Tornados and Tears

Well last night was just all sorts of fun. And please picture me saying that looking all sorts of annoyed.

Future ex came up last night to hang with the boys and say goodbye. He leaves early on Saturday. As he was beginning the goodbyes, the storm that was wreaking havoc just to the west of us decided to wreak havoc directly on top of us. We've been through storms that looked way worse than this on the Doppler. But when I opened the front door, I have to tell you, I've never seen a sky like that. I have never seen just non-stop lightening that is just all over the sky. It was like someone put a giant cloud bowl upside down over our town and the lightening was constantly flickering all through the cloud bowl. That is the most retarded description when I read back over it. But that's really what it was like. I wish I had video taped the lightening.

So future ex was explaining when he'd see Pokemon Boy again. Pokemon Boy was crying and begging him not to move away. I kept checking outside - watching for a funnel every time the lightening lit up the sky. Just as Pokemon Boy was getting really upset - and I mean REALLY upset - it started hailing. So future ex either had to leave or possibly hole up with us for the evening. I for one wasn't really wanting the latter. He had to drive off in a deluge of rain and hail dramatically punctuated by the most freakish lightening show. As he drove off, Lil' Bro stood very silent. Pokemon Boy ran inside the house crying, "I can't watch him leave!" But he ran back out into the garage to watch him drive away.

Pokemon Boy is like me. Vocal and verbose. Lil' Bro just sat real close to me on the couch while we watched the Doppler radar. Pokemon Boy was distraught and just dying inside. It was so hard to juggle. I really needed to listen to the storm reports but I needed to comfort Pokemon Boy. He was crying and pouring out his heart with phrases like, "This is the worst day of my life!" The storm seemed to just confirm his feelings.

He eventually calmed down into a quiet brooding funk. He was upset about his dad and terrified of the storm. The weather radio kept beeping and it quickly escalated the tornado watch to a tornado warning. At this point, the weather alerts overlay anything you're watching. We watched the Doppler radar show the storm settle right on top of our street. We watched the little gold swirling arrow indicating rotation in the clouds turn into a red swirling arrow indicating rotation or possible tornado. It was close. Then the weather radio said a tornado had been spotted in our town. But I heard no sirens and the live TV weather guy wasn't saying anything like that. We shortly lost power a bunch of times. We lost our cable twice.

At one point I told the boys that all we can do is be prepared and give the rest over to God. So we stood in the middle of the living room with flashlights in hand and just talked to God. We said, "God we're scared. This is pretty harry right now. We just really need you here with us and ask for your protection over our house and our whole area. Keep us and our neighbors and grandma & grandpa safe, God. In the name of Jesus, we just ask for your protection over us," at which time Pokemon Boy added, "God, we just ask you to help all the areas that need help right now." I love how big that boy thinks.

I felt pretty ok about things but I will admit that I was a little scared a few times. Especially when the lightening was hitting all around us and hail was pounding the house and we kept losing power. So to give the boys something to do, we emptied out the entry closet. Then, we took all the cushions from the patio furniture (we pull it in during bad weather so it doesn't go flying all over the neighborhood) and lined the entry closet (it's narrow and very long). Then I got this foam mattress and put it on the floor of the closet. So we have a perfectly padded little cave in there now. They got their favorite comfort toys from bed. We had 3 flashlights. We put blankets in there. When the storm got real noisy and scary and they were telling us we should probably have things like padded closets ready, the boys wanted to get in there. So they climbed in and I sat in the doorway watching the TV. It would have been fun if it wasn't potentially serious.

Anyway, to my knowledge, no tornado touched down in my town. There was lots of tree damage around the area. Some schools in Austin were closed today because of all the damage.

After the first storm in the storm line passed us, the boys went to bed. I stayed up watching TV - flipping between CSI: Miami and the Doppler. It was hard to go to sleep because the power kept going off and coming on. Every time it would come back on, it would make some awful noises with the AC unit that sounded like a killer in my attic. Yah. I watch way too much TV.

I let the boys sleep in this morning. The emotional toll of their dad's departure was worse than the storm. I drove Pokemon Boy to school and clued his teacher into what had happened. She asked if he had known this was coming. Yes, he did. She said that explained how he's been behaving lately. He has had a tough time lately - keeping emotions in check. When your life spins out of your control, you tend to grip tighter onto the little things you CAN control. In his case, he became very aggressive with his little brother. He also didn't handle things not going his way at school very well. I love his teacher. She thanked me for letting her know and I knew she would be loving and supportive of him. She adores him.

Lil' Bro doesn't seem to be upset today. But then, it's hard to tell with little Mr. Stoic. There are so many people praying over my boys, I have no doubt God will bring them through this just fine. I just hope God gives me the wisdom and the right words when I need it - when they hit the bumpy parts.

So there you go. I'm tired and faking it today. Somehow, God always gives me bosses that are moms. They are very patient with me.

Have I mentioned lately that God totally rocks?