Lightning, and Thunder, and Wind...Oh My!

I have never really been afraid of storms.  Granted, during my formative I didn't witness a whole lot of storm action living in California (more droughts than rain) and Washington (lots of rain, but more of a perpetual rainy-ness...not thunder/lightning/torrential down pours)  So I suppose I never really had the opportunity to develop a healthy fear.

 

When I moved to Virginia for college, I remember being caught in this insane monsoon that just came out of nowhere.  I had never experienced anything like it.  It was hot.  Like...really HOT.  August in Virginia kind of hot.  And I had a basket full of *clean* laundry that I had just collected from the laundromat on campus (of course the clothes HAD to be clean) and as I walked back to my dorm the skies opened up and let loose.  It was absurd, but I embraced it.  Sort of like taking a shower...I was completely soaked from head to toe with a (now much heavier) basket of sopping wet laundry.  There were also many times during my college days when my friends and I would take advantage of the rain-induced mud pits for fun games of "slip and slide" or sit in our windows and watch the incredible lightning shows.  I actually grew to enjoy storms!

 

Fast forward to last night and you have a grown woman who came about this close to climbing in bed with her two-year-old.  I was sound asleep when I started to wake up to some distant thunder/lightning.  Then it started to rain.  Then it started to rain harder and the wind was howling.  THEN...just as I pulled the corner of the blinds down to peek outside...the tree that is just outside of our bedroom decided to split and a ginormous limb fell and landed about a foot (maybe two) from the very window that I was looking out of.  *Insert scared puppy yelp*  YIPE!!  I moved as quickly as possible (which, admittedly... is NOT very fast at this point in time), grabbed my pillow and tip-toed into Brennan's room where I discovered him snoring away, un-phased by the terror outside.  So I stood there like a goon in the middle of his room for a while, debating on whether or not I should wake him up by climbing in his bed or suck it up and go back to my bed to possibly be impaled by another falling tree...hmmm...decisions, decisions.  Then the power went out.  SO, on top of everything else...I was now a scared pregnant lady with no air conditioning...oh, the humanity!  The storm was relatively short-lived, so I ended up going back to my own bed and trying to calm down by taking deep breaths.  My heart was beating ultra fast!  I wonder how that must have felt to my baby?  The power went out around 10:30, Brennan woke up around midnight and was freaked out at the utter silence and pitch-blackness of our house (normally he has a fan and a night light)  He came into bed with me and wanted to lay RIGHT next to me, practically ON me because he was a little scared.  NO air conditioner + toddler cuddles = Super uncomfortable and miserably hot pregnant lady.  Thankfully, the power came back on around 1:30 and I was able to move B to his own bed and cool down a bit.  Needless to say, I am a wee bit sleepy this morning.

 

This picture doesn't do justice to how close this was to my window!

I won't say that I am scared of storms now, but I wouldn't call myself a storm chaser either.  Also...I am considering cutting down all of the trees that are anywhere near my house and boarding up all of our windows.  Now THAT is healthy fear :)