Tuesday night, we had some pretty bad storms come through the area. And with all the recent devastation caused by tornadoes (Brad tells me average deaths per year from tornadoes is 60. So far this year, there have been 500!), everyone was on heightened alert.

Especially me and especially Brad. Me, because I am flat out TERRIFIED of tornadoes and Brad because he watches the Weather Channel too much.

So when they started telling us that the storms were headed our way and there were tornadoes on the ground in our area, we got the kids up and headed to the storm closet, aka, the Sam’s Closet.

Basically, this is our closet-under-the-stairs but it’s easier to say Sam’s Closet. And no, we don’t have a crazy uncle named Sam living in it. We store our bulk purchases in this closet.

So before we could all cram into this closet, Brad had to remove all the bulk Sam’s purchases. Here is what our hallway still looks like after the closet was emptied:

Here’s what the closet looks like after the clean-out:

So. Tuesday night. Kids head downstairs in a single file line, without saying a word.

HA! Just wanted to see if you were paying attention. Actually they RAN down the stairs screaming their heads off and flailing their arms in the air. Or at least, that’s how I remember it.

Brad had already moved into drill sergeant mode and so he began barking out orders: “Samuel! You get in first! Move to the back! No, get into that space behind the file cabinet!” and so on and so forth, until the last boy was successfully crammed into the smallest possible space. Then he looked at me and said “You get back there with Samuel”.

Uh, excuse me???

That’s what I was thinking, and I suppose that’s what my look conveyed to him, because he quickly said “Or maybe you could sit next to the filing cabinet.”

That was somewhat better. I was sitting on a huge roll of leftover carpeting from when our house was built three years ago, but I could sort of twist around and talk to the boys and try to convince them that really, it’s not that bad! We’re going to be okay! Daddy’s just gone temporarily insane!

The evening ended up being pretty uneventful as the storm sirens never even sounded in Frisco – despite the fact that the meteorologists were all screaming “IT’S COMING YOUR WAY! IF YOU’RE IN IT’S PATH, TAKE COVER!!!” while drawing those handy maps that chart all the possible paths the tornado could take. They could save themselves some time and just say “It’s heading East. That’s really all we know.”

I don’t mean to make light of the serious nature of tornadic weather. As I said, I’m really truly scared out of my wits when those sirens go off. Someday I’ll tell the story of the day that all changed for me. But anyway, when the event was over and the kids were all back in bed, Brad and I sort of just fell onto the couch and sat there watching all the BREAKING NEWS about the approximately EIGHT TORNADOES that we heard were touching down all over the Metroplex. (Of course, in the light of day, there were really only 2 and they didn’t cause too much damage…I don’t think – I haven’t really watched the news since then. I get all my news – and weather! – from my Brad.) Eventually, though, we decided it was passed us and headed off to bed.  However, we had to stop and get our pillows and comforter out of the closet.

That’s when Brad looked at me and said “When we heard we were going into the closet, I grabbed my wallet and wedding ring. What did you grab?”

We both looked down at my hand – no rings. My purse was still hanging by the back door, with my wallet inside.

Then we looked into the closet and on one of the shelves sat my iPad, my iPhone, my digital camera, movie camera and my Kindle. I even grabbed Brad’s iPhone. I kid you not.

Brad looked at me and said “So in the face of a possible natural disaster, I grabbed my wallet so I could feed the family and my wedding ring because of what it represents…and you grabbed every electronic device you own.”

Guess it might be time to reexamine my priorities.