a windy night

Understatement of the year. Last night Fayettle county had its first full tornado warning since we have lived here. We have had a few tornado watches, which means that tornadoes are possible in current weather conditions, but this is the first real warning--meaning that tornadoes are likely and to get to shelters now.
I was watching the news and saw the tornado watch up earlier last evening, and knowing that my paranoid self would not be able to get to sleep with a very strong squall line approaching, I stayed up to watch. It was a unique feeling to watch these storms, moving at about 50 miles an hour, approach from the west and counties one by one light up in red on the state map as tornado warnings were issued. It was about 1:15 am when the warning for Lexington was issued, and I got John out of bed about the time the sirens started going off. Yeah, that was freaky. We got the girls out of bed and huddled on the floor in the hallway in front of the coat closet--our designated shelter spot. We stayed there watching the news until about 2 am. It was weird because we had less lightening and thunder with this storm than we've had with many others, but John went outside and said the wind was really blowing. I guess there were gusts of 60 mph at some points. Fortunately, the storm went over with no major problems. I think there was damage in other parts of the city, trees fallen on houses down in Harrodsburg (about 40 minutes south of us) and seven people dead in the state (again, mostly in mobile homes). It was a freaky moment though, with the sirens going off, and then all of a sudden the tv went to static, and I thought, "oh, here we go," but it came right back on and we really were fine. About 2 am we all went back to bed as the storm front had passed. Emily was a little scared afterward, but John told her to pray to Heavenly Father for help to not be scared, which she did. Kimmie then said she wanted to, too, so John helped her. I sang them a song and they went to bed pretty quietly. Even Calvin went back to sleep. I think we were all pretty exhausted.
Anyhoo, it was an interesting night. We are thankful for the protective bubble that seems to encase Lexington whenever there is a severe weather threat. It's things like this that remind me how much we really are in God's hands, and that life is never certain. And so, a renewed effort to live to have no regrets.
Happy calm Wednesday.
Ps... if you want to call me today, you'll have to call the home phone. John's got the cell at work today.