket out of the linen closet and our battery-powered radio.  Then, I proceeded to take the baby & the pets into the bathroom with me.  Aly sat on my lap in the tub, happily playing with a toy I’d let her bring, thankfully.  As the storm raged around, I listened to the radio, the meteorologist explaining that high winds & possible tornadic activity were in areas all around us.  The rain was pouring down in sheets in our area, but luckily, that’s all we actually got – a “torrential downpour”.  Poor Jeremy & Katrina wound up driving home in that, but they made it just fine.  Once they got here, I knew that things were ok, even though the newscaster’s never actually said “all clear” for our town, they did report that the bulk of the heavy storms had moved on, to other areas…  I pray for the families whose homes were devastated by the tornadoes & the heavy winds & rainfall.  I also thank God that all of us were safe, even though we had to be separated for what seemed to be the roughest weather our little city has experienced this season.