As the end of the school year approaches...

While I'm certainly aware at how sparse posts have been as of late, last night and today are definitely worthy of one, so here goes... Before that though, I've gotta ask, is there such a thing as blogger's block?  I become more hesitant to post here as each day passes, so much so that lately it's been a battle, that the blog has been winning :)

Now, before I begin, I would ask you don't judge too harshly.. 

So, last night I woke up around 10:20.  It was one of those 'why am I awake' moments; you know, when you wake up when a noise has happened, but the noise really didn't register with you, but it was enough to wake you up.. Yeah, it was one of those.  I instinctively looked over at my phone, and sure enough, I had received a text from my mother (now, the fact that I now receive texts from my mother is worth a whole separate post, but I won't do that here.. let's just say... strange.. Not that I don't like it, but.. strange)

So anyway, the text read: "Are you up"

I replied, "Yes, why?"

"Tornado warning"

So, I reached over, opened my drawer, pulled out my ham radio, flipped it on, and turned on the television as well.  I noticed big red areas heading toward Norman, and on the radio I began hearing things like "rotation near Norman."  I found it interesting at this point that Leslie was sleeping through everything.  That was to change soon..

As I continued listening, it started looking and sounding worse, and just as I got up to go put my shoes on, the siren went off.  I looked over at Leslie sleeping, and I noticed her experiencing the same kind of wake up as I did.. She really didn't know why she was waking up... yet..

Then I saw in her eyes the realization of what was happening.  I don't think she even sat up; she went from laying flat to instantly standing straight up (cool trick.. have to learn that one later) and went straight for the closet and started moving things around.  I told her to calm down (this would be the ONLY moment of the evening when I appeared to have my wits about me.. again.. don't judge) and that it didn't seem too serious yet.

Then I started hearing street names on the ham radio that were within a block or two of our house.  That's when my insanity began...

I told Leslie to grab Benjamin, I had Emily (who wasn't really happy to be awake in the first place) and away we went to the car.  I jetted out of the driveway, and headed to the only basement in town I had access to at that time: school.

Now, in retrospect, there are quite a few things I could have done other than that, but there we were, rushing toward school.  We got there, headed downstairs, and sat there for about 45 minutes or so, talking to dad on the phone, getting reports online and on the radio, and I think through the entire event heard maybe two or three thunder claps..  good..times...

So back home we went, and finally off to bed.

Now, this morning was much more fun.  Today was Father's Day Celebration at Emily's school.  When I arrived with the other dads, the class performed a couple of songs for us before we got to join in and play.  My moment of glory came with the first song.  The kids began to sing, and Emily was looking right at me:

"Shimmery dinky dinky dink.. Shimmery dinky doo... (wait for it..) I.... Loooooooove... you (as she made hand gestures, then pointed at me on the 'you').. So, that was it for me.. tears streamed down my face for the next three verses, and during one of them I took the time to scan the room.. yup.. only one crying... nice.  After that (and after I collected my blubbery self) we sang and danced a song together, then played outside.

Now maybe when Benjamin is screaming at levels unkown to humans.. I can just insert the words of that song, and pretend he's just singing the I love you song in his own way... maybe...