On Saturday, April 14th, I heard the radio DJs spouting news about this “terrible awful, deadly” weather event that was supposed to happen. I rolled my eyes. Growing up in Kansas, I am used to tornado season. It happens every single year. Yes, they are scary. But after going to my basement countless times and barely hearing any thunder, I began to learn how rare it was for tornadoes to actually hit my house.

But for some reason, everyone around me was freaking out over this. And the more they freaked out, the more I started to listen.

Hmm….I don’t have a basement. What if there really is a tornado? What would I do with my kids?

I was planning on throwing David a party for his third birthday that night. Instead, I decided to cancel the party and take his cake to Josh’s parents’ house. They have a beautiful basement bedroom I could sleep in with the kids.

Friday night, my friend Shana in Oklahoma had a tornado hit really close to her house. Saturday morning she was very concerned about me and kept urging me to go to my in law’s house. So that morning I woke up with a strange urgency. I cleaned and packed. And out the door we went!

By 2 pm I was heading north. And I snapped a quick picture while driving and was quite surprised at how dark and ominous the clouds were already. Later that afternoon I kept checking the weather online. I heard about tornadoes south of me and then my county – the one I traveled to and was currently in – was under a tornado warning! This was around 6:30pm. I turned to my father in law and asked if we should go to the basement. He looked out side and looked at the radar. The tornado was spotted 35 miles south of their house. We let that warning expire without hiding. All we saw was a bit of rain.

Then it was peaceful and quiet outside. You could hear some thunder far off. I got the kids ready for bed and Josh went home to take care of our animals.  I was really nervous but still felt mostly safe. We were sleeping in a basement bedroom – albeit a walk out basement. They have a safe room in case a tornado did come, but being in the basement we’d have time to get there.  So I cuddled with my babies as we all fell asleep.

Then, around 12:30am, I woke up. No real reason, I just did. I could see the lightening and hear the thunder. I decided that just a quick glance online at the radar would help me get back to sleep. Little did I know that I would not sleep until 3am.

Around that time I started to watch the live feed of our local meteorologist warning about a possible tornado in the town my mom was in. The same town that was less than 30 miles south of my in law’s house.  Then there was the warning. It was spotted less than 20 miles south of my house, heading North/north east. I looked at my children sleeping. I was torn. Do I wake them up and huddle with them in the safe room? Or do I let them sleep, knowing we are safe in the basement? My gut told me to let them sleep. I went to facebook and chatted with friends. Eventually the storm moved pretty far away from me and the storms south of our home were too weak to produce more tornadoes near me.

Big fat PHEW!

The irony?

As I watched the storms and heard continued reports of tornadoes, I was struck by one fact:

Not a single tornado was anywhere close to my home – the one without the basement. No, instead I decided to sleep in a home that was farther north and in the path of 2 tornadoes! Go me.

But how could I have known, right? I did what was best, and we were safe. And I know how badly I want a basement now.

This week for Vlog Mom, Julie Pron from Just Precious asked the ladies to go political. Last week was all fun and celebrities, today we are putting our thinking caps on and being a tad more serious.

Which to me, is just as fun. I love a serious debate. I really love thinking critically about issues that affect me and my friends. Here in Kansas there is a bill before our lawmakers. They are deciding whether to allow retail stores like Wal-mart to sell liquor.

Some say, “keep the money in Kansas! Let them sell it so we can have more tax dollars.”

I say, if you let the retail stores sell the liquor then small business owners will not be able to compete and they will face harder seasons. Harder times. Since my husband owns a small business I am always defending small biz owners. It hurts my heart to think of Wal-mart getting richer while “The Fridge” liquor store has to close their doors.

Here is my video and totally hop around to the other Vlog Moms! They are smart cookies and have some great points in their videos:

Link Up!

Johnny Depp recently told UK tabloid The Guardian that he though his most recent film “Rum Diary” is going to be a huge hit everywhere – except in Wichita, Kan.  What he has against his Wichita fans I have no idea!

Here is what he said:

I believe that this film, regardless of what it makes in, you know, Wichita, Kansas, this week – which is probably about $13 – it doesn’t make any difference,” he said. “I think it’s an intelligent film…And a lot of times, outside the big cities in the States, they don’t want that.

Wow. I am speechless. I used to be a fan of Johnny’s. I love his accent, his acting talent, and thought he was a pretty intelligent fellow. Apparently he forgot to think before he gave that quote. Does the rest of the world think Kansans all have horses hitched to the general store? Or was Johnny merely saying people in the midwest wouldn’t like his movie because it went against their “Bible belt” values?

I realize he made a mistake and I hope he regrets this. What a fail.

I live in Kansas. The most exciting thing that happens here are tornadoes. And we don’t have a basement (yet. Josh is working on it. I mean, at least we have a huge pool hole). But something seriously exciting did just happen tonight and I was 100% clueless.

According to the USGS, a 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook Oklahoma at 10:53pm tonight. The epicenter is four miles east of Sparks, Okla. in Lincoln County, 21 miles northeast of Shawnee. That is according to Okla. NBC channel KJRH.   Reading twitter soon after revealed tweets from all over the midwest reporting aftershocks in Kansas City, Topeka, St. Louis and Arkansas.

I was sitting in my living room talking to David, trying to get him sleepy. Then, in walks Josh, with huge eyes.

“Did you feel that?”

I look at him puzzled. “Feel what?”

“The bed pulsated. Then swayed,” he explained. “As if someone was climbing on it.”

Visions of ghosts enter my mind and I say, “um, that is weird. Why would it do that?”

“Maybe an earthquake.” Oh. Yeah. That makes more sense than ghosts, Annie!

I run to twitter. His suspicions are confirmed. And I felt none of it. No, not a single, teeny, tiny, aftershock.  I wish I could have a cool story about how I felt the aftershock of the midwest earthquake. But nope! Josh got to feel it and I didn’t.

This Oklahoma earthquake and midwest aftershocks is crazy stuff! I was chatting on my Facebook fan page about it and heard reports from all over. Everyone felt it! But me.

I wonder if this earthquake has anything to do with my beloved K-State Wildcats almost tromping the OSU Cowboys? Too far fetched? Well give me a break, it’s late.

To make this official, here is a photo from a Kansas news station – CBS WIBW – showing where the shakes were felt and what magnitude. Isn’t this just NUTS?

Amazing shot of the Kansas City Library  (Source)

The name says it all. So many towns in Kansas are like this! (Source)

I took this photo! It takes my breath away!

breathtaking Sunset! (source)

Kansas is the wheat state! I love the blue sky here (source)

I am seeing these all over Kansas. This was taken off of I-70 (source)

Taken near Cedar Point. This is calendar perfect! (source)

How is your spring going? Here, we just experienced some really weird weather. Like “what the heck?” kinda weather. I’m used to that kinda thing, usually.  It’s been known to be 80 degrees one day and snowing the next in early spring.

I want it to stay warm!  Warm days are park days. They are wake up early and walk days.  Let the kids run around in the sunshine days.

Sunday evening we got this really weird storm that lasted like 20 minutes. Saturday was gorgeous and then storm clouds rolled in on Sunday.  I caught David’s reaction to the storm on video.  It was his first experience with hail and I thought it was super cute. He didn’t care too much for the thunder though, poor guy.

Then yesterday (Monday) we got tons of wind. In fact, Kansas was under a wind advisory for much of the day. I didn’t go out much at all that day and hated it. I am really looking forward to warmer days soon!

After you enjoy the cute video, tell me what the weather is like where you are. Is it just as odd?