watch out, dorothy!!!

i thought we lived in nebraska, but i'm beginning to believe we are actually in kansas now, toto. :)

this past week , we have had severe weather warnings and tornado watches nearly every evening. we lucked out earlier this week when one that my pal al roker ("today" show shout out) was warning us of made an unexpected turn south that missed omaha. the young women from our ward had girls' camp this week. they spent every night in their tornado shelters (3 train cars) until finally they were evacuated to a church building thursday.

then, this morning at about 2:30 in the morning, tornado sirens rang loud and true. while our neighbors all moved to their basements for shelter, i slept soundly in bed. yes, it is true... i didn't wake up to the wind of the storm or the tornado siren! todd woke up and turned on the news, saw that it had already passed, watched an incredible lightning storm, then went back to sleep.

according to the local news reports, the tornado was rated as an ef-2, meaning that the storm contained winds of 111-135 mph. i tried to download some photos of where it actually hit (about 10 miles away from us), but to no success. the photo above is one i stole from my friend's blog that she stole from someone else. if you'd like to see some photos, the site is: http://www.ketv.com/slideshow/16541673/detail.html?taf=oma

i haven't been handling the last tornado watches with much poise... i've been glued to the news tracking their paths. i think todd didn't want to scare me once he realized the threat wasn't there. it does make me nervous, however, knowing that i can sleep through the siren. i told todd he isn't allowed to leave me during tornado season!