During . . .

So as I was saying, We're all asleep but Derek. He's is getting ready to come to bed when BOOM a tornado hit our house!! No just kidding. It wasn't quite that quick. Here goes . . .

CRACK!!! There was a lightening strike and it was LOUD. Loud enough to wake me up. The window by my bed was cracked open and we immediately heard sirens. Now I'm half asleep still and telling Derek "Oh it's just a fire". He's telling me, "No, that's the tornado siren!"

As he is putting everything back on he tells me to turn on the satellite. "It's out," I tell him. "Go to the 3 season room and see what it says."

In there we had a small TV with an antenna. So Derek's listening to Mike, (Yes, he was telling the truth. WNDU Channel 16 is our severe weather station!) and he hears "6 minutes to Nappanee."

So Derek tells me to get Emma and go downstairs!! And I'm like, "Are you serious? Seriously? Seriously???" "YES" he says!!

I get my phone, (WHY??) and see Buttercup, our cat, just lounging at the top of the stairs. (This is one of those rare animals that must not sense a storm!!) Anyways, I almost bend down to pick her up but looked in Emma's room and she was awake. So, I went in to grab her. I also grabbed her small diaper bag. I didn't want to look like an unfit mother!! And we head downstairs.

At the same time I'm getting her, Derek goes in to Jesse's room: "Jesse, wake up! Get your dog! Jesse, get up!!

Jesse is half-crying, "What, why are you yelling at me?"

Derek: "Jesse get up now and get your dog - TORNADO!!"

Now as soon as Emma and I got downstairs, my ears popped. I watched enough of Discovery Channel and the Weather Channel to know that something was happening!! So I'm kind of pacing and yell, "My ears are popping are your ears popping???"

Derek is yelling "Yes!" as they come down the stairs. So we all huddle under the stairs. We prayed, the wind picked up and "BOOM!!!" a tornado hit our house!! No freight train sound. It was just an explosion and then we could hear the cinder blocks falling in from the fire wall that separated us from our neighbors.

Derek kind of narrated as it happened. I was still in shock. I knew it was for real when Derek called 911 and said, "My name is Derek Odiorne, gave our address and said I think a tornado just hit our house . . . . "