BubbaChic: Spring - Oklahoma Styleee

Ahhhh *sigh* spring in Oklahoma, so beautiful yet so unpredictable - with tornado season fast approaching, it shouldn't really have come as any surprise that we were on alert today for severe weather. You think I would have clicked on when I heard the alarm going off on the weather radio when I was sitting in the chiropractors office at 7.15 this morning - having just driven to the office, the whole time looking at the sky thinking - what is going on with that big dark cloud?

Or perhaps I would have woken up a bit with reports on the radio on the short drive home, of a possible twister just north of us...nope - life here continued pretty much as normal this morning. We are pretty used to the weather channel alarm sounding to let us know that conditions are severe, or that they have gone from just severe to completely tornado friendly.

We know the drill now - the kids know the drill now - when the weather starts to look a bit dodgy, the TV is put onto the weather channel constantly to keep an eye on what is happening, and life continues as normal - until we hear the tornado sirens outside - thats when we panic!

We have our tornado shelter cleared (aka the cupboard under the stairs!) and stocked with essentials:

I must admit, we (*ahem* - ok - I) haven't always been this level headed at the thought of severe weather. In our first year in Oklahoma we moved here in the middle of summer - and although we experienced a few cracking thunderstorms, we didn't have anything crazy. That came the next spring - when I had just given birth to Joshua - yeah, not a good combination, a completely hormonal female, with new babe and toddler and the first experience of the tornado sirens going off.

Luckily, Mum was here - which was a relief as on that particular day Jason was at the pub celebrating a work colleagues leaving do and missed the whole thing! I was completely unprepared for what to do and just sat glued in front of the television watching live reports of the wall clouds in our area and the rotations in them...what??!!!! When the sirens started going off to signal ripe tornado conditions in the area combined with a rotation that had been spotted, we all took cover in the downstairs bathroom - which must have been 4 foot by 4 foot. Maddy was plonked in the wash hand basin, Mum was sat on the toilet and I was sat on the floor, literally on Mums feet with Josh breastfeeding the whole time, blissfully unaware that it wasn't just life as usual!

Maddy thought it was the best thing ever to have Mummy, Baby Josh and Nanny all in the loo with her - and Mum, looking like she had seen a ghost tried to lighten the mood in the toilet by announcing that it was a good thing that she was sitting on the loo, because she very well may need to use it soon!

The storm passed over noisily but without any tornado touchdowns - and I was left wondering why on earth people live in Oklahoma when this happens each year!!

Although Jason missed out on the entire episode, it was repeated a week later when he was home and his reaction to the tornado sirens outside, was that of pure joy and excitement (which I didn't share!) it must be a man thing....

So, this is spring in beautiful Oklahoma, lets hope its a quiet one...