Before we left

Let's see how much of it I can still remember. . . . Monday, October 6th, about 10:00 pm
Allen was out of town (already in Orlando), Will was still awake (being afraid of fire), the triplets were sound asleep, I was watching TV and getting on to Will every five minutes to get back in bed. As I watched the last dance on Dancing With the Stars (the one I'd been waiting all evening to see) -- <BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!. . . BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! "We interupt the broadcast to bring you this important news. . .yada, yada, yada"> After I got over my frustration that I wouldn't get to watch the last dance, I actually listened to what they were saying. I groaned a bit as the weatherman warned that there were tornadoes nearby and heading for our town. Ug! As if I didn't already have enough Will-fears to deal with . . . so I let Will lay down on the floor of my room while I flipped the channels in the living room trying to get the scoop on the storms. (Why does this happen when I'm with the kids by myself?) Between weather reports, I took couch cushions to our powder room -- the only downstairs room that doesn't have an outside wall or cat litter in it. Unfortunately, while I was doing that, Will came out of my room and asked why I was moving the pillows to the bathroom. Since I didn't want to lie to him, I told him "I am doing this just in case the weather gets bad and we have to sleep in the bathroom. Now go back to bed." That worked a little bit. Then I heard more of the "Beep! Beep!" and heard enough that I went to get the babies. I laid the cushions on the floor and took Ben down first and told Will and Ben to lay down and rest. Then I went back for Maddie and Jon. I somehow fit all five of us on the floor of that room. The kids were all laying down and I had a little room to just sit. After all the commotion I realized we were squeezed in to fit on the 3-foot by 4-foot tiled floor -- no wonder we were crowded. It took a while for the kids to calm down -- the babies were crying, then wailing, because I woke them up. Will was wailing because they were. It was dark and I intended for everyone to sleep for a bit. As the house trembled from the storm, Maddie let out a little toot. All the boys giggled. Then each of them took turns trying to out-toot the others, despite my insistance that it was not an appropriate contest. The kids' panic quickly turned into belly laughs and lots of tooting -- again, not appropriate, especially considering the TINY and ENCLOSED space we were in. I just had to go see what the weather report was saying. The weather man told me to get back in the bathroom with the kids, so I squeezed my way back in. By then the kids were taking turns smacking each other, but no one knew who was smacking them or who they were smacking because the lights were still off. They laughed and laughed and laughed while I alternated deep breathing to stay calm and holding my breath to not smell the toots. In the end, we didn't get hit by a tornado. On one hand, I wished Allen had been there to help, on the other hand, I didn't figure he would have appreciated having to sit in the sink or on the pot just to fit in there with us. We survived, and the bathroom finally got aired out.