The Wild Wild Midwest

This year the weather in Kansas has been off the charts!  Blizzards, ridiculously cold below 0 temperatures and wind chills, and lately tornadoes!  We have lived in tornado alley before when we were stationed at Fort Sill, OK, and yes you expect tornadoes and stormy spring weather in Kansas, but this is just insane, especially when you are alone with 3 kids! 

We had one very bad scare here when we were under a tornado warning, and not 3 minutes after the warning posted our tornado sirens went off.  The sirens don't go off when there is just a warning, they only go off if a funnel cloud is in the area. 

We don't have a basement in our house, so our "safe spot" is in the bathroom.  Right before the warning posted Rory and I gathered all of our supplies and put them in bathtub, these included shoes for everyone (since the kids were already in their pajamas), snacks, water and a first aid kit.  We also got the cat carrier out so we could take Chloe in with us.  I gave a call over to our neighbors to make sure they knew about the weather warnings, as her husband was out of town for the night.  Now, Rory knows that the neighbors have a basement, and as soon as Rory figured out who I was talking to, she screamed "I'm going to our neighbors basement".  Molly (our neighbor) had asked if we had wanted to come over, but I at first, didn't want to risk it, Rory however as soon as she heard the invite opened the front door and as soon as she pushed the screen door open the tornado sirens went off.  Her feet I swear never touched the ground as she high tailed it to their front door.  I, of course, was struggling with Brendan and the bag of supplies on one harm, and Jack holding onto the other hand.  I didn't even have time to shut the door as I knew I didn't have any keys with me!  We rushed into the neighbors and hurried into the basement.  Poor Rory had no color in her face and was shaking like a leaf!  We, the adults, tried to stay as calm as possible, if it was even possible.  About an hour later we had the all clear and we headed home back to our own home.  Needless to say I had a full bed of 3 kids and a cat that night!

Since then we have been super-ultra prepared for the tumultuous week of weather that was to come.

Our supplies...

My weather watchers...

Fortunately, we never had a touchdown in our immediate area, however all around us there were communities that were devastated by tornadoes.  Those areas included Reading, KS (2 hours to our southwest, this was also the same storm that came over us and triggered the tornado sirens), Joplin, MO (3 hours to our south) and Sedalia, MO (2 hours to our southeast).  I had a list of items that these areas were in need of so I got my coupons out and made a list of things to buy.  Rory saw what I was doing and she came up with an idea.  She knew that in her purse she had some gift cards that she had received for her birthday and for Easter (as did the boys) and she suggested that we use the gift cards too because "If we had a tornado I would want other people to help give us stuff that we needed." Made me a very proud mama.

Our loot to donate!

Now, in the true Kilbride spirit as well as the saying "No good deed goes unpunished", as soon as we had loaded all of this stuff into the car, and I was loading the kids in still basking in the glow of what wonderful caring kids I have, Rory stats using her markers to decorate the wall of the backseat and Jack makes his attempt to bolt into the middle of the parking lot.  Oh well, such is life, and in the end it was a very good day, and I'm glad my kids were quick to remind me that while they are great kids, they aren't perfect, just like their mom!

Here's to a quiet summer, weather wise!